Electronic Arts and Take-Two today announced preliminary financial results for their first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2012. According to the reports, Battlefield 3 Premium Service has managed to sell over 1.3M subscriptions, whereas Max Payne 3 has sold over 3M copies. Take-Two has also revealed the release dates of both Bioshock Infinite and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Bioshock Infinite is coming to current generation consoles and PC on February 26th, whereas XCOM: Enemy Unknown is coming to the same platforms on October 12th. And even though a lot of PC gamers hate Origin, EA’s platform for downloading digital games and services has registered over 21 million users.
Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello said:
“We have established an unmatched diversity in our business with multiple brands performing across several channels, business models and geographies. This allows us to drive profitable growth in a rapidly transforming marketplace for games.”
Interim Chief Financial Officer Ken Barker added:
“We had a solid first quarter and are reconfirming non-GAAP guidance of annual earnings per share growth of 30% at the midpoint of our guidance. The $500 million stock buyback demonstrates our confidence in EA’s future.”
President of EA Labels Frank Gibeau concluded:
“We continue to make progress in our goal of becoming the leading digital entertainment company. Over the last twelve months, we generated over $1.3 billion in non-GAAP digital net revenue, and approximately two-thirds of our non-GAAP net revenue in the first fiscal quarter was in digital.”
EA and Nexon signed a publishing agreement for EA SPORTS FIFA Online 3, expected to debut in Korea later this fiscal year. FIFA World Class Soccer and EA SPORTS FIFA Online 2 generated more than $25 million in digital net revenue in Asia in Q1. FIFA Ultimate Team contributed over $30 million in net digital revenue in the first quarter and Battlefield 3 Premium service sold over 1.3 million subscriptions to date, with all of the revenue deferred and set to be recognized in fiscal Q4. Furthermore, Battlefield 4 is now expected somewhere between April 2013 and March 2014.
SimCity Social launched on Facebook and currently has over ten million MAUs. STAR WARS: The Old Republic will move to a more accessible two-tiered pricing model in November. Players can chose between a $14.99 premium monthly subscription and a free-to-play model with some restrictions on content and advanced features. Players will be able to purchase upgrades with in-game currency.
EA’s games and services for mobile phones and tablets have generated a 37% year-over-year increase in digital net revenue and EA’s Origin platform for downloading digital games and services has registered over 21 million users, including 9 million mobile users. We should also note that Origin has signed agreements with 57 independent developers.
On the other hand, Take-Two revealed that Max Payne 3 has sold over 3M copies, that there is no release date for GTAV as of yet – though development is going well – and that Spec Ops: The Line’s sales were underwhelming. In addition, Bioshock Infinite got a new release date and is currently slated for a February 26th release on PC, X360 and PS3.
The strongest contributors to net revenue in the first quarter were the release of Max Payne 3, catalog sales led by the Grand Theft Auto franchise and Red Dead Redemption, the release of Spec Ops: The Line, and continuing sales of NBA 2K12. Catalog sales grew 50% year-over-year and accounted for 26% of net revenue. Revenue from digitally delivered content grew 33% year-over-year and accounted for 14% of net revenue, driven by offerings for the Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the Max Payne franchise, NBA 2K12, and Red Dead Redemption.
Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two said:
“Although our first quarter results were below expectations due to lower-than-anticipated sales of Spec Ops: The Line and Max Payne 3, the outlook for our slate of upcoming releases is stronger than ever. Early consumer enthusiasm suggests robust demand for our extraordinary lineup of upcoming releases, particularly Borderlands 2, NBA 2K13 and BioShock Infinite. We continue to expect fiscal 2013 to be one of the best years in Take-Two’s history.”
Going into more details:
Rockstar has launched Max Payne 3 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The title received excellent reviews and has sold-in over 3 million units to date. Max Payne 3 is being supported by a comprehensive downloadable content plan, with new releases starting in July and extending through the fall. In addition, the company released Max Payne Mobile, enabling fans to experience the classic 2001 release, Max Payne, optimized for the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and select Android enabled devices.
Moreover, Rockstar announced that it is expanding its Toronto development studio with the support of the Ontario government. In conjunction with the expansion, Rockstar Games is moving its Vancouver development team to the new Toronto facility and expects to grow staff over time.
2K Games on the other hand launched Spec Ops: The Line, a heart-pounding military shooter that explores the dark realities of war, on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and released Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods & Kings, the expansion pack for the award-winning PC strategy title, Civilization V.
2K Play launched the company’s first mobile social game, COMEDY CENTRAL’s Indecision Game for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android, including Amazon’s Kindle Fire. 2K Play has also announced that it plans to release Nickelodeon Dance 2 for console systems and Bubble Guppies and Dora & Team Umizoomi’s Fantastic Flight for the Nintendo DS in November, and unveiled their slate of new, casual mobile games at E3 2012, including House Pest Starring Fiasco the Cat, GridBlock, Herd, Herd, Herd, and Carnival Games MiniGolf, which will be available beginning this summer.
2K Games has also released its first mobile social game for Japan, NBA 2K All Stars on GREE, and also announced a partnership with GREE to bring additional games to select global mobile social gaming markets, including Pirates! Legends and Civilization (working title).
2K Sports announced the “no data wipe” open beta launch of its free-to-play NBA 2K Online MMO game on the Tencent Games portal in China. and that the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant, Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin and the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose will be the cover athletes for NBA 2K13, the next installment of the top-selling and top-rated NBA video game simulation franchise, which is planned for release on October 2, 2012 in North America and October 5, 2012 internationally. In addition, the title will be the company’s first offering for WiiU, available during the holiday season.
Last but not least, 2K Games announced that XCOM: Enemy Unknown is planned for release on October 9, 2012 in North America and October 12, 2012 internationally, and that BioShock Infinite is now planned for launch on February 26, 2013.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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