The name of the game in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 was “live services” once again for Electronic Arts, but full net bookings also saw a significant jump for the publisher in the three months ending June 30, 2020 , probably largely due to COVID-19 related crashes.
With two game releases in the last quarter compared to none in the first quarter of the previous year: Command & Conquer Remastered and Burnout Paradise Remastered, EA saw a sizable jump in live and full-service net bookings, possibly also helped by the Almost 30 of the publisher titles released on Steam throughout the quarter.
EA also announced that The Sims 4 has reached over 30 million players on all platforms since its launch.
Net revenue from full games in the first quarter was $ 359 million, an increase of 37% year-over-year, while net revenue from live services was $ 1.1 billion, an increase of 16%, totaling $ 1.46 thousand million in net income for the quarter, an increase of 21% year-over-year. more than a year
EA’s net income reached $ 356 million, dramatically below $ 1.42 billion in the same quarter last year.
However, that much lower net income is related to some unique tax events that occurred in the first quarter of last year. One involved a court decision by the United States regarding share-based compensation expenses that required EA to post a tax buildup.
The other was because EA transferred some of its intellectual property rights to a Swiss subsidiary at around the same time that a Swiss referendum modified income tax rates, allowing the company to make an income tax benefit. of about $ 1.7 billion in that year alone.
EA’s net reserves in the last quarter reached $ 1.39 billion, compared to $ 782 million year-over-year largely due to 98% year-over-year growth in net console reserves, which only contributed $ 824 million of the total.
Broken down differently, full game net bookings increased 202% yoy to $ 287 million, and net live service bookings rose 61% to $ 1.1 billion.
Looking ahead to the next quarter, EA has narrowed its outlook due to lower live service expectations for Madden NFL 21, as well as the later-than-usual FIFA 21 release date of October 9, taking it to the third quarter.
For the second quarter, EA expects net income to be $ 1.13 billion, net income of $ 61 million, and net reserves of $ 875 million, a decrease of $ 525 million from the original forecast.
However, EA has increased its forecast for net reserves in the third quarter by $ 450 million and in the fourth quarter by $ 85 million.
For the full year, EA has slightly increased its forecast for net income from $ 5.5 billion to $ 5.63 billion, as well as its forecast for net reserves from $ 5.5 billion to $ 5.95 billion.
However, it has slightly reduced its net income projections from $ 978 million to $ 869 million.
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