Right off the bat, you should know this: for EA, losing $82 million in the third quarter of a fiscal year is an
enormous improvement. Compared to the
same period last year ("Q3" for EA is October 1 – December 31), the company lost 559 million
fewer actual physical dollars. Yes, really. Now that we've told you that, we should also note that the publisher pulled in 24.85 percent less revenue year over year (down to $1.243 billion in Q3 2010 from $1.654 billion in Q3 2009). That said, Playfish had "two of the top ten Facebook games" for the quarter! Good thing
EA spent $300 million on those folks, eh?
Okay, okay, real talk: the company also points out that it was the "#1 packaged goods publisher in North America and Europe" for its entire fiscal year. CEO John Riccitiello even notes that
Mass Effect 2 is "the first blockbuster of 2010." And hey, with
2 million units already shipped, we tend to agree.
