EA Sports big (earnings)
Electronic Arts reported its fiscal year 2018 revenue at over $5.1 billion USD, a record-breaking year for the game-maker. That figure represents an increase of about $305 million over EA’s FY2017 numbers.
EA credits its financial success for 2018 to expanding reach of its “leading franchises” including FIFA, Battlefield and The Sims, “to more players across more platforms and geographies.”
The supplemental information accompanying EA’s investor call is a little confusing, since its fiscal year ends on April 30. In a slide showing off release schedules for upcoming games, Battlefield is listed as Q3 and Anthem is listed as Q4, but those are EA’s fiscal quarters. That means Anthem is still on track for a calendar-year Q1 release.
Sports titles helped drive its success, EA reported, with an increase in competitive play in FIFA 18 and Madden 18 of 75% over the previous year. For current-gen consoles, EA reported its sports franchises “grew to nearly 90 million players.”
During its call with investors, EA briefly touched on Anthem, BioWare’s new, original IP scheduled to come out in the first quarter of 2019, calling it a “fundamentally social experience.” Anthem had been scheduled for release this year, but suffered delays attributed to BioWare needing more time to develop the multiplayer aspects.
Seth Macy is IGN’s tech and commerce editor and listener of investor calls. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy.