Electronic Arts said today that revenue growth in social games is slowing down but mobile games are picking up.
EA, one of the world’s largest game publishers, is facing a big shift from retail sales to digital sales. Chief operating officer Peter Moore said in an earnings call with analysts that EA’s diverse line-up of games would help offset any changes in any one sector. That trend appears to reflect what’s happening in the broader industry as Facebook’s growth slows but mobile iOS and Android devices take off.
Moore said that the company will ship nine social and mobile titles in the second fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30, compared to seven released in the previous quarter. He commented that the launch of SimCity Social was successful — the game has more than 16 million monthly active users on Facebook, according to AppData. He likened the positive response to the release of another Facebook game, The Sims Social, reflecting that EA “made $50 million on that since last year.”
Mobile and social games are part of EA’s digital strategy, which generated about $1.3 billion in trailing 12-month revenues. EA’s mobile revenue was $69 million in the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, up 21 percent from a year ago.
Frank Gibeau, another top EA executive, said that the vast majority of the company’s mobile business is on iOS and Android.
“The growth rates are high,” he said. “However, we are approaching devices from Amazon and Microsoft in an opportunistic manner. We are definitely working on ideas there.”