Electronic Arts Quarterly Profits Plummet 31%

[fitbabits]

Next Generation (http://www.next-gen.biz) has more details (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2189&Itemid=2).

Electronic Arts has announced its fiscal third-quarter earnings, with profits down 31 percent compared to a year ago.

The company brought in $259 million in net profit for the quarter, compared to $375 million a year prior. Net revenue was down 11 percent at $1.3 billion compared to $1.4 billion.

The earnings were below analyst estimates, although revenue was in line. Wedbush Morgan Securities said that the shortfall was primarily attributable to lower than expected gross margins and higher operating expenses.
I'm guessing these sorts of figures are to be expected given the costs of shifting to next-gen platform development, but it's still surprising how much of a dip is being seen in quarterly earnings reports. Thankfully I'm not an analyst, so these figures won't be causing me to lose any sleep.

[Ailer]

Maybe the large amount of EA boycotts is finally starting to hit them. Here's hoping.

[Demize99]

Maybe the large amount of EA boycotts is finally starting to hit them. Here's hoping.

Not hardly, it was a hard quarter on the whole industry thanks to the 360. Weak sales on all platforms, compared to the boom that was a year ago.

Also, I alot of people saw this coming when they announced the layoffs.

[Ailer]

Why do you have to kill my hopes so quickly and ruthlessly?

[Mortis]

Cut down and feature lacking versions of all their sports titles on the 360 aren't helping sales there either. Fight Night Round 3 is going to be big for them on the 360 though.

[mightbe]

Yeah, as long as discerning gamers like us keep gobbling up their latest sports incarnations and sequels, they'll be making plenty of dough.

And I'm ok with that.

[Neverborne]

I hope they die.

[EGO]

I hope they die.

That's such a sad, juvinile, ignorant statement. The videogame industry wouldn't be what it is today without the mainstream juggernauts like EA.

You people really want to go back to nerd-farmers sitting in their cold/dark basements making the latest overly-complicated-interface-having RPG, that only appeals to people who understand the difference between Lawfully-Good and Chaotic-Evil??!?!? :rolleyes:

Seriously... EA hasn't hurt YOU directly and until they do, shut the fuck up. (And no, I don't work for EA, I'm just sick of all this ignorant bashing). :mad:

[Goronmon]

You people really want to go back to nerd-farmers sitting in their cold/dark basements making the latest overly-complicated-interface-having RPG, that only appeals to people who understand the difference between Lawfully-Good and Chaotic-Evil??!?!? :rolleyes:
Yes, because without EA, we would all be playing DnD RPGs. Don't be a dumbass.

[Jukey]

Maybe the large amount of EA boycotts is finally starting to hit them. Here's hoping.

RTFA! Increased costs and lower margins are to blame, not a lack of sales. LOL

I am as sick of Electronic Arts as you are, but c'mon... There is no large-scale boycott in effect, and probably never will be.

[drakkarim]

yeah, i'm sure it didn't have anythign to do with having to pay off those lawsuits or people getting tired of their shitty copy/paste games.

[Abash Alarmist]

RTFA! Increased costs and lower margins are to blame, not a lack of sales. LOL

I am as sick of Electronic Arts as you are, but c'mon... There is no large-scale boycott in effect, and probably never will be.

ROFLCOPTER...

[Ailer]

RTFA!

I was hoping to never have to read those words on this forum.

[Neverborne]

That's such a sad, juvinile, ignorant statement. The videogame industry wouldn't be what it is today without the mainstream juggernauts like EA.

You people really want to go back to nerd-farmers sitting in their cold/dark basements making the latest overly-complicated-interface-having RPG, that only appeals to people who understand the difference between Lawfully-Good and Chaotic-Evil??!?!? :rolleyes:

Seriously... EA hasn't hurt YOU directly and until they do, shut the fuck up. (And no, I don't work for EA, I'm just sick of all this ignorant bashing). :mad:

I'm just sick of their shovelware, cash-ins, and monopolistic activities. They hurt the quality of games.

