Q1 2025 Electronic Arts Inc Earnings Call
Good afternoon. My name is Rob and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Electronic Arts first quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Andrew Uerkwitz, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Unknown Executive: At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Electronic Arts First Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 earnings conference call.
Operator: At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Electronic Arts First Quarter Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Andrew Uerkwitz, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Andrew Uerkwitz, Vice President, Investor Relations
Andrew Uerkwitz: I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Andrew Uerkwitz, Vice President Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Andrew Uerkwitz: Thank you. Welcome to EA's first quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. With me today are Andrew Wilson, our CEO, and Stuart Canfield, our CFO.
Andrew Paul Uerkwitz: Thank you. Welcome to EA's first quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. With me today are Andrew Wilson, our CEO, and Stuart Canfield, our CFO. Please note that our STC filings and our earnings release are available at ir.ea.com. In addition, we have posted detailed earnings slides to accompany our prepared remarks. Lastly, after the call, we will post our prepared remarks, an audio replay of this call, and a transcript. With regard to our calendar, our investor day is scheduled for Tuesday, September 17th, and our second quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call is scheduled for Tuesday, October 29th.
Speaker Change: Thank you. Welcome to EA's first quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. With me today are Andrew Wilson, our CEO , and Stuart Canfield, our CFO .
Unknown Executive: Please note that our SEC filings and our earnings release are available. It's available at ir.ba.com. In addition, we have posted detailed earnings slides to accompany our prepared remarks.
Speaker Change: Please note that our STC filings and our earnings release are available at ir.ea.com. In addition, we have posted detailed earnings slides to accompany our prepared remarks. Lastly, after the call, we will post our prepared remarks, an audio replay of this call, and a transcript.
Unknown Executive: Lastly, after the call, we will post our prepared remarks, an audio replay of this call, and a transcript.
Unknown Executive: With regards to our calendar, our Investor Day is scheduled for Tuesday, September 17th, and our second quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call is scheduled for Tuesday, October 29th. As a reminder, we post the schedule of upcoming earnings calls for the fiscal year on our IR website.
Speaker Change: With regards to our calendar, our Investor Day is scheduled for Tuesday, September 17th, and our second quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call is scheduled for Tuesday, October 29th. As a reminder, we post the schedule of upcoming earnings calls for the fiscal year on our IR website.
Andrew Paul Uerkwitz: As a reminder, we post the schedule of upcoming earnings calls for the fiscal year on our IR website. This presentation and our comments include forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company. Actual events and results may differ materially from our expectations. We refer you to our most recent Form 10-K for a discussion of risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. Electronic Arts makes these statements as of today, July 30th, 2024, and disclaims any duty to update them. During this call, the financial metrics, with the exception of free cash flow and non-GAAP operating margin, will be presented on a GAAP-based basis.
Unknown Executive: This presentation and our comments include forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company. Actual events and results made different materially from our expectations. We refer you to our most recent Form 10-K for discussion of risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. Electronic Arts makes these statements as of today, July 30th, 2024, and disclaims any duty to update them.
Andrew Paul Uerkwitz: For more information on our non-GAAP operating margin, please see our earnings slide in the FAQ document available on our Investor Relations website. All comparisons made in the course of this call are against the same period in the prior year unless otherwise stated. Now, I'll turn the call over to Andrew Wilson.
Speaker Change: This presentation and our comments include forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company. Actual events and results may differ materially from our expectations.
Speaker Change: We refer you to our most recent Form 10-K for discussion of risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. Electronic Arts makes these statements as of today, July 30, 2024, and disclaims any duty to update them.
Unknown Executive: During this call, the financial metrics, with the exception of free cash flow and non-GAAP operating margin, will be presented on a GAAP basis. For more information on our non-GAAP operating margin, please see our earnings slide in the FAQ document available on our Investor Relations website. All comparisons made in the course of this call are against the same period in the prior year and less, otherwise stated.
Speaker Change: During this call, the financial metrics, with the exception of free cash flow and non-GAAP operating margin, will be presented on a GAAP basis.
Speaker Change: For more information on our non-GAAP operating margin, please see our earnings slide in the FAQ document available on our Investor Relations website. All comparisons made in the course of this call are against the same period in the prior year unless otherwise stated. Now I'll turn the call over to Andrew Wilson.
Andrew Wilson: Now, I'll turn the call over to Andrew Wilson. Thanks, Andrew.
Andrew Wilson: Thanks, Andrew. Hello, everyone, and good afternoon.
Andrew Wilson: Hello, everyone, and good afternoon. We started our FY25 strong. We bid our net bookings guidance, and we executed across our business as we entertained and connected hundreds of millions of people around the world. Throughout Q1, we drove progress along our three strategic priorities of entertaining and engaging massive online communities, telling blockbuster stories, and harnessing the power of community in and around our games. This progress paves the way for growth in Q2 and beyond. I'm thankful and inspired by the continued incredible work of our fantastic teams to deliver the entertainment that our global community of players wants today and tomorrow.
Andrew Wilson: Thanks, Andrew. Hello, everyone, and good afternoon. We started our FY25 strong. We beat our net bookings guidance, and we executed across our business as we entertained and connected hundreds of millions of people around the world.
Andrew Wilson: We started FY25 strong. We beat our net bookings guidance, and we executed across our business as we entertained and connected hundreds of millions of people around the world. Throughout Q1, we drove progress on our three strategic priorities of entertaining and engaging massive online communities, telling blockbuster stories, and harnessing the power of community in and around our games. This progress paves the way for growth in Q2 and beyond.
Andrew Wilson: Throughout Q1, we drove progress along our three strategic priorities of entertaining and engaging massive online communities, telling blockbuster stories, and harnessing the power of community in and around our games.
Andrew Wilson: I'm thankful and inspired by the continued incredible work of our fantastic teams to deliver the entertainment that our global community of players wants today and tomorrow. Our focus continues to center around entertaining more players for more time across more geographies. And we believe there are secular tailwinds in social media and sports that favor our enviable position as a company that will drive sustainable long-term growth built across the engagement modalities of play, create, watch, and connect. A fundamental truth of the human experience is that people have always come together through sports to compete, collaborate, and celebrate community.
Andrew Wilson: This progress paves the way for growth in Q2 and beyond. I am thankful and inspired by the continued incredible work of our fantastic teams to deliver the entertainment that our global community of players wants today and tomorrow.
Andrew Wilson: Our focus continues to center around entertaining more players for more time across more geographies, and we believe there are secular tailwinds in social media and sports that favor our enviable position as a company that will drive sustainable long-term growth built across the engagement modalities of play, create, watch, and connect. A fundamental truth of the human experience is that people have always come together through sports to compete, collaborate, and celebrate community. Today, EA Sports experiences are advancing this truth through incredible authenticity, innovation, and immersion. We're becoming increasingly ingrained in the fabric of sports culture and fandom as our audiences look to us for cutting-edge ways to connect with the sports they love and to share that passion with their friends and families all year long.
Andrew Wilson: Our focus continues to centre around entertaining more players for more time across more geographies.
Andrew Wilson: And we believe there are secular tailwinds in social media and sports that favour our enviable position as a company that will drive sustainable long-term growth built across the engagement modalities of play, create, watch and connect.
Speaker Change: A fundamental truth of the human experience is that people have always come together through sports to compete, collaborate and celebrate community. Today, EA Sports experiences are advancing this truth through incredible authenticity, innovation and immersion.
Andrew Wilson: Today, EA Sports experiences are advancing this truth through incredible authenticity, innovation, and immersion. We are becoming increasingly ingrained in the fabric of sports culture and fandom as our audiences look to us for cutting-edge ways to connect with the sports they love and to share that passion with their friends and families all year long. Sports leagues the world over trust us as a powerful, long-standing partner as we work together to engage, entertain, and inspire fans across generations and geographies.
Speaker Change: We are becoming increasingly ingrained in the fabric of sports culture and fandom as our audiences look to us for cutting edge ways to connect with the sports they love and to share that passion with their friends and families all year long.
Andrew Wilson: Sports leagues the world over trust us as a powerful, longstanding partner as we work together to engage, entertain, and inspire fans across generations and geographies. This is a huge opportunity for our players, our partners, and our stockholders. We believe the lines between traditional sports consumption and interactive sports entertainment will continue to blur as hundreds of millions of fans increasingly connect with their favorite athletes, clubs, and competitions through EA Sports. This quarter in EA Sports FC 24, our exceptional team celebrated real-life football events on console, PC, and mobile with UEFA Euro 2024 and Comma Vol Cooper America 2024, driving even better than expected monetization.
