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In its latest earnings report, Electronic Arts has confirmed that sales of its games in the period between July and September have fallen by 13 percent. In total, the company generated a revenue of $1.839 billion. The year-over-year fall in revenue is attributed to the fact that College Football 25 was a much more popular release last year than the newest iteration of the franchise has been this year. While there might be dips in the company’s revenue, it has also noted that EA Sports Madden NFL 26 and EA Sports FC 26 both saw growth in sales, with the latter seeing “mid-single-digits” year-on-year growth when compared with EA Sports FC 25. Apex Legends has also seemingly grown in bookings, with the growth described by the company as being in the double digits. Along with this, EA also celebrated the launches of Skate and Battlefield 6. “Across our broad portfolio — from EA Sports to Battlefield, The Sims, and skate. — our teams continue to create high-quality experiences that connect and inspire players around the world,” said EA CEO Andrew Wilson in the earnings report. “The creativity, passion, and innovation of our teams are at the heart of everything we do.” Interestingly, EA has also noted that it will no longer be hosting its usual earnings calls that typically involve the company’s leadership and analysts. This decision was likely made as the company makes its preparations to go private after being bought by an investor consortium that consists of Saudi Arabia’s PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. As the company had announced last month, this deal involves EA’s stockholders being paid a premium of 25 percent over the company’s share price as of September 25, 2025. The deal, which is expected to be completed by Q1 FY2027, will turn EA into a completely privately-owned company. As part of the deal, PIF, which previously had a 9.9 percent stake in EA, will end up with 100 percent of the company’s ownership. “Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans, built some of the world’s most iconic IP, and created significant value for our business. This moment is a powerful recognition of their remarkable work,” said EA CEO and chairman Andrew Wilson in a statement. While the long-term effects of this acquisition going through are yet to be seen, reports have already emerged of EA’s leadership having asked its employees to use AI-based tools for just about all aspects of their work. This ranges from generating code while programming, to generating concept art, and even middle-managers using LLM tools for advice on discussing sensitive subjects with workers under them. Analysts have predicted that the acquisition, since it was a leveraged buyout of EA that has put the company into considerable debt, will end up with “an even stronger focus on evergreen IPs, blockbuster (fewer but potentially bigger games) and live services – at the expense of riskier projects, new ideas and innovation.” This means that EA will double down on its annual sports titles and other major franchises.
