EA Makes Three-Year Growth Plan, Quits Quarterly Guidance

During its call to investors, Electronic Arts said that it will no longer provide quarterly estimates of its financial guidance. Why?

The company said that in the event it has to delay titles to benefit their long-term quality, it'd take a big hit on the quarter that wouldn't necessarily be indicative of an annual loss. Moving away from a quarterly guidance model is a method by which companies can keep their stock from slumping on short-term problems.

The decision's likely due to some volatility EA saw during the year thanks to delays such as Mass Effect PC's push-back that don't actually indicate financial losses — it just means the company makes money in a different quarter than it may have planned. Shifting to an annual guidance model may allow the company more flexibility as risk levels rise in the burgeoning video game industry.

EA did not, however, note any specific plans to delay any upcoming titles. Executives explained their decision:

EA's Riccitiello Still Sees PC Opportunities

On EA's financial call to investors, CEO John Riccitiello said the company's still bullish on opportunities in the PC gaming market—the publisher said it plans to ship 30 PC platform titles in fiscal 09, the same number it has scheduled for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 during the period.

"Were it not for The Sims and the WoW box sales, it'd be a pretty dismal sector," said Riccitiello, responding to an investor who inquired about "soft" PC retail sales. "The fastest growing [sector] is subscription, microtransactions-based and casual games, many of which are pretty much centered on the PC. One of the things we try to look at at EA is the total business represented on PC game software, and we're seeing a growth in business there. It's been growing for several years... it's categorized wrongly by looking simply at the box side of the equation."