It’s time for the financial statements for the third quarter of the 2022/2023 fiscal year. After Sony, it’s time to take a look at the results ofElectronic Arts (again reported by Daniel Ahmad), which were highly anticipated following the debacle caused by the launch of Battlefield 2042. And despite this mistake, the American giant is doing very well, thanks in particular to its sports division and its flagship service game.
An assessment that could have been much more positive
Some highlights from EA for the quarter:
– FIFA 22 was the #1 best selling game in the West during 2021.
– Madden NFL 22 was the #2 best selling sports game in the US.
– EA Sports franchise has seen bookings grow 10% YoY.
– Apex Legends MAUs up 30% YoY pic.twitter.com/0qs7Iq0giU— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 1, 2022
To talk directly about the most important subject in this report, let’s start with Battlefield 2042. EA wouldn’t provide sales figures for the game, but admitted the title fell short of its targets.. As a reminder, at launch, there were 4.23 million units sold.
EA has already warned ahead of the report that work on the game will continue, with major updates to come, and recalls that work at home has complicated things for the teams. The publisher expects the game to sell out over time, after it’s fixed. History not to panic investors on this failed launch, EA specifies that Battlefield represents less than 10% of their incomeand that the other licenses are doing well.
Indeed, it’s a little happier on the side of the publisher’s other games, especially at Respawn with Apex Legends. Last year, the game managed to attract more than 28 million new playersand EA expects revenue from the game to hit $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year.
FIFA 22 is also very buoyant, since it has been the best-selling game in the West during the year 2021while Madden NFL 22 was the second most popular sports game in the United States.
In short, despite a Battlefield 2042 which should put a little at half mast this fiscal year (we are talking about 100 million dollars less than what was expected), EA continues to do well, and contrary to the crazy theories circulating in recent days, the publisher is not in a position to be redeemed. On the contrary, since during this review, EA instead claimed to be open to making acquisitions, and therefore to buy back studios. It remains to be seen whether this will happen or not.