EA Loses Once Again
@IGN:
January 31, 2008 - Electronic Arts reported a net loss of $33 million in its third fiscal quarter, although the publisher's net revenue hit the $1.5 billion mark - the largest in EA's history and up 17 percent over the same period last year.
Those numbers were driven largely by sales of Need For Speed: Pro Street (the publisher's best-selling title of the quarter), FIFA 08, Rock Band, The Simpsons Game, Madden NFL 08, The Sims 2 Castaway and NBA Live 08.
The company also announced that Battlefield: Bad Company and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames have been delayed until EA's 2009 fiscal year, which begins in April and runs through March 2010. The latter game was scheduled for an August 2008 release, and the former was set for June.
On a conference call that accompanied EA's earnings statement, Riccitiello said both games are "looking great" but "need polish."
"This was a record revenue quarter for EA and the single biggest revenue quarter for any third party publisher in our industry," said EA CEO John Riccitiello. "While we are disappointed that two titles slipped out of the March quarter, Burnout Paradise is off to a terrific start and we are looking forward to the upcoming launches of Army of Two and FIFA Street 3."
Despite recent speculation by analysts that Will Wright's Spore has been delayed yet again, EA didn't directly address the upcoming games current release schedule, saying only that the ambitious sim will be released before this year's holiday season.