EA gabs Q1, Wii, PS3, and E3
In their Q1 earnings report, EA announced revenues were up 13% from last year but net loss also increased in the same period, from $58 million to $81 million.
They followed their earnings report with a juicy conference call full of some candid executive gabbing and Gamasutra was listening, scribbling feverishly. Turns out the gaming press weren't the only ones impressed with Nintendo's E3 assault, as EA revealed, "'...we have ramped up [game] production for the Wii and DS Lite' following significant excitement over the Nintendo-created consoles at E3." That's number one. Number two isn't quite as exciting: first party Wii titles won't be more than $49.99 "suggesting that Electronic Arts games may debut for Wii at $49.99 at launch." They weren't saying though.
On the PS3 front, they balked at Sony's promise of 6 million PS3 consoles in the 2006-7 fiscal year citing "hardware companies come up a little short", and that they "expect that [Sony] will be challenged" to produce that number. This, of course, echoes the common sense response to manufacturing a console of the PS3's complexity. That's not all though, they also did the whole 360 versus PS3 thing saying the two are "more alike than different," then quickly equivocated realizing placement on Sony's Christmas list was in jeopardy, "There's a lot of horsepower in the PS3 that we're going to be able to unlock in years two, three, and four."
Gamasutra has more deets on the call, including EA's response to the E3 closure ("We think it makes good business sense"), some details on PS3 launch titles, and more juicy numbers for those of you interested in that sort of thing.
