EA Reports "Largest Quarter In Our Company's History," Thanks In Large Part To Apex Legends

Stop us if you've heard this before, but a game company is reporting its best quarter ever. This time it's Electronic Arts, whose FY2022 Q3 (October-December 2021) was a "record quarter" and the year as a whole is seeing "record growth and performance," according to CEO Andrew Wilson, while CFO Blake Jorgensen called it "the largest quarter in our company's history," in their prepared remarks during the quarterly investors' conference call.

Wilson began his remarks by paying homage to legendary NFL coach, broadcaster, and video game icon John Madden, who passed away in December: "We feel incredibly fortunate to have been part of Coach’s legacy, and just as fortunate to be part of how it will live on through our future Madden NFL games." Wilson said that EA will announce further plans to honor Madden's legacy in the coming weeks.

For the quarter, EA realized net revenue of $1.79 billion and net bookings of $2.58 billion. As ever, Apex Legends was a major reason for the good results, and EA expects it to deliver $1 billion on its own for the year. FIFA 22 is also up double digits over last year's launch-to-date, aided of course by Ultimate Team, which EA would like to remind you can be played for free.

On the down side, there was Battlefield 2042. Wilson and Jorgensen don't shy away from its poor reception, saying that the game was a "miss against our expectations" and had "disappointing" sales. They're "committed to turning Battlefield around and building a sustainable live service," even if that means impacting some of its net bookings in the short term, such as by delaying the first season's launch.

Finally, in news that will likely delight everyone, Wilson said during the Q&A section of the call that EA's push into the NFT space "remains to be seen" and that his company isn't "driving on" the trend. Could this be the one rare case of a CEO actually standing up to shareholders who are demanding the new hot thing despite knowing virtually nothing about it? Or is it just a public statement meant to appease the masses while the real work is done behind the scenes? Maybe it's just that Ultimate Team is already such a controversial cash cow that Wilson doesn't see the need to add another potential PR albatross.