Speaker Change: Sports leagues the world over trust us as a powerful, long-standing partner as we work together to engage, entertain and inspire fans across generations and geographies.
Andrew Wilson: This is a huge opportunity for our players, our partners, and our stockholders. We believe the lines between traditional sports consumption and interactive sports entertainment will continue to blur as hundreds of millions of fans increasingly connect with their favorite athletes, clubs, and competitions through EA Sports. This quarter, in EA Sports FC24, our exceptional team celebrated real-life football events on console, PC, and mobile with UEFA EURO 2024 and CONMEBOL CORPORATE AMERICA 2024, driving even better than expected monetization. We also released a high quality heart racing title in F1 24, as the sport's current season delivers high levels of drama and competition.
Speaker Change: This is a huge opportunity for our players, our partners, and our stockholders.
Speaker Change: We believe the lines between traditional sports consumption and interactive sports entertainment will continue to blur as hundreds of millions of fans increasingly connect with their favourite athletes, clubs and competitions through EA Sports.
Speaker Change: This quarter, in EA Sports FC24, our exceptional team celebrated real-life football events on console, PC and mobile with UEFA Euro 2024 and CONMEBOL Copa America 2024, driving even better than expected monetization.
Andrew Wilson: We also released a high-quality heart racing title in F-124 as the sports currencies and delivers high levels of drama and competition. We blur the lines in the Madden NFL 24 connecting real-life cultural events to in-game experiences with live content that fuels deeper engagement. We were on-site for the NFL Draft to support the immediate inclusion of rookie players into Madden NFL 24, resulting in an expanded social experience as they played live in front of millions of fans before even stepping on the field. Our teams are also engineering moments that ignite the football fan community with unique and valuable content that extends the in-game experience, like our collaboration to bring leading sports personality Pat McAfee into the game, the special Michael Vick Edition, or our in-game Ring of Honor event.
Speaker Change: We also released a high-quality Heart Racing title in F1-24 as the sport's current season delivers high levels of drama and competition.
Andrew Wilson: We blurred the lines in Madden NFL 24, connecting real-life cultural events to in-game experiences with live content that fuels deeper engagement. We were on site for the NFL Draft to support the immediate inclusion of rookie players into Madden NFL 24, resulting in an expanded social experience as they played live in front of millions of fans before even stepping on the field. Our teams are also engineering moments that ignite the football fan community with unique and valuable content that extends the in-game experience, like our collaboration to bring leading sports personality Pat McAfee into the game, the special Michael Vick edition, or our in-game Ring of Honor event.
Speaker Change: We blurred the lines in Madden NFL 24, connecting real-life cultural events to in-game experiences with live content that fuels deeper engagement.
Speaker Change: We were on site for the NFL Draft to support the immediate inclusion of rookie players into Madden NFL 24, resulting in an expanded social experience as they played live in front of millions of fans before even stepping on the field.
Speaker Change: Our teams are also engineering moments that ignite the football fan community with unique and valuable content that extends the in-game experience, like our collaboration to bring leading sports personality Pat McAfee into the game, the special Michael Vick edition, or our in-game Ring of Honor event.
Andrew Wilson: These intentional experiences and live content combined with deep and innovative gameplay drove more time spent and increased engagement in our community and drove momentum and growth in the quarter. This speaks not just to how central the franchise is to the very fabric of American professional football, but also how our games are such unique and valuable expression of fandom that combines the authenticity of the real-world sport, deep innovation and gameplay, and creative content that energizes and engages communities, leading to further growth in our business. As we continue to build massive online communities across our entire sports business, we are equally focused on prioritizing our own IP across our broad entertainment portfolio, which contains some of the deepest and most relevant properties in the world.
Andrew Wilson: These intentional experiences and live content, combined with deep and innovative gameplay, drove more time spent and increased engagement in our community, and drove momentum and growth in the quarter. This speaks not just to how central the franchise is to the very fabric of American professional football but also how our games are such a unique and valuable expression of fandom that combines the authenticity of the real-world sport, deep innovation and gameplay, and creative content that energizes and engages communities, leading to further growth in our business.
Speaker Change: These intentional experiences and live content, combined with deep and innovative gameplay, drove more time spent and increased engagement in our community, and drove momentum and growth in the quarter.
Speaker Change: This speaks not just to how central the franchise is to the very fabric of American professional football, but also how our games are such a unique and valuable expression of fandom that combines the authenticity of the real world sport
Speaker Change: Deep innovation and gameplay and creative content that energizes and engages communities leading to further growth in our business.
Andrew Wilson: As we continue to build massive online communities across our entire sports business, we are equally focused on prioritizing our owned IP across our broad entertainment portfolio, which contains some of the deepest and most relevant properties in the world. Apex Legends is an important part of our story.
Speaker Change: As we continue to build massive online communities across our entire sports business, we are equally focused on prioritizing our owned IP across our broad entertainment portfolio, which contains some of the deepest and most relevant properties in the world.
Andrew Wilson: Apex Legends is an important part of our story. Q1 was largely in line with our expectations, and our commitment to evolving and learning is a foundational part of our strategy to return Apex Legends to growth. During the quarter, our teams continue to introduce changes to this multi-billion dollar franchise as they test and iterate in a lead up to season 22, 23 and beyond, where they will deliver even more content and bigger advancements spread across geographies and new modes of play. We continue to engage and inspire fans across the massive Sims 4 community as we roll out more content updates to this beloved franchise.
Andrew Wilson: Q1 was largely in line with our expectations, and our commitment to evolving and learning is a foundational part of our strategy to return Apex Legends to growth. During the quarter, our teams continued to introduce changes to this multi-billion-dollar franchise as they tested and iterated in the lead up to Season 22, 23, and beyond, where they will deliver even more content and bigger advancements spread across geographies and new modes of play.
Speaker Change: Apex Legends is an important part of our story. Q1 was largely in line with our expectations and our commitment to evolving and learning is a foundational part of our strategy to return Apex Legends to growth.
Speaker Change: During the quarter, our teams continue to introduce changes to this multi-billion dollar franchise as they test and iterate in the lead up to Season 22, 23 and beyond, where they will deliver even more content and bigger advancements spread across geographies and new modes of play.
Andrew Wilson: We continue to engage and inspire fans across the massive Sims 4 community as we roll out more content updates to this beloved franchise. Q1 saw healthy engagement throughout the community, with excitement building for the launch of the Lovestruck Pack as a throwback to original Sims games with classic art. We are committed to entertaining our loyal Sims 4 fans with 15 plus updates over the coming year while working on introducing multiple new experiences into the Sims universe over the coming year.
Speaker Change: We continue to engage and inspire fans across the massive Sims 4 community as we roll out more content updates to this beloved franchise.
Andrew Wilson: Q1 saw a healthy engagement throughout the community, with excitement building for the launch of the Love Struck Pack as a throwback to original Sims games with classic items. We are committed to entertaining our loyal Sims 4 fans with 15 plus updates over the coming year while working on introducing multiple new experiences into the Sims universe over the coming years. We expect all of this to grow our community and deepen engagement with user-generated content, serving as a growth multiplier to the franchise overall.
Speaker Change: Q1 saw healthy engagement throughout the community with excitement building for the launch of the Lovestruck Pack as a throwback to original Sims games with classic items.
Speaker Change: We are committed to entertaining our loyal Sims 4 fans with 15 plus updates over the coming year, while working on introducing multiple new experiences into the Sims universe over the coming years.
Andrew Wilson: We expect all of this to grow our community and deepen engagement with user-generated content serving as a growth multiplier for the franchise overall. As Season 7 of Battlefield 2042 wraps up, one thing is clear: each season of the game has shown our team's unique ability to listen, learn, and draw inspiration from the community to deepen connection with the franchise. Players continue to be passionate about the Battlefield franchise, which has exceeded over 25 million players over the last 12 months. The community is energised by what our teams are doing and excited for what comes next. This is not just one of our top priorities.
Speaker Change: We expect all of this to grow our community and deepen engagement, with user-generated content serving as a growth multiplier to the franchise overall.
