Huh. According to MCV, in a recent earnings call with investors and analysts, EA suggested that they may no longer be publishing Rock Band games.

Part of the investor information included a skeletal outline of key releases planned from now through the end of the 2011 fiscal year (which for EA ends on March 31, 2011). Notably absent from that list were any Rock Band titles, including Green Day.

When asked about the absence, EA’s chief operating officer John Schappert was carefully noncommittal. From the article:

“Our deal with Viacom and Harmonix continues through Fiscal Year 2011. As you can see from our modelling, we have not included a lot of revenue for distribution next year, but we continued to have talks with them and hope that maybe there’s an opportunity to continue the relationship beyond that.”

It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that MTV is getting into the publishing and distribution business, which would mean they wouldn’t have much need for EA, who’s been acting primarily as a distributor. But it’s conceivable this could be a bigger deal than that. I can’t stop thinking about MTV veep Paul DeGooyer’s comments about ending the “format war.” If that’s a hint of what’s going down, it’s strange and frightening.

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