Electronic Arts' Star Wars Game Helps Lift Sales, Profit

By Sarah E. Needleman 

Electronic Arts Inc.'s latest Star Wars game helped the company deliver robust holiday-quarter results, with overall revenue and profit slightly above Wall Street's expectations.

EA said it earned $1.18 a share in its fiscal third quarter, up from 86 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue rose 24% to $1.59 billion.

On an adjusted basis EA's profit rose to $2.52 a share while net bookings climbed 23% to about $2 billion, beating analysts' expectations.

EA's "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order" made its debut in November, and the company previously forecast selling between six and eight million units of the single-player game by March 31.

Analysts are also expecting strong quarterly results for Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and Activision Blizzard Inc. based on viewership statistics from Amazon.com Inc.'s Twitch, critics' reviews and company statements about holiday-season releases. Both companies are scheduled to release their quarterly reports on Feb. 6. Take-Two faces a somewhat tougher comparison, though, because its 2018 holiday release, "Red Dead Redemption II," was a smash hit that generated opening-weekend sales of about $725 million.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2020 16:39 ET (21:39 GMT)

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