EA Games has, once again, experienced a profitable first quarter that ended June 30. Although the company hasn’t been pumping out new, original software all year, it posted a net income of $222 million on revenue of $495 million, up from $491 million during the same period last year. What helped to bring in so much money? Surprisingly, it was the continued growth of digital games.
We may all think that retail stores are where the money is still made, but EA digital revenue for this particular period beat out packaged revenue by a pretty significant margin.
"EA had a solid quarter driven by continued digital growth and disciplined cost management," executive chairman Larry Probst said in a statement. "We are also executing on a clear set of goals for leadership on mobile, PC, current and next generation consoles."
SimCity may not have had the smoothest launch, but the city-building title did well to lead the publisher’s continued digital proficiency. Other than just the games, it was EA’s Origin service, which now has 50 million users including 22 million on mobile devices, and the continued success of Battlefield 3 Premium that helped its financial outlook. Premium now has 4 million subscribers paying a yearly fee of $50, meaning that that $200 million alone have come from a service not even necessary to enjoy the first-person shooter’s multiplayer.
With Battlefield 4 on both current and next-gen platforms just around the corner, expect even greater numbers closer to the end of the year.
