Electronic Arts has posted their Q4 Report for the 2017 Fiscal Year, and things are looking good for the publisher.
Net revenue was up for the publisher, earning $1.527 million in Q4 2017 vs $1.308 last year, an increase of 17%. Gross profit was also up by 22%, $1.355 million compared to $1.082 million last year.
Electronic Arts saw net sales and operating cash flow hit record highs for the fiscal year. This is attributed to the "ongoing digital services" and "successes in live services." according to CFO Blake Jorgensen.
Digital net sales saw a massive spike in the fiscal year, reaching $3.034 billion, which made up about 61% of their total net sales.
Notable games include Battlefield 1, which saw more than 19 million players joining the game, which was a 50% increase over Battlefield 4. FIFA 17 also saw great success, with more than 21 million players who have played the game, including 12 million who have played "The Journey" story mode.
Not everything in the report is wholly positive, however. While net revenue was up, net income was down from last year, operating at $566 million compared to $899 million, a 37% decrease.
Electronic Arts has also done some re-shuffling with their upcoming games. In a conference call, CEO Andrew Wilson discussed the future plans for several titles, notably Star Wars: Battlefront 2, which will contain three times as much content as the first title, hoping to ship more than the 14 million copies Star Wars: Battlefront did last year.
Mass Effect: Andromeda also got mentioned. Wilson stated that the aggregate scores for the title were lower than expected, but "over 100 reviewers score the game at 80 or higher. So it represents a fanbase that's very passionate, that's looking for very particular things, and many players found exactly what they're looking for, and some players did not."
Despite the rumored inside sources from Kotaku reporting that BioWare Montreal is being restructured and future Mass Effect games put on hiatus after the lukewarm reception of the title, Wilson notes that EA is happy with how BioWare is treating Mass Effect, and does have plans for the series in the future.
BioWare was also mentioned in regards to their new IP, which is code named "Dylan". The new game has been delayed, and is now expected to be released between April 2018 and March of 2019.
Wilson notes the delay has nothing to do with the reception of Andromeda.
The reality is, we have a creative process--as a company, creativity and pioneering is really important for us. Innovation in games is important more now than ever, and as a leader in the industry, we see it as our responsibility to innovate.It is currently unknown if Project Dylan will receive the rumored reveal at E3 this year.As part of our creative process--and I get to be involved in that creative process--we recognized that there was so much more opportunity in a connective, networked, social world to do some things in the new BioWare game that had never been done before, and [that] we don't think anyone is going to do anytime soon. But by virtue of our network, our cross-platform presence, and our scale, we think we can do that. And we chose to give the team some more time to deliver against that innovation because we believe players are looking for the kinds of things that we plan to put into that game.
Overall, Wilson is optimistic for the 2018 Fiscal year, with a focus on innovating for players with new experiences, growing their global network, and extending their reach across new platforms.
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