Electronic Arts "will push stronger into competitive gaming, building on what it considers a successful year, during which it hosted thousands of competitions in some of the industry's more popular sports franchises," including "Madden NFL" and "FIFA." In an earnings call on the company's Q4 and FY '16 results, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said, "This is the future of play that we see at EA, and we are ready to lead in reporting" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 5/10). EA posted record revenue of $4.9B in FY '16, "once adjusted for items like deferred sales from online games" (WSJ.com, 5/9).
The company is not "planning to release any games between now and June 30," when its Q1 ends. But Q2 will be "very busy," for the "first time in two years, there will be four EA Sports titles launching" during that window. "NBA Live 18" will be the "first entry in the franchise" since "NBA Live 16." Meanwhile, EA "appears to be on a two-year cycle with its UFC franchise" (POLYGON.com, 5/9). In pre-market trading, shares of EA were up 7.8% to $103.50 (THE DAILY).