Andrew Wilson: As Season 7 of Battlefield 2042 wraps up, one thing is clear. Each season of the game has shown our team's unique ability to listen, learn, and draw inspiration from the community to deepen connection with the franchise. Players continue to be passionate about the Battlefield franchise, which has surpassed over 25 million players over the last 12 months. The community is energized by what our teams are doing and excited for what comes next. This is not just one of our top priorities. It is also one of the most ambitious projects in our history. We have brought together the very best team, coupled with the resources and technology they need to deliver an epic Battlefield experience.
Speaker Change: As Season 7 of Battlefield 2042 wraps up, one thing is clear. Each season of the game has shown our team's unique ability to listen, learn, and draw inspiration from the community to deepen connection with the franchise.
Speaker Change: Players continue to be passionate about the Battlefield franchise, which has surpassed over 25 million players over the last 12 months.
Speaker Change: The community is energized by what our teams are doing and excited for what comes next. This is not just one of our top priorities, it is also one of the most ambitious projects in our history. We have brought together the very best team, coupled with the resources and technology they need to deliver an epic battlefield experience.
Andrew Wilson: It is also one of the most ambitious projects in our history. We have brought together the very best team, coupled with the resources and technology they need to deliver an epic battlefield experience. I'm excited about what is to come next as we continue to make progress across our strategic priorities. As I look to Q2, our sports-packed quarter began with a bang, the successful debut of EA Sports College Football 25. This is a monumental moment for EA Sports.
Andrew Wilson: I'm excited about what is to come next as we can either make progress across our strategic priorities.
Speaker Change: I'm excited about what is to come next as we continue to make progress across our strategic priorities.
Andrew Wilson: As I looked to queue to, our sports packed quarter began with a bang as a successful debut of EA Sports College Football 25. This is a monumental moment for EA Sports. We are returning to a sport we love, reimagined for a new generation of platforms, breaking new ground with athletes through the world's largest single sport NIL program and delivering an experience that has absolutely ignited college football fans, both long time and new, around the U.S. and across the world. Our multi-year journey to college football 25 reflects the vision, leadership, and deep determination of our teams. And it is also a testament to the amazing support that we received from universities, partners, athletes, and fans.
Speaker Change: As I look to Q2, our sports-packed quarter began with a bang, the successful debut of EA Sports College Football 25.
Andrew Wilson: We are returning to a sport we love, reimagined for a new generation of platforms, breaking new ground with athletes through the world's largest single-sport NIL program, and delivering an experience that has absolutely ignited college football fans, both longtime and new, around the US and across the world. Our multi-year journey to College Football 25 reflects the vision, leadership, and deep determination of our teams. And it is also a testament to the amazing support that we have received from universities, partners, athletes, and fans. Thank you all for helping us make this possible.
Speaker Change: This is a monumental moment for EA Sports.
Speaker Change: We are returning to a sport we love, reimagined for a new generation of platforms.
Speaker Change: Breaking new ground with athletes through the world's largest single sport NIL program and delivering an experience that has absolutely ignited college football fans.
Speaker Change: both long-time and new, around the U.S. and across the world. Our multi-year journey to College Football 25 reflects the vision, leadership, and deep determination of our teams, and it is also a testament to the amazing support that we have received from universities, partners, athletes, and fans.
Andrew Wilson: Thank you all for helping us make this possible. This new college football experience is an impressive creative and technological achievement, creating 150 unique stadiums and over 11,000 player lightensers. Couldn't be done without EA's deep history of being a technology leader and by our incredibly passionate and talented teams harnessing the power of AI and machine learning to deliver truly amazing entertainment. We are also giving players the tools to shape their own experience through Team Builder, an extensive creation and customization, UGX suite that enables players to create their own teams, jersey combinations, logos, field designs, and more, and then publish and share their creations within the game.
Andrew Wilson: This new college football experience is an impressive creative and technological achievement. Creating 150 unique stadiums and over 11,000 player likenesses couldn't be done without EA's deep history of being a technology leader and our incredibly passionate and talented teams harnessing the power of AI and machine learning to deliver truly amazing entertainment. We are also giving players the tools to shape their own experience through TeamBuilder, an extensive creation and customization UGX suite that enables players to create their own teams, jersey combinations, logos, field designs, and more, and then publish and share their creations within the game.
Speaker Change: Thank you all for helping us make this possible.
Speaker Change: This new college football experience is an impressive creative and technological achievement, creating 150 unique stadiums and over 11,000 player likenesses.
Speaker Change: Couldn't be done without EA's deep history of being a technology leader and by our incredibly passionate and talented teams harnessing the power of AI and machine learning to deliver truly amazing entertainment.
Speaker Change: We are also giving players the tools to shape their own experience through TeamBuilder, an extensive creation and customization UGX suite that enables players to create their own teams, jersey combinations, logos, field designs, and more.
Andrew Wilson: To date, we've already seen nearly 1 million teams created by our players, many of which can now be enjoyed by others in the game, deepening social connections and increasing engagement in our community. College football continues to elevate EA Sports' leadership in American football by creating valuable new opportunities for sports fans. The community has embraced our groundbreaking EA Sports MVP Bundle of the deluxe editions of EA Sports College Football 25 and Madden NFL 25, demonstrating the appetite amongst core fans of the sport for both high-quality NFL and college football experience. Sciences. To further build momentum in our American football ecosystem, the 2025 edition of Madden NFL will significantly push the franchise forward.
Andrew Wilson: To date, we've already seen nearly one million teams created by our players, many of which can now be enjoyed by others in the game, deepening social connections and increasing engagement in our community. College football continues to elevate EA sports leadership in American football by creating valuable new opportunities for players. The community has embraced our groundbreaking EA Sports MVP bundle of the deluxe editions of EA Sports College Football 25 and Madden NFL 25, demonstrating the appetite amongst core fans of the sport for both high quality NFL and college football experiences.
Speaker Change: and then publish and share their creations within the game. To date, we've already seen nearly one million teams created by our players, many of which can now be enjoyed by others in the game, deepening social connections and increasing engagement in our community.
Speaker Change: College football continues to elevate EA sports leadership in American football by creating valuable new opportunities for sports fans.
Speaker Change: The community has embraced our groundbreaking EA Sports MVP bundle of the deluxe editions of EA Sports College Football 25 and Madden NFL 25, demonstrating the appetite amongst core fans of the sport for both high quality NFL and college football experiences.
Stuart Canfield: To further build momentum in our American football ecosystem, the 2025 edition of Madden NFL will significantly push the franchise forward. The title will deliver enhanced audio and visuals, an all-new version of FieldSense, and innovative physics technology that gets players even closer to the action with their favorite NFL superstars. With two unique yet complementary products in the market, this is a huge step forward in significantly growing our American football community. This is just the beginning of what we are going to be able to deliver for fans of the United States' biggest sport.
Speaker Change: To further build momentum in our American football ecosystem, the 2025 edition of Madden NFL will significantly push the franchise forward.
Andrew Wilson: The title will deliver enhanced audio and visuals, an all new version of field sense, and innovative physics technology, getting plays even closer to the action with their favorite NFL superstars. With two unique yet complementary products in the market, this is a huge step forward in significantly growing our American football community. This is just the beginning of what we are going to be able to deliver for fans for the United States's biggest sport.
Speaker Change: The title will deliver enhanced audio and visuals, an all-new version of FieldSense, and innovative physics technology getting players even closer to the action with their favorite NFL superstars.
Speaker Change: With two unique yet complementary products in the market, this is a huge step forward in significantly growing our American football community. This is just the beginning of what we are going to be able to deliver for fans for the United States' biggest sport.
Andrew Wilson: Following a historic brand relaunch embraced by players, fans, and partners the world over, EA Sports FC 25 is going to be a giant step forward. On top of the existing strength of this global franchise, we've seen many more opportunities to grow its reach, engagement, and impact. We are forecasting franchise growth in FY25. FC 25 will feature more innovation as well as more realistic and authentic gameplay driven by enhanced tactical sophistication using AI and real-world footballing data. It will also introduce an entirely new, deeply social 5v5 experience called Rush, available across all major modes in the game, and a new content capture and creation tool.
Stuart Canfield: Following a historic brand relaunch embraced by players, fans, and partners the world over, EA Sports FC 25 is going to be a giant step forward. On top of the existing strength of this global franchise, we've seen many more opportunities to grow its reach, engagement, and impact. We are forecasting franchise growth in FY25. FC25 will feature more innovation as well as more realistic and authentic gameplay driven by enhanced tactical sophistication using AI and real-world footballing data.
