TGS: EA Seeking Japanese Partners

Electronic Arts is in search of a partnership or acquisition in Japan, aiming to achieve greater penetration in that market, reports the Financial Times today. Jon Niermann, president of EA Asia, said Japan was a “strategic priority” for the company, in an interview with the Financial Times during the Tokyo Games Show, in which he also noted that EA was interested both in blue-chip players and smaller firms. “[We are] exploring everything from established companies to new companies,” said Niermann. “The relatively young start-up type companies that have promising talent that come from some of the bigger companies – it is very interesting to look at those.” EA has made strong moves over the past few years to push into Asia in recent years, gaining footing in India, Korea and Singapore; most recently, the company acquired a stake in Chinese MMO publisher The9. the Financial Times pegs EA's revenue from the Asian market at only about 6 percent of its total, with the remainder split evenly between the US and Europe. The company admitted earlier this year it needs to capitalize more aggressively on Nintendo's Wii and DS to achieve more success in the East. Niermann also conceded the company could benefit of the expertise of companies experienced in local development in the Japanese market, adding that he expected to see growth in both the online games market and that of mobile phone games.