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[Draugoth]

​

via EA

:Electronic Arts missed estimates for quarterly bookings on Tuesday, as lower spending and stiff competition hurt demand for its gaming titles.

Shares of the company fell more than 2 per cent in extended trading.

Still-high interest rates causing gamers to tighten spending and stiff competition in the video game industry have hit the sales for EA's gaming titles such as "Star Wars Jedi: Survivor" during the holiday quarter.

Amid an uncertain economic outlook, video game publishers are competing for top spots with games such as "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3", published by Microsoft's Activision Blizzard, and Nintendo's "Super Mario Bros. Wonder" dominating sales for the month of December, according to market research firm Circana.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter attributes the results to the lack of big titles released in the December quarter and a tough comparison to the year earlier.

"They had to compare to last year's (2022) launch of "Need for Speed", and that creates a $150 million hole in the portfolio... I'd say this is what we should expect without any big new games," Pachter added.

However, bookings for the company's revamped soccer franchise, "FC 24", grew 7 per cent year-over-year compared with the previous edition.

EA reported bookings of $2.37 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, missing analysts' estimates of $2.39 billion, according to LSEG data.

The company forecast fourth-quarter bookings in the range of $1.63 billion to $1.93 billion, the midpoint of which is below analysts' expectations of $1.83 billion.

It reported adjusted profit of $2.96 per share compared with estimates of $2.93 per share.

The company also nudged up its annual profit forecast to $4.21 to $4.68 per share from its previous projection of $4.10 and $4.66.

 

[kiphalfton]

Meaningless without a breakdown per game. I mean what have they actually released this year?

 

[Darsxx82]

Layoffs at EA approaching....

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

Layoffs at EA approaching....

Wouldn;t be surprised, seems like 'right-sizing' is happening all over the place in games and tech.

 

[Loomy]

And this is why everyone is trying to get GAAS going. You may hate it, but this is how these publishers and studios are going to stay alive. The world is constantly changing. This is where we are now.

 

[kruis]

Meaningless without a breakdown per game. I mean what have they actually released this year?

EA released these games in 2023. Wild Hearts and Immortals of Aveum must have been expensive flops. I don't think WRC set the sales charts on fire either.

 

[kazuyamishima]

The funny thing is that EA Sports FC 24 is Up 7% compared to FIFA 23 in the same period, even though the latter had the WC included.

EA to FIFA:

 

[DaGwaphics]

I mean, they mostly release the sports games which have all the MTX built in. Not surprised at all by how high the percentage is for them there.

 

[Darsxx82]

Wouldn;t be surprised, seems like 'right-sizing' is happening all over the place in games and tech.

Especially when you are a company where 75% of income is from services/microtransactions for two-three games (Fifa, Maden, Battlefield?) and the vast majority of your SP games do not meet expectations or are failures.
To maintain growth and in the current economic situation and the video game industry itself.... cuts or (as you rightly mention) "rigthsize" generally lead to layoffs due to closure of Studios or projects.

 

[ProtoByte]

Why is this news? This is all they have out.

 

[Flabagast]

Do we know how Dead Space performed ?

 

[ReBurn]

I'm not sure EA sees this as bad considering they upped their EPS projections for the year and expect earnings to be between $4.21 and $4.68 per share. If they hit the minimum projection that's $1.14 billion in profit. I wish my year was this bad.

 

[Baki]

The funny thing is that EA Sports FC 24 is Up 7% compared to FIFA 23 in the same period, even though the latter had the WC included.

EA to FIFA:

Fifa played themselves.

 

[Raonak]

Aren't most EA games live service anyway.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Meaningless without a breakdown per game. I mean what have they actually released this year?

FIFA (or EAFC) is like half their revenue alone every year anyway. The other sports games make up the rest.

This is a nothing burger.

 

[newtypepilot]

their lineup is basically sports gambling. soccer fans are basically addicts.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Aren’t a majority of their games live service?

 

[hybrid_birth]

Im sure this is why Sony is doubling down on live service games.

Can't wait to pay $29.99 for a Aloy in a bikini outfit for the Horizon live service game.

 

[Generic]

73% of EA games are live service.

 

[eats]

It sucks, but that is the future of gaming. These is just too much money in live service games.

 

[balls of snow]

Rip all those non service games. Back to the gaas grind. 2023 was pretty good for sp content from EA, I bought all of em too.
Dragon Age Dreadwolf now has to sell 30 million for the execs to be happy.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you!

 

[AltogetherAndrews]

I mean, can’t say that I’m not a little salty over that the success of Apex Legends likely meant the death of Titanfall. But I’ve also played Apex daily since its release, so…

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Do we know how Dead Space performed ?

Hopefully very well because I would love to see the sequel get similar treatment. I just finished the remake yesterday and I think it matched RE4R in greatness.

Hopefully EA give Motive the go ahead to create a more appropriate Dead Space 3 at some point too.

 

[acm2000]

No shit, FIFA and madden are huge and are both technically live service games