EA sees H2 '09 stronger in EMEA than yr-earlier

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Electronic Arts is anticipating stronger business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the second half of the 2009 calendar year compared with the year-earlier period, a company executive told Reuters.

"We expect our business in the second half of the year to be much stronger in comparison to last year in the EMEA region," Jens Uwe Intat, head of sales and distribution for Europe, told Reuters on Friday, ahead of the Gamescom video game trade show in Cologne.

The period Intat referred is Electronic Art's second and third quarter in the ongoing fiscal year to March 2010.

The company generated $924 million of revenues in the Europe region in the comparable period last year. Its quarterly reports did not publish a breakdown of sales figures for the Middle East and Africa region.

Electronic Arts, which said it was the world's biggest video game publisher in Europe and North America in the quarter through June, earlier this month released first-quarter results, reporting better-than-expected figures due to high sales of its "The Sims 3" video game.

Video game producers have been dealt a blow by the current economic downturn that curbed consumer spending, with U.S. video game equipment and software sales down 29 percent in July to $848.9 million, according to research group NPD.

STRONG PIPELINE

"We are confident given our strong pipeline of titles. Take EA Sports Active, a workout game, for the Nintendo Wii. It's much cheaper and more convenient than actually going to the gym as you can really do all the workout at home," Intat said, adding that there would also be a new part in the Need for Speed race game series.

Electronic Arts -- which develops games for consoles of Sony Corp, Nintendo and Microsoft -- competes with rival game maker Activision.

Microsoft in June offered new hope for the industry when it announced Xbox 360 based "Project Natal," which uses a camera to track a user's movements via skeletal mapping, enabling social interaction and communications.

"I think this will be an additional pillar in the industry, making the use of platforms more accessible," Intat said.

"This, in fact, is one of the main prospect of future industry growth, attracting older people that have had difficulties with joypads and other more traditional interfaces. When I'm playing a racing game with my son, I am much more successful if I have an actual steering wheel."

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz)