Electronic Arts Gets Bigger, Looses More Money

Following Activision's financial report and its bragging about being the current top publisher for mobiles and handhelds, Electronic Arts has released its financial results for the fourth and last quarter of the 2008 fiscal year, which ended on March 31. The videogames giant seems to be doing pretty well, with sales up to 1.13 billion dollars in that quarter, and sales over the whole year of 3.67 billion dollars. This is an increase of over 19% compared to the results posted in the fiscal 2007.

Electronic Arts claims to be the number one publisher across all platforms in North America, with a market share of roughly 19%. For the European market, EA does not claim to be the leading company in publishing, but still boasts a share of around 20% of the said market. Apart from Nintendo, which manufactures the console, Electronic Arts seems to be the largest producer of games for the Wii, with an increase of about 8% to a market share of 15%.

If you need other numbers that prove how big and powerful Electronic Arts is, take a look at this: 27 games made by the company have reached sales of one million units over the past year; 15 games have reached sales of over 2 million copies; the Sims surpassed the mark of 100 million games sold; and Pogo, which is the casual label that EA maintains, sold more than 100 million worth of games.

The bad news is that, even with these very good numbers, Electronic Arts seems to be loosing money. Losses of 454 million dollars are expected for fiscal 2008, while in the previous year the company had reported a profit of $76 million. Apparently, most of the losses are down to new accounting regulations, which might mean that last year’s profits were nothing but well hidden losses.

For the next fiscal year, John Riccitiello, the Chief Executive Officer of Electronic Arts, predicts a rise in sales to around 5 billion dollars, while the company is expected to turn to profit again.

Riccitiello stated: "On balance, we're very pleased with our revenue growth, but not yet happy with our profit margins. In fiscal 2009, we expect to deliver another $1 billion in revenue growth and to double our operating profit on the strength of our slate of titles".

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