EA Posts FY08 Loss News
Chris Leyton
14/05/2008
A year of fundamental changes brings an overall net loss during FY08 for the publishing giant...
Delivering its 2008 fiscal reports EA today announced an operating loss for the year, a period it described as involving fundamental changes after three years of flat growth.
Despite net revenue increasing to $3.67 billion for the year ended March 31st 2008 from $3.09 billion for the prior year, the publishing giant posted a net loss of $454 million compared to a net income of $76 million in the previous year.
For the fourth quarter EA reported net revenue of $1.127 billion, representing an 84% increase compared to the $613 million posted in the previous year. Net loss for the quarter however increased to $94 million from $25 million for the same period last year.
Figures released for sales during the fourth quarter revealed that EA shifted 1.8m copies of Army of Two, Burnout Paradise notched up 1.5m (putting it comparable to Burnout Revenge), FIFA Street 3 achieved 800,000 sales, whilst Rock Band continued its success with 1.5m units during the quarterly period.
"A year ago, we committed to an aggressive change agenda at EA. Our employees stepped up to the challenge and we finished fiscal year 2008 with non-GAAP revenue up 30% to $4 billion -- a record for any third-party publisher. Our operating margins were flat to our prior year. On balance, we're very pleased with our revenue growth, but not yet happy with our profit margins," said John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer. "In fiscal 2009, we expect to deliver another $1 billion in revenue growth and to double our operating profit on the strength of our slate of titles."
Looking forwards to the fiscal year ending March 31st 2009, the publisher expects net revenue to be between $4.9 and $5.15 billion. For FY09 the publisher also revealed its release plans for the various formats: Xbox 360/PS3 (30 games), Wii (over 20 games), PSP (8 games), DS (18 games), PC (over 30 games), and the PS2 (15 games).