EA's Quarter Financials Paint A Rosy Picture, With Apex Legends Topping $1.6 Billion All-time

Electronic Arts keeps chugging along, as its latest financial report billed its most recent quarter as the "strongest second quarter in the history." (Reminder that EA's fiscal year runs from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.) Net bookings were $7.077 billion, up 27% year-over-year, with Apex Legends setting new player records for each of Season 9 and 10. Season 10 was also up 40% in terms of time watched on Twitch as compared to the previous season. In total, the battle royale has made $1.6 billion since its February 2019 launch.

Battlefield 2042 drew 7.7 million players for its recent beta, while Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes surpassed 100 million total players. Naturally, alongside Apex Legends, FIFA Ultimate Team was hailed as contributing to the quarter's "strong beat," as COO/CFO Blake Jorgensen put it. As a result of all the good news, EA is raising its expectations for the rest of the year.

As for the notion of a free-to-play component in Battlefield, CEO and Director Andrew Wilson seemed to contradict his earlier statements, saying that "over time, free-to-play will make sense for the franchise, but it's not the focus right now."

Some of the above info came from the Q&A that took place yesterday afternoon, which mostly consisted of Jorgensen and Wilson complimenting their business and the various teams that make it up; the folks at Respawn Entertainment got called out multiple times for the good work they've done with Apex Legends.

One interesting question asked about "maintaining the value of player investments" in collectible games, like FIFA or Madden Ultimate Team, which prompted Wilson to respond that yes, EA does recognize the value that NFTs represent, but the company "need[s] to work and make sure we continue to appropriately tune and balance the experience for our players."

In other words, while other sites are running with "EA wants to do NFTs" headlines, I think Wilson's response is about as on-the-fence as can be. Of course he realizes that NFTs are a thing that some companies are doing, and he wouldn't rule them out entirely, but until he recognizes that it will bring greater value to his company -- and as long as people are willing to re-purchase packs every year, they don't -- he won't dive headlong into that pool. That's just smart business.