EA rolling in the dough...

It's just too bad they didn't invest some of this money into better quality assurance people for NBA Live 07.

Source: www.marketwatch.com (direct linking doesn't work due to their funky URL)

Electronic Arts shares surge on results, forecast
Company tops estimates with 16% sales rise; football titles strong

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Electronic Arts Inc.shares surged as much as 11% Friday after the No. 1 publisher of video game software reported results that topped expectations and raised its full-year sales and profit forecast. rose as high as $59.49 after the company said late Thursday that sales in its latest quarter rose 16% to $784 million, well above the $673 million expected by analysts, helped by strong demand for the latest versions of EA's popular football game titles.

The company said its Madden NFL '07 and NCAA Football '07 saw record sales, with the former selling five million titles in five weeks. Electronic Arts and other game firms are gearing up for the launch of Sony Corp.'s new hardware, the PlayStation 3, set to debut this month about a year after its chief competitor, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp. The video game industry suffered through a downturn beginning late last year as consumers delayed purchases awaiting the Xbox 360 and, more recently, products from Sony and Nintendo. The launch of a new generation of game consoles, as has happened during the last 12 months, usually leads to sales growth for video publishers.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based firm raised its full-year sales forecast to a range of $2.95 billion to $3.125 billion, up from a prior forecast range of $2.8 billion to $3 billion. EA also said it would earn up to 15 cents a share for the year, including stock option expenses. Previously, it expected to do no better than break-even per share on that basis. EA reported net income for its fiscal second quarter ended September 30 fell 57% to $22 million, or 7 cents a share, from $51 million, or 16 cents, a year earlier. This year's results included $33 million in option costs.

They got lucky with football and consoles.

the sig that mr.cyanide has says it all. i gave up on Lives after the 06 season. they could have taken the interface in live 2000 and improve on it (IMO it was the greatest menu interface in all of the series) yet they gave us rush products throught the next year.