Things haven’t been going as well as planned for Electronic Arts lately, if its latest earnings report is anything to go by. The company has apparently had a “weaker-than-expected third quarter” and has therefore “lowered its revenue outlook for the future,” resulting in a marked decline in shares. The company attributes the subpar performance in part to less-than-stellar sales of Battlefield V, which launched in November — a month later than initially planned — placing it “in the middle of a very discounted holiday season,” according to EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen.
However, EA says that despite its underperformance in the third quarter, it is now focusing heavily on “maintaining long-term live services for players,” which includes the recently released free-to-play Apex Legends, BioWare’s upcoming title Anthem — which is slated for launch on February 22nd — as well as what CEO Andrew Wilson describes as “a deep line-up of new experiences that [EA will] bring to [its] global communities next fiscal year.” Anthem in particular is expected to sell 6M units within a few weeks of launch.
All-in-all, though, it doesn’t seem that the underwhelming third quarter is going to hurt EA too much, as it’s still predicting a fourth-quarter net revenue of $1.163 billion and a net income of $170 million, which will put the company’s net revenue for the year at around $4.875 billion with a net income of $980 million.
That didn’t comfort investors, however; EA’s stock dipped 18% yesterday.
