EA’s financials for the first quarter in this financial year have just been released, with the company strong across its main brands. The big figure: EA’s total revenue was $999 million for the months of April, May and June this year, up from just over $800 million in 2010, with profit at $220 million.
CEO John Riccitiello said that “this was another solid quarter driven by both digital and packaged goods” and said “NCAA is off to a great start and pre-orders for Battlefield 3 are tracking extremely well.” Digital revenue stood at $232 million this year, up from $176 for the same three months last year.
EA claim they were the “number one publisher” in Western markets, citing 16% segment share this quarter.
In terms of game sales, Portal 2 shifted two million copies this quarter, Crysis 2 has sold approximately three million copies since launch and Dead Space 2 and Dragon Age 2 have both moved approximately two million units since launch. FIFA has sold over 15 million copies since it hit shelves.
Figures for Battlefield 3 pre-orders weren’t publicly available, but EA said that the number was around ten times what it was for Battlefield 2 at a comparable time.
cc_star
2 millions sales for Dead Space 2? That’s a big number that most games would love to achieve, but it strikes me that that may have come in below expectations given the hype for it following the amazing first, that not so many people bought, but was quite rightly endlessly talked about.
Some great business by EA all round though, number 1 publisher? Do we have to switch our hive-mind hate target then?
beeje13
Nope, because they are also a decent publisher.
colmshan1990
They already suffered our wrath last generation, when EA were the go-to bad boys of regurgitating (great) games each year with little to no change.
They have stopped that now (mostly) and another company has done it, and has added screaming 12 year-olds to the mix. Dreading what horrors the next publishers will bring to us…
unclebob
Really?
EA 2011’s releases includes
Dead Space 2
Dragons Age 2
Mass Effect 1 & 2 (PS3)
Fight Night Champion
The Sims 3 Medieval
The Sims 3 Pets
The Sims 3 Pirates & Nobles
the Sims 3 Generations
The Sims 3 Town Life
Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed
Need for Speed The Run
Alice The Madness Returns (yes, returns)
Mass Effect 3
Battlefield 3
Madden 12
NCAA Football 12
NCAA basketball 12
NBA Jam (remake)
FIFA 12
Tiger Woods The Masters
Tiger Woods 12
NHL 12
EA Sports Active 2
EA Sports MMA 2
Family Game Night 4
Harry Potter 7 pt 2
Perhaps things are better online where they can use the web’s cheap distribution to break new IP? Errrrm No
Tiger Woods PGA Online
Tiger Woods PGA Online Gold Challenge
World Series Superstars
Madden Superstars
Need For Speed World
Battlefield Heroes
Battlefield Play4Free
Dragon Age Legends
The Sims Social
Perhaps on iOS/Droid they let their creative side hang out
Rockband
Tiger Woods
Madden
Fifa
NfS
EA Sports MMA
Skate It
I could go on & on & on listing sequel after sequel after sequel, whilst they do everything possible to leverage every single franchise onto every single medium and then release sequel after sequel once it’s there.
EA do nothing different to whatever they’ve always done they just put more marketing spin on it than anyone else.
The studios they snap up end up being merged into existing EA studios rather than ran as separate entities, meaning EA can get them to work on the annual franchise cycle all the more quickly, of course there’s the once in a blue moon piece of new IP, if it does OK, they’ll make another & another & another (watch Dead Space) if it does below expectations they’ll cast it aside (Brutal Legends) or worse close the whole studio down (The Saboteur)
I fear for Popcap now, sure they may have a new game or two up their sleeve, but everyone knows they’ve been bought by EA so they can get to work on Bejeweled 4, a proper Peggle sequel, Plants Vs Zombies 2 etc. EA haven’t bought a brilliant creator of mobile gaming, they’ve bought a whole new host of franchises they can churn out ad-infinitum.
I think it’s nothing but hypocritical double standards to hate one company for a release schedule which contains way, way less than half the sequels that EA’s release calendar does, but suck EA’s appendage for doing the same.
aphex187
I’ve never hated EA ever and i have been buying their games since the original Test Drive way back in the day.
cc_star
No point UncleBob, it’s easier to turnaround an oil tanker than it is the hivemind.
Yes, its very hypocritical over EA Vs Activision, especially seeing as Acti have done nothing more than ape EA & now in turn EA are doing everything possible to replicate Acti to take market share from them.
They’re two peas in a pod and because, like you say, one is better at marketing spin than the other… people lap them up like they’re gods gift.
Some of both publishers’ output is popular stuff that people, including me want to buy. Both have been as successful as they are by not being the nice guys, as is the way of successful business whatever the industry they’re in.
I wonder what’s going to happen to Criterion, are they simply an NfS developer now as seems to be the case, or are they free to carry on with their own not quite as successful as NfS, but still successful franchise, Burnout – with the occasional dally into things like Black when the creative urge suits them.
But people hate Acti for the practically the same reasons they love EA for. Baffling
Smallville2106
Impressive numbers all the same.
Crazy_Del
Crysis 2 is a huge number and yes I agree with cc_star as the hype train came along after the success on the first DeadSpace and was also recommended by other gamers.
Fifa 12 could get the 20 mark and as for Battlefield it’ll probably be 3 million. EA will be richer than Activison I guess.
Foxhound_Solid
Dead space 1 n 2 are epic games. CRYSIS 2 is shite, way better outing on pc. Way better. Fifa showing cracking numbers, battlefield 3, I reckon 4.5 million……
nemesisND1derboy
Although it didn’t release this quarter, Battlefield Bad Company 2 hit over 9 million sales. If pre-orders are ten times what they were for Bad Company 2, sales are definitely boding well for Battlefield 3. If it actually releases this year.
SYY2127
Don’t get Battlefield 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 mixed up. The pre-orders between the two were almost certainly not the same.
TheJaguar
Not surprised with Dead Space 2 figures seeing a I have been told countless times I should get it by everyone on PSN.
Not surprised with Dragon Age 2 either but personally I was hugely disapointed by that game and I know I’m not alone.
tonycawley
Shame that these big boys publishers lap up all the lovely profit while the guys who actually graft their tits off to make the games (the developers) are struggling to even break even. Good work by ea, but I really do feel sorry for the devs sometimes.
xdarkmagician
I like EA. I even have no issue with them charging for an online pass as most of their games utilize dedicated servers, I just wish they wouldn’t turn off their servers so soon, but it’s ironic that when soo many people state developers should make more money for their creations that a publisher makes so much profit from developers. These numbers are great for EA but what have they done to deserve this much profit? Big publishers are nothing more than a bank. The developers deserve all the praise for EAs profits. While I bask in the BF3 alpha, I think Dice has made a great game and EA had nothing to do with it but finance it… but maybe that’s EAs new strength… to leave well enough alone. Maybe they deserve it… maybe they don’t- I just hope they share the wealth with the people that made them successful, the devs.
BrainDiver
I guess I like this, I certainly have spent quite a bit lately on EA published games, maybe more so than on any other publisher. Hopefully the devs are seeing some love, the strong showing is their doing after all. EA should get some credit though as I’ve been seeing a fair bit of advertising from them, which one would think has been helping sales.
Peter Rushton
Lets not forget Fifa is coming out… What another great year for EA! hahah