Electronic Arts Reports Strong Q1 FY25 Results, Revenue Down, Income Up YoY

[TheLostSwede]

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its first quarter ended June 30, 2024. "EA delivered a strong start to FY25, beating net bookings guidance as we continue to execute across our business," said Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA. "Our focus on delivering bigger, bolder, and more connected experiences for our players has never been sharper and is illustrated by the record-breaking launch of EA SPORTS College Football 25 as we head into another historic Q2 sports season at EA."

"Strong execution, live events and continued player engagement across our experiences, delivered Q1 results above expectations," said Stuart Canfield, CFO of EA. "Looking ahead, the remarkable success of our launch week for College Football, combined with the upcoming launches for EA SPORTS Madden NFL, EA SPORTS FC and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, is building momentum for FY25 and beyond. We are well positioned to deliver our multi-year financial objectives."




Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics

• Net bookings for the quarter totaled $1.262 billion, exceeding the high end of the guidance range of $1.250 billion. This was driven by stronger performance across Madden NFL 24, FC Online and FC Mobile.
• EA SPORTS FC celebrated real-world tournaments and events during Q1, attracting tens of millions of new fans and driving engagement across the franchise during the quarter.
• EA SPORTS Madden NFL delivered sustained momentum through the quarter, with weekly average users in Ultimate Team and total net bookings up double digits year-over-year.
• During the quarter, EA revealed Dragon Age: The Veilguard gameplay, which trended #1 on YouTube Gaming and received millions of views.
• After the quarter ended, EA SPORTS College Football 25 welcomed 5 million unique players into the game through its first week, with over 500,000 more playing via the EA Play trial.

Selected Financial Highlights and Metrics

• Net revenue was $1.660 billion for the quarter.
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $120 million for the quarter and $2.076 billion for the trailing twelve months.
• EA repurchased 2.8 million shares for $375 million during the quarter under the new stock repurchase program, bringing the total for the trailing twelve months to 10.2 million shares for $1.350 billion.

Dividend
EA has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.19 per share of the Company's common stock. The dividend is payable on September 18, 2024 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on August 28, 2024.



Business Outlook as of July 30, 2024

Fiscal Year 2025 Expectations - Ending March 31, 2025

Financial outlook metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $7.100 billion to $7.500 billion.
• Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $200 million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $904 million to $1.085 billion.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $3.34 to $4.00.
• Operating cash flow is expected to be approximately $2.050 billion to $2.250 billion.
• The Company estimates a share count of 271 million for purposes of calculating diluted earnings per share.

Operational outlook metric:

• Net bookings is expected to be approximately $7.300 billion to $7.700 billion.

Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Expectations - Ending September 30, 2024

Financial outlook metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $1.900 billion to $2.000 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $50 million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $204 million to $248 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $0.76 to $0.93.
• The Company estimates a share count of 267 million for purposes of calculating diluted earnings per share.

Operational outlook metric:
Net bookings is expected to be approximately $1.950 billion to $2.050 billion.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Onasi]

I love how their highlights are just SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS and amidst all that the mention of how DA4 was totally trending and will totally not be a disaster when it actually releases. Yeah. Sure. When was the last time BioWare put out a respectable game? 2014, if we want to be extremely generous and pretend that Inquisition wasn’t a single player MMO with a scuffed story that retconned everything interesting about the DA setting. No, BioWare, “it was elves all along” isn’t more interesting than the previous in-universe theological debate on what happened with the Black City and whether or not Maker is an actual thing.

tl:dr I am very upset about DA as a series going down the drain after Origins.

 

[_JP_]

Dirt and F1 series didn't bring in the billions this FY, I see.

EA: [Loading 12-gauge sounds]

 

[TheLostSwede]

Dirt and F1 series didn't bring in the billions this FY, I see.

EA: [Loading 12-gauge sounds]

They also forgot to mention that there will be an exodus of Apex Legends players soon.

 

[Onasi]

@TheLostSwede
Wait, what? I admit I haven’t followed the game, what have they messed up? I heard some rumblings about BP changes, but I thought they reversed the course on that?

 

[TheLostSwede]

@TheLostSwede
Wait, what? I admit I haven’t followed the game, what have they messed up? I heard some rumblings about BP changes, but I thought they reversed the course on that?

