Electronic Arts has published its financial report of the previous quarter, and, of course, the results are highly green…

The net revenue was up year-on-year (1.59 billion dollars), the net income was $346 million, and that is up 32 percent from 262 million from a year before. The earnings per share are 1.18 dollars, up from 0.86 a year ago. However, that is still well below the 2.51 dollar/share that the financial analysts were predicting. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was expected to sell 6-8 million copies total, but it already hit nearly eight million sales, making Respawn’s title break the expectations. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 engaged the players (who also spent a lot), and the Star Wars Battlefront 2: Celebration Edition re-release (base game + all cosmetic DLC from the past two years) have sold well, too. FIFA Ultimate Team has 40% more matches year-on-year, The Sims 4 has more than twenty million players (mainly due to the Discover University and Realm of Magic DLC), and Apex Legends’ third season is also doing nicely. No wonder EA has pushed up its expectations. For their full fiscal year, their revenue outlook is now 5.48 billion dollars instead of 5.41 billion. The net income is at 2.93 billion and the full-year earnings per share guidance is 9.90 dollars. For the last quarter this fiscal year (ends on March 31), EA expects 1.325 billion in revenue and 308 million dollars in net income.

Enough of the financial talk. In the next fiscal year (April 1, 2020-March 31, 2021), Electronic Arts wants to release fourteen games! „Looking forward to FY 2021 […] we anticipate live services to be the primary growth driver, followed by the launch of new content across a broad range of genres. We’re launching four sports titles, including new games in our blockbuster FIFA and Madden franchises, four other titles that draw from the breadth of our IP, and we’ll also publish four titles globally from smaller developers. We also expect two new mobile titles to make it into soft launch. We expect growth to accelerate in fiscal 2022 as we leverage the growing install base of next-generation consoles with the launch of a new Battlefield. This is on top of the launches of FIFA 22 and Madden 22, plus new and ongoing live services and other titles,” Blake Jörgensen, EA’s COO said. „We’re looking forward to delivering more amazing games from our top franchises, new IP, and new partner indie titles in FY 2021 and beyond. […] New consoles are coming, and we’ll be ready to lead with some of our top titles,” Andrew Wilson, the CEO, added. So they have some variety it seems.

But what about the Nintendo Switch? FIFA 20 got a Legacy Edition on the big N’s hybrid platform (we’re not joking, they indeed released a roster patch for the Switch!). „We are always looking and discussing with Nintendo what else we can put on the platform, and as the platform grows, our interest in adding content grows for that platform. But we’re also conscious of the fact that the top-selling titles by a long shot are all Nintendo software. Which is fabulous software, but it helps us balance the realities of how big our markets could be there,” Jörgensen said. So they are afraid of the „local” competition…

So Electronic Arts took a lot of cash, and they will likely stay away from the Switch for now…

Source: WCCFTech, WCCFTech, Gamesindustry