Electronic Arts has revised its outlook for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. The company cited lower-than-expected sales of two of its recent releases, EA Sports FC 25 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard (left), EA Sports FC 25 (right)
What happened?
- On January 22, EA announced that it had lowered its Q3 net bookings guidance from $2.4-2.55 billion to $2.21 billion. It also revised its revenue outlook for the three-month period ended December 31, 2024 to $1.88 billion (instead of $2.2 billion).
- When it comes to its full-year results, the company now expects to report $7-71.15 billion in net bookings, below the previous outlook of $7.5-7.8 billion.
- As a result, the publisher expects a “mid-single-digit decline” in net bookings from its live services, instead of the previously forecasted mid-single-digit growth.
- Investors have already reacted to the announcement, with Electronic Arts shares down 11.56% to $125.9 per share in post-market trading.
What caused EA to lower its financial outlook?
- Electronic Arts noted that the underperformance of its Global Football division, which includes the EA Sports FC franchise, accounted for the “majority of the change” in its net bookings guidance.
- After two consecutive fiscal years of double-digit growth, Global Football “experienced a slowdown as early momentum in the fiscal third quarter did not sustain through to the end.”
- The company didn’t disclose any figures for EA Sports FC 25, only saying that it fell short of internal expectations.
- Another reason for the lowered outlook was Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which reached around 1.5 million players in the two months from its October 31 launch to December 31. This is down nearly 50% from Electronic Arts’ expectations.
- “During Q3, we continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio; however, Dragon Age and EA Sports FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectation,” CEO Andrew Wilson said in a statement.
- He added that the company remains confident in its long-term strategy and expects a return to growth in FY26 (April 1, 2025–March 31, 2026). According to CFO Stuart Canfield, EA will launch more of its “iconic franchises” during the 12-month period to recover from the downturn.