EA to expand subscription business with two new titles

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has revealed that the company will expand on its subscription business with two additional titles.

"On PC, our subscription revenue streams continue to grow with our Pogo and Warhammer businesses," said Riccitiello. "We also plan to introduce two additional online subscription services later in the fiscal year."

No information was provided beyond the brief mention in the initial talk, though Riccitiello expanded on this slightly in response to a question by Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian, explaining why he was not ready to reveal the nature of the titles.

"We think they're consumer propositions first, and we want to use the best possible public relations to bring those to market in a way that will benefit the titles," he said. "We'll certainly be communicating what they are on or around the next call."

"So, it's not a deep dark secret, it's just sort of managing our marketing the best we know how."

In all, EA generated USD 110 million in non-GAAP revenue in its digital direct business in Q4, an increase of 16 per cent over the same period in the previous year.

EA currently operates two subscription services within this digital direct umbrella. Pogo, its casual games portal, ended the year with 1.8 million subscribers, an increase of 9 per cent over the previous year. Its other subscription product, MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, ended the year with over 300,000 subscribers.