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FIFA and Battlefield are EA's most profitable franchises

Online features and content downloads have made FIFA and Battlefield the two biggest revenue "events" in EA's history; EA's digital revenue up 40 percent year-on-year.

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EA has revealed that its digital revenue has grown by 40 percent in its second fiscal quarter since the same period last year, thanks in large part to the content downloads offered for FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13, and Battlefield 3.

EA has high hopes for its FIFA and Battlefield franchises.
EA has high hopes for its FIFA and Battlefield franchises.

This week, the publisher posted its preliminary financial results for the second fiscal quarter ending September 30, 2012, in which EA president Frank Gibeau highlighted the company's strong digital growth and pointed to FIFA and Battlefield as EA's most profitable franchises.

"On the strength of our digital extensions, FIFA and Battlefield are the two biggest revenue events in our company's history," Gibeau said. "Both are well on their way to becoming billion dollar annual franchises."

The publisher also praised the performance of its sports titles, with EA CFO Blake Jorgensen revealing that the company is forecasting an annual growth of at least 25 percent with net revenues expected to reach approximately $4 billion by March 31, 2013.

According to the report, FIFA 13 and Madden NFL 13 debuted as the two top-selling titles in September in the West. In its first four weeks, FIFA 13 sold 7.4 million units, excluding mobile downloads, a number that EA said makes the title "the biggest sports launch of all time." FIFA's digital revenue also generated over $115 million in the first half of fiscal 2013, including FIFA Online 2 and FIFA World Class Soccer.

EA's Battlefield 3 Premium service has sold over 2 million subscriptions to date, according to the publisher, and in the mobile space, The Simpsons: Tapped Out has reportedly become the top-grossing iOS game for the past four weeks, logging 2.8 million daily active users.

Other parts of the report revealed that EA's games and services for mobile have generated a 60 percent year-over-year increase in digital net revenue, while EA's Origin platform has registered over 30 million users, including 13 million mobile users. EA also revealed that Origin has signed agreements with 71 independent developers.

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megaspiderweb09

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FIFA13 has a game breaking Career Mode glitch that has not been fixed. Its a shame

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crushbrain

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So when is EA finally going to give up pretending they are a blockbuster games publisher and sell themselves to Zynga?

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botsio

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each of EA's IP should be given a level playing ground!don't hype 2 over the others if u want to succeeed!

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TTDog

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Edited By TTDog

@tightwad34 Screw you guy... I'm going home.

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Dirty_Window

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And in other surprising news, If you're not alive you're dead and oxygen: you need it.

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deactivated-5d4ea9243f8e0

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and if they would stick to producing real quality games and stop mutilating them with the multi player disease they could be making a lot more money. bring back real genre games instead of mishmash mediocre button mashers...my dream for the future gamers. hope it will come true for you!

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grasshopper6

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Edited By grasshopper6

FIFA the movements and play look the same as when they started the game on PS1 just improved graphics

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tightwad34

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@TTDog

Do you like fishsticks? Do you like to put them in your mouth?

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Anto_212

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My Top EA GameNot Battlefield, Not FIFA Its DEADSPACE! Thank you Visceral Games

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godzillavskong

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Well it seemed like Madden took a step backwards this year. They put out that crap engine, Infinity Engine, which is a utter joke. Now you can't even run into your lineman without crumbling like a lawn chair. Its very funny watching the players trip over each other after each play. I wish they would release a patch for it. I think EA just markets the heck out of Madden before release, claims it's new and improved, then goes back to doing nothing innovative. I love BF3 on the other hand. I think Dice is the best devs EA has. Between them and Bioware. Now get those 2K guys back in the NFL game mix. I think they were called Visual Concepts. I'm sure they aren't with the same teams anymore, but it would be nice if EA hired a few of them to show them how to make a real football game.

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bluebird08

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battlefield 3 sold so much cause the games online multiplayer is so freaking good, as long as EA does not RUSH any future battlefield games, im fine.

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halo117xbox

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@bluebird08 i know i feel the same! hopefully they wait atleast 2 more years till BF4 and hopefully they wait to make it on Next Gen Consoles!

