Visitors interact with England midfielder Jude Bellingham at the Electronic Arts booth during the media day of Gamescom in Cologne, western Germany, August 21, 2024. Jude Bellingham) played the game “EA Sports FC 25” in front of the sign.
Ina Fassbender | AFP | Getty Images
Electronic Arts On Wednesday, the company slashed its full-year booking guidance, blaming underperforming games, particularly its soccer franchise EA Sports FC. The stock fell 7% in after-hours trading.
EA said it expects net bookings for the fiscal third quarter ending Dec. 31 to be approximately $2.215 billion, compared with previous guidance of $2.4 billion to $2.55 billion.
The company said in a statement that it had revenue of approximately $1.88 billion in the December quarter and diluted earnings per share of $1.11.
EA said net bookings for the full fiscal year ending March 31 will be between $7 billion and $7.15 billion, down from previous guidance of $7.5 billion to $7.8 billion. Net bookings include physical game sales as well as online gaming revenue, EA said.
The warning reveals a weakness in the most famous football video game series since 1993.
The company also said that Dragon Age is a role-playing game for Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox had 1.5 million players during the quarter, nearly 50% below the company’s expectations.
“In the third quarter, we continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in a statement. “However, net bookings for Dragon Age and EA SPORTS FC 25 were below our expectations.”
EA said that while net bookings for its football franchise, known as Global Football, had enjoyed double-digit growth for two consecutive years, they began to slow in the December quarter. The company said it expected global football sales to decline year-on-year and said bookings for online sales or in-person services would also decline in fiscal 2025.
EA said that it recently updated FC 25, adding new content, improved gameplay and the annual “Team of the Year” update, and said it has been well received by players.
The warning comes weeks before EA is scheduled to release third-quarter earnings on February 4.
