EA to Release Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2012 Results on May 7, 2012

No, you provided information that failed to support any of your claims.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

lol jking. I think we will pull out with +1,7 million

It's pretty sad that this whole trend of watching financial reports and stocks IF YOU'RE A GAMER started last year. 99% of you don't even understand them let alone have a reason to care about them.

I can stick my fingers in my ears and go "lalalalala" too!

An active sub is an active sub whether it's the 30 days free with purchase or the 30 days free for having a lvl 50. Either way you had to have thrown down money to get it.

This doesn't affect me.

*goes back to my own life*

I know you can. You've been doing it for the past couple of pages at least.

You provided evidence that demonstrates Bioware includes new accounts still within the first free month when determining their total number of active subscribers. That is the only thing you have provided.

I agree with you and this is exactly what they should do. BioWare has no way of predicting when someone who has canceled a sub will start playing again. Nor can they predict when someone is going to cancel in the future or start playing in the future. The subcription numbers provided at the earnings call is a historical number: It is not forward looking. It should include all players who were contributing revenue, through game purchases or paid subscriptions, at the end of the period of performance. This is a straightforward measurement, leaves no room for ambiguity, and is the de facto standard for the industry.

Said evidence is used to establish a behavior. Here's a hypothetical, and my last attempt at helping you to understand this before I go to bed:

One player has 29 days left on her account; she recently joined the game, but has decided to wait it out before deciding to sign up for a recurring subscription plan (she "cancelled" right after signing up). She's currently playing on free time, and despite having her card information on file, she will not make a decision about subscribing until there's 2 days left on the account.

A different player has 29 days left on his account; he just finished cancelling his subscription and has no desire or intent to return either in the 29 days remaining or afterward. He won't be back, even when BioWare hands him 30 days for free (see Stephen Reid's comments about who qualifies).

Another player has 29 days left on his account; he's currently signed up for a recurring monthly subscription. He's gung-ho and plans to be here for a while.

What's the difference between these three players for BioWare? I'll give you a hint: there is no difference. They're all "subscribers" simply because they have time left on their accounts.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but can you cite some examples of other companies doing this?