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bluebird08

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@halo117xbox dice told me on twitter that BF4 is gonna be on PS3 and xbox 360, so the next gen console thing is already out the window, but BFBC3 should be on next gen.

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deactivated-5f185bc9386ef

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@halo117xbox At the earliest, it may be out by late 2013, but who knows, it could also be early 2014 depending on how their overall progress turns out. Just because we (or rather, the 2 people who bought Warfighter) have BF4 beta keys doesn't mean the beta will come out this year or anything.

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halo117xbox

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Edited By halo117xbox

@bluebird08 wtf are you serious?? -_- wow EA are stupid ass mo'fos!! they should have just waited! we dont need a new BF anytime soon!

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SavageEvil

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That sounds like a misspoken comment there, that whole both are well on their way to becoming billion dollar franchises. I do believe that he meant on FiFA in that respect, as DICE can in no way build BF games in a single year and not compromise the integrity of the entire product. BF3 is an awesome game, while it still has some problems here and there, I play that over any other FPS period.

DLC for BF3 has been pretty good too, offering modes, maps and weapons...seriously what more can you ask for for your buck?

I don't play FiFA but I heard it's damn good, but I suck at playing footy games...I am pretty much against annual updates of sport games because honestly, it's freaking sports the most that changes are player stats and sometimes which team the player is playing for, things that can be changed via DLC. This is why I haven't bought a blasted sport game since NBA Courtside on GC, all the others are just cash ins, yearly releases for $60...madness. Just update the bloody roster and I will play the game with the same mechanics. Games having this one year disposability is a bad thing, not much you getting if a new one comes out each year and everyone scrambles to get that one leaving last years sitting there with no one to play. GS fix your crappy spell checker "disposability" is a damn English word, switch to google or something to find correct spelling.

Let's just hope BF doesn't quite end up as a yearly thing, I would be upset at having to buy a new game a year after I bought the last one I want a year + out of my games. EA don't get greedy, just let DICE do with BF as they have, a title once every two years is great, allowing the team to capitalize and also work on new features to enhance the gameplay. Once it goes yearly we will have CoD formula, cut paste, change the colors and visual settings, print and sell. Do that I will promptly have to cut back on their games as well.

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PlatinumPaladin

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So despite whoring out their biggest selling games with DLC (the mother of all money-spinners), EA are still losing $381 million? What the hell do they spend it all on? I really don't understand the business world (and yet have little desire to).

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godzillavskong

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@PlatinumPaladin While they say it's a loss it really isn't. They're comparing it to year over year sales I believe. So if they made a hefty amount more at the same time last year, and don't come close to that this year, it would be considered a loss. I bet they still profited a bunch. Lets say last year they made 681 million year to date revenue, then this same time this year they only made 300 million, hence the 381 loss. Something like that .

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PlatinumPaladin

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@godzillavskong Cheers for the explanation. That actually makes sense to me, but strikes me as a real 'glass half empty' way of looking at things. Those bean counters really are a miserable bunch if that's what they take away from making hundreds of millions.

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dnguyen3

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Edited By dnguyen3

well i do like my FIFA and Battlefield, hope they keep up the good work (for these two games that is)

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cephas90

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Of course Battlefield is the most profitable, they whored the **** out of that game.

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GreyViper

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Does not bode well for Bioware.

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BestJinjo

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One day an all a new generation of gamers will be born, who once again will desire a sense of adventure & discovery, learning and thinking in videogames. These developers will not know how to make such games as for nearly a decade or more they were too busy making the same style games over and over because it worked. Not pointing the blame on Fifa as it's expected to be an annual release but all these shooters like BF, COD and MOH are becoming like the superhero movies in Hollywood. All style and no substance, catering primarily to those who just want to shoot and kill things. If videogames become focused entirely around multi-player gaming, which is where the industry is heading, videogames will no longer be art.

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PlatinumPaladin

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@BestJinjo Oh come on now, not all of the superhero movies are all style and no substance. They might not be fathoms deep, but at least they're not Resident Evil or Transformers. Frankly I'm surprised, with FIFA's recent dominance of PES, that they haven't just fallen into releasing an update package each year with new kits and players.