[fitbabits]

For those interested - a brief history of Electronic Arts (thanks to MobyGames (http://www.mobygames.com))

1982:
Company founded.

1990:
Company went public at $ 8 per share. The stock's worth rose to $ 35 within a year.

1991:
Company acquires Distinctive Software, Inc.
Trip Hawkins resigns from the position of CEO. He remains as Chairman of the Board.

Jul, 1993:
French office opened in St Didier au Mont d'Or, France.

1994:
Trip Hawkins resigns from the position of Chairman of the Board.

Jun, 1997:
Company acquires Maxis in a US $125 million dollar stock transaction as a "fully-owned subsidiary" of EA.

Jul 28, 1998:
Company acquires ABC Software to establish direct sales org in Switzerland and Austria.

Aug 04, 1998:
Company enters into long term development agreement and makes investment in software developer Kodiak Interactive, who will develop WWF wrestling titles for EA.

Aug 17, 1998:
Company announced intention to buy Westwood Interactive from Virgin Interactive Entertainment.

Sep 23, 1998:
Company sponsors 2nd Annual EA Sports Internet Tour with $65,000 in prize money.

Oct 12, 1998:
Company opens a subsidiary in Korea.

Nov 16, 1998:
Company secured 8-year exclusive license to top world soccer licenses, include FIFA and EURO cups.

Jan 12, 1999:
EA Sports signs Sammy Sosa to be spokesman and coverman for Triple Play 2000.

Jan 14, 1999:
Company recalls PSX version of Tiger Woods 99. A bootleg episode of Southpark was found on the CD in normally unused space. The file was only readable via a PC, and was invisible to the PSX console. Recall was issued since Southpark is offensive to some people. Roughly 100,000 copies were affected.

Feb 22, 1999:
Company signs multi-year Formula One license.

Mar 11, 1999:
EA/Origin brought Wing Commander to movie screen.

Jun 10, 1999:
Company signs three year Supercross sponsor agreement.

Jul 13, 1999:
Company signs contract with Wizards of the Coast to jointly develop internet-based game.

Jul 16, 1999:
Company appoints Steve Dauterman (formerly of LucasArts) as General Manager of Studio Asia Pacific (EA Australia).

Jul 27, 1999:
Company receives first "Online Privacy Seal" under ESRB Privacy Online certification program.

Jul 28, 1999:
Company signs licensing agreement with Major League Soccer.

Aug 31, 1999:
Company will sponsor Las Vegas Bowl.

Sep 02, 1999:
Company signs Michael Jordan to appear in future basketball games.

Sep 08, 1999:
Company acquires Playnation.

Oct 18, 1999:
Company enters into exclusive development agreement and invests in Bottle Rocket.

Nov 22, 1999:
Company announces agreement to acquire Kesmai, the online game unit of NewsCorp.
Company creates Internet Business Division to develop content for AOL and Internet.

Jan 26, 2000:
Company licenses Quake III: Arena 3D engine to be used in several games, including "The World is Not Enough", American McGee's Alice, and others.

Feb 14, 2000:
Company signs Mike Piazza of New York Mets to be the spokesman for EA Sports Triple Play 2001.

Feb 24, 2000:
EA/Origin announces that Ultima Online has reached 150,000 paying subscribers.
Company acquires Dreamworks Interactive from Microsoft and Dreamworks SKG.

Jul 26, 2000:
The company signs Daytona Speedway for a 4-year deal.

Jul 27, 2000:
EA/Maxis' The Sims is top-grossing PC Game of first half of 2000 by PC Data.

Jul 31, 2000:
Chris Vrenna, founding member of "Nine Inch Nails", will produce and compose score for "American McGee's Alice".

Aug 10, 2000:
The company wins worldwide interactive rights for Harry Potter books and films.

Aug 18, 2000:
LucasArts signs distribution partnership with EA in Asia-Pacific Territory.