Speaker Change: Following a historic brand relaunch embraced by players, fans and partners the world over, EA Sports FC 25 is going to be a giant step forward.
Speaker Change: On top of the existing strength of this global franchise, we've seen many more opportunities to grow its reach, engagement, and impact. We are forecasting franchise growth in FY25.
Speaker Change: FC25 will feature more innovation as well as more realistic and authentic gameplay driven by enhanced tactical sophistication using AI and real-world footballing data.
Stuart Canfield: It will also introduce an entirely new, deeply social 5v5 experience called Rush available across all major modes in the game and a new content capture and creation tool. In total, our entire FC platform will be a bigger, deeper set of experiences at the center of football fandom and culture around the world. Looking beyond the second quarter, we continue to make progress across our pipeline to deliver on our strategy. We further engaged and connected with a massive online community for Skate as we introduced fans to the lore of San Vansadam with new gameplay revealed at the Summer Game Festival.
Speaker Change: It will also introduce an entirely new deeply social 5v5 experience called Rush, available across all major modes in the game, and a new content capture and creation tool.
Andrew Wilson: In total, our entire FC platform will be a bigger, deeper set of experiences at the center of football, fandom, and culture of the world's game. Looking beyond the second quarter, we continue to make progress across our pipeline to deliver on our strategy.
Speaker Change: In total, our entire FC platform will be a bigger, deeper set of experiences at the center of football fandom and culture of the world's game.
Speaker Change: Looking beyond the second quarter, we continue to make progress across our pipeline to deliver on our strategy. We've further engaged and connected with a massive online community of skate, as we introduce fans to the lore of San Vansadam with new gameplay revealed at Summer Game Fest.
Andrew Wilson: We further engage and connect with a massive online community of skate as we introduce fans to the law of San Vancidam with new gameplay revealed at Summer Game Fest.
Andrew Wilson: We also unveiled the blockbuster storytelling of Dragon Age: The Vailguard, an epic experience based in an expansive world filled with arresting visuals and introducing a cast of diverse, complex characters and incredible combat, all tied together by a rich single-player narrative. We are committed to delivering more excitement, exploration, creation, and connection for more plays and fans across generations, platforms, and geographies. And we will achieve this through our passionate and talented teams, our world-class IP, and our ability to drive innovation through our deep expertise and technology, which will accelerate our innovation and our development velocity.
Stuart Canfield: We also unveiled the blockbuster storytelling of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, an epic experience based in an expansive world filled with arresting visuals and introducing a cast of diverse, complex characters and incredible combat all tied together by a rich single-player narrative. We are committed to delivering more excitement, exploration, creation, and connection for more players and fans across generations, platforms, and geographies. And we will achieve this through our passionate and talented teams, our world-class IP, and our ability to drive innovation through our deep expertise in technology, which will accelerate our innovation and our development velocity. Now, I'd like to hand it off to Stuart for a deeper dive into our business.
Speaker Change: We also unveiled the blockbuster storytelling of Dragon Age The Veilguard, an epic experience based in an expansive world filled with arresting visuals and introducing a cast of diverse, complex characters and incredible combat all tied together by a rich single-player narrative.
Speaker Change: We are committed to delivering more excitement, exploration, creation and connection for more players and fans across generations, platforms and geographies.
Speaker Change: And we will achieve this through our passionate and talented teams, our world-class IP, and our ability to drive innovation through our deep expertise in technology, which will accelerate our innovation and our development velocity.
Stuart Canfield: Now I'd like to hand it off to Stuart for a deeper dive into our business. Thanks, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. We've had a great start to FY25, with Q1 results beating our own expectations on both the top and bottom line as we continue to execute on our strategy and drive progress in delivering against a long-term financial framework of accelerating growth, delivering operating leverage, and increasing cash flow. Foundational to this execution has been our focused investment in our talented teams to support our growth initiatives and deliver amazing experiences to our fans. Early indicators of this momentum include the outstanding reception for EA Sports College Football 25, the promising early signs across both EA Sports, Madden NFL 25, and EA Sports FC 25, plus the announcement of the Dragon Age DeVail God release in the fall.
Speaker Change: Now, I'd like to hand it off to Stuart for a deeper dive into our business.
Stuart Canfield: Thanks, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. We've had a great start to FY25, with Q1 results beating our own expectations on both the top and bottom line as we continue to execute on our strategy and drive progress in delivering against our long-term financial framework of accelerating growth, delivering operating leverage, and increasing cashflow. Foundational to this execution has been our focused investment in our talented teams to support our growth initiatives and deliver amazing experiences to our fans.
Stuart: Thanks, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. We've had a great start at FY25 with Q1 results beating our own expectations on both the top and bottom line as we continue to execute on our strategy and drive progress in delivering against our long-term financial framework of accelerating growth, delivering operating leverage, and increasing cash flow.
Stuart: Foundational to this execution has been our focused investment in our talented teams to support our growth initiatives and deliver amazing experiences to our fans.
Stuart Canfield: Early indicators of this momentum include the outstanding reception for EA Sports College Football 25, the promising early signs across both EA Sports Madden NFL 25 and EA Sports FC 25, plus the announcement of the Dragon Age: The Veil Guard release in the fall. As this momentum builds, we feel confident in achieving our fiscal year guidance. Now turning to our Q1 results, our netbooking results were above our expectations, as our team delivered more content to larger audiences, resulting in greater than anticipated engagement and monetization in our core live services. We also initiated our previously announced Enhanced Stock Repurchase Program plan, which is projected to return $5 billion over the next three years, aligning with our progress towards achieving our long-term financial objectives.
Stuart: Early indicators of this momentum include the outstanding reception for EA Sports College Football 25, the promising early signs across both EA Sports Madden NFL 25 and EA Sports FC 25, plus the announcement of the Dragon Age The Veil Guard release in the fall.
Stuart Canfield: As momentum builds, we feel confident in achieving our fiscal year guidance.
Stuart: As momentum builds, we feel confident in achieving our fiscal year guidance.
Stuart Canfield: Now turn to our Q1 results. Our networking's results were above our expectations, as our team delivered more content to larger audiences, resulting in greater anticipated engagement and monetization in our core life services. We also initiated our previously announced enhanced stock repurchase program plan, which is projected to return $5 billion over the next three years, aligning with our progress towards achieving long-term financial objectives. In the quarter, we saw total networking's of $1.26 billion.
Stuart: Now turning to our Q1 results.
Stuart: Our netbooking's results were above our expectations as our team delivered more content to larger audiences, resulting in greater than anticipated engagement and monetization in our core live services.
Stuart: We also initiated our previously announced Enhanced Stock Repurchase Program Plan, which is projected to return $5 billion over the next three years, aligning with our progress towards achieving our long-term financial objectives.
Stuart Canfield: In the quarter, we saw total net bookings of $1.26 billion. As a reminder, our prior year period benefited from more releases and a World Cup tailwind for our global football business. Full-game net bookings were $168 million as we compare to three full-game title releases from a year ago. Star Wars Jedi Survivor, EA Sports PGA Tour, and Super Mega Baseball 4.
Stuart: In the quarter, we saw total net bookings of $1.26 billion. As a reminder, our prior year period benefited from more releases and a World Cup tailwind to our global football business.
Stuart Canfield: As a reminder, our prior period benefited from more releases and a World Cup tailwind to our global football business. Full-game networking's was $168 million as we compared to three full-game title releases from a year ago. Star Wars: Gela Survivor, EA Sports PGA Tour, and Super Mega Baseball 4. Our live services and other networking's was $1.09 billion, highlighted by EA Sports Madden NFL 24 outperformance in the quarter. The greater than expected results from EA Sports Madden NFL 24 are a strong proof point in the power of thriving community in and around our games. During the quarter, we saw sustained momentum late in the title cycle, with both weekly average use in Ultimate Team and total networking's up double digits year after year.
Stuart: Full game net bookings was $168 million as we compare to three full game title releases from a year ago. Star Wars Jedi Survivor, EA Sports PGA Tour, and Super Mega Baseball 4.
Stuart Canfield: Our live services and other net bookings were $1.09 billion, highlighted by EA Sports Madden NFL 24 outperformance in the quarter. The greater than expected results from EA Sports Madden NFL 24 are a strong proof point in the power of a thriving community in and around our games. During the quarter, we saw sustained momentum late in the title cycle, with both weekly average use in Ultimate Team and total net bookings up double digits year over year.
