Electronic Arts has warned investors that the failure of troubled UK retailer Game Group could affect the publisher's finances.
During an investor call following the release of EA's latest fiscal results, John Riccitiello declined to name Game Group, but given that yesterday the retailer was reportedly struggling to secure new releases after losing its credit insurance, it appears clear to whom the EA CEO was referring.
"We are concerned about the financial condition of one of our major European retail partners, which could lead both to increased bad debt and lost sales," Riccitiello said, according to Eurogamer.
CFO Eric Brown later warned: "We are focused on some isolated European retailer issues that have recently been announced. A negative outcome could adversely affect our Q4 results."
EA's third-quarter results reveal a loss of $205 million, up from $322 million, with revenue rising 0.8 per cent to $1.06 billion, of which $274 came from digital sales.
Game Group insisted in a statement yesterday that the week's new releases would be on its shelves this Friday as normal, despite multiple sources claiming a loss of credit insurance meant it was struggling to source stock of new releases as suppliers insisted on payment up front.
Source: Eurogamer
Comments
2Is this right?
"up from $322 million, with revenue rising 0.8 per cent to $1.06 billion, of which $274 came from digital sales."
?? $1,060,000,000.00 of which $274.00 came from digital sales?
I find this a bit confusing this article. Is EA running at a loss in what I thought was technically the profit season? What period does Q3 cover? October-December? If BF3 did so well, where is the loss coming from?
I'm not in the industry but I read a lot of game news and I've never heard of Game Group. Who are they, what do they do, where do they retail.
I feel like there's good information in this article but I can't decipher what any of it means.
Remove the word 'Group'. Do you recognise this retail chain now?