EA Net Revenues Up 30% In Q3

For the quarter, consolidated net income was $132.3 million (92 cents per share), compared to $88.0 million (63 cents per share) last year. For the nine months to date, the company's net income is looking even stronger, up 33% over last year. During the quarter, EA released a whopping 29 new titles, across eight different hardware platforms. The top selling new releases for the quarter were Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (all four platforms it supported); FIFA Soccer 2002: Major League Soccer on the PS2, PSX and the PC; Madden NFL 2002 on the Xbox and GameCube; James Bond 007...in Agent Under Fire, NBA Live 2002, SSX Tricky and Nascar Thunder 2002 on the PS2; and The Sims Hot Date Expansion Pack on the PC. Other top selling titles for the quarter were Madden NFL 2002 on the PS2 and the evergreen favorite The Sims on the PC. Larry Probst, EA's Chairman and CEO, said Harry Potter was the company's most successful launch title ever, selling over 7 million units on four platforms. "Next year we look forward to releasing Harry Potter for the first time on the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube platforms," he said. Digging deeper into the report, there were some blemishes. The company's struggling online arm, EA.com, posted a loss of $18.8 million for the quarter on net revenues of $21.9 million. Yet these numbers are a big improvement over last year ($33.1 million loss on $11.2 million in revenue). In Q3, EA.com took a charge of $14.1 million for a reduction in headcount, the closing of office space, abandonment of technology and "the impairment of related EA.com assets". Probst talked about the company's ongoing challenges with EA.com, saying that the company continues "to work towards reaching profitability at EA.com... Our challenge for the coming year is to monetize the traffic and stickiness of our site through increased advertisements and the release of new subscription products."