Stuart: Our live services and other netbookings was $1.09 billion, highlighted by EA Sports Madden NFL 24 outperformance in the quarter.
Stuart: The greater-than-expected results from EA Sports' Madden NFL 24 are a strong proof point in the power of a thriving community in and around our games.
Stuart: During the quarter, we saw sustained momentum late in the title cycle, with both weekly average use in Ultimate Team and total net bookings up double digits year over year.
Stuart Canfield: As Andrew spoke to earlier, our intentional focus on delivering fun gameplay, real-world connection, and compelling live content year-round is foundational to driving deeper engagement and expanding our communities as we build platforms in and around our games. Apex Legends year after year declines, improves sequentially, and came in line with our expectations. The team remains focused on investing behind and delivering against a year-long strategy of meaningfully updating the experiences in seasons 22, 23, and beyond. Turning to the EA Sports FC franchise, results came in better than expected but down for the quarter against double-digit growth in the prior year period, which benefited from tailwinds relating to the World Cup.
Stuart Canfield: As Andrew spoke earlier, our intentional focus on delivering fun gameplay, real-world connection, and compelling live content year-round is foundational to driving deeper engagement and expanding our communities as we build platforms in and around our games. Apex Legends' year-over-year decline improved sequentially and came in line with our expectations.
Stuart: As Andrew spoke to earlier, our intentional focus on delivering fun gameplay, real-world connection, and compelling live content year-round is foundational to driving deeper engagement and expanding our communities as we build platforms in and around our games.
Andrew Wilson: Apex Legends' year-over-year decline improved sequentially and came in line with our expectations.
Stuart Canfield: The team remains focused on investing in and delivering against a year-long strategy of meaningfully updating the experiences in Seasons 22, 23, and beyond. Turning to the EA Sports FC franchise, results came in better than expected, but down for the quarter against double-digit growth in the prior year period, which benefited from tailwinds relating to the World Cup. It's worth noting that, to date, the new EA Sports FC franchise is up mid single digits versus the prior version.
Andrew Wilson: The team remains focused on investing behind and delivering against a year-long strategy of meaningfully updating the experiences in Seasons 22, 23, and beyond.
Speaker Change: Donating to the EA Sports FC franchise. Results came in better than expected, but down for the quarter against double digit growth in the prior year period, which benefited from tailwinds relating to the World Cup.
Stuart Canfield: It's worth noting that life today, a new EA Sports FC franchise is up mid-single digits versus the prior version. EA Sports FC Mobile delivered a record Q1 netbookings result, benefiting from double-digit growth in spender acquisition as a result of gameplay improvements and real-life events. FC Mobile is the blueprint for a mobile strategy grounded in leveraging the expanded access points offered by the mobile platform to continue to grow our largest franchise. On a gap basis, we delivered Q1 net revenue of $1.66 billion, down 14% year over year. As a reminder, year-over-year declines were driven primarily by slate timing of four game releases.
Speaker Change: It's worth noting that Life Today, our new EA Sports FC franchise, is up mid-single digits versus the prior version.
Stuart Canfield: EA Sports FC Mobile delivered a record Q1 net bookings result, benefiting from double-digit growth in spender acquisition as a result of gameplay improvements and real-life events. FC Mobile is the blueprint for a mobile strategy grounded in leveraging the expanded access points offered via the mobile platform to continue to grow our largest franchises.
Speaker Change: EA Sports FC Mobile delivered a record Q1 net bookings result, benefiting from double-digit growth in spender acquisition as a result of gameplay improvements and real-life events.
Speaker Change: FC Mobile is the blueprint for our mobile strategy, grounded in leveraging the expanded access points offered via the mobile platform to continue to grow our largest franchises.
Stuart Canfield: On a GAAP basis, we delivered Q1 net revenue of $1.66 billion, down 14% year-over-year. As a reminder, year-over-year declines were driven primarily by the timing of full game releases. GAAP operating expenses were $1.03 billion, up 2% year-over-year, primarily driven by focused investments in teams supporting our largest growth opportunities. As a result, earnings per share was $1.04.
Speaker Change: On a gap basis, we delivered Q1 net revenue of $1.66 billion, down 14% year-over-year. As a reminder, year-over-year declines were driven primarily by slate timing of full-game releases.
Stuart Canfield: Gap operating expenses were $1.03 billion, up 2% year over year, primarily driven by focused investments in teams supporting our largest growth opportunities. As a result, earnings per share was $1.04. We delivered operating cash flow of $120 million in the quarter. On a trailing 12 month basis, free cash flow is $1.86 billion, up 3% year over year.
Speaker Change: GAAP operating expenses were $1.03 billion, up 2% year-over-year, primarily driven by focused investments in teams supporting our largest growth opportunities.
Speaker Change: As a result, earnings per share was $1.04.
Stuart Canfield: We delivered operating cash flow of $120 million in the quarter. On a trailing 12-month basis, free cash flow was $1.86 billion, up 3% year-over-year. In the first quarter, we returned $425 million to stockholders through stock buybacks and dividends, a 13% year-over-year increase as we implemented our new stock repurchase program. Now, turning to guidance.
Speaker Change: We delivered operating cash flow of $120 million in the quarter. On a trailing 12-month basis, free cash flow is $1.86 billion, up 3% year over year.
Stuart Canfield: In the first quarter, we returned $425 million to stockholders through stock buybacks and dividends, a 13% year-over-year increase as we implemented our new stock repurchase program. Now, turning to guidance, Q2 is an action-packed EH sports quarter with one successful launch down and two of our biggest launches in Madden NFL 25 and FC 25 coming up. We're also releasing new experiences in some of our largest franchises, like Season 22 for our Apex Legends fans. These efforts underpin our expectation to deliver our largest Q2 networking quarter in our history.
Speaker Change: In the first quarter, we returned $425 million to stockholders through stock buybacks and dividends, a 13% year-over-year increase as we implemented our new stock repurchase program.
Stuart Canfield: Q2 is an action-packed EA Sports quarter, with one successful launch down and two of our biggest launches in Madden NFL 25 and FC 25 coming up. We're also releasing new experiences in some of our largest franchises, like Season 22 for our Apex Legends fans. These efforts underpin our expectation to deliver our largest Q2 Netbookings Quarter in our history. Let me break down some of the assumptions that are incorporated into our guidance.
Speaker Change: Now, turning to guidance.
Speaker Change: Q2 is an action-packed EA Sports quarter, with one successful launch down and two of our biggest launches in Madden NFL 25 and FC 25 coming up.
Speaker Change: We're also releasing new experiences in some of our largest franchises, like Season 22 for our Apex Legends fans.
Speaker Change: These efforts underpin our expectation to deliver our largest Q2 netbookings quarter in our history.
Stuart Canfield: Let me break down some of the assumptions that are incorporated into our guidance. First, we've seen an incredible start to EH Sports College Football 25 with record week one engagement for our sports franchise in North America and positive Ultimate Team momentum. We are only 11 days post-launch, but we are very excited about the opportunity to significantly grow our American football community. Second, we look forward to the launch of EH Sports Madden NFL 25 as we continue to deliver a differentiated and outstanding NFL experience following a record-setting EH Sports Madden 24. Third, we expect a strong launch to EH Sports FC 25 at the end of the quarter, setting up the franchise to grow over EH Sports FC 24 for the four-year, with new ways to play, tactical improvements, and a revamped social experience expected to drive healthy engagement.
Speaker Change: Let me break down some of the assumptions that are incorporated into our guidance.
Stuart Canfield: First, we've seen an incredible start to EA Sports College Football 25 with record week one engagement for our sports franchise in North America and positive ultimate team momentum. We are only 11 days post-launch, but we are very excited about the opportunity to significantly grow our American football community. Second, we look forward to the launch of EA Sports Madden NFL 25 as we continue to deliver a differentiated and outstanding NFL experience following a record-setting EA Sports Madden 24.
Speaker Change: First, we have seen an incredible start at EA Sports College Football 25 with record Week 1 engagement for our sports franchise in North America and positive Ultimate Team momentum.
Speaker Change: We are only 11 days post-launch, but we are very excited about the opportunity to significantly grow our American football community.
Speaker Change: Second, we look forward to the launch of EA Sports Madden NFL 25 as we continue to deliver a differentiated and outstanding NFL experience following a record-setting EA Sports Madden 24.
