Electronic Arts' 2008/09 financial report

Electronic Arts (EA) has released its report for the 2008/2009 fiscal year, and the results are mixed.

On the one hand, the company lost a net $42 million last quarter. On the other, they're saying this is "narrower than expected" (that's a good thing); last year's same quarter cast a net loss of $94m. The average analyst estimate was a loss of 43 cents a share, with EA posting 37. However, non-GAAP revenue fell 34% to $609m, below Wall Street's forecast of $633.1m. The hardest blow comes in the form of their $1.08 billion loss for the financial year ending 2008, though revenue was up 15% from the previous year at $4.2bn.

Here are the fiscal 2009 highlights:

* EA had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies in the year - as compared with 27 titles in the prior year.
* FIFA 09, Madden NFL 09 and Need for Speed Undercover each sold over five million copies in the year.
* EA Partners posted its strongest year ever driven by Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and Left 4 Dead. Rock Band, in partnership with MTX/Harmonix, was EA’s highest revenue producing title during the fiscal year.
* EA strengthened its portfolio by launching new games - SPORE(TM), Warhammer(R) Online: Age of Reckoning(R), Dead Space(TM), Mirror’s Edge(TM), Boom Blox(TM), Mercenaries(TM) 2 and a slate of Hasbro(R) games.
* SPORE sold over two million copies with users generating more than 100 million creatures.
* EA generated 14% of its total non-GAAP revenue on the Wii - as compared with 8% a year ago. EA to ship EA SPORTS Active in May and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince(TM) in June. Also in June, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR(R) 10 and EA SPORTS Grand Slam(R) Tennis - both bundled with the Wii MotionPlus(TM) accessory (Tennis bundle available in Europe only).
* EA’s non-GAAP digital services revenue, which includes online and wireless, was $429 million in fiscal 2009, up 27% year-over-year.
* Pogo(TM) achieved an all-time high of 1.8M paying subscribers for the fiscal year.
* EA recently launched the open beta of EA SPORTS(TM) FIFA Online 2 in China –the Company’s first online game in China.
* EA Mobile(TM), the world’s leading publisher of games for wireless, delivered non-GAAP revenue of $189 million for fiscal 2009 - up 24 percent year-over-year.

Included in the million-plus selling list is Dead Space at 1.4m units and Mirror's Edge at 1m, word has it -- great news for fans and especially in light of previously very low numbers. Looks like EA was smart to believe in long-term results.

A conference call with the company was also held today, and is terribly long, so here, have some more highlights!

-EA To Release 30 iPhone Games This Year

-Warhammer Online Still Has 300,000 Subscribers

-EA Has Two Unannounced Subscription Games Coming This Year, Announced By Next Conference Call

-Wii Q1 (April-June) Games: Boom Blox 2, EA Sports Active, EA Grand Slam Tennis, Tiger Woods 10, MySims Racing, Harry Potter

-"Brutal Legend is like a music game, but instead of playing guitar to match notes on a screen, you play guitar to melt the faces off your enemies." - EA Executive

And finally, Dead Space and Mirror's Edge sequels are 100% confirmed, with the former already under development:

"Dead Space looks like a long-term big winner for us," EA CEO John Riccitiello stated during the conference call. "Mirror's Edge is one that was very strongly reviewed. That one's gonna go forward--we'll be looking at some issues around the design to make sure strong IP is married with strong business."

He added: "Many times, what happens with new IP is the first edition doesn't generate the units that subsequent editions could generate."