14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts has presented its financial results for the second quarter, saying that it met expectations but that the overall outlook for the year would be reduced. The company now expects yearly revenue of 4.9 to 5.15 billion dollars, which means a growth of about 33% to 40% over the last year. A reduction of earnings per share has driven down the shares of Electronic Arts to 27.73 $, which is 13% lower than the previous day.
Still, the company is ready to invest more than 150 million dollars in projects which will have no immediate payoff. Digital distributions and online gaming will get most of the money and EA Partners will also seek to expand its publishing and distribution oriented relationships. EA is getting ready to launch free to play, microtransaction powered MMOs in Asia and is also betting big on The Old Republic, its Star Wars themed Western MMO which will arrive in 2010.
Meanwhile, some games will be delayed well into 2009. Lord of the Rings: Conquest, which was set to arrive during this fall, will be launched in January to give the team a chance to add a coat of polish on the title, while Saboteur is now expected no sooner than March next year. Electronic Arts also confirmed that the next Harry Potter game would arrive in the summer of 2009 just as the new movie based on the book is launched.
Here is what John Riccitiello commented on the recession, “The game industry has been very resilient in past recessions. History has shown us that the technology driver of new consumers has outweighed the negative of a recession”.
He also mentioned that his company is ready to cut its losses when a game is not shaping up to be a success and revealed that the measure to cut as much as 6% of its workforce was necessary to make sure that the organization performed at peak efficiency.