Keep laughing, gaffers. After you're done, pause and read the article. Fact is their year over year revenue was up for the quarter and profits would have been up except for two one-time charges. Business is good.
In terms you might understand, OMG EA IZ NOT D00M3D!
I think EA is merely engaging in some earnings management.
Contrary to what most of you are thinking, year-on-year revenue is actually up a healthy 16% while the bottom line have gone into the red which isn't really logical at all. EA has probably chosen this particular quarter to take a "big bath" which would boost their future profits.
EDIT: :lol at some of the reactions in the thread. C'mon people, EA is NOT struggling. The reason for the loss in this report is merely due to some accounting technique.
Yeah, can't see why people on a videogame board would praise the perception of the industry leader having financial troubles. Just for people that don't understand, if the industry leader is having problems, that is a sign that the entire industry is screwed and we would be heading for another bust. Sometimes the ignorance here is amazing.
But EA is not having any troubles, thank goodness. Because the day EA does have serious issues, most other publishers will be out of business.
I'm not concerned about the massive conglomerates who swallow smaller companies to make more money, I'm concerned for those who were swallowed and those evading being swallowed.
EA will most likely take the most beating, but will take a massive beating before any industry crisis. However the smaller companies are going to have serious trouble next-gen, a gen where you have to have millions behind each game in order to get it to sell, only to not make a profit because of how much it cost to make it.
Nope. In the conference call they specifically pointed out the PS3 as opposed to the 360. In the QA session, they were pressed on the issue, but would not provide any details.
What we'll see this generation is higher revenue, lower profit (or negative profit) for all of the publishing companies.
That's just what happens when R&D balloons at a faster than linear rate.
So anyone trying to spin this as a good thing for EA is out of their fucking minds. They'll adjust to this generation eventually and things will equalize, but they WILL release fewer games this gen and the WILL take longer to bring their profit margins back up.
The industry isn't fucked, but it's hardly indestructible. And the fact that R&D is going up at geometric and exponential rates generation-on-generation means that you're going to need a lot more than raising game prices $10... you're going to need a much bigger audience. And that isn't going to happen.
As usual, this is "Wii aside," which if successful will make a lot of people a lot of really easy money.