It seems like they've partially reversed their decision.

 

[Onasi]

@TheLostSwede
Whenever I see tables like that my eyes glaze over and I start chanting “Every day we stray ever further from Gods light”. Fucking hell, when you need an explanation chart just for ONE part of your monetization scheme you know we are dealing with a micro-transaction engine with a game maybe strapped to it, not the other way around like was originally intended.

But, I suppose, this is just the way things are now.

 

[TheLostSwede]

@TheLostSwede
Whenever I see tables like that my eyes glaze over and I start chanting “Every day we stray ever further from Gods light”. Fucking hell, when you need an explanation chart just for ONE part of your monetization scheme you know we are sealing with a micro-transaction engine with a game maybe strapped to it, not the other way around like was originally intended.

But, I suppose, this is just the way things are now.

Well, they split the season in half and wanted to charge $10 for the season pass...
This was the original plan.

 

[Onasi]

@TheLostSwede
Okay, yeah, that’s pretty scummy. Not gonna lie, I’ve seen gacha waifu games with more appealing offers. Actually, come to think of it, one of the most shameless “ass and titties” games out there, Nikke, has unironically better monetization and developer-community relationship than the vast majority of AAA Live Services out there, from all I heard about it. I don’t know whether that’s funny or sad.

 

[natr0n]

Built an empire on the work of others they dont even have a single gravestone for all the companies they killed.

 

[phints]

Bring back Battlefield franchise. New director, new team, etc. EA your games are utter trash.

 

[64K]

Built an empire on the work of others they dont even have a single gravestone for all the companies they killed.

They do have a title to carry with them forever. Most times voted Worst Company in America. Two times. That's a record and back to back no less. It's disgusting the wreckage EA has left behind with some truly great Developers that unfortunately got gobbled up by EA and the festering EA rot began within them and then they were killed off. For anyone that thinks they haven't killed the once great BioWare, they have well over a decade ago. BioWare is just a hollow shell of what it once was.

But the truth, as much as I hate it, is that EA has been very successful financially in doing what they have done and no doubt will continue to do so.

 

[natr0n]

Bring back Battlefield franchise. New director, new team, etc. EA your games are utter trash.

New game is coming out. Thing is all the orignal devs bailed and have new studios.Some of The Finals game has a multitude of BF things in it, its surreal. I dont like that game though.

The charm might be gone have to see.
BF4 is all you need.

 

[TheLostSwede]

New game is coming out. Thing is all the orignal devs bailed and have new studios.Some of The Finals game has a multitude of BF things in it, its surreal. I dont like that game though.

The charm might be gone have to see.
BF4 is all you need.

One of my class mates from way back is a senior developer at Dice.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

They do have a title to carry with them forever. Most times voted Worst Company in America. Two times. That's a record and back to back no less. It's disgusting the wreckage EA has left behind with some truly great Developers that unfortunately got gobbled up by EA and the festering EA rot began within them and then they were killed off. For anyone that thinks they haven't killed the once great BioWare, they have well over a decade ago. BioWare is just a hollow shell of what it once was.

But the truth, as much as I hate it, is that EA has been very successful financially in doing what they have done and no doubt will continue to do so.

TBF, Bioware did it to themselves. According to their own devs EA was very hands off until the failure of Andromeda. when EA intervened with Anthem, they found that bioware had almost nothing to show for over half a decade of development. EA demanded one major feature: that the jetpack be returned to the game. Bioware had gotten rid of it. The jetpack is the best part of the game. Bioware also insisted on using the Frostbite engine, which while EA was pushing it, it was not mandatory, and if any studio could justify not using it, it was the golden child Bioware.

similar story to DICE, they insisted on making frostbite, didnt document half of it, then fell further behind instead of focusing on polishing what they had. DICE was also relatively hands off, until their games started failing. Again, failure of internal leadership.

They're matches made in hell.

New game is coming out. Thing is all the orignal devs bailed and have new studios.Some of The Finals game has a multitude of BF things in it, its surreal. I dont like that game though.

The charm might be gone have to see.
BF4 is all you need.

EA did a great job of tapping into the consoooomer nature of gamers. It's printed a mint for them.

 

[mb194dc]

Total revenue down nearly 300mil from last year?

Strong results, lol.

