EA slashes losses with strong Q4

Publisher EA has reported an annual loss for its last financial year of $276m – that’s a 59 per cent improvement on the $677m lost in the year before.

Revenue reached $3.59bn, which is slightly down on last year’s $3.65bn. However, Q4 was strong with revenues up over 400 per cent at $151m. Revenue for the quarter rose from $979m to $1.09bn.

There were strong gains in EA’s digital division which grew revenue 42 per cent to $211m though packaged goods increased by just five per cent. Distribution and EA Partners revenue was flat.

iOS revenues, buoyed by several key acquisitions, soared by over 100 per cent in Q4 while overall mobile revenue jumped from $55m to $70m year-on-year. Active monthly users of EA’s social games fell by around 30 per cent, however, to 36m.

Q4 saw seven 1m+ unit sellers for the company with both Crysis 2 and Dead Space 2 breaking the 2m unit sales barrier. FIFA 11 has shipped 12m units since its release last year while Battlefield: Bad Company 2 shipments have passed 7m. Madden NFL 11, Medal of Honor and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit have all shipped over 5m copies.

EA added that Battlefield 3 pre-orders are tracking around 700 per cent ahead of Bad Company 2.