Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA), the United States’ second largest maker of video games, is approaching its five-year trading high today after beating analysts estimates yesterday and delivering a loss less than what the Street expected. The loss announced yesterday, excluding some items, was reported at $0.40 per share, down considerably from an expected loss of $0.60 per share.
Revenue for the quarter came in at $495 million, topping the $454 million projection. These numbers demonstrate the success that Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) is having in the mobile market. Once a company whose sales were dominated by brick-and-mortar stores like GameStop, EA is showing how much that has changed. Overall, digital revenue hit $378 million, with $90 million of that number representing smartphone and tablet game sales.
Electronic Arts Digital “hitting on all cylinders”
Digital titles including Simpsons: Tapped Out and Real Racing among others are believed to have rescued Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) in a quarter where they had no major packaged-goods released.
“Our quarter was notable was for its strong digital sales,” EA chief operating officer Peter Moore said in a conference call with investors. “To that end, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was EA’s biggest retail partner as measured by sales. That is a first.”
“Digital is hitting on all cylinders,” Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said in an interview after his colleagues remarks in the earnings call. “The mobile business in particular just continues to see great growth year over year.”
Apple iOS still outpacing Android as platform of choice
This is not to say that Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA)’s sales on Android devices aren’t growing but the company did not disclose where the split occurred between iOS and Android sales. Certainly, iOS sales topped Android but to what extent remains a mystery. If the growth of Android is any barometer, one could guess that Android is catching up to iOS.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out had its biggest quarter ever for sales; driving game Real Racing 3 reached 45 million downloads and has 2 million active users; and according to CEO Peter Moore, The Sims Freeplay was among the highest-grossing games on iPad.
Traditionally, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) sees big sales in the next quarter for its long running series of sports related games including its Madden, NBA Live, and FIFA titles.
