Need an example of how important EA Sports games are to EA's bottom line? Consider how much work went into shipping FIFA 08. As part of his keynote address at DICE, EA boss John Riccitiello told us just how many versions of the game they got out the door. Now, for a game like Mass Effect, you ship 5,6 versions, or SKUs: US, PAL (with a few different European versions), Japanese and Asian editions. If it's a dual-platform game like, say, Skate, you can expect to ship double that. FIFA 08? It shipped across an absolutely ridiculous 94 SKUs. Which, I guess, is what happens when you release a game in 20 languages across 16 countries on seven platforms. Nintendo, you could learn a thing or two about that kinda localisation effort.

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