EA's Q2 sales up to $715m, but records $340m loss overall
Digital sales up 45%, BF3 ships 10m units, publisher has 1/4 Western market share
EA has announced a GAAP adjusted loss of $340 million for the quarter ending September 30, 2011. Revenues increased by 22.5 per cent to a GAAP total of $715 million.
Non-GAAP sales improved on predictions, reaching $1.03 billion on projected estimates of $925-$975 million.
The publisher increased its market share in Western markets by four percentage points to 25 percent overall, making it the biggest publisher in those territories.
All figures used below are GAAP guidance numbers unless stated otherwise.
Whilst boxed product sales remained relatively stable, up from $441 million in the same quarter last year to $450 million in this, digital sales rocketed 45 per cent from $161 million to $234 million.
Gross profit on all goods sold was $283 million, quickly swallowed up by operating costs of $657 million, with $222 million attributed to sales and marketing and $318 million to R&D.
"We are pleased to report a strong second quarter with results ahead of the top and bottom line expectations that we provided on our last earnings call," said CEO John Riccitello in a prepared statement.
"Our results reflected a tremendous performance by our EA Sports titles and a strong showing for our newest game on the Facebook platform, The Sims Social."
Battlefield 3 is said to be "meeting expectations", and although detailed sell through figures aren't available, ten million copies have gone to retail, with Riccitello telling investors that the publisher is already receiving re-orders.
"We think the title will do well," added Riccitello, "not just in the launch week, but into the holiday season and into next year as well."
Peter Moore reiterated that Battlefield 3 had been the company's biggest ever launch event.
FIFA 12 was recorded as having a sell-through of nearly 8 million copies, with Madden NFL 12 selling 3 million in the quarter.
Costs of the PopCap acquisition were not immediately apparent in the company's figures.
EA also upped its predictions for the next quarter, estimating (non-GAAP) sales of $1.55 billion to $1.65 billion, betting on Star Wars: The Old Republic to perform well. Full year revenue guidance was $4.05 billion-$4.2 billion.