Electronic Arts Q1 Results Surpassed Expectations, CEO Says
Electronic Arts reported results for Q1 ended June 30 that surpassed expectations on the “top and bottom line,” CEO John Riccitiello said. The results were driven by strong demand for new games including 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and digital offerings for titles including Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Scrabble for the iPad, he said.
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GAAP revenue improved to $815 million from $644 million in Q1 last year. But EA said non-GAAP revenue fell to $539 million from $816 million. The decline had been “expected” because of a smaller game release slate, but the result still topped the company’s forecast of $460 million to $500 million, it said. EA released six major games in Q1, down from 10 a year earlier. Offsetting that decline “somewhat” was “strong digital revenue growth,” EA said. It swung to a GAAP $96 million profit, 29 cents per share, from a $234 million loss, 72 cents. But its non-GAAP loss widened to $78 million, 24 cents, from $6 million, 2 cents.
"EA is well-positioned for the year ahead,” said Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown. The company still expects to report fiscal year non-GAAP earnings per share of 50-70 cents on non-GAAP revenue of $3.65 billion to $3.9 billion. GAAP revenue is expected to be $3.35 billion to $3.6 billion for the year, it said.
EA is the No. 1 game publisher on the HD consoles -- the PS3 and Xbox 360 -- with a 22 percent market share so far for calendar 2010, “four points higher than the same period a year ago,” it said. In North America and Europe, the HD console software market “is growing strongly with the combined” PS3 and 360 segments up 21 percent so far this year, it said. The PS3 software market is up 40 percent, it said. EA, meanwhile, is the No. 1 PC game publisher, with a 33 percent share at retail and is seeing “strong growth in digital downloads of full-game software,” it said. EA had three of the top 15-selling games in Western markets during Q1: 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa at No. 4, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at No. 7 and FIFA 10 at No. 12, it said. EA said it was also the No. 1 publisher across all platforms on the Apple App Store in the June quarter, EA. It had nine of the top 10 games when the iPhone 4 launched in June, it said.