Stuart Canfield: Third, we expect a strong launch for EA Sports FC 25 at the end of the quarter, setting up the franchise to grow over EA Sports FC 24 for the full year with new ways to play, tactical improvements, and a revamped social experience expected to drive healthy engagement in our largest community. Fourth, we remain prudent in our approach to Apex Legends as the team introduces new innovations and game mechanics to the community in Season 22. And lastly, if rates remain unchanged, we expect minimal impact from FX.
Speaker Change: Third, we expect a strong launch to EA Sports FC25 at the end of the quarter, setting up the franchise to grow over EA Sports FC24 for the full year, with new ways to play, tactical improvements, and a revamped social experience expected to drive healthy engagement in our largest community.
Stuart Canfield: Fourth, we remain prudent in our approach to Apex Legends as the team introduces new innovations and game mechanics to the community with Season 22. And lastly, if rates remain unchanged, we expect minimal impact from FX. As a result of these assumptions, we expect Q2 net bookings of $1.95 billion to $2.05 billion, up 7% to up 13% year over year, or up 8% to up 13% in constant currency. For the second quarter, we expect gap net revenue of $1.9 billion to $2 billion, and cost of revenue to be $420 million to $450 million. We expect gap operating expenses in Q2 to be between $1.19 billion and $1.2 billion, up 10% to 11% year over year, driven primarily by restructuring-related charges and continuing investment behind our long-term growth opportunities.
Speaker Change: Fourth, we remain prudent in our approach to Apex Legends as the team introduces new innovations and game mechanics to the community with Season 22.
Speaker Change: And lastly, if rates remain unchanged, we expect minimal impact from FX.
Stuart Canfield: As a result of these assumptions, we expect Q2 net bookings of $1.95 billion to $2.05 billion, up 7% to up 13% year over year or up 8% to up 13% in constant currency. For the second quarter, we expect gap net revenue of $1.9 billion to $2 billion and cost of revenue to be $420 million to $450 million. We expect GAAP operating expenses in Q2 to be between $1.19 billion and $1.2 billion, up 10% to 11% year-over-year, driven primarily by restructuring-related charges and continued investment behind our long-term growth opportunities.
Speaker Change: As a result of these assumptions, we expect Q2 net bookings of $1.95 billion to $2.05 billion, up 7% to up 13% year-over-year, or up 8% to up 13% in constant currency.
Speaker Change: For the second quarter, we expect gap net revenue of $1.9 billion to $2 billion and cost of revenue to be $420 million to $450 million.
Speaker Change: We expect GAAP operating expenses in Q2 to be between $1.19 billion and $1.2 billion, up 10% to 11% year-over-year, driven primarily by restructuring-related charges and continued investment behind our long-term growth opportunities.
Stuart Canfield: We expect earnings per share to be approximately 76 cents to 93 cents.
Stuart Canfield: We expect earnings per share to be approximately 76 cents to 93 cents. As a reminder, we benefited from a $92 million one-time tax benefit recognized in the year-ago period, and we expect to incur $65 million in restructuring charges related to our February restructuring event.
Speaker Change: We expect earnings per share to be approximately 76 cents to 93 cents.
Stuart Canfield: As a reminder, we've benefited from a $92 million one-time tax benefit recognized in the year-ago period, and we expect to incur $65 million in restructuring charges related to our February restructuring event.
Speaker Change: As a reminder, we benefitted from a $92 million one-time tax benefit recognised in the year-ago period, and we expect to incur $65 million in restructuring charges related to our February restructuring event.
Stuart Canfield: Now, turning to the full year. To date, our execution has been strong, and we expect our momentum to continue as we have seen fantastic player responses across AESports' brand new titles. We're excited about our upcoming FY25 slate, including EA Sports titles, Madden NFL 25 and FC 25, and Dragon Age: The Vailgun. We remain focused on executing these title releases and delivering our core life services. As a result, we are reaffirming our fiscal year 2025 networking's guidance range of $7.3 billion to $7.7 billion, down 2% up 4% year over year. We are reaffirming our guidance for our other four-year metrics.
Stuart Canfield: Now turning to the full year. To date, our execution has been strong, and we expect our momentum to continue as we have seen fantastic player responses across EA Sports' brand new titles. We're excited about our upcoming FY25 slate, including EA Sports titles, Madden NFL 25 and FC 25, and Dragon Age: The Veilguards. We remain focused on executing these title releases and delivering our core live services. As a result, we are reaffirming our fiscal year 2025 net bookings guidance range of $7.3 billion to $7.7 billion, down 2% to up 4% year over year.
Speaker Change: Now, turning to the full year.
Speaker Change: To date, our execution has been strong, and we expect our momentum to continue as we have seen fantastic player responses across EA Sports' brand new titles.
Speaker Change: We're excited about our upcoming FY25 slate, including EA Sports titles, Madden NFL 25 and FC 25, and Dragon Age The Veil Guard.
Speaker Change: We remain focused on executing these title releases and delivering our core life services.
Speaker Change: As a result, we are reaffirming our fiscal year 2025 net bookings guidance range of $7.3 billion to $7.7 billion, down 2% up 4% year over year.
Stuart Canfield: We are reaffirming our guidance for our other four-year metrics. Our first quarter results are a testament to our incredible brands and our talented teams who are delivering experiences that continue to grow and engage our communities through innovative and interactive experiences. We saw this execution in our ability to sustain EA Sports Madden NFL 24 momentum through the quarter, deliver healthy engagement in our global football business, and continue to improve our mobile business, which remains an important entry point for our largest franchises.
Stuart Canfield: Our first quarter results are a testament to our incredible brands and our talented teams who are delivering experiences that continue to grow and engage our communities through innovative and interactive experiences. We saw this execute in our ability to sustain EA Sports, Matt, and NFL 24 momentum through the quarter, deliver healthy engagement in our global football business, and continue to improve our mobile business, which remains an important entry point for our largest franchises.
Speaker Change: We are reaffirming our guidance for our other four-year metrics.
Speaker Change: Our first quarter results are a testament to our incredible brands and our talented teams who are delivering experiences that continue to grow and engage our communities through innovative and interactive experiences.
Speaker Change: We saw this execution in our ability to sustain EA Sports Madden NFL 24 momentum through the quarter, deliver healthy engagement in our global football business, and continue to improve our mobile business, which remains an important entry point for our largest franchises.
Stuart Canfield: Looking forward, we expect to continue to invest with sharpened focus behind our three strategic pillars, as we position ourselves for accelerated growth in FY26 and beyond.
Stuart Canfield: Looking forward, we expect to continue to invest with sharpened focus behind our three strategic pillars as we position ourselves for accelerated growth in FY26 and beyond. Our teams look forward to sharing more about our long-term growth opportunities and initiatives and are invested there on September 17.
Speaker Change: Looking forward, we expect to continue to invest with sharpened focus behind our three strategic pillars as we position ourselves for accelerated growth in FY26 and beyond.
Stuart Canfield: Our teams look forward to sharing more on our long-term growth opportunities and initiatives, and are invested on September 17th.
Speaker Change: Our teams look forward to sharing more around our long-term growth opportunities and initiatives at our Investor Day on September 17th. Now I'll hand it back to Andrew.
Andrew Wilson: Now, we'll hand it back to Andrew. Thanks, Stuart. Our strong Q1 demonstrated the determination of our teams and the resiliency of our business.
Andrew Wilson: Thanks, Stuart. Our strong Q1 demonstrated the determination of our teams and the resiliency of our business. Traditional entertainment is being challenged as consumer preferences change and technology continues to disrupt business models. Now, we're in a fundamentally different position. We've already navigated our shift in distribution. Consumption is only growing and becoming more concentrated in our franchises. And we are unlocking new business models. We have an incredible competitive advantage with the excellence of our creative talent, our production strength, our broad portfolio of incredible IP, including EA Sports, and a massive player network. With these enviable strengths, we are well-positioned to grow the industry and increase our market. And now, Stuart and I will take your questions.
Andrew Wilson: Thanks Stuart. Our strong Q1 demonstrated the determination of our teams and the resiliency of our business. Traditional entertainment is being challenged as consumer preferences change and technology continues to disrupt business models.
Andrew Wilson: QVisual entertainment is being challenged as consumer preferences change and technology continues to disrupt business models. We're in a fundamentally different position. We've already navigated our shift in distribution. Consumption is only growing and becoming more concentrated in our franchises, and we are unlocking new business models. We have an incredible competitive advantage with the excellence of our creative talent, our production strength, our broad portfolio of incredible IP, including EA Sports, and a massive player network. With these enviable strengths, we are well positioned to grow the industry and increase our market share.
