EA has been feeling pressure from the economic crunch lately, and their Q3 financial earnings report shows the company navigating it reasonably well. The company earned less revenue than the prior Q3, but lost less as well, and saw the first signs of their gamble on digital distribution properties paying off. The company reported 1.34 billion in net revenue, down 23% from the prior year. They attribute the lowered revenue to fewer titles in the quarter and generally weak sales in Europe. Though, it is worth noting, the release of fewer titles was EA's own doing, since it was one of several publishers who pushed games into 2010. The net loss for the quarter was $82, which sounds pretty bad until you consider the prior year's loss of a whopping $641 million.
EA has been shifting its focus more towards digital distribution recently, and the Q3 results show that may be starting to pay off. Digital revenue hit an all-time quarter high at $152 million, an increase of 30%. Playfish, which the company acquired for $300 million, had two of the top ten Facebook games in the quarter. Unfortunately, EA didn't share specific revenue generated from those two games.
"EA is growing share in our packaged goods business and our digital businesses continue to grow rapidly," said CEO John Riccitiello in the press release. "Mass Effect 2 is the first blockbuster of 2010 and we are looking forward to the launch of Dante's Inferno and Battlefield Bad Company 2." Pressure has been mounting on Riccitiello from investors, especially in regards to the shift toward a digital distribution model. While these financial results show some positive signs, we'll have to see if investors feel it's enough.


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