Copyright Variety
The soon-to-be-privately-held Electronic Arts saw its sales fall 13% year over year during the July-September quarter, according to the video game giant’s latest earnings results. Along with the issuing of the financial details Tuesday, the maker of “Madden NFL,” “Battlefield,” “The Sims” and “Apex Legends” said it will forgo its usual quarterly Q&A call between analysts and EA leadership and will no longer be issuing forward-looking financial guidance. The choice is attributed to EA’s pending $55 billion deal to be taken private by investors including the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and Silver Lake Group, which was announced Sept. 29 and is on track to be completed by next spring, subject to closing conditions. Along with its latest hit release, “Battlefield 6,” EA’s current catalog of titles includes “EA Sports FC” (rebranded from “FIFA”), “Apex Legends,” “The Sims,” “EA Sports,” “Skate,” “Madden NFL,” “EA Sports College Football,” “Need for Speed,” “Dragon Age,” “Titanfall,” “Plants vs. Zombies” and “EA Sports F1,” among others. According to EA, wins from the latest quarter, which marked EA’s second quarter of its fiscal 2026, included: “Madden NFL 26” fueling year-over-year net bookings growth, “Apex Legends” returning to double digit sales growth, and an increase in “EA Sports FC 26 HD” net bookings compared to last year’s title, “after adjusting for differences in deluxe edition content timing.” Wall Street forecast earnings per share (EPS) of 35 cents on $1.87 billion in revenue for the quarter, according to analyst consensus data provided by LSEG. EA reported non-GAAP diluted EPS of 54 cents on $1.82 billion in net bookings ($1.84 billion in revenue). That net bookings figure was down 13% from the $2.1 billion in net bookings EA posted from July-September 2024, which EA attributes to especially strong sales for “College Football 25” at that time. EA had itself projected net bookings between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion for the latest quarter, and diluted EPS between 29 cents and 46 cents. Net income for the quarter stood at $137 million, overshooting EA’s projection between $73 million and $117 million. “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,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in a letter to shareholders accompanying the results. “The creativity, passion, and innovation of our teams are at the heart of everything we do.”
