Tag Archives: ea q3 financials 2009

EA’s right to focus heavily on Wii to bring itself through its financial crisis, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has told VG247, and that success in the Wii market is nothing short of pivotal to the publisher’s survival.

“I think it is essential to address the growing Wii installed base,” the analyst said today.

“It is important to keep in mind that EA has always had mass-market brands (mostly sports and Harry Potter); if these can’t work on the Wii, there is something wrong with the way they are marketed.

“I think that once the company figures out how to address the Wii audience, it will succeed.”

EA said yesterday it’s to shift a heavy focus onto Wii, and intends to even rival Nintendo on its own platform.

CEO John Riccitiello made the remark in the wake of heavy third quarter losses, announced yesterday.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has told VG247 he believes EA CEO John Riccitiello is the right person to lead the firm, through its current economic quagmire, but only on his earnings call performance last night.

“I think that the John Riccitiello who spoke last night is definitely the right person,” said the analyst.

“The Riccitiello who was aloof and unconcerned on prior earnings calls was the wrong person.”

EA announced a shocking $641 million loss for the three months ending December 31 yesterday, but Pachter told us today that Riccitiello’s admission of failure – as well as the fact he’s a “bright guy” – means he’s got what it takes to stay on top.

“In my view, he’s a bright guy with a ton of experience and is sufficiently conscientious to lead the company,” he said.

“All that was lacking was the desire to balance between future growth and current success (requiring recognition that the prior strategy was misguided), and the man who spoke yesterday sounded self-aware, accountable, and determined to get the job done.”

For all the news from the financial release, hit this.

Whoops. EA said yesterday that Warhammer Online subscriptions fell to 300,000 in the quarter ending December 31.

The news came as part of the company’s third quarter financial release.

Mythic claimed the MMO had 750,000 registered players in October last year.

Thanks, Massively.

It’s the third quarter financial release that keeps on giving. EA showed off market share for the US and Europe as part of its figures statement yesterday, revealing its slice of the European games pie dropped to 16 percent in the three months ending December 31, compared to 19 percent in the previous year.

American share as up slightly, however, to 20 percent from 18 percent previously.

Full thing on Kotaku.

EA announced a shellshock $641 million loss for the third quarter yesterday, and the redundancies of 1,100 staff. All news from the release here.

FIFA 09 has sold 7.8 million copies to date, EA CFO Eric Brown said in the firm’s Q3 conference call last night, conflicting an NPD joint-report on global sales last year.

The stats group claimed the top five sellers in the UK, US and Japan didn’t include the game, instead pointing to Mario Kart, Wii Fit, GTA IV, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and CoD: World at War as the main titles in 2008.

Brown also claimed that Need for Speed Undercover had sold 5.2 million copies.

More on Edge.

EA had a rare old time yesterday, confirming a giant Q3 loss, the dropping of 1,100 staff and plenty more to boot. Videogames news gold, it was.

There’s no need to trudge through your newsreader or read “other sites,” to be honest. It’s all below.

• EA posts $641 million Q3 loss, will close 12 facilities
• EA’s Q3 earnings call – the full transcript posted
• Riccitiello: Wii to get “half our emphasis”
• Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge hit 1 million mark
• Godfather II pushed into fiscal 2010
• Battlefield Heroes to release before April 2009
• Left 4 Dead rakes in 1.8 million in retail
• EA: Sequels will be 2010’s big hitters, says JR
• Dead Space confirmed for Wii
• New Battlefield and multi-format Mass Effect 2 for 2010
• Sims 3 suffers four-month delay
• Dragon Age pushed back to “last half of 2009″

On Seeking Alpha. There’s plenty of good stuff in there, if you were “in bed” when this happened last night, so you could do worse than pick over the bones with your coffee.

Find all our news from the call here.

Speaking in EA’s Q3 earnings call last night, CEO John Riccitiello confirmed a heavy switch towards publishing Wii games in the coming year.

EA’s goal, he said, is to “rival Nintendo on their own platform” and “get noticed [on Wii] in ways that no other third party will.”

JR added: “Nintendo is the leader; they’re getting half our emphasis in terms of title counts.”

Riccitiello confirmed a Dead Space SKU for Wii in the call, as well as describing the games industry as three “buckets”: online games, Wii games, and Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games.

The EA CEO says he places the Xbox 360 and the PS3 in the same “bucket” because “the lion’s share of titles developed for those platforms are common.”

More on Gamasutra.

EA CFO Eric Brown confirmed in the publisher’s Q3 earnings conference call today that Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge both sold over 1 million copies each in 2008.

The figure includes sales for each port of both games, excluding the PC version of Mirror’s Edge, as it was only recently released.