 

[64K]

TBF, Bioware did it to themselves. According to their own devs EA was very hands off until the failure of Andromeda. when EA intervened with Anthem, they found that bioware had almost nothing to show for over half a decade of development. EA demanded one major feature: that the jetpack be returned to the game. Bioware had gotten rid of it. The jetpack is the best part of the game. Bioware also insisted on using the Frostbite engine, which while EA was pushing it, it was not mandatory, and if any studio could justify not using it, it was the golden child Bioware.

similar story to DICE, they insisted on making frostbite, didnt document half of it, then fell further behind instead of focusing on polishing what they had. DICE was also relatively hands off, until their games started failing. Again, failure of internal leadership.

They're matches made in hell.


EA did a great job of tapping into the consoooomer nature of gamers. It's printed a mint for them.

I remember reading the interview with the 2 BioWare co-founders that retired in 2012 and they said that EA didn't meddle in Mass Effect 2 but I just couldn't buy it. I question whether they got a sweet retirement package to make nice about their experience working for EA. The truly good talent started to bail out as well. It's just a pattern that repeats with Developers bought by EA. They are the Grim Reaper of gaming.

 

[Onasi]

@TheinsanegamerN
BioWare has been underperforming for years. One thing that kept them alive was that SWTOR, after switching to a F2P model, was surprisingly profitable and was doing good numbers. But it wasn’t really BioWare itself who ran it and now that it’s been given to Broadsword they don’t have that to hide behind anymore.
The company itself is basically just a shell with a name at this point, virtually everyone who made old Bio what it was is either gone or dead. I absolutely wouldn’t be surprised if after Veilguard inevitably flops (and I feel it will) EA will finally put a bullet in their head. Honestly, probably deserved at this point since they have basically nothing to show for more than a decade and ME5 (or whatever it’s called) can be either cancelled or transferred to another studio.

 

[kapone32]

Absolutely no mention of WRC Generations in a World where Sim racing is on fire. Madden is a travesty on PC as it is locked at 30 FPS. Imagine playing that on your 144hz monitor. They used to be the best and during the PS Era EA was like NBC Sports with so many franchises. When they got rid of NCAA Basketball you knew that the fun part of EA was gone.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

New game is coming out. Thing is all the orignal devs bailed and have new studios.Some of The Finals game has a multitude of BF things in it, its surreal. I dont like that game though.

The charm might be gone have to see.
BF4 is all you need.

I know all of the originals left the studio a long while ago with the small remainder leaving after BF5, but I have heard some rumours that EA or Zampella have managed to coax a few of the more experienced ones back to work on the new game. When I say 'experienced', I am not sure how many games they have worked on but it sounds like they all worked on the older more successful BF games so the new game could be more in line with the older games providing corporate dont mess with the formula while the game is in development.

One of my class mates from way back is a senior developer at Dice.

You should ask him how he development of the new game is going. The only thing that people know about it so far is that its another live service which isnt great news.

In any case last BF game i bought was BF5 and while the atmosphere in that game was the best one out of all of them. I wasnt a fan of the gun play and overall weapon balance.



::EDIT::

EA have to come out with a winner this time or all the older BF players are going to be migrating over to the new copypaste which is looking to be a blend of BF3 and 4 while still paying some homage to the original delta force blackhawk down game. This game will probably steal a huge chunk of EAs BF players who have been asking for more BF3/4 style of game for a long time.

 

[TheLostSwede]

You should ask him how he development of the new game is going. The only thing that people know about it so far is that its another live service which isnt great news.

In any case last BF game i bought was BF5 and while the atmosphere in that game was the best one out of all of them. I wasnt a fan of the gun play and overall weapon balance.

He doesn't discuss work stuff, I've tried to ask in the past.

That was the last BF game I bought as well and I can only agree.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

He doesn't discuss work stuff, I've tried to ask in the past.

Maybe you didnt treat him to enough whisky.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Interestingly, I just got this in my email, with regards to a new BF game. This is where my friend works. Sadly I can't make it.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Interestingly, I just got this in my email, with regards to a new BF game. This is where my friend works. Sadly I can't make it.

View attachment 357081

Whats the hold up? W1zzard not paying you enough to attend?

 

[natr0n]

I was wondering if some places in Sweden make you feel like you are in a Dice game...So I googled modern Swedish architecture... and Yes