A few fronts:
1.) Their margins are much better due to digital (be that DLC, mobile, microtransactions, subscriptions, or full game downloads).
2.) They've canceled almost everything that doesn't make money, so now basically everything they do generates money.
3.) They have games in almost every category, so if one category goes down, it doesn't kill their whole business, and if another one goes up, it helps them. Now, they can't shoot like a rocket like someone entirely invested in one business, but it makes them much more stable.
Excellent points. If you just look at their games from the last 12 months, you can see how profitable they are.
Here are their successes:
- Battlefield 4 (Not as popular as BF3, but still a huge cash cow)
- FIFA 14 (Sells ridiculous numbers in Europe)
- FIFA World Cup (New players/jerseys on top of FIFA 14; probably sold > 1 million)
- Madden 14 (Has a monopoly on the market, and always sells decently in North America)
- NCAA 14 (Glorified reskin of Madden, huge margins)
- NHL 14 (Another monopolized sports game, sells a ton in Canada)
- Plants vs Zombies: GW (Will soon be out on 5 different platforms and has sold incredible numbers in comparison to the game's likely slim budget)
- Titanfall (Sold ~2 million copies after Microsoft paid for marketing and then some)
And their "failures":
- EA Sports UFC (Didn't sell great in June, but it should be a slow burner)
- NBA Live 14 (Likely their only game in this list that has lost money, but it's seen as a necessary risk by EA to capture some of the lucrative basketball $$$)
- Need For Speed Rivals (At least broke even, but likely was well below targets; expect EA to ditch the franchise if the next one does poorly as well)
Keep in mind EA also released the duds Fuse, Crysis 3, and Dead Space 3 last year which I haven't included. Don't expect a new entry in either franchise.
