Electronic Arts posts warning ahead of fiscal year news

Redwood City (CA) - Game publisher Electronic Arts has warned it will post bad news regarding both its sales and profits, as its fiscal year 2005 draws to a close.

In a corporate statement released late this afternoon, the company said it "expects net revenue and earnings per share for the third and fourth fiscal quarters and fiscal 2006 to be well below both the financial guidance provided by EA on November 1, 2005 as well as current consensus estimates. The changes are primarily the result of unanticipated market declines in both North America and Europe."

EA CEO Larry Probst was quoted as saying, "Holiday sales are not meeting expectations. For the December quarter, it is likely the industry will be down double digits on a percentage basis." This despite the pre-holiday introduction of the new Xbox 360 console.

At the time of this publication, CNBC reported that shares of EA stock on the NASDAQ exchange were trading sharply lower, as much as 3%. Probst’s having blamed the industry at large will probably not be good news for game industry stocks tomorrow morning.