During its earnings call for the first-quarter fiscal year that ended on June 30, EA has announced that its paid subscription service for Battlefield 3 — Battlefield 3 Premium — has now sold over 1.3 million subscriptions to date, though with all of the revenue deferred and set to be recognized in fiscal Q4.
Not bad for a subscription service that's only been out for eight weeks, no?
However, even with this good news, the company's profits still took a slight dip year-over-year. Sales fell from $999 million to $955 million last year, while profits decreased from $221 million to this year's $201 million take.
Joining Battlefield 3 as a strong earner is EA Sports' FIFA 12;. As EA reports, "the catalog continues to outperform expectations with Battlefield 3 and FIFA 12 together selling through over 2 million units in the first quarter.”
EA's digital focus has also paid off as this fiscal quarter saw total digital sales increase from $232 million to $342 million. In addition to this, the publisher's mobile sector has also played a large part in this massive jump as EA's games for smartphones and tablets generated a 37 percent year-over-year increase in digital net revenue.
While the publisher's digital retail platform Origin has been criticized by a handful of PC players, the publisher has also stated that Origin now has 21 million registered users, with nine million of those on mobile. EA has also confirmed that there over 57 signed agreements with independent developers for the platform.
"We have established an unmatched diversity in our business with multiple brands performing across several channels, business models and geographies," said Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello. "This allows us to drive profitable growth in a rapidly transforming marketplace for games"
The publisher has also revealed that pre-orders for Dead Space 3, Crysis 3, and Madden 13 are doing very, very well.
While Battlefield 4 Premium is a sure thing now, where's our Mirror's Edge 2, EA?
