FIFA 13 sells 12 million, Origin has 39 million members
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Sales of latest soccer sim up 23 percent year-over-year, Origin platform rises to new user milestone; EA posts loss of $45 million for the quarter.
As part of its latest financial report today, Electronic Arts announced that FIFA 13 has sold over 12 million units through its third quarter, a 23 percent year-over-year jump. In addition, FIFA 13 digital net revenue topped $100 million for the three-month period ended December 31, up 98 percent compared to last year.
EA's Origin digital platform now has 39 million members, 17 million of which which are mobile users, the company said. By comparison, Valve has more than 50 million members. In all, EA has signed agreements with 86 independent developers for Origin.
Overall, EA's digital business saw gains during the quarter, hitting $407 million, compared to $377 million last year.
In total, EA posted net revenue of $922 million, compared to $1.06 billion this time last year. The company posted a loss of $45 million for the period, better than the $205 million hit the company took this time last year. EA CEO John Riccitiello called the quarter "challenging."
“We are investing for the future wave of growth that we foresee in digital and console,” he said in a statement.
Other financial highlights for the period included the $50 Battlefield 3 Premium offering, which generated $108 million in sales and has now sold 2.9 million copies to date, up from 1.3 million last summer.
EA also called out mobile game The Simpsons: Tapped Out as a bright spot, noting it generated more than $23 million during the quarter. Lastly, the company said Dead Space 3 preorders are outpacing Dead Space 2 and Crysis 3 reservations are up 40 percent over Crysis 2.
Looking ahead, EA said it expects net revenue for its fourth quarter to land at $1.025-$1.125 billion, with net revenue for the full-year expected to hit $3.778-$3.878 billion.
During a post-earnings conference call, EA called Medal of Honor: Warfighter a "miss," saying it sold "well below our expectations." The company also said sales of NHL 13 are down year-on-year, due in part to the NHL lockout that was only just recently lifted.
In addition, the company commented on Star Wars: The Old Republic and its recent free-to-play switch. EA said early checks are proving positive, but it is too soon to tell if the business model change has been successful.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
88 comments
Oh wait, you actually mean 39 million "non" members, because no one in the world likes the new origin format.... Its all about numbers for the struggling aholes... I give up with EA seriously
Meh...i don't like when these anual games sell a lot. Somehow, it helps to kill the game industry :(
The only reason I have an Origin account is so I can play Mass Effect...and all the other games that require you to have it that I own.
I haven't visited the website in well over a year.
1 Like Why would so many people buy FIFA when it is the same thing year after year? You people are nuts.
2 Like @Pyerun Coz we r football nuts...and the same reason why people buy CODs, casual games meant to be enjoyed with friends.....
@UrbanTracker Sometimes, despite knowing I will hate it, I buy Madden. I need my American football sim. Unfortunately, EA makes the game worse, like pushing pay-to-win Ultimate Team mode down our throats and taking out fantasy draft mode for franchise mode.
15 Like Origin'/s 39 million members includes;
- Anyone who owns an EA game that has logged into the online part of that game, even if that game is owned and is played on Steam or any other DD platform. For example I own Mirrors Edge on Steam, seeing as I've played it online I had to create an EA account, which became an Origin account as soon as Origin was created. So I have an Origin account despite not having ever used Origin at any point or purchased any games there. The same applies to any EA online account created before Origin, they were slowly transferred and turned into Origin accounts to help fluff Origin numbers up.
- Anyone who plays an EA game on a console that requires Origin login.
- The millions of additional and often fake accounts created just recently because of the "glitch" that allowed you to get one of a number of games free on an Origin account. Which to me was obviously a stunt by EA in order to get millions of new accounts created and people invested in Origin. Although they passed it off as an "accident" and nothing to do with their marketing department.
- 17 million mobile users, which EA actually acknowledge in the article.
So yeah, 39 million accounts, something to tell their shareholders. That's really all it is.
1 Like STEAM > Everything! Nuff said! ORIGIN born from EAs greed and only kept up due to EAs childishness - now theres no way back to STEAM for them it seems? It's EAs sole fault though - immature greedy shits, i did actually boycott EA and i will continue to do so, shame for DICE and their BF Series but you gotta make a point you know.
2 Like The 39 million includes console users who have to login to Origin when they play EA games?
1 Like Of course EA has to show their investors some impressive numbers to make their Origin platform seem to be a successful investment for them, but how many of these accounts are actually active per month - 1 million maybe - tops ? (and how many concurrent online users and uniquely identifyable users - these would be interesting / meaningful numbers to show)
An admin could just run a script on their database creating millions of fake accounts, also modifying join date, last logon and other values directly in the database for their "investors report".
