* Oper profit 56 cts/shr vs Wall Street view 88 cts/shr

* Cutting 1,100 jobs, or 11 percent of workforce

* Will narrow its game portfolio and delay some games

NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc (ERTS.O) posted weaker-than-expected results on Tuesday and said it would delay several games, causing it to forecast a loss for fiscal 2009.

EA, publisher of popular franchises such as "Need For Speed" and "Madden NFL," said its fiscal third-quarter net loss was $641 million, or $2.00 a share, compared with a loss of $33 million, or 10 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding costs related to restructuring and other special items, it had a profit of 56 cents a share, far short of analysts' expectations of 88 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

While experts expects the video game software industry to manage the recession better than others, companies like EA have been hurt by tighter inventory management at retailers which don't want to overstock their stores with titles that are not huge hits.

For example, where retailers may previously have pre-ordered 1 million copies of a new title like the latest "Lord of The Rings" title, they may now only order 400,000, and might slow to reorder additional copies, analysts said.

Revenue at EA, which goes head-to-head with Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) for the title of biggest publisher, was $1.65 billion, up from $1.50 billion.

Analysts had expected $1.9 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company in December warned its fiscal 2009 profit and revenue will fall short of already-low forecasts due to disappointing holiday sales of its video games in North America and Europe.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN0353477520090203?rpc=44

I find this somehow funny. Their lack of interest on the Wii and their huge investment on the HD consoles may have something to do with it. And whats worse, in the near future they will be releasing a lot of Nintendo cloned games for the Wii and I dont think if thats a good idea.

I hope they pull back. I much prefer them and their CEO to Activision.

Yeah, their casual games division is retarded. But the guys in EA games and EA sports have a better appreciation of what's happening in the market.

thats kind of a big a loss right?

I am sure EA will make Mass effect 2 exclusive to 360 with these type of financial situation.they don't need money at all ;)

The cost of HD games must be out of control this gen if they increased their revenue but they still lose more money. Seems like HD fans may see fewer games if companies choose to go after the Wii and DS markets to see a bigger profit.

MySims Party and MySims Kart to the rescue

Justice, serves them right for pumping out tosh and shite for the past two-three years. I hope they go so far down they have to sell some aquired divisions into competent and artistically sound hands!

Huh? It was restructuring costs and revenue not reaching the target that was the problem. They posted a reasonable operating profit.