That's the thing, the definition of "quality" is in the eye of the beholder. If, for example, EA's sales for sports games dwindles, yet they see a trend increase in open world rpg's with deep gameplay mechanics, you can rest assured they will throttle back on their sports themed games and double-rush the action-rpg-deep open worlded games.
The way it works with them is that they WILL come out with the "regulars" at least once a year, I:E sports games, sims, etc. The tried and true stuff that does sell a lot. Then they will take random "stabs" at different genres. Rpg and Action, Strategic sims, etc, with new and unused LP's. EA released kingdoms of amalur earlier this year to "ho-hums" and promptly went back to their typical stuff due to not wanting to wade to deep into new waters. They probably will salvage KOA sometime in the future, but only when the trend is on the rise, maximizing their sales potential.
As odd as it sounds, it is simply business. These people don't love games, they sell them, and they couldn't give a damn about anything else. I'm not saying this generalized to EA, I mean publishers in general. They will force smaller dev groups to cater to their strict (VERY strict) schedules to accomodate their sales margins for winter/summer/festival sales ALWAYS, it's not going to change ever, it's the way businesses work regretfully.