However, new titles such as Mirror’s Edge Catalyst and the Secret Life of Pets, as well as continued strength in Star Wars Battlefront, of which Electronic Arts sold 14 million units last fiscal year, are likely to offset the impact to the aforementioned factors to an extent.
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The company reported earnings of 12 cents per share on revenue of $587 million, compared to analysts’ expectations of 11 cents per share on revenue of $578 million, according to a Thomson Reuters consensus estimates.
Conference call to come at 5 p.m. ET.
Electronic Arts said in the latest quarter it partially offset the tough comparison with a year ago by growing its digital business 6.8% to reach $568 million on an adjusted basis.
EA pointed to Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode as two of the biggest contributors to digital sales. (NASDAQ:EA) stock as the company gets ready to head into the earnings confessional. People played the combat game, which launched in late 2015, an average of 2.5 hours a day during the quarter. Moreover, in the same quarter past year, it booked delayed revenue from spending inside FIFA Online 3 by players in China, which added $31 million to the reserves. Moreover, the digital revenue contributed 55% of the sales.
For the full year, the company sees revenue of “approximately $4.75 billion”, and EPS of $2.56, compared to consensus for $4.94 billion and $2.51 per share.
Starting from this quarter, EA will stop reporting non-GAAP measures that adjust for deferred revenue, as it has done since fiscal 2008, to comply with stricter guidelines by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
On a GAAP basis, Electronic Arts said its net income was $440 million, down slightly from $442 million a year ago.
For the second quarter, the company expects loss of about $0.17 per share and revenues of around $915 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected Electronic Arts to post a loss of $0.02 per share. Revenue was $1.27 billion, up from $1.20 billion.
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Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $22 million or $0.07 per share, down from $49 million or $0.15 per share a year ago. Under generally accepted accounting principles, it expects revenue to grow to $4.75 billion and per-share profit of $2.56.
