EA (NASDAQ: EA) has announced its preliminary Q3 FY13 financials for the three months ending 31 December.

Total GAAP revenue was $922 million, down 13 percent year-on-year.

However, digital net revenue accounted for $321 million of sales, up 17 percent.

The company made a GAAP net loss of 45 million, compared to a loss of $205 million 12 months ago.

Trailing twelve-month operating cash flow was $378 million, $135 million better than the previous 12 months.

Some D'oh with that?

As for EA Mobile, it was the star performer with GAAP net revenue up 23 percent year-on-year to $86 million; its second highest monthly total ever.

In particular, The Simpsons: Tapped Out generated over $23 million on iOS during the quarter.

That was 26 percent of EA Mobile's overall sales during the three months.

Other (non-mobile) games that performed well included FIFA 13, which sold over 12 million, and Battlefield 3 Premium, which generated over $108 million through its 2.9 million subscriptions.

EA's Origin online digital distribution platform and social network now has over 39 million users, of which 17 million are on mobile.

Turning circle

"Despite a challenging quarter, we were able to deliver non-GAAP EPS at the high end of our guidance range," said EA CEO John Riccitiello.

"We are investing for the future wave of growth that we foresee in digital and console."

COO Peter Moore also claimed that EA was the #1 publisher in iOS during 2012; something that is possibly true over the entire 12 month period, but certainly hasn't been true since Supercell launched Clash of Clans and Hay Day in August 2012.

EA ended the quarter with $1.49 billion in cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and securities, compared to $1.3 billion three months earlier.

[source: EA]