Harry Potter delay cost EA $120m this year

by Ross Miller { Sep 9th 2008 at 10:00AM }

Profitus Reducto! In an SEC filing yesterday, Electronic Arts revealed exactly how much stock it put in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince game, which was delayed until Summer 2009 alongside the movie (both were originally slated for November 2008): The publishing giant was expecting the Boy Wizard to pull in $120 million in revenue for this fiscal year. The filing offers no indication as to its new fiscal forecast for this year nor how much it now plans to profit from the game in its new release window of next Summer. As to the latter, we're guessing oodles of monies is still a proper metric.

[Via Edge]

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, half-blood-prince, harry-potter, sec, sec-filing

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Duke @ Sep 9th 2008 10:16AM

Sad thing is that I planned to take the whole month of November off work to play this. :(

juju187 @ Sep 9th 2008 10:48AM

you sir are a moron, you must work at McDonalds...

Duke @ Sep 9th 2008 10:54AM

It was a joke jackass.

Duke @ Sep 9th 2008 11:04AM

..I only took 2 weeks off.

Ding!!! Fries are done!

MrSpaceCowboy @ Sep 9th 2008 10:16AM

John Riccitiello kills Dumbledore

AwesomeTown @ Sep 9th 2008 10:39AM

Wouldn't it mean he prolonged Dumbledore's life?

Billy @ Sep 9th 2008 10:28AM

What's sad is how frikking terrible these games are. I can't believe that people actualyl spend $120M on these games. Have any of you ever played them? They are just AWFUL... I mean, everything about them.

Before downmodding me, I'm not Harry hater. I absolutely loved the books and I love video games. But wow, these are literally some of the worst games I have ever played and I cannot believe they sell so well!

TheAzureKnight @ Sep 9th 2008 10:40AM

The same could be said for those god awful movies.

I cry everytime my little brother makes me watch one with him...

And I'm dreading just how badly they'll fuck up the last movie....

Night Elve @ Sep 9th 2008 10:57AM

Yeah righhhhhht "your little brother makes you watch the Harry Potter movies ... righht"

Fox318 @ Sep 9th 2008 10:30AM

EA needs to get smaller. They got to big to fast and they have become their own worst problem. When your lineup is dependent on Madden and Harry potter you're doing something wrong. When you publish 20 games a year and only two are well received then market yourselves better.

Dirty @ Sep 9th 2008 10:39AM

EA has been big for a long time now, so I dont understand how they got too big too fast.

I think they have gotten better with some original IPs. Facebreaker fell flat on its face, but at least the effort was there. They've done some good stuff with the Westwood properties. I like Army of Two.

Im just saying that they aren't the evil empire that everyone thinks they are... that gamestop.

Boffo the Sock @ Sep 9th 2008 11:48AM

Do you really think EA is dependent upon only Madden and Harry Potter for income? Keep hiding under that rock buddy.

Dirty @ Sep 9th 2008 10:34AM

I bet the developer is excited that they might actually get a normal development cycle to go back and make the game better...

Im sure EA will just pull them off it to start something else.

Doesn't bother me none, Not a fan of the Potter, but I see how its been good for kids.

Jonafun @ Sep 9th 2008 10:51AM

They expected to sell upwards of two million copies of this? Have the previous Harry Potter games given them any reason to think this one would do that sort of business?

Duke @ Sep 9th 2008 11:19AM

The last one sold about a million copies it appears.

Helloimbob @ Sep 9th 2008 11:24AM

It'll cost the same as Rock Band in the UK. They'll justify it because of shipping and 'other issues'.

dark_inchworm @ Sep 9th 2008 11:25AM

EA GOES BROKE, CRYSIS (warhead) AVERTED

Tarheel @ Sep 9th 2008 11:48AM

So instead of making 4 billion dollars, they may only make 3.9b? Those poor, poor people.

DrXym @ Sep 9th 2008 12:23PM

If it costs them money this year it will make them money next. And if the sums are really $120 million as claimed, I wonder what their excuse is for releasing such shoddy titles in the first place. For that sort of cash this delayed title had better be a masterpiece.