Visitors play EA Sports FC 25 in front of a banner with England midfielder Jude Bellingham at the Electronic Arts booth during the media day at the Gamescom video game trade fair in Cologne, western Germany on August 21, 2024.
Inna Fassbender | AFP | Getty Images
Electronic Arts It cut its full-year bookings guidelines on Wednesday, blaming the shortfall on underperforming games, particularly its soccer franchise, EA Sports FC. Shares fell 7% in extended trading.
For its fiscal third quarter, which ended Dec. 31, EA said it expects to report about $2.215 billion in net bookings, versus previous guidance of $2.4 billion to $2.55 billion.
Revenue in the December quarter will be about $1.88 billion, with $1.11 in diluted earnings per share, the company said in a statement.
EA said it expects net bookings for the full fiscal year, ending March 31, to be between $7 billion and $7.15 billion, below previous guidance of $7.5 billion to $7.8 billion. EA says net bookings include physical game sales as well as revenue from online games.
The warning reveals a weakness in the most prominent football video game franchise since 1993. It used to fall under the FIFA brand, but in 2022, EA's deal with FIFA ended and EA's last two football games were sold as EA Sports FC.
The company also said that Dragon Age is a role-playing game for game consoles such as Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox had 1.5 million players during the quarter, which was roughly 50% below the company's expectations.
“During the third quarter, we continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in the statement. “However, Dragon Age and EA SPORTS FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectations.”
EA said that although its soccer franchise, which it calls World Football, has seen two years of double-digit growth in net bookings, it began to see a slowdown during the December quarter. The company said it expects global soccer sales to decline year-on-year, and said bookings from online sales, or live services, will also decline in fiscal 2025. The company's soccer franchise accounts for the majority of the live services shortfall.
EA said it recently updated FC 25 with new content, improved gameplay, and an annual “Team of the Year” update, which it says has been well received by players.
This warning comes weeks before EA announces its planned third-quarter earnings on February 4.