Also, do they count their millions of banned accounts and accounts created by spam-bots through automated registration due to their frighteningly bad security also as "members" ?
Some trustful external audit company should run an audit at EA, I bet there's quite a few surprises to be found and I can't quite believe that there's really 39 million stupid gamers out there that support shady business practices / are supporting that "games as a service" nonsense.
@bloody-hell...and even with the madden 13 DEMO!, you just had to press X without reading the screen carefuly at the beginning of the demo and your PSN account infos was taken to create an origin account...boom!just like that, and your personal infos are in their database forever!
@bloody-hell theres a lot of unwilling members like me who had an EA account in 2007 and got transferred 4 years later as an origin without consent and without the ability to delete it...
13 Like Origin does not have 39 million members. Most "members" are people who installed the piece of garbage because they couldn't play Mass Effect 3 otherwise.
@Thanatos2k That effect goes both ways. I only ever started using Steam because The Creative Assembly forced it upon me and a lot of steam games are exclusives too. They use just the same tactics as Origin does.
7 Like @Thanatos2k Or Battlefield 3, or Dragon Age II, or any other EA game. (soon SimCity)...
1 Like @FallenOneX @jayman87 @Thanatos2k Well yeah, of course they didn't. Most people use it only when they are forced to and then go right back to Steam for everything else. That's how I do it. Origins is never even running unless I am playing Battlefield 3, which is not very often these days. (Though sadly I must admit that Origins will be running more frequently on my computer starting in March. It'll be the one and only way to play SimCity...)
4 Like Origin is a virus. I'll never play a game that requires me to use it, I don't care what it is.
I'm still just waiting for EA to die. Can't come too soon.
7 Like Games I've bought through the Origins service: 0...
Games I've bought at retail and been forced to use the Origins service: 4...
Games I've bought through Steam: 100+
To hell with EA. I would uninstall Origins right now if I could play Battlefield 3 without it.
3 Like @jayman87 It's people like you who make origin stay though. If no one bought those games and no one subscribed to origin EA would've been forced to go back to Steam.
totally negligent in fifa 13, until it seems that are in favor of the cheater.
Eletronic Arts the worst company in the world
totally negligent in fifa 13, until it seems that are in favor of the cheater.
EA worst company in the world !!!!
2 Like It's a very interesting read if you look up the information on Origin. Of those supposed 39 million members, only slightly over 4 million have ever purchased a game on the Origin network. Of those games purchased, most of them have been for the console which includes the Origin client built in to EA's games. So, it seems you HAVE to install Origin for all of the newer EA games regardless, thus pumping their numbers significantly. Steam, meanwhile, is hovering near 60 million users and only sells to the PC and Mac crowd. Soon Linux. However, with Steam, it's a developer or publisher issue if they want to include Steamworks in their package. Still, Steamworks does require you to install Steam as well. But, the interesting read is finding that through Steamworks, more than half, over 25 million, have purchased games through Steam. So, let's compare the numbers, shall we? Origin has 39 million users, only slightly over 4 million have actually purchased content through the service. Steam, hovering around 60 million users has had over 25 million users make purchases. Also, the average Origin user only has EA games on their list. Steam users, on the average, have more than 10-20 different publishers or developers. Also, Steam is very secretive with their numbers, so it's hard to find all the numbers, but the average gamer has around 20-30 games installed through their Steam account compared to Origin with just 1-2. Also, Steam has those wicked ass sales that completely kick ass. I, personally, have, at the moment, 229 games on my Steam account. My average friends have over 100 as well. I own 3 games through the Origin client, only because I was forced to or they quit selling them on Steam. Personally, as you can tell, I much prefer Steam over Origin. Origin is still young, however, their client is shoddy at best, it's not pretty to look at, and it is still quite geared toward full priced games. Green Man Gaming is good also, so is Gamefly. Go with any of those before you go with Origin. Just my 2 cents.
1 Like Yea, because I totally wanted to join Origin just because I wanted to install Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition (that I got from Steam). /sarcasm
EA practices are downright rotten.
1 Like @KamuiFei Ya I was in the exact same situation, It would install but wouldn't load until I installed origin. Kind of annoying since before I installed it just fine but all the bioware log in's you used to need to verify DLC converted to origin...ugh. All that said the service is fine since all I have to do it turn it on to load the game. I've never even looked at the store ;p
12 Like Is it really a membership milestone when all customers are forced to join a service to use the product?
1 Like @SingletreeAve im forced to use for battlefield 3..... i hate origin... steam ftw in my eyes.... i just dont.... trust EA for some reason...
1 Like i count for like 4 people that use Origin even though i never used it... just because they converted my accounts into origin
in other NEWS Origin has never lost a single member
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