Dead Space haunting the Wii

As part of its third-quarter earnings report today, EA revealed a grim holiday performance and a number of disappointments for gamers who were looking forward to earlier-year releases. PC games The Sims 3 and Dragon Age: Origins as well as the multiplatform Godfather II, all once slated for release before March 31, have been moved to the publisher's next fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010.

Helping to ameliorate those delays during its postearnings conference call, EA revealed a number of surprises that will join these three games during the publisher's upcoming fiscal year. After emphasizing that EA must make a bigger push to capitalize on the Wii's success, EA CEO John Riccitiello said that a number of its core games will make the transition to Nintendo's best-selling platform, among them last year's survival horror hit Dead Space.

"We're bringing core intellectual properties to the franchise in categories we think have legs on the Wii platform," said Riccitiello. "A good example of this is Dead Space. We're bringing a Wii title to market this year and it is absolutely going to be the quality and fear factor that you got on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC SKU this past year."

However, that wasn't the only game announcement that Riccitiello slipped. The executive also said that the publisher's fiscal 2010 fourth quarter, which runs from January 1, 2010 through March 31 of that year, will see the release of a follow-up to EA DICE's well-rated Battlefield: Bad Company. Riccitiello also confirmed that BioWare is prepping Mass Effect 2 for a multiplatform release during the publisher's Q4 window, though he did not indicate whether the game would extend beyond the Xbox 360 and PC. EA Redwood Shores' Dante's Inferno is also expected to arrive during the January-March 2010 quarter.

Riccitiello also narrowed the release window for a number of previously announced games. Fight Night 4, now in development at EA Canada after the closure of EA Chicago, is expected to ship during the April-June quarter. During the publisher's July-September quarter, EA expects to launch Need for Speed: Shift for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, and PC, with Need for Speed: Nitro on the Wii and DS expected to follow in the October-December window.

One franchise that will not see a return next year is Medal of Honor. Unfortunately, Riccitiello did not expound on future plans for the long-running series.