Reuters has a report on Electronic Arts' recent earnings statement, which showed a surprising profit of seven cents per share for the quarter. This is much better than the loss of 23 cents per share analysts expected, but still worse than the 16 cents per share profit the company showed a year ago. EA shares shot up 8 percent on the news, reversing a 12 percent fall over the last year.Not surprisingly, EA Sports was behind much of the good news -- Madden 07 sold 5 million copies, while NCAA Football 07 and Fifa 07 both sold 2 million copies in the quarter. But the results also reflected an unexpected rise in overall U.S. game sales, which tend to lag in the run up to major console launches. This year might be different for publishers, though. As EA president Larry Probst told Reuters, "the tough times are over."
