EA gives numbers breakdown by console and retailer F the NPD

[Sullla]

First, the positives for EA. 360 software sales are really good, almost as high as PS2 sales were last year (360 did $218m revenue in Q3 07, PS2 did $269m in Q3 06). The Wii didn't even exist last year, and revenue sales are quite strong on that platform as well. I'm not going to lie, I was shocked to see that the Wii revenue from EA was almost as high as the PS2 revenue for this quarter. DS revenue is also up enormously as well (from $14m last year to $47m this year).

Now the bad news. Revenue as a whole is down significantly from this same quarter last year, down from $784m to $640m. (It's also down for the six-month period, so this is not an isolated quarter.) In other words, as great as 360 sales may be, EA is still bringing in a lot less money than they did with the PS2 last year. When you consider that development costs for the 360 are almost certainly higher than they were for the PS2... well, that's a problem. The net income (profit) numbers probably look a lot worse than this. I've been predicting for some time that this would be the first fiscal year in ages that EA would post a total net loss, and data like this seems to indicate we're headed down that path.

The PS3 numbers are just awful. There's no possible way EA is even close to turning a profit on that platform; only $17m in REVENUE (not net income)?! Heck, the XBox pulled in $12m and it's a dead platform! PSP revenue was also down by a lot; $64m last year to $21m. It's extremely obvious from that sales chart that EA expected the PSP to trounce the DS, and is only now switching gears between the two. You can bet that EA is regretting their heavy investment in Sony's platforms now.

Expect to see a lot of support in the future for the 360, somewhat less support for the Wii, and a sharp cutback in PS3 projects.