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EA reports Q4 loss (but yearly revenue's up 15%!)
Electronic Arts – still vigilantly "managing costs" says CFO Eric Brown following the restructuring plan – reported a $42 million loss and revenues down $267 million for the Q4 fiscal period, ending March 31. While that may sound pretty grim, the loss wasn't as bad as analysts were expecting, and wasn't even half of the $94 million loss the company posted for the same period last year. And while quarterly revenues were down (though still beating estimates), EA's annual revenue was up 15% year over year, from $3.7 billion to $4.2 billion. You can thank those 31 million-plus sellers it's claiming for the year (that's four more than in the prior year for those of you keeping count at home). What about 2010? "EA's strong cost actions in Q4 FY09 together with our investments in our digital service businesses will set us up for a stronger FY10," said John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer. Sounds good, but what about your strategies in this growing industry, Mr. Riccitiello? "EA is well positioned with the right strategies in a growing industry." Oh, we see ... sounds like you've got it all covered then. The company confirmed its fiscal '10 expectations of net revenue between $3.7 and $3.85 billion. But oh, what's this buried at the bottom of your report? A "Loss on Licensed Intellectual Property"? In Q4, EA "amended an agreement with a content licensor" resulting in "the termination of [its] rights to use the licensor's intellectual property in certain products." That amendment cost the company a cool $38 mil and has also piqued the curiosity of game bloggers everywhere. If you've got any insight, leave a tip (anonymity assured!).
Activision stock reaches a new 52-week high
Steven Mallas over at BloggingStocks notes that Activision's stock (AVTI) capped a new 52-week high yesterday at $36.84. By the end of the day, the final price was slightly lower, but overall it grew nearly 5%. Mallas mentions what's on all of our minds -- Guitar Hero for DS, sure, but Activision is about to pick up a 10-million subscriber powerhouse called Blizzard. That's worth a little something to investors. So while other, similar companies lost share price yesterday (Electronic Arts and Take Two, for example), our Activision overlords (whom I, for one, welcome with open arms) continues to do well. With Wrath of the Lich King pending around the corner, we can hope for the stock to pick up a few additional pennies. I don't know what effect the whole eSport buzz might have, but it could still be too early to tell.
EA posts record quarter: $1.5B revenue, $33m net loss
EA announced record third-quarter revenue of $1.503 billion, up 17% from last year and a new record for the publishing powerhouse; in fact, EA CEO John Riccitiello calls it the "single biggest revenue quarter for any third party publisher in our industry." But EA isn't just any third party publisher ... it also took the opportunity to note that, with 18% market share across all platforms, it was the number one publisher in calendar '07. The especially strong quarter was driven by sales of Madden NFL 08 (duh), Rock Band (which sold 1.5m units across the three available platforms), The Simpsons (which sold 4m units), FIFA 08 (selling 4.5m units this quarter), Need for Speed Pro Street (racking up an amazing 5.5m units), and several others. But it wasn't all Scrooge McDuck money pools at EA, they also announced a net loss of $33m for the quarter and delays of two key fourth-quarter titles: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and Battlefield: Bad Company, both pushed back to a far more nebulous "fiscal 2009" stretching from April 2008 to March 2009. But that's okay, with forecasted sales between $925 million and $1.05 billion for the fourth quarter, the suits at EA aren't out on the streets just yet.
EA's epiphany: movie-to-game translations stink [update 1]
EA's lust for licensed intellectual property has cooled considerably, if the company's statements during last week's fourth-quarter financial results conference call are any indication. At several points during the call, EA executives stated the company's desire to develop more "wholly-owned IP." They've been beating on this particular drum for a while, in fact: in a conference call in February, EA Chairman and CEO Larry Probst stated, "One of the things that we're really focused on as a company is developing our own wholly-owned intellectual property." In other words, EA's interest in movie-to-game translations is waning. The cynic in us believes that this may have something to do with recent delays -- first with the Godfather game, now with the Superman game. Foxy EA seems to be saying, "I don't want those grapes anyway. They're sour."
EA's snuff film @ GDC
We haven't seen anybody else mention this, so we feel obligated to describe a truly awesome talk given at GDC by the head of EA's LA studio, Neil Young (pictured here, bio here). First, it must be said that Neil Young is charming as all get-out. He's got one of those endearing English accents that automatically adds like 30 IQ points to the bearer of said accent. His stage presence inspires confidence and willing suspension of disbelief. Within moments of his opening remarks, I felt myself wanting to like this guy, whoever he was. His presentation didn't disappoint that expectation. He spoke about "feature IP," a businessey buzzword for the video game features that are unique enough to drive sales of games. Examples of feature IP include EA's "Game Face" technology (first used in Tiger Woods PGA Tour and to see re-use in the upcoming Godfather game as "mob face") and Microsoft's global leaderboards and achievements system (found in Xbox 360 games). Feature IP, as defined by Neil Young, can be leveraged across multiple games and therefore has the power to drive the sales of not just one game or franchise, but a whole raft of games in a publisher's portfolio.
What investors think of THQ today
THQ has outshone its games-publishing peers with a stock price (Nasdaq: THQI) that's actually gained in value over the last year. That's actually quite an accomplishment in an industry beset by fear that we're headed towards some sort of doomsday scenario during the difficult console transition period. (The graph above is from a report published by games industry analysts Jason Kraft and Chris Kwak of Susquehanna Financial Group.) The graph shows how well THQ management has done insulating the stock from the shocks and jolts that have bruised its competitors. Best-selling THQ game Destroy All Humans has a lot to do with this.
