14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Electronic Arts has announced adjusted net sales of 1.03 billion dollars (726 million Euro) for the second quarter of its current fiscal year, which ended on September 30, beating its internal projections and the estimations made by analysts.
At the same time the company says that it has posted a loss of 340 million dollars (239 million Euro) for the same period, which is about 60 percent more than it has done for the same period during 2010.
Analysts expected the loss and earnings were down about 5 cents per share.
Electronic Arts says that the very good performance is linked to strong sales of sports based games like FIFA 12, which has managed to ship 8 million units, and Madden 12, which has sold upwards of 3 million copies.
Battlefield Bad Company 2, the DICE created first person shooter with some humorous elements, is still continuing to sell well, managing to reach life time totals of 11 million units in September.
EA has also highlighted the success of The Sims Social, the Facebook based spin-off that has managed to threaten the success of Zynga made games and has also convinced a lot of players to part with their money in order to improve the life of their virtual character.
The big growth for Electronic Arts has come from the digital space, where it has seen sales of 216 million dollars (152 million Euro), which is an increase of 60 percent when compared to the same period of last year.
Smartphone game revenue also went up by an impressive 87%.
The publisher is estimating that for the next fiscal quarter, which ends on December 30, will generate revenue ranging from 1.65 to 1.55 billion dollars (1.16 to 1.09 billion Euro), on the back of big launched like Battlefield 3 and the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.