No mention was made on the rumored sequels for each game, but EA bossman John Riccitiello did state that “games with a two on them sell better”.

Slated to be released February 24 for PC, PS3 and 360, The Godfather II will instead be hitting retail shelves sometime during the 2010 fiscal year.

EA stated during its Q3 conference call today that it wanted to release the game at a later date to build more excitement around the title.

No exact release date was given in the call.

According to financial statements released by EA tonight, free-to-play DICE shooter Battlefield Heroes will release before the end of the company’s financial year in April.

The game has bee delayed several times, and recently entered yet another beta phase.

The news arrives on the back of Q3 losses to the tune of $641 million.

Thanks, Shacknews.

People love to shoot zombies – 1.8 million of them do, anyway.

Valve’s Left 4 Dead has made significant sales at retail since launching last year, EA said in its Q3 2009 earnings call today.

The number is a total for 360 and PC versions. No figures were divulged copies sold through Steam.

But then, why would they? Dur.

EA’s just predicted that a slew of sequels will form the bulk of the company’s revenue for fiscal 2010.

Madden, Need for Speed SHIFT, Bad Company 2, the next Harry Potter game and The Sims 3 were named as the those likely to be the biggest games for the firm in the next financial year by CEO John Riccitiello.

BioWare’s Dragon Age was the only original IP named in the list.

EA announced a loss of $641 million for the quarter ending December 31 today, and the loss of 1,100 jobs.

EA just confirmed a Wii version of Dead Space in its Q3 investor call.

The firm said it is to focus on stronger marketing for Wii in the coming year, with Dead Space, new tennis titles, three MySims games and Hasbro brands

We’re a little unclear on release date for the new version of 2008′s celebrated horror, but this year is a safe bet. Mr EA’s call’s a little flaky in the quality department.

The news comes on the back of confirmation of a heavy Q3 loss for the developer.

Update: N’Gai Croal reckons Mass Effect 2′s only been confirmed for PC and 360. Thanks, PT.

EA just said in its Q3 conference call that both Mass Effect 2 and a Battlefield: Bad Company sequel will release in the first three months of 2010.

CEO John Riccitiello appeared to confirm a multi-platform release for Mass Effect 2, suggesting that it will hit both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 at launch, and possibly PC.

The first Mass Effect was a 360 exclusive. Expect the fanboys to go crazy ape bonkers.

The Bad Company sequel is presumably the DICE game that was supposed to be shown this week in the UK.

More on Shacknews.

EA’s just confirmed that The Sims 3 has slipped from its planned February 20 release to June 2.

“The June launch combined with the break-through game the team is building gives us the perfect runway to create awareness for The Sims 3,” said EA marketing boss Russell Arons.

The news arrived today as EA announced both a slip for the PC version of BioWare’s Dragon Age and a nose-bleed Q3 loss of $641 million. Staff cuts are to total 1,100 as a result.

Let the good times roll. BioWare’s just confirmed a nasty slip for PC RPG Dragon Age, back from the first six months of this year to the “last half of 2009″.

The game will now release simultaneously with planned console versions, the Canadian developer said in a release.

“Dragon Age: Origins is shaping up to be quite amazing in its level of quality and polish,” said BioWare boss Ray Muzyka.

“I’m really proud of our team, who are working very hard to make Dragon Age: Origins the biggest and most exciting BioWare game yet, and we will work to ensure it not only meets, but exceeds the expectations of our loyal audience of fans.”

More here.

The news comes on the back of the announcement of heavy EA losses for the Christmas quarter and the loss of 1,100 jobs at the firm.

EA’s posted a huge loss for the three months ending December 31, amounting to $641 million.

Revenue for the period was was $1.65 billion, up $151 million compared with the $1.50 billion for the prior year.

FIFA 09, Rock Band 2, Need for Speed Undercover, Rock Band, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, Madden NFL 09, Littlest Pet Shop, NBA Live 09 and Mirror’s Edge were named by the firm as Christmas cash-drivers.

The news, however, is bad. EA said today it’s to extend planned redundancies from 10 percent to 11 percent of its total workforce, meaning 1,100 staff now face job loss.

In addition, 12 EA facilities are to be closed as part of a deep cost-cutting exercise.

Sir John’s brow is beaten, but that lip remains stiff.

“Our holiday quarter came in below our expectations and we have significantly reduced our financial outlook for fiscal 2009, a clear disappointment,” said CEO John Riccitiello.

“We delivered on game quality and innovation in calendar 2008, with 13 titles rated 80 or above — more than any third-party publisher. We expect to build on this great quality record in the year ahead while delivering more profitability.”

The full press release is after the break.

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