EA Announce Record Results News
Chris Leyton
30/04/2004
The money keeps rolling in for EA, as they officially confirm support for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP…
EA today reported record fiscal year results, with net revenue for the year ended March 31, 2004 at $2.957 billion, a rise of 19% compared to the previous year.
During the period EA claimed 27 platinum titles (having shifted over 1 million copies), along with six franchises that have shifted more then 5 million units â“ The Sims, Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, FIFA Football, The Lord of the Rings and Madden NFL Football.
New income for the year stood at $577 million, an increase of 82% compared to the same period last year, however operating cash-flow dropped from $714 million to $669 million as a result of the timing of releases during the fourth-quarter.
For the first time in their history EAâs net revenue topped $1 billion in Europe, a rise of 34%; whilst North America saw a rise of 12% to $1.6 billion and a similar rise occurred in the Asia Pacific territory to $97 million leaving only Japan to witness another decline of 12% to $71 million.
Looking forward, EA expects net revenue to increase by 10-15% for the forthcoming fiscal year ending March 31, 2005.
During a conference call regarding the results, EA confirmed support for both the PSP and Nintendo DS. Comments made by EAâs CEO Larry Probst at the time are likely to have pleased Sony, with his belief that he fully expected âthe PSP to be as big as the GameBoy at some point in the future.â
Although stopping short of announcing specific titles, Probst confirmed that EA plan to release four to six PSP titles during the forthcoming fiscal year, suggesting a healthy line-up of titles for the formats release. Probst declined to offer specific details on the Nintendo DS titles that are currently in development.