EA suffers Q2 loss, revenue propped up by FIFA and Madden

EA's net performance during its second fiscal quarter, ended September 30, 2011, was either good or bad, depending on which net you're referring to. EA reported a net loss of $340 million, but scored a significant goal in shipping "nearly" 8 million copies of FIFA 12 -- half of the 16 million shipped in the game's lifetime. Overall sales of the footie franchise improved 25 percent year-over-year.

Madden NFL 12 was another standout performer during the quarter, shipping more than 3 million units. EA also pointed out continued strong performance of 2010's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (with shipments at 11 million so far). In a follow-up investor call last night, EA predicted similar fortunes from this quarter's Battlefield 3 launch, with store shipments already hitting 10 million.

Though EA's bottom line certainly didn't improve for the quarter (net loss for Q2 2010 was $201 million), revenue was up overall to $715 million. The biggest increase was in net digital revenue -- the realm of add-ons and online passes -- which rose over 40 percent to $234 million compared to the same period last year.

EA's next Q3 will provide a crucial look at the company's future, as it'll divulge Battlefield 3 sales and an early performance indication for BioWare's big-huge investment in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Reader Comments (24)

What do we expect? EA is a videogame publisher in the middle of the greatest depression since the dirty 30's. Inflation is eating into people's food / energy budgets and discretionary crap gets put on the back burner.

In times like these I wouldn't want to be making the pinnacle of discretionary consumer products either.

ST

@Steel Toad
That's why soccer moms can still drive around 2011 Cadillac Escalades too, right? Don't turn this into a depression, just a little difficulty in the economy.

Anyway, EA should see this coming, they're trying to take over Steam with Origin (which is horrible, IMO) and they are charging play passes for every game they release now. Trying to squeeze every cent from they're customers is just going to bight them back.

@Warlock234 they said Xbox Live gold was a bad idea too...
"no one will pay for online" and just about everyone does this now.

PC games have "online passes" last time i checked you could only play online with on Cd/Dvd/Game key and if someone could use you CD/DVD to install a game but would need a new key to play the game.

I have Valve games sitting here with CD/DVD/Game keys that only i can use.

i don't understand how taking away Steam changed anything.
You still had to log into your EA acct in order to play EA games online even when they were on Steam.They actually took away a layer so you could play your game quicker and Steam is far from perfect.

@Warlock234
How is the worst recession since the 1930s "a little difficulty in the economy?"

And just because people are buying expensive cars doesn't mean EVERYONE is making gobs of money. Get your head out of your ass.

@lowlife121: The fact is that people are buying things like expensive cars and houses, but can't afford them. That's largely why we're in this problem today.

@Warlock234 I don't think you understand what a depression is. In 1930 the unemployment rate was 8.7%, and right now we're what, 9 something?

It's not quite as bad as 1932's 23.6% but you can't downplay it by saying rich people still buy overpriced stuff.

@Warlock234

They're driving their Cadillac Escalades because they're too stupid to trade it in for a Honda or Ford to save money on gas.

I like to think this is the market's response to their increasingly terrible decisions and business practices: poor customer support, prematurely shutting down game servers, having non-working servers for major game launches, removing game manuals from product packaging, charging $10 to play used games online, shutting down game studios, not playing nice with Steam, and generally just being a bunch of scumbags who take advantage of their customers.

But it's probably just a coincidence. :(

@jsx92 and yet Nintendo does the complete opposite and they lost money too...

@(Unverified) Nintendo lost money for different reasons (Ie - Not actually releasing games besides rehashes for the 3DS, horrible msrp release price.)

@jsx92 +1, I agree with every thing you said. If we could just get everyone to stop buying Madden and FIFA for one year, EA would fall apart and I would love to see it. Bioware has been one of my favorite devs for years but I would even accept their loss as collateral damage if EA would go down in flames.

@jsx92

I think I have actually given up on EA. I really like bioware, but I have yet to buy DA2 (bc of the steam BS and complete change of game) and even tho I want to pay ME3 I just can't make myself get origin and participate in the EA shenanigans, maybe it will still be fun in 10 years when its released on GOG......

solution:

Project twenty-dollar

@eat it: Then I must enact my emergency contingency plan Project Not Buying Their Shit.

But I thought Project Ten Dollar was supposed to prevent this sort of thing? Whoops.

@Faceless Troll: Or it could be that their biggest must have games outside of the EASports division come out Q4. BF3, ME3, TOR...

Also, the growth of the mobile gaming industry is starting to cut into the mainstay's bottom line. Total revenue of the industry is going up but OGs like EA and Nintendo are reporting losses. They gotta take the platform more seriously.

Where's the article about EA's impending doom?

@A Sandwich

Stop acting like a whiny bitch. Your better than the likes of Co & Samfish.

Well, there's two ways of looking at this; while EA shipped out huge titles in Q2 to prop up their financials, they were also incurring horrid amounts of expense for the Battlefield 3 and SW:TOR development. Those expenses rolled negated a lot of operating profit without any tangible return; the revenue they'll realize from those game won't be apparent until Q4, which means for now they are taking a bath.

The thing about preorders is that, while you can book the revenue for the sale at the time of the preorder, you can't actually realize that revenue until ship date. The sale is "completed" at that time, so their Q3 call should be up significantly.

I think ea needs bioware more than bioware needed ea.

@Cap Morgan

Bioware is where a lot of the loss EA has made is going. Take SWTOR for example it's development costs have been publicised as huge and EA is funding the lot of it.

the good old days where your can see the EA logo on just a few days, those days are ringing...

So...how are those micro-transactions working for ya, EA?

I find this news both sad and comical at the same time ^^

FIFA Soccer 12

EA suffers Q2 loss, revenue propped up by FIFA and Madden

Reader Comments (24)

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:01AM Steel Toad said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:17AM Warlock234 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:54AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:55AM lowlife121 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 10:49AM MGTrey said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 11:20AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 5:20PM SirUrza said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:27AM jsx92 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:47AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:51AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 12:03PM Cranky Penguin said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 2:49PM Daverator said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:48AM eat it said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 10:50AM MGTrey said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:50AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 10:53AM MGTrey said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:57AM A Sandwich said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 3:50PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 9:57AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 10:31AM Cap Morgan said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 10:51AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 11:46AM crystal3d said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 12:50PM Miyagi99 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2011 12:54PM Scuffles said

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