Andrew Wilson: We're in a fundamentally different position. We have already navigated our shift in distribution, consumption is only growing and becoming more concentrated in our franchises, and we are unlocking new business models.
Andrew Wilson: We have an incredible competitive advantage with the excellence of our creative talent, our production strength, our broad portfolio of incredible IP, including EA Sports, and a massive player network.
Andrew Wilson: With these enviable strengths, we are well positioned to grow the industry and increase our market share.
Unknown Executive: And now, Stuart and I will take your questions. Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again.
Andrew Wilson: And now Stuart and I will take your questions.
Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. Your first question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Speaker Change: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again.
Eric Sheridan: Your first question comes from a line of Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Thanks so much for taking the question. Maybe two bigger picture ones if I can. You've talked a lot in the last year about how maddened it has become more global in scope. Can you talk a little bit about how you plan on building in that momentum with Madden as a franchise as we look out over the next 12 to 18 months to continue to build scale from a global perspective. And the second question would be on EAFC. Obviously, last year was an interesting year because you were moving the brand around and having the execute against that.
Speaker Change: Your first question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Eric Sheridan: Thanks so much for taking the question. Maybe two bigger picture ones if I can.
Eric Sheridan: Thanks so much for taking the question. Maybe two bigger picture ones if I can. You've talked a lot in the last year about how Madden had become more global in scope. Can you talk a little bit about how you plan on building on that momentum with Madden as a franchise as we look out over the next 12 to 18 months to continue to build scale from a global perspective? And the second question would be on EAFC. Obviously last year was a an interesting year because you were moving the brand around and having to execute against that. What are some of the key learnings from the rebranding exercise you went through 12 months ago that are sort of informing how you also continue to build scale around EAFC and how the product might change in the years ahead. Thanks so much.
Andrew Wilson: You've talked a lot in the last year about how Madden has become more global in scope. Can you talk a little bit about how you plan on building on that momentum with Madden as a franchise as we look out over the next 12 to 18 months to continue to build scale from a global perspective? And the second question would be on EAFC. Obviously, last year was an interesting year because you were moving the brand around and having to execute against that.
Andrew Wilson: What are some of the key learnings from the rebranding exercise you went through 12 months ago that are sort of informing how you also continue to build scale around EFFC and how the product might change in the years ahead. Thanks so much.
Andrew Wilson: Okay, there's a lot in there. Great two great questions. First, let me touch on Madden. I think as you as you reference global, you think about international geographies, and certainly we're pushing hard there on the NFL. It is doing an incredible job of building a fan base internationally. They're doing more and more games internationally every year, athletes leaning into their fan bases internationally every year. But as we think about Madden growth, it's not just about geographic growth. It is about demographic growth; it is about platform growth; and ultimately will be growth driven by new and interesting business models. And so, as you look at our Madden experiences broadly, while we've continued to build out modalities for the core and to ensure that we continue to fulfill the needs and motivations about core players who have been with us for many, many years.
Andrew Wilson: What are some of the key learnings from the rebranding exercise you went through 12 months ago that are sort of informing how you also continue to build scale around EAFC and how the product might change in the years ahead? Thanks so much.
Speaker Change: Okay, there's a lot in there. Two great questions.
Speaker Change: First let me touch on Madden. I think as you reference global, you think about international geographies.
Speaker Change: And certainly we're pushing hard there and the NFL is doing an incredible job of building a fan base internationally. They're doing more and more games internationally every year. Athletes are leaning into their fan bases internationally every year.
Speaker Change: But as we think about Madden growth, it's not just about geographic growth.
Speaker Change: It is about demographic growth, it is about platform growth, and ultimately it will be growth driven by new and interesting business models. And so as you look at our Madden experiences broadly.
Speaker Change: Well, we've continued to build out modalities for the core and to ensure that we continue to fulfill the needs and motivations of our core players who have been with us for many, many years.
Andrew Wilson: A lot of what you're also started to see, including you know new modes that we've brought in in recent years around attracting new, younger players. You also see what we're doing with Madden Mobile and the constant evolution of that franchise in its mobile incarnation. As we look forward, we do think about this. We think that the combination of Madden plus colleagues will overall grow our football community. We're already seeing that this year with the start of college football in Q2. We think that brings in both younger players and new players that either have never played Madden or have not played Madden for a couple of years.
Speaker Change: A lot of what you're also starting to see, including, you know, new modes that we've brought in in recent years around attracting new, younger players.
Speaker Change: You also see what we're doing with Madden Mobile and the constant evolution of that franchise in its mobile incarnation.
Speaker Change: As we look forward, we do think about this.
Speaker Change: We think that the combination of Madden plus college will overall grow our football community. We're already seeing that this year with the start of college football in Q2. We think that brings in both younger players and new players that either have never played Madden or have not played Madden for a couple of years.
Andrew Wilson: You'll see us invest meaningfully in new modalities of play that are really interesting, particularly in a social connection context for these new younger fans that are coming into our football experiences. You'll see us start to develop more and more modalities of play across devices, including mobile, and over the course of time, you should also expect us to branch into new and different business models that we expect will expand our audience. This is the biggest game in this country by a wide margin. I American football, both in the context of college and the NFL. We know the sport is growing internationally by virtue of access that fans have to the sport now through cable and streaming.
Speaker Change: You'll see us invest meaningfully in new modalities of play that are really interesting, particularly in a social connection context for these new younger fans that are coming into our football experiences.
Speaker Change: You'll see us start to develop more and more modalities of play across devices, including mobile. And over the course of time, you should also expect us to branch into new and different business models that we expect will expand our audience.
Speaker Change: This is the biggest game in this country by a wide margin, i.e. American football, both in the context of college and the NFL. We know the sport is growing internationally by virtue of access that fans have to the sport now through cable and streaming.
Andrew Wilson: And we know that our games, both EA Sports College Football 25 and the upcoming Madden 25, are a meaningful way that fans around the world get to come and experience their fandom, share their fandom with their friends, and grow their fandom over time. And so our expectation is that this is just the first step in how we grow our football community.
Speaker Change: And we know that our games, both EA Sports College Football 25 and the upcoming Madden 25, are a meaningful way that fans around the world get to come and experience their fandom, share their fandom with their friends, and grow their fandom over time. And so our expectation is that this is just the first step in how we grow our football community.
Andrew Wilson: To get your second part on EA Sports FC again, I just want to thank our teams again across development, marketing, and many license partners, the many athletes that form the center of that game. It was truly an extraordinary relaunch of that franchise and has put us in a position to grow. And as we went through that transformation and we talked to about that. We talked about our ability to expand gameplay into areas that were otherwise unable to do. We talked about expanding the commercial relationships with big global sports brands that we're unable to work with.
Speaker Change: To get to your second part on EA Sports FC, again,
Speaker Change: I just want to thank our teams again across development, marketing, our many licensed partners, the many athletes that form the very center of that game. It was truly an extraordinary relaunch of that franchise and has put us in a position to grow. And as we went through that transformation and we talked to you about that, we talked about our ability to expand gameplay into areas that we were otherwise unable to do.
Speaker Change: We talked about expanding the commercial relationships with big global sports brands that we're unable to work with.
Andrew Wilson: We talked about expanding beyond the bounds of traditional play. Are you doing things with our fans that are outside the 11 or 11 game, and certainly we've got five on five that's coming into FC this year. And we talked about moving much, much faster in the context of how we develop and evolve the experience over time. And so many of those lessons were learned through that process. Our objective was to do more in game. Our objective was to do more with commercial partners. Our objective was to do more beyond the bounds of the game. And objective was to move really, really quickly at the speed of the cultural evolution that is happening in our world.
Speaker Change: We talked about expanding beyond the bounds of traditional play, i.e. doing things with our fans that are outside the 11-on-11 game, and certainly we've got 5-on-5 that's coming into FC this year, and we talked about moving much, much further.
Speaker Change: Faster in the context of how we develop and evolve the experience over time
Speaker Change: And so many of those lessons were learned through that process. Our objective was to do more in-game. Our objective was to do more with commercial partners. Our objective was to do more beyond the bounds of the game. And our objective was to move really, really quickly at the speed of the cultural evolution that is happening in our world. And I would say our teams did an extraordinary job in doing that. And much of the learning we got was that we're headed in exactly the right direction.
