EA just released their earnings and Star Wars subs are down 25% for the quarter. This can't be a good thing. Can we get server mergers ASAP?

 

Added link

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ea-sales-beat-targets-star-wars-takes-hit-2012-05-07?siteid=yhoof2

Edited May 7, 2012 by Sabilok

link?

And this is after they launched in 38 new countries.

 

Ouch.

Link?

2 pm pst

Added the link to original post.

What is your source? Can you provide a link when you post something like this?

link?

 

http://investor.ea.com/

 

1.3 million subscribers.

 

From the Press Release

 

ELECTRONIC ARTS REPORTS

Q4 FY12 AND FY12 FINANCIAL

RESULTS

All-Time High Non-GAAP Net Revenue of $4.2 Billion in Fiscal 12

Annual Digital Non-GAAP Revenue – Up 47% to $1.2 Billion

Digital Revenue Driving Margin Expansion

Mass Effect 3 Sales Exceed $200 Million at Retail

FIFA 12 Non-GAAP Digital Revenue Tops $100 Million

REDWOOD CITY, CA – May 7, 2012 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced

preliminary financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2012.

“We are proud to report a strong quarter and a fiscal year highlighted with $1.2 billion of digital

revenue,” said Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello. “In the coming year, we break away from

the pack, with a very different profile than the traditional game companies and capabilities that

none of our new digital competitors can match.”

“Digital growth drove our margins in fiscal 12 and we project this trend will continue in fiscal 13,”

said Interim Chief Financial Officer Ken Barker. “We saw more than 20 percent non-GAAP

diluted EPS growth in fiscal 12, and are guiding to more than 30 percent growth in fiscal 13

based on the midpoint of our guidance.”

Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics:

*On a non-GAAP basis

 Strong results driven by the successful launches of Mass Effect™ 3, FIFA Street 4,

SSX™ and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning™.

 FIFA 12 established the best year in franchise history - with downloads and microtransactions totaling $108 million*. FIFA Ultimate Team – a pure digital companion to

recent FIFA titles was the second best-selling EA offering in the UK in fiscal 12.

 Battlefield 3™ had a record year, establishing itself as one of EA’s premier game

services and in the process successfully took share in the growing First-Person-Shooter

market.

 Battlefield 3 players are still deeply engaged – 6.3 million MAUs in March. New content

downloads available in May and June.

 Q4 full-game downloads were up 76 percent* year-over-year, contributing $60 million* in

the quarter, driven in part by Mass Effect 3 and STAR WARS®: The Old Republic™.

 STAR WARS®: The Old Republic™ active subscribers are 1.3 million. Two new content

packs – Legacy and Allies, available in Q1.

 EA’s Play4Free brands are generating an average of nearly $2 million* per week.

Several more EA brands will be introduced in the Play4Free portal in fiscal 13.

 EA shattered its goal for digital revenue growth – generating more than $1.2 billion* in

fiscal 12 for a 47 percent year-over-year growth, and driving operating margin to 10%.

 

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ERTS/1855233221x0x566942/0a817daf-08b4-4e2d-bc35-c00d03059369/FINAL_Earnings_Release_withPressTables_1204pm_PDF.pdf

Edited May 7, 2012 by Master-Nala

http://investor.ea.com/

 

1.3 million subscribers.

 

Dead my ***.

Well, that was early release of info...

 

I was predicting 1.5 million...not far off.

And this is after they launched in 38 new countries.

 

Ouch.

 

The 38 new countries won't be in this report since was for the last financial quater. Still 1.4m retention is better than Age of Conan, Rift and other recent MMOs that launched.

Dead my ***.

 

Exactly what I thought. John Smedley would have killed his own mother with a broken lawn chair to have 1.3 million subs in SWG's day.

Hmmm not sure what to think about this... Losing player base is bad of course but does this qualify as the initial drop off common in all MMOs or is this just too much? What do you folks think?

1.3 millions subs after launch is good, guys.

 

Not good : VERY good.

 

Of course, it's worth wondering if all those 1.3 millon actually play.

Dead my ***.

 

And this is after they launched in 38 new countries.

 

 

Edit - someone says it doesn't count. Fair enough. still down from 2.2 mil to 1.3

Edited May 7, 2012 by Frostvein

For those that don't want to read the whole article.

 

The company said sales in the recent quarter were primarily driven by the hit new release “Mass Effect 3,” as well as “FIFA Street 4,” “SSX” and “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.”

 

But “Star Wars: The Old Republic” showed signs of weakening. EA said active subscribers totaled 1.3 million at the end of the quarter — down 24% from the 1.7 million reported at the end of the December period, when the game first launched.

 

Telling?

Edited May 7, 2012 by Urael

1.3 mill active subscribers doesn't even seem like a drop to me. You have to figure alot of people cancelled as soon as their free 30 days started. Some of those will resub for sure when their free time runs out. Edited May 7, 2012 by SajmanPeetee

Hmmm not sure what to think about this... Losing player base is bad of course but does this qualify as the initial drop off common in all MMOs or is this just too much? What do you folks think?

 

Four million is a big loss, but I think that size of a retention is great and shuts down the doomsayer trolls quite strongly.

1.3 million? Not bad. Probably the only other MMO ever to stay above a million subs after a few months of release.

 

That said ... Daniel Erickson is a LIAH!!!!!

I think the way that the servers feel is a bad thing. It seems as if they intended to grow the player base with how they created new servers at launch. Such a drop off is definitely common, but for some reason I guess BioWare didn't think it could happen to them, or else there wouldn't be so many ghost town servers. I know I've been playing at the same time of day for a while now and I have seen a huge progressive drop in players on the fleets month by month.

And this is after they launched in 38 new countries.

 

38 new countries which aren't counted untill next quarter since the report counts the last 4 months and not 4 months in the future.

 

Atleast use common sense .

Dead my ***.

 

Can you blame people for feeling the game is dead? Seriously, they launched to 38 more countries, and still lose 400,000 players. If anything, this shows they still have way to many servers, which would make people feel like the SWTOR is a dying/dead game.

 

EA/Bioware needs to realize they need to get rid of servers, not offer free limited transfers and then charge for any other kind of transfer. They will keep on bleeding subscriptions if you do not fix the populations on their servers asap. I highly highly doubt they would lose as many people because they lost their characters name in a merge, then they are with not merging the servers. Bioware has lost nearly half of the people who have bought this game in 6 months, that isn't a good trend, they are bleeding subscriptions.

"The company also expects to release more expansion content for “Star Wars” this year — including two expansion packs in the current quarter."

 

Perhaps Wall Street speak for "patch 1.3 and 1.4"?

Hmmm not sure what to think about this... Losing player base is bad of course but does this qualify as the initial drop off common in all MMOs or is this just too much? What do you folks think?

 

What I think is that 1.3 million subs is still pretty amazing. SWTOR has easily recouped its development costs, and all money now goes to operation and profit.

i see this game losing a lot more subs, i guess we will wait and see, but i a not surprised, this game was not designed with true mmoers in mind