Increased PS3, 360 Game Sales Drive EA To Q1 Growth

A healthy increase in revenues from Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles drove Electronic Arts to a strong fiscal Q1 ended June 30. The company reported revenues of $999 million, a 23 percent increase from the $815 million reported one year earlier. Its profits increased as well: the $221 million reported for the quarter is up from $96 million for same period last year. The biggest revenue drivers for the company continue to be games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 home consoles: combined, the two consoles generated $653 million in revenue, or 65 percent of its total for the quarter. Revenue for both consoles increased dramatically from where they were a year ago, with a particularly sharp spike coming from PlayStation 3 game sales: the $308 million it generated is a 47 percent increase from the $209 million generated a year ago. Mobile and handheld sales combined were down 7 percent during the quarter at $76 million. While mobile sales were up 10 percent, PSP and DS games dropped 42 and 27 percent, respectively. Big sellers during the quarter include Valve's Portal 2 (which sold 2 million copies between the two consoles and PC retail during the quarter), Dead Space 2, and Dragon Age 2, which have both surpassed 2 million copies life to date. Additionally, the company's FIFA 11 has now sold 15 million units, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has surpassed 9 million. "This was another solid quarter driven by both digital and packaged goods," said CEO John Riccitiello in a statement. "We saw strong digital revenue growth over the prior year. On packaged goods, NCAA is off to a great start and pre-orders for Battlefield 3 are tracking extremely well." EA also said that NCAA Football 12 has sold-through 700,000 units to consumers after two weeks on shelves. As a result of the growth, EA has increased its guidance for the year ending March 31, 2012, currently expecting revenues of $3.825 billion to $4.025 billion versus its previous guidance of $3.725 billion to $3.95 billion. Riccitiello said in an earnings call that the increase is due to the recent acquisition of casual game maker PopCap. EA also said it expects full-year earnings to range between a loss per share of 10 cents to earnings per share of 21 cents, compared to previous guidance of between a loss of 4 cents per share and earnings per share of 26 cents.