Video game maker EA posts 17% rise in quarterly revenues

Electronic Arts, the publisher of video games like Fifa Soccer, Titanfall and The Sims, on Tuesday unveiled an almost 17 per cent rise in quarterly revenues, helped by its transition to digital sales.

Revenues rose to $1.53bn in the quarter to the end of March, from $1.31bn in the same three-month period in the previous year. Adjusted revenues were $1.09bn, slightly shy of the $1.11bn that Wall Street analysts had forecast. Net income was down 37 per cent to $566m, largely due to income tax changes.

While sales from traditional packaged disks were flat year-on-year, digital revenues grew 30 per cent to $934m. Digital net sales from its financial year ending in March made up 61 per cent of its total, up 20 per cent year-on-year, driven by the popularity of its Battlefield 1 shooting game and the Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes mobile role-playing game.

EA forecast net revenue for its fiscal 2018, ending in March next year, of $5.1bn, just short of Wall Street’s forecasts. Nonetheless, its shares were up 4 per cent after-hours as it guided its first quarter to net sales of around $750m.

Its earnings forecast for the year was ahead of the marker set by analysts at $3.57 per share.