EA Sports helps EA grow revenue, narrow losses
Digital growth more than offsets 19% year-over-year decline of packaged goods revenues
With the return of the NBA Live series, EA Sports has a full and healthy roster for the first time in years, and the company credited the division with helping drive its business for the second fiscal quarter. EA reported its earnings for the three months ended September 30 today, showing growth in revenues and a narrowing of losses.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson gave much of the credit to the EA Sports lineup, which this year includes Madden NFL 18, FIFA 18, NBA Live 18, and NHL 18.
"It was a strong second quarter for Electronic Arts, with players around the world captivated by our new EA Sports titles, top-performing mobile games, and expanding esports competitions," Wilson said. "The digital transformation is accelerating across our industry, and we are well-positioned for continued growth with more stunning new titles, thriving event-driven live services including competitive gaming, and continuing innovation for our players on all platforms."
The digital transformation Wilson referenced can be clearly seen in the company's revenue breakdown. The company's digital revenue for the quarter (comprised of full game downloads, live services, and mobile titles) was up 22% to $566 million. That more than offset a 19% drop in the company's packaged goods business, which contributed $332 million.
"We saw a notable shift to digital in our sports titles and remarkable growth in Ultimate Team," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said. "Our sports titles have once again shown their value in delivering a stable and dependable performance. This quarter demonstrates how they can drive our business and offers a window into how our games will evolve over the months and years to come."
For the second quarter, EA reported net revenues up 7% year-over-year to $959 million, with net losses trimmed from $38 million to $22 million.
Looking ahead, Electronic Arts reaffirmed its guidance for the full fiscal year of $5.075 billion, but notched net income up from $1.125 billion to $1.136 billion. However, its expectations for the current holiday quarter may be tempered somewhat, as the publisher told investors to expect revenues of $1.135 billion and a net loss of $64 million, down from last year's holiday quarter haul of $1.149 billion with a net loss of $1 million.