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New Battlefield Drives EA Q1 Sales
For the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, Redwood City-based Electronic Arts posted increased sales and a narrower net loss on the back of the new Battlefield game, the company said Tuesday.
Battlefield: Bad Company, released in late June, sold 1.6 million copies across PS3 and Xbox 360, helping drive quarterly revenue of $804 million, up from $395 million for the prior year.
Other top sellers were UEFA EURO 2008 and Rock Band.
Operating loss was $97 million compared to an operating loss of $183 million a year ago.
Net loss for the period was $95 million, less than the $132 million posted a year ago, beating the $111 million loss estimate from a Thomson Financial analyst poll.
Trailing twelve-month operating cash flow was $239 million versus $243 million a year prior.
"We are now seeing the early returns of the change agenda we started last year," said EA CEO John Riccitiello in a statement. "Innovation and quality are rising, our games are more accessible and fun, and we have more new titles than at any time in our history."
EA expects fiscal year 2009 revenue to be between $4.9 and $5.15 billion, up from $3.67 billion in 2008.
The firm forecast annual earnings per share between $0.21 and $0.48 this fiscal year, compared to last year's loss per share of $1.45.
"From Spore on the PC to Dead Space on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to MySims on the Wii and Nintendo DS to Scrabble on the iPhone and Facebook, this is the best title portfolio in the company's history," Riccitiello added.
Why would he need to justify it if he bought the ps3 version at least he knows that it will still be playable in 3 yrs.
Are you a viral marketer for Sony, PantherLotus, or just feel the need to justify your purchase?
I think EA, as usual, is on the right track.:
http://lotuscharts.blogspot.com/2008/07/investor-relations-ea-reports-fi...
Notice:
1. Revenue on the 360 dropping each quarter consecutively, including the holiday season: this has to be a huge concern for EA as they seem to have bet on them early, as they already admitted earlier this week.
2. PS2 driving 300 million in revenue in FY08Q3, nearly 2 years into the next generation: this is further evidence that backing the worldwide market leader (independent of graphical quality) drives revenue growth for years after the peak sales ability of said system has passed.
3. PSP and PS3 both doing the best of consoles and handhelds for EA is an interesting counterpoint to their renewed commitment to focus on market leaders DS and Wii.