Losses slashed at EA

EA has announced a loss of $201m for the quarter ending September 30th 2010 – that’s nearly half the $391m loss the publisher reported in the same period in 2009.

The company now claims to be the No.1 publisher on HD platforms (PS3 and Xbox 360) with a total market share of 25 per cent so far in 2010. At this stage last year that number was just 23 per cent.

It was also the leading Apple App Store publisher in the period.

The PS3 was the firm’s leading light, with sales up seven per cent year-on-year. Sony’s console now accounts for 34 per cent of EA’s total sales. Xbox 360 game sales climbed one per cent, meaning the console won a 30 per cent share of EA’s total.

However, Wii software sales nose-dived by an astonishing 82 per cent, leaving Nintendo’s machine accounting for just six per cent of EA’s output. PS2 still accounts for three percent, ahead of PSP’s two per cent. The DS claimed just one per cent and mobile gaming six per cent.

Another big winner was digital, which EA says now represents 30 per cent of the entire games sector. Digital sales stood second only to PS3 in EA’s quarterly numbers, claiming 30 per cent.

We had another strong quarter, beating expectations both top and bottom line,” EA CEO John Riccitiello stated. We credit our results to blockbusters like FIFA 11 and to innovative digital offerings like The Sims 3 Ambitions and Madden NFL 11 on the iPad.”