Visitors play the game ‘EA Sports FC 25’ in front of a poster featuring England midfielder Jude Bellingham at the Electronic Arts booth during a media day at the Gamescom video game fair in Cologne, western Germany, on August 21, 2024.
Ina Fassbender | AFP | Getty Images
Electronic Arts cut its booking guidance for the full year on Wednesday, blaming the lack of underperforming games, particularly its soccer franchise, EA Sports FC. Shares fell 7% in extended trading.
For the fiscal third quarter, which ended Dec. 31, EA said it expects to report about $2.215 billion in net bookings, up from 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, which ends 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 online game revenue.
The warning reveals a weakness in the most prominent soccer video game franchise since 1993. It used to be under the FIFA brand, but in 2022 EA’s contract with FIFA ended and the last two EA soccer games were sold as EA Sports FC.
The company also said that “Dragon Age,” a role-playing game for game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox had 1.5 million players during the quarter, below the company’s expectations by nearly 50%.
“During the third quarter, we continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in a statement. “However, Dragon Age and EA SPORTS FC 25 were below our net booking expectations.”
EA said that while its soccer franchise, which it calls Global 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 fall compared with the previous year and said bookings through online sales or live services will also decline in fiscal 2025. The company’s soccer franchise accounted for most of the lack of live services.
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.
The warning comes weeks before EA’s scheduled third-quarter earnings on Feb. 4.
