Electronic Arts
The video game giant's third quarter saw a 47% increase in GAAP digital sales, while packaged goods declined by 9% and EA nearly eradicated its distribution deals for other people's games.
Distribution titles in fiscal year 2011 consist of two Rock Band titles from Viacom
The future is clearly digital, and based almost entirely on projects controlled by the studio from mop-top to snakeskin boots.
Since a lot of the digital sales are structured as subscriptions and accounted for on a six-month schedule, GAAP results look weak. Add those deferred revenues back in, and discount one-time restructuring charges, and EA made a tidy $0.59 net profit per share in the holiday quarter.
Most of the deferred sales come from the Microsoft
It's about time that somebody hit EA with a digital cluebat. Widespread broadband access combined with the attractive distribution costs (read: nearly none) in a digital distribution model make this the obvious -- and maybe only -- way forward.
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