Electronic Arts makes billion-dollar loss

By Ellie Gibson Published 6 May, 2009

Publisher suffers as capitalism crumbles.

Electronic Arts has published its year-end financial results, revealing it made net revenue of USD 4.2 billion dollars (GBP 2.8 billion / EUR 3.2 billion).

That's up by 15 per cent compared to the previous year, but EA also made a net loss of USD 1.1 billion. Crumbs. They only lost USD 454 million last year.

In the last quarter alone EA racked up net revenues of USD 860 million, compared to USD 1.13 billion during the same period last year. The big sellers were Skate 2, Rock Band, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Left 4 Dead and Need for Speed Undercover.

Silver-haired CEO John Riccitiello laughs in the face of global economic meltdown. "EA's strong cost actions in Q4 FY09 together with our investments in our digital service businesses will set us up for a stronger FY10," he said, tossing his platinum mane like a unicorn prancing through sunlit meadows on a midsummer's day.

"EA is well positioned with the right strategies in a growing industry," he added.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • cawley1 #1 3 years ago

    Bring back franchises like Archon, the Immortal and other 80's classics, and they will get some money out of me to fill the black hole.

  • bad09 #2 3 years ago

    L4D? Am I missing something?

    Anyway it's sad they lost money EA have turned a corner IMO and are a force for good in terms of games again.

    With DLC on the other on hand, they are slowly becoming the devil along with antichrist Capcom....

    EDIT - Oh forgot to say Whitehead was WRONG! (sorry, with all the MMO fanbeards going mad I thought I'd join it!)
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 08:54

  • optimusprym8 #3 3 years ago

    well getting into bed with Apple will sort out the evil empire

  • Dizzy #4 3 years ago

    L4D did great.... 2M on 360 and who knows how much on PC at the moment. Awesome game... and Valve will be VERY happy with that.

  • metalangel #5 3 years ago

    Maybe he should sell actual unicorns? My missus would love one... so long as it's not tempermental like the one in Oblivion. I couldn't deal with it running into the kitchen and kicking me every time I pick up a knife to chop up some veg for dinner.

  • lambtron #6 3 years ago

    "well getting into bed with Apple will sort out the evil empire"

    You mean Apple will become less evil? ;)

  • Beek4257 #7 3 years ago

    I'll just admit it: I have absolutely no idea what this money stuff means. Net loss/revenue ... whatever.

  • Rodchenko #8 3 years ago

    I'll just admit it: I have absolutely no idea what this money stuff means. Net loss/revenue ... whatever.

    Usually it means making a considerable loss look like a stellar achievement.

  • ChaK #9 3 years ago

    if their digital distribution idea sucks as much as the current EA store then we're doomed

  • 3william56 #10 3 years ago

    Hurrah! Now maybe they won't waste so much money on cr*p american sports star endorsements and movie rights, and oh, I dunno, spend the money on decent scripts and stuff (/glares balefully at Mirror's Edge).

  • AphoticCosmos #11 3 years ago

    So EA finally makes some good games, logical decisions [DRM de-activation tools] and isn't anywhere near as big of a corporate douche as it was for the last five or six years and BLAM makes a billion dollar loss?

    I guess this is a lesson to us all - to be successful you have to make shit games.

  • Darren #12 3 years ago

    I've just realised that I didn't buy or play any of EA's top sellers because none of them interested me. Two of those got terrible reviews across the board (NfS Undercover and LotR Conquest). However, Mirror's Edge, Crysis: Warhead and Dead Space (all on the PC) are nice games but none of those are mentioned there. Kind of depressing really because I'd love to play sequels to at least two of those games but if they failed to sell well then that may not happen.

    And what happened to the EA Sports range... don't they sell very well these days then?

  • mexalen #13 3 years ago

    sounds like Ellie has some plans for some Riccitello fan-fiction

  • Entity #14 3 years ago

    "With DLC on the other on hand, they are slowly becoming the devil along with antichrist Capcom.... "

    bad09 meet Media Molecule, Media Molecule meet bad09~

  • MattyD #15 3 years ago

    RE: L4D

    EA had nothing to do with the development or publishing of the game on either platform, they simply distributed the 360 retail copies. I'm not sure about the PC disc.

    The obvious reason for those losses is the silly amounts of cash they pay to keep hold of the various sports licenses every year. The license owners know EA can't afford to let them go so they can charge whatever they like.

  • Burkey123 #16 3 years ago

    Mirrors Edge was a good game even if it was VERY frustrating. I'd like a sequel. Hope it still happens.

  • ronuds #17 3 years ago

    EA makes a few good games out of a thousand and everyone's stunned they did poorly?

    I don't think people settle for crap like they used to. Except for Wii owners, of course. The problem with the Wii is that unless your name is Nintendo, you don't make money. :p

  • Lamb #18 3 years ago

    That'll teach them to make a new sports game every year.