Global soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo announced as the cover player for EA's FIFA 18.
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EA’s live services drive strong earnings in a quarter with no big releases

Blockbuster video game publisher Electronic Arts didn’t have much happening in its fourth fiscal quarter, other than the launch of the relatively small independent co-op title A Way Out. But EA had a relatively strong earnings result, thanks to the strength of ongoing live services for games such as FIFA 18 (and its Ultimate Team game) and Madden NFL 18.

Some worried that games such as Fortnite, which has become the world’s most popular game in the battle royale genre, could threaten EA’s revenues. But analyst Colin Sebastian of Baird Equity Research said that such fears were “likely overblown,” and EA sees Epic’s barnburner bringing in more players to Battlefield.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.