2 million sold, 1.7 million subscribed - EA's Q3 FY12 report

[Courierrawr]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ele...lts-2012-02-01

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Feb 01, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- --Highest Operating Cash Flow in 31 Quarters

--More Than $1 Billion in Non-GAAP Digital Revenue in Calendar Year 2011

--Battlefield 3 and FIFA 12 Each Sells-Through Over 10 Million Units

--Origin Generates $100 Million in Calendar Year 2011

--Star Wars: The Old Republic Has More Than 1.7 Million Active Subscribers

Electronic Arts Inc. EA -2.39% today announced preliminary financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011.

"We are pleased to report a strong holiday quarter driven by Battlefield 3, FIFA12 and a strong showing by our digital games and services," said Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello. "Star Wars: The Old Republic is developing a committed community of players with more than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing."

"We recorded our highest operating cash flow in 31 quarters and grew segment share in both Europe and North America," said Eric Brown, Chief Financial Officer. "Third quarter non-GAAP digital revenue grew 79% year-over year, and we achieved our goal of generating over $1 billion in non-GAAP digital revenue on a trailing-twelve-month basis."

Glad to see the game kept nearly 90% of it's buyers.

[Glorious Leader]

Good news. That's a fairly strong retention rate for the moment.

[Quenden]

Awesome! The community is in a good place right now - I hope it only grows from here.

[Beazy]

Im kind of shocked to see that only 1.7 mil have subed. My server (The Deadweight) is packed nightly. Even in open planets like Hoth, you are never alone. I was thinking 3+ mil.

I remember WAR retained a million or so subs after release, and it simply felt dead with that many people. WAR didnt lose subs untill about 3 months into the fray, and only from about 5pm to 11pm did the servers feel full. In SWTOR, I was playing at 12am last night before bed and there were like 20 people on Hoth spamming for heroic missions.

[jearle]

Huge fan of the game, don't get me wrong.

But there is no way in hell that they retained 90% of the subs from purchases.

Guarantee this is data from before the free 30 days ran out.

Just being realistic here. I want the game to be successful like any other person who plays.

[Glorious Leader]

Huge fan of the game, don't get me wrong.

But there is no way in hell that they retained 90% of the subs from purchases.

Guarantee this is data from before the free 30 days ran out.

Just being realistic here. I want the game to be successful like any other person who plays.

'

If that's the case then why make up the 90% number? Why not 95% or 85%?

[BrerBear]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ele...lts-2012-02-01



Glad to see the game kept nearly 90% of it's buyers.

Good to see that we have a baseline to track in 3 months if the numbers go up or down.

One curiosity, though. The results are for the period ending December 31, 2011.
Does this mean they had 1.7 million "subscribers" at the end of December, and, if so, what does subscriber really mean. Someone who provided a credit card on registration?

[Krooner]

It's interesting to note that the earnings outlook for Q4 (Ending March 31st 2012) is slightly lower, with:

GAAP net revenue is expected to be approximately $1.425 billion to $1.475 billion.
Non-GAAP net revenue is expected to be approximately $925 million to $975 million.

That said, there are no major titles (read FIFA and Battlefield) that are releasing Q4 (there is portal 2 however). What's most interesting is "Bioware: Star Wars: The Old Republic" is set to launch in Q3 2012, so we're expecting an expansion already I believe.

source: http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail...leaseID=644995

While I personally think the expansion (if that is the case) is a little early, I can see why that would make great marketing sense, right around the time MoP comes out which might cut into the competition.

[Deleted]

'

If that's the case then why make up the 90% number? Why not 95% or 85%?

Well, taking from a sample size of my friends, roughly 50 purchased the game and about 20 is currently subscribed, I also call bullshit on 90%.

Either sales were higher or subs are lower.

[Blizark]

When were these numbers taken? A lot of people would have been on their free month until very recently.

[Quenden]

Huge fan of the game, don't get me wrong.

But there is no way in hell that they retained 90% of the subs from purchases.

Guarantee this is data from before the free 30 days ran out.

Just being realistic here. I want the game to be successful like any other person who plays.

There's gotta be some truth here - you can't exactly lie to your stockholders with no consequence. EA is not that dumb. XD

[Glorious Leader]

Well, taking from a sample size of my friends, roughly 50 purchased the game and about 20 is currently subscribed, I also call bullshit on 90%.

Either sales were higher or subs are lower.

Taken from a sample size of my friends. 8/10 have continued to sub. I call fairly close on 90%

[Ghul]

Taken from a sample size of my friends. 8/10 have continued to sub. I call fairly close on 90%

sounds more like 80% to me

[Xorious]

Well, taking from a sample size of my friends, roughly 50 purchased the game and about 20 is currently subscribed, I also call bullshit on 90%.

Either sales were higher or subs are lower.

Well, taking from a sample size of my friends, roughly 10 purchased the game and about 10 is currently subscribed, I also call bullshit on 90%.

Either sales were lower or subs are higher.

[OhpUldum]

It is a bit of good news. I'll be more interested in seeing how things shape up after the one year mark though. At that point the developer should be up and running full bore with a stead stream of patches and fixes. I hope for a better fiscal performance of The Old Republic in comparison to Rift after its first year but we'll see.

[Courierrawr]

Well, taking from a sample size of my friends, roughly 50 purchased the game and about 20 is currently subscribed, I also call bullshit on 90%.

Either sales were higher or subs are lower.

That's anecdotal evidence, I also highly doubt you have 50 friends.

There is no need to be rude to fellow forum members - Cula

[jearle]

'

If that's the case then why make up the 90% number? Why not 95% or 85%?

-- Star Wars(R): The Old Republic(TM) has generated 1.7 million active subscribers and sold through more than 2 million units in a little over one month.

Should have been more specific, 85% retention rate is what this would imply. 1.7 out of 2 million purchases.

Realistically I don't see them only losing 300k subs after the free month ran out, i would guess it more in the 700k range mainly due to the FOTM people who all try every MMO and the people buying to play it like a consol game and not subbing.

[Glorious Leader]

sounds more like 80% to me

Close enough. The point was that anybody can make up fucking numbers, call it a sample size and then say BS.

[Haros]

Electronic Arts Inc. EA -1.14% today announced preliminary financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011.

Didn't this game only release a few days prior? People would have still been on their free month.

[Deleted]

Well, taking from a sample size of my friends, roughly 50 purchased the game and about 20 is currently subscribed, I also call bullshit on 90%.

Either sales were higher or subs are lower.

Well, taking from a sample size of my friends, roughly 30 purchased the game and about 30 are currently subscribed.

Different strokes for different folks.