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nurnberg

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No word about the financial numbers? Did EA make profits or not? What shoddy reporting!

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rextrio

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Edited By rextrio

C&C Generals 2 would be profitable if EA let it

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ghostman961

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EA deserves it and plus that battlefield is an awsome fps.

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cirugo

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I have an Origin account. The only thing I use it for is to comment on how disastrous I think that the direction they are taking the new SimCIty is on their forums.

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Vorheez

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Skate.....oh how I wish skate was still living......**** EA

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another_drew

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http://tinyurl.com/7com85x

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SandRunneR

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Edited By SandRunneR

Especially FIFA, since they only spend money to renew licences... The games usually stay the same. Although, I must admit, they're not bad games.

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hellangel_boy

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Edited By hellangel_boy

I think the title should be: FIFA and Battlefield are EA's most milked franchises.

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Aria1368

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@hellangel_boy Why Battlefield is the most milked franchise ?! as i remember DICE have always made a game once in every two year!!

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hellangel_boy

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@Aria1368 Right, but it'll be milked. "Both are well on their way to becoming billion dollar annual franchises." That's the proof . I have BF3 on PS3 I don't like it much but it's not a bad game. I think when MOH fails, EA will make DICE work on BF every year.

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Aria1368

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@hellangel_boy Sure it sounds scary, but naah!!! i don think DICE will jeopardise it's core values and quality for this... From the first everyone including EA knew that MoH:W can't perform half as good as BF, i mean it's very obvious. DICE is like the greatest Multiplayer game maker, it's success comes as no surprise... so it was obvious, if EA wanted to do that, they'd have done it already ... i don think that will happend, and the statement about billion dollar annual... i don think they meant BF will actually be an annual game... unless they exactly double the number of DICE devs, everything and every position become double!!! similar to IW n 3arc, which i believe it's highly unlikely, since Battlefield franchise's core brains can't be duplicated.

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TTDog

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@Venatorcruiser: Consider yourself lucky then that I didn't drop the bomb about what Fish do in the Sea.

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Hurvl

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As a Swedish person I like that Battlefield is important to EA and that it's doing so well, but I don't like this: "Both are well on their way to becoming billion dollar annual franchises". It seems that they want to CoD-ify Battlefield and although I'm not a fan of military shooters, I don't consider this a good thing. Activision hasn't used all the money ii gets from CoD to launch new and interesting IP's or even anything that feels new and/or interesting. I have no reason to believe that EA would do it any differently

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TTDog

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@Venatorcruiser Apparently the Pope is also a Catholic and Bears use the woods when they need a dump.

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Sgthombre

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http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/666/_57c8a1a431a592af806925e57258202f.png

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interceptor316

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Edited By interceptor316

what about mass effect 3 it grossed over $200 million for them?

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Shmulzi

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News Report: Halo and Gears of War are the most profitable non-kinect Xbox Exclusive franchises in human history!Sources, including my neighbor, a cat and a candy wrapper all knew immediately that was true because it is the most obvious thing ever. They claim that "history" in video games is a couple dozen years long and all you really need is common sense to know who profits from where.Update: Also, we asked a 90 year old lady after telling her the basic story and she agreed - rumors seem to be true.

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deactivated-57fce817a4cf5

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So, war and sports. As always, everything else goes unappreciated.

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Mr_Big_Boss

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@Suikogaiden and ruin their profits? lol

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Aria1368

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@Mr_Big_Boss @Suikogaiden these days i noticed servers are getting better ... didn't really see any stupid rules!!!... except those x300, x400, x500 tickets GOD knows how much i hate them LOL

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b10nutz

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So maybe now they will stop theirs bull**** policy that every game should have multiplayer and only focus on games that are meant to be played in multiplayer.

PS: Just dreaming, I'm all aware that is never going to happen.

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fexpro

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I thought need for speed was the most profitable

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mastergundam

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Edited By mastergundam

yes, sadly the rest are just fails....

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