Feb 01, 2001:
The Official US Playstation Magazine prints the first info on SSX: DVD, Sled Storm 2 and NBA Street, all of which are part of the next wave of EA Sports BIG titles.

Feb 20, 2001:
EA teams with horror writer Clive Barker for first person shooter Clive Barker's Undying.

Mar 23, 2001:
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences awards SSX with 5 awards, including Console Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering, Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering, Racing Game of the Year, and Sports Game of the Year.

Jun 11, 2002:
The company acquires Black Box Games and makes it a wholly-owned subsidiary of Electronic Arts.

Aug 13, 2003:
The company announces the opening of a new development studio in Montreal, Quebec: EA Montreal.

Feb 06, 2004:
The company acquires the rights to develop new fighting games that will feature Marvel Comics' heroes

Feb 13, 2004:
The company acquires the development studio NuFX, Inc.

Feb 18, 2004:
The company announces that they hired the services of Fonix to develop voice-command interfaces for upcoming games.

Jun 30, 2004:
EA ends development on Ultima X: Odyssey, an upcoming 3D MMORPG, so they can focus their online efforts on the 2D Ultima Online game.

Jul 28, 2004:
The company acquires Criterion, the studio responsible for the successful Burnout series and, most importantly, the RenderWare engine used by a great number of developers and many AAA titles. EA bought the studio from Canon Europe.

Nov 08, 2004:
Company lowers the retail price of their new sports games NHL 2005, NFL 2005, NBA Live 2005 (all $29.95) and NCAA Football 2005 ($39.95) to compete with the $20 ESPN 2005 sports titles.

Dec 13, 2004:
The company acquires the exclusive NFL license with all the official players and teams for five years, a move to get the upper hand of the ESPN NFL series.

Dec 20, 2004:
Company acquires 19.9% of Ubisoft's shares through the Dutch media company Talpa Beheer BV. Ubisoft considers it a hostile offer.

Jan 10, 2005:
The company acquires the exclusive rights to develop a game based on the 2006 AFL season.

Jan 17, 2005:
The company announces a 15-year partnership with ESPN.

Jan 26, 2005:
The company acquires Digital Illusions.

Mar 09, 2005:
The company announces to make available academic copies of Criterion's Renderware middleware software to speed up game development courses in universities.

Nov, 2005:
The company acquires the rights to develop and publish games based on the long-running animated television show The Simpsons. Previously, the rights were held by Vivendi Universal.

Nov 04, 2005:
The company teams up with Nettwerk Music Group to launch EA Recordings, a digital music distribution label that brings EA's catalogue of wholly-owned musical compositions and remixes to Digital Service Providers worldwide.

Dec 05, 2005:
The company opens a new development studio in Singapore, which will focus on localizing and customizing popular EA games into at least five different languages for distribution throughout the Asia region, and eventually evolve into an online game development facility.

Dec 08, 2005:
Company acquires Jamdat.

The word 'aquires' appears 16 times!

[Xerxes]

The "bad guys", actually losing? Thought that was only in the movies.

I would like EA more when their bubble is burst. They can still be the market leader, but now they are just way to ahead of everyone. Their antics are frustrating and they get away with things only cause they are so big. Trash the gaming industry without flinching cause we can make folks forget stuff by giving them madden with update rosters.

[Xerxes]

You left off the part of using Stevie Speilberg for slave labor. Oh and pissed off Peter Jackson for that matter.

[jwbxx]

If anyone here invests, now would be a great time to get into the video game sector since we are at the end of the cycle.

Oh and death to EA for robbing me of my espn NFL 2k5 series.

[mister_slim]

Cut down and feature lacking versions of all their sports titles on the 360 aren't helping sales there either. Fight Night Round 3 is going to be big for them on the 360 though.
Wasn't Madden one of the top-selling 360 titles?

[Xerxes]

Does that even mean anything aside from some people like football games and have no other choice.

[mister_slim]

Well, if his point is that EA's 360 games didn't sell well, which is what he appears to be saying, the fact that they did sell pretty well seems relevant.