Electronic Arts Announces Second-Quarter Results

Publisher/developer Electronic Arts has announced its financial results for the fiscal second quarter ended September 30th, 2004. The company's net revenue was $716 million, up 35 percent as compared with $530 million for the fiscal quarter ended September 30th, 2003, and driven by Madden NFL 2005, which has sold over 4 million copies since launch. However, despite posting a $97.3 million profit figure for the quarter, Wall Street analysts were somewhat disappointed with earnings of 31 cents a share, below Wall Street estimates of 36 cents a share, and shares dropped around 5 percent to $44.50 in after-hours trading. Nonetheless, the results were in line with EA's predictions, which analysts have suggested were pitched somewhat low to deal with excessive competition during this exceptionally packed early holiday gaming season. This conservative estimation tactic seems to be continuing into next quarter, with net revenue expected to be between $1.4 and $1.475 billion for the period ending December 31st, compared to a similar figure of $1.475 billion for the prior year. The company also revealed that Madden NFL 2005, The Sims 2, Burnout 3: Takedown and NCAA Football 2005 all sold more than one million copies worldwide during the quarter, with the breadth of titles compensating for more disappointing games such as Catwoman. Larry Probst, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Electronic Arts, commented: "We enter the holidays with strong momentum in North America, Europe and Asia. EA Sports is having its best year ever and The Sims 2 had the strongest PC launch in EA's history. In the December quarter, the breadth and quality of our global line-up is exceptional, with eleven new releases expected to achieve platinum status."