The video game company Electronic Arts (EA) saw its shares drop after hours on Wednesday after it slashed its outlook for the months ahead.
It was on January 22 when the company announced preliminary results for the third fiscal quarter.
In its initial guidance for the fiscal year 2025, EA expected mid-single-digit growth in live services net bookings, but the company now projects a mid-single-digit decline.
The gaming business, which is known for EA FC, The Sims, and several more, said Global Football is accounting for the majority of the change.
While this category has experienced two consecutive fiscal years of double-digital net bookings growth, the franchise has experienced a slowdown with early momentum in the third quarter not sustaining through to the end.
EA references Global Football for change in stats, as well as Dragon Age
“As a result, EA revises its outlook for Global Football to end the fiscal year down mid-single-digit at the midpoint of the new outlook.
“Separately, Dragon Age engaged approximately 1.5 million players during the quarter, down nearly 50% from the company’s expectations,” the company reported.
With the new statistics, EA is now changing its expectations.“EA is providing preliminary results for its third fiscal quarter and updating its fiscal year 2025 net bookings outlook.
“It now expects net bookings of approximately $2.215 billion for the third fiscal quarter and an updated range of $7.000 billion to $7.150 billion for fiscal year 2025.”
The full results for the third fiscal quarter will be announced during a conference call on February 4, with the financial outlook also to be spoken about.
“During Q3, we continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio; however, Dragon Age and EA SPORTS FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectations,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA.
“This month, our teams delivered a comprehensive gameplay refresh in addition to our annual Team of the Year update in FC 25; positive player feedback and early results are encouraging.
“We remain confident in our long-term strategy and expect a return to growth in FY26, as we execute against our pipeline.”
“We continue to balance investment for future growth with operational discipline, and remain committed to EA’s long-term financial framework,” said Stuart Canfield, CFO of EA. “As we look to FY26, we expect to grow as we launch more of our iconic franchises.”
Featured Image: Credit to Electronic Arts blog ‘The all new EA app for Windows’