"Fiscal 2011" means "From This April Until Next April."
Electronic Arts did a bit of financial reporting this morning for the third quarter of its current fiscal year, which translates into "Q4 2009" in man years. The past performance bit of the release isn't all that exciting, as it really only tells you things like "hey, Dragon Age: Origins did A-OK" or something like that. But the look ahead at the future--even though it's accompanied by a fat "this list is subject to change" warning--is a bit more interesting.
Some notes:
- Keep in mind that, again, they're talking in businessman-speak for this stuff, so Fiscal Q1 2011 actually means Q2 2010, which begins on April 1.
- That means we can expect to see Medal of Honor sometime between July and September.
- Crysis 2 is scheduled to hit sometime in the fourth quarter of 2010.
- There are two unnamed Need For Speed games on the schedule, one for Q4 2010 and another for Q1 2011. The Q4 2010 game is Criterion's, while the 2011 release is a simulation-oriented game. Shift 2, perhaps?
- There's a new Dragon Age release due during the first quarter of 2011. Think that'll be an all-new sequel, or something more like the expansion pack already planned for release this March?
- "Shooter from Epic TBA" pretty much has to be the game from People Can Fly that EA announced as an EA Partners deal awhile back.
- Dead Space 2 is listed as coming to both console and handheld, but EA counts phones in the "handheld" category. My guess is that this is an iPhone game, not a DS/PSP release.
- While you might see "Fighting Title TBA" and think that EA's making, like, a fighting game, keep in mind that it's tagged as coming from the EA Sports label. Maybe a new Fight Night? It'd be way too soon for an MMA sequel, since that's due out during the previous quarter.
- Battlefield 3 isn't specifically mentioned anywhere on this list. The closest thing on here that fits is "Action Title TBA" on Q1 2011 (Q4, fiscal), but that footnote pegs it as a downloadable game, not a full release. Maybe BF3 is further out than I thought? Considering DICE is already working on a game that ships in Q3 of this year (Medal of Honor), I guess it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that BF3's not mentioned here.
- Though not on the list, the call also brought word that something "far-reaching" from the Mass Effect universe was in the works. That sounds like more than just a sequel to me.
