Electronic Arts‘ newest fiscal report shows positive figures.
The fourth quarter’s (the first month of 2020) fiscal report shows that EA has gone through the outbreak of the coronavirus fairly decently. The net revenue was up year-on-year (and above expectations) at 1.39 billion dollars, and the net income was 418 million, which is double the amount year-on-year. The earnings per share are 1.43 (above the analysts’ expectation of 1.20). For the complete fiscal year, Electronic Arts delivered total revenue of 5.54 billion and a net income of 3.04 billion (far above 1.02 billion year-on-year). Yet, the company’s stocks dropped 6% in value on the stock market, as the investors don’t have a positive outlook.
FIFA 20 has over 25 million players, Madden NFL 20 has the highest player engagement numbers in the franchise’s storied history, The Sims 4 grows its player base quarter by quarter, meaning it’s above the 20 million figure from a quarter year before. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has sold more than ten million copies by now, Apex Legends was the most-downloaded free-to-play game on consoles last year (although Call of DutY: Warzone might be getting that result this year). All these games are riddled with live service and monetization, except Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (single-player only, no DLC).
Electronic Arts’ employees work from home, which is why several games and DLC have no release date set – perhaps this is why they didn’t announce them yet. Instead, they are hopeful that they can keep on track this year. The company predicts Electronic Arts 1.22 billion USD of revenue and net income of 270 million in Q1 2021, and revenue of 5.55 and net income of 978 million for the full FY 2021, respectively. The company works on multiple new IP, and before the coronavirus hit, they had 14 releases planned for this fiscal year, including an unannounced remaster (Mass Effect trilogy?). June will have EA Play Live, where we might see some of the company’s plans.
Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners, wrote on Twitter that going by the fiscal report, we should expect both the Switch port of Burnout Paradise’s re-release and the PC version of Command & Conquer Remastered, then in the July-September window, we’ll see FIFA 21 and Madden NFL 21, and in the October-December frame, we’ll get NHL 21. There’s also an unannounced sports game, a remaster, and four other titles from EA’s partners (EA Originals?), as well as two mobile titles.
„Note that this year the phasing includes the effect of revenue recognition from the games we are launching for the current generation of consoles that can also be upgraded free for the next-gen,” EA’s Blake Jorgensen said during the call. It sounds like that not only the Xbox Series X will offer free upgrades (under the Smart Delivery system, which recognizes which platform you use, giving you the best version of the game), but also the PlayStation 5, which is good news, as Sony hasn’t talked about this yet.
The live service, monetization-riddled model still works for Electronic Arts. It’s likely going to be also the case on the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5, both planned to arrive this Holiday season.
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