EA Q1 2014: SWTOR Income Growth

glad to see profits happening, means my fav game stays opne awhile longer

That is good news.

Though I still feel this game needs a lot of development.

swtor is not dead, and likely will not fold this year. so, if you want to be optimistic, that's definitely something to be optimistic about.

the OP forgot to include
which is offset by what the OP did say
but they aren't talking about swtor exclusively. these are overall numbers for similar game types. so, as the OP pointed out:
they don't actually make money off f2p right? in swtor, they make money off subscriptions, cartel purchases, and expansions. maybe they make ad revenue? are there ads in-game?
also this
which means some of their growth this quarter is because they're pushing expenses into next quarter.

extra content and f2p make them money. for swtor, does that just means makeb? as they stated, their growth in this category is led by FIFA. so, that $177million does not mean swtor is wildly successful. it does seem to be contributing to this profit in a positive way though.

their profits from subscriptions and digital revenue seem to be dropping. wouldn't the cartel market be 'digital revenue?' they don't really say if they are going to refocus on improving this area or not. if they want to invest in their $177 million instead of $61 million, and push up the 35% growth instead of throwing resources at the 25% decline, then i don't think that looks good for subscribers. that means less subscriber incentives and less subscriber content. if they made money on expansions, maybe they'll start charging for patches.

also, there is this:
honestly, if that's right, i think bioware should just end the subscription option. make 'preffered' status more reasonable, come out with new gambling packs every couple weeks, and charge $20 every other month for content updates. if they're going to give up on adding value to subscriptions with actual content patches, quit the charade.

Um...that's not a guess, that's TRUE! Of course subs spend more on the cash shop, subs are the reason for the increased revenue, not F2Pers. Subs are already willing to fork out $ for this game, of course we're prone to paying for more "stuff". Subs increased the revenue, despite the drop in subscribers.

I'm glad there was a increase revenue, regardless of the source. Hopefully the increase in revenue is justification for more content and features.

so, they aren't making that much profit.

reducing support costs isn't good if you need support.
means they're pushing the (-) column into the future. they're counting revue as a (+) but not taking out the (-)
pushing the (-) out to the future.
regarding Q2 outlook
pushing (-) out.
also, this
i feel like eric has been quiet and they won't tell me why they screwed up their server transfer process so bad. come on guys, if you're want to communicate, try communicating. a cantina event that most of us are unable to attend isn't helping all that much. and cutting your online support costs isn't going to build a deeper relationship. if you want a deeper relationship with your gamers, try supporting them a bit.

and this
for swtor, they closed those servers.....

You're reading into things that regard other games and EA management in a more general sense. EA has said that they have doubled their monthly profits from SWTOR since F2P conversion, I think their profit margin is fine.

Our results also reflect the phasing of expenses out of Q1 into future quarters...

This sentence, while not surprising, is a serious cold shower.

On the other hand, the OP quote, which I can't find, say that the revenue grew by 10%. If American business language keep the same meaning to those words than the direct french translation, the revenue means ''the cash flow''. The net income, the margin, could have been improved with cost cutting measures, but not the income.

IE, if they had said ''our profits grew by 10%'', this could have meant ''we cut on maintenance''

But ''our revenues grew by 10%'' seems to mean ''our cashflow in 10% better''

Oh good, gambling packs are here to stay.