EA narrows Q2 loss on stellar FIFA sales

Aided by FIFA 11 selling 8 million units since launching last month, EA has reported a $201 million loss for the quarter ending September 30, compared to $391 million in the same period last year.

Regionally, North America net revenue hit $142 million compared to $159 million in the same quarter of 2009, with revenue from Europe hitting at $122 million compared to $191 million YoY.

Sales of Xbox 360 games attributed to 30 percent of sales for the quarter, with PS3 earning the firm 34 percent, Wii and mobile 6 percent, PS2 3 percent, PSP 2 percent, DS 1 percent and PC accounting for 9 percent of the game profits.

PS3 software sales for EA were up 7 percent, Xbox 360 software was up 1 percent, but the firm acknowledged a decline in Wii software sales which were in decline by 82 percent year over year. It also reported an increase of 35 percent in digital sales, which NPD does not report - digital sales represent 30 percent of the sector, according to EA, and it's not tracked properly or accurately.

"We had another strong quarter, beating expectations both top and bottom line," said EA CEO John Riccitiello. "We credit our results to blockbusters like FIFA 11 and to innovative digital offerings like The Sims 3 Ambitions and Madden NFL 11 on the iPad."

Achievements and sales highlighted in the press release included:

• EA is the number one publisher on high-definition consoles with 25 percent segment share calendar year-to date, two points higher than the same period a year ago.
  In North America and Europe, the high-definition console software market is growing strongly with the combined PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 segments up 23 percent calendar year-to-date. The PlayStation 3 software market is up 36 percent calendar year-to-date.
• EA is the number one PC publisher with 27 percent segment share at retail calendar year-to-date and strong growth in digital downloads of full-game software.
  For the quarter, EA had six of the top 20 selling games in Western markets with FIFA 11, Madden NFL 11, NCAA Football 11, NHL11, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and FIFA 10.
• FIFA 11 was the number one title in Europe in the second quarter, and life to date, the FIFA franchise has sold over 100 million units worldwide.
• EA was the number one publisher across all platforms on the Apple App Store in the quarter.
• Medal of Honor is off to a strong start, selling-through 2 million units in just two weeks in October.
• FIFA 11 has sold 8 million units so far.

A financial call to investors is set to go off in about ten minutes; we'll update you with any interesting information as it's announced.