Good news for EA in Q1

Publisher EA has reported income of $96m for the financial quarter ending June 30th 2010, a vast improvement over the $234m loss in suffered in the same period in 2009.

Of interest is the fact that digital revenues were up sharply, reaching $176m. Last year that figure stood at $117m, representing a 50 per cent year-on-year increase. Packaged revenue increased from $462m to $586m, an increase of 27 per cent.

North America accounted for 49 per cent of revenues, with Europe grabbing 44 per cent and Asia just seven per cent. This represents a gain for Europe, which stood at 39 per cent last year, and comes at the expense of North America which has lost six per cent.

Xbox 360 was EA’s most lucrative platform with revenues of $262m, up from just $73m in Q1 2010. That’s a 259 per cent jump. PS3 reached $209m (up $88m, 73 per cent year-on-year) and PC hit $186m (up $62m, 50 per cent).

However, there were some quite savage declines on other consoles. Wii fell from $161m in the same period last year to just $40m, a decline of 75 per cent. DS fell from $28m to $11m, a drop of 61 per cent. PSP was down 50 per cent at 11 per cent.

EA now claims to be the number one publisher on HD consoles and PC, with market shares of 22 per cent of 33 per cent. In North America and Europe, the high definition console software market is growing strongly with the combined PS3 and Xbox 360 segments up 21 per cent calendar year-to-date. The PS3 software market is up 40 per cent calendar year-to-date,” a company statement read.

EA was also the number one publisher on the Apple App Store in the quarter and claimed nine of top ten best selling games on the iPhone 4 in June.

We had a solid first quarter, exceeding expectations both top and bottom line,” CEO John Riccitiello stated. Top quality titles like 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, innovative digital offerings for titles like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Scrabble on the Apple iPad are driving the business.”

CFO Eric Brown added: EA is well-positioned for the year ahead and reaffirms its FY11 non-GAAP guidance. Digital revenue is expected to grow approximately 30% year over year, to $750 million in the fiscal year.”