EA remains Profitable, despite Slump of other Retailers

Electronic Arts went public 13 years ago and has just announced that its sales are the highest since going public, up 13% for the year. Now the world's largest video game publisher, EA's success can be attributed to the company's business savvy and innovation, as well as the introduction of the hardware platforms of PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox. Sales of these platforms and the games that are played on them will be in the success spotlight this holiday season, according to analysts in the retail and video gaming industry. In a move that reflects confidence, EA has elected to postpone release of the next version of its hugely popular game, Sims 4, until early in 2003. The Sims series of games allow game players to play and control various "human" personae and their daily interactions with the other characters in the Sims game world. To date, EA has seen its revenue increase for Q4 of fiscal 2002 and Q1 of fiscal 2003 grow more than 80% over the same period one year ago.