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Despite no new launches, EA Mobile sees Q1 FY16 sales rise 7% to $145 million

Squeezing the margins

Despite no new launches, EA Mobile sees Q1 FY16 sales rise 7% to $145 million

EA (NASDAQ: EA) has announced its Q1 FY16 financials, for the 3 months ending 30 June 2015.

Total sales were $1.2 billion, down 1 percent year-on-year

However, net income was $442 million, up 32 percent year-on-year.

The company ended the quarter with $1.8 billion in cash and equivalents, down 12 percent compared to the total on 31 March 2015.

Better monetisation

Breaking out EA Mobile, sales were a record $145 million, up 18 percent year-on-year and up 7 percent quarter-on-quarter.

With the exception of its UFC wrestling game, EA Mobile didn't release much during the quarter, however, suggesting that it's currently relying on evergreen content such as Real Racing 3, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, SimCity BuildIt and the EA Sports games.

Indeed, interestingly, the company's monthly active player numbers were down from 165 million in the January-March 2015 period to 150 million in the April-June period.

EA's non-GAAP figures downgrade FY16 Q1 growth but demonstrating the division's strong health in terms of its trailing 12 months numbers

This suggests that EA is getting better at monetising its player base, although this strategy obviously become harder to maintain the fewer players you have.

Key future releases in 2015 include Minions Paradise as well as a new Need for Speed game and CCG Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.

CEO speaks

"Q1 was a great start to fiscal year 2016 for Electronic Arts as we continue our journey to put our players first and deliver amazing entertainment experiences," said CEO Andrew Wilson.

"We have players engaging for longer periods in our live services, ongoing strength across our digital business and growing anticipation for our upcoming titles."

[source: EA]

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.