Andrew Wilson: And I would say our teams did an extraordinary job in doing that. And much of the learning we got was that we're headed in exactly the right direction. So, as you look at the FC this year, we are expanding modalities of play. As you look at the many things we're doing with new commercial partners that are expanding what people can do inside the game and outside the game. And later this year, you'll see us do more and more beyond the bounds of the game. We're going to talk more about that, and I will invest today in September.
Speaker Change: So as you look at FC this year, we are expanding modalities of play.
Speaker Change: As you look at the many things we're doing with new commercial partners that are expanding what people can do inside the game and outside the game, and later this year you'll see us do more and more beyond the bounds of the game. We're going to talk more about that at our investor day in September .
Andrew Wilson: But the biggest thing that we've been able to do since the rebrand is just move much, much faster. And I know that is great for our teams. But more importantly, that's really, really good for our players globally.
Speaker Change: But the biggest thing that we've been able to do since the rebrand is just move much, much faster. And I know that is great for our teams, but more importantly, that's really, really good for our players globally.
Unknown Executive: You are next question. Come to my line.
Andrew Wilson: Okay, there's a lot in there. Two great questions.
Matthew Cost: Thank you. You are next question. Come to the line of Matthew Cost from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Hi everybody. Thanks for taking the questions.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line.
Speaker Change: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Cost from Morgan Stanley . Your line is open.
Matthew Cost: I guess sticking with American football for a little bit here when we think about ultimate team for the college football game. Is there any potential for cannibalization of Matt and Ultimate Team just as a function of how successful college football has been with those 5 million players in the game. Obviously, you can buy a copy of each game relatively easily, but an hour spent in College Football Ultimate Team is an hour that you can't spend in Matt and Ultimate Team. So how should we expect those two to interact? Is there a potential for cannibalization? That's question 1.
Matthew Andrew Cost: Hi everybody, thanks for taking the questions. I guess sticking with American football for a little bit here, when we think about ultimate teams for the college football game,
Matthew Andrew Cost: Is there any potential for cannibalization of MADden Ultimate Team just as a function of how successful college football has been with those 5 million players in the game? Obviously you can buy a copy of each game relatively easily, but an hour spent in college football Ultimate Team is an hour that you can't spend in MADden Ultimate Team.
Speaker Change: How should we expect those two to interact? Is there potential for cannibalization? That's question one. And then question two is just, you called out AI and ML efficiencies in the process of developing the college football game. I'm wondering if there's anything that you'd call out in particular where you were able to, you know, speed up a process or do something faster, higher level quality.
Andrew Wilson: And then question 2 is just you called out AI and ML efficiencies in the process of developing the college football game. I'm wondering if there's anything that you'd call out in particular where you were able to speed up a process or do something faster, higher level of quality because of some of those applications of AI. Thank you. Great questions.
Speaker Change: because of some of those applications of AI. Thank you.
Andrew Wilson: First, let me touch on Madden. I think as you refer to global, you think about international geographies. And certainly, we're pushing hard there. And the NFL is doing an incredible job of building a fan base internationally. They're doing more and more games internationally every year. Athletes are leaning into their fan bases internationally every year. But as we think about Madden growth, it's not just about geographic growth. It is about
Andrew Wilson: It is about platform growth, and ultimately, it will be growth driven by new and interesting business models. And so as you look at our Madden experiences broadly, while we've continued to build out modalities for the core and to ensure that we continue to fulfill the needs and motivations of our core players who have been with us for many, many years, a lot of what you're also starting to see, including new modes that we've brought in in recent years around attracting new younger players. You also see what we're doing with Madden Mobile and the As we look forward, we should think about this.
Andrew Wilson: First, let me touch on the Madden Plus College. Again, as we went into this, as we looked to reinvent and relaunch college football after over a decade, a few things are true. One is there is more football fans broadly in this country than there has ever been. Two college football in and of itself is grown dramatically since we were in the marketplace for the game over 10 years ago. And the combination of those two things led us to believe that these two products or these two services would be complimentary in nature. And that, in fact, college would bring in new players to the overall community and actually bring players back who hadn't been with us for some time.
Speaker Change: Great questions. First, let me touch on, you know, the Madden plus college. Again, as we went into this, as we look to reinvent and relaunch college football after over a decade,
Speaker Change: A few things are true. One is there's more football fans broadly in this country than there has ever been. Two, college football in and of itself has grown dramatically since we were in the marketplace for the game over 10 years ago. And the combination of those two things led us to believe that these two products or these two services would be complementary in nature, and that in fact college would bring in new players to the overall community.
Andrew Wilson: We think that the combination of Madden plus college will overall grow our football community. We're already seeing that this year with the start of college football in Q2. We think that brings in both younger players and new players that either have never played Madden or have not played Madden for a couple of years. You'll see us invest meaningfully in new modalities of play that are really interesting, particularly in a social connection context for these new younger fans that are coming into our football experiences.
Andrew Wilson: You'll see us start to develop more and more modalities of play across devices, including mobile. And over the course of time, you should also expect us to branch into new and different business models that we expect will expand our audience. This is the biggest game in this country by a wide margin, i.e., American football, both in the context of college and the NFL.
Andrew Wilson: We know the sport is growing internationally by virtue of the access that fans have to the sport now through cable and streaming. And we know that our games, both EA Sports College Football 25 and the upcoming Madden 25, are a meaningful way that fans around the world get to experience their fandom, share their fandom with their friends, and grow their fandom over time. And so our expectation is that this is just the first step in how we grow our football community.
Andrew Wilson: To get to your second part on EA Sports FC, again, I just want to thank our teams again across development, marketing, our many licensed partners, and the many athletes that form the very center of that game. It was truly an extraordinary relaunch of that franchise and has put us in a position to grow. And as we went through that transformation, and we talked to you about that, we talked about our ability to expand gameplay into areas they were otherwise unable to do. We talked about expanding commercial relationships with big global sports brands that we're unable to work with.
Andrew Wilson: We talked about expanding beyond the bounds of traditional play, i.e., doing things with our fans that are outside the 11-on-11 game, and certainly, we've got 5-on-5 that's coming into FC this year. And we talked about moving much, much faster in the context of how we develop and evolve the experience over time. And so many of those lessons were learned through that process.
Andrew Wilson: Our objective was to do more in-game, our objective was to do more with commercial partners, our objective was to do more beyond the bounds of the game, and our objective was to move really, really quickly at the speed of the cultural evolution that is happening in our world. And I would say our teams did an extraordinary job of doing that, and much of the learning we got was that we're headed in exactly the right direction.
Andrew Wilson: So as you look at FC this year, we are expanding modes of play. As you look at the many things we're doing with new commercial partners that are expanding what people can do inside the game and outside the game, and later this year, you'll see us do more and more beyond the bounds of the game. We're going to talk more about that at our investor day in September. But the biggest thing that we've been able to do since the rebrand is just move much, much faster. And I know that's great for our teams, but more importantly, that's really, really good for our players.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Cost from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Speaker Change: and actually bring players back who hadn't been with us for some time.
Andrew Wilson: It's very early, but I would tell you, our thesis is so far being proven correct. We have grown the community overall. There's been a meaningful percentage of players who have come in through the college experience, are new to us, or haven't been with us for over two years. The second thing is that the MVP bundle, the combination of Madden and college as a pre-order, performed ahead of our expectations and is doing really, really well. And while pre-orders are in perfect metric, they are typically directionally sound. And that would suggest to us that the broad complimentary nature of college plus Madden is proving out.
Speaker Change: It's very early, but I would tell you our thesis has so far been proven correct. We have grown the community overall, there's been a meaningful percentage of players who have come in through the college experience, are new to us, or haven't been with us for over two years.
Matthew Andrew Cost: Hi everybody, thanks for taking the questions. I guess sticking with American football for a little bit here, when we think about an ultimate team for the college football game, is there any potential for cannibalization of Madden ultimate team, just as a function of how successful college football has been with those 5 million players in the game? Question two is just, you called out AI and ML efficiencies in the process of developing the college football game. I'm wondering if there's anything that you'd call out in particular where you were able to speed up a process or do something faster, higher quality, because of some of those applications of AI.
Speaker Change: The second thing is that the MVP bundle, the combination of Madden and College as a pre-order, performed ahead of our expectations and is doing really, really well. And while pre-orders are an imperfect metric,
Speaker Change: They are typically directionally sound and that would suggest to us
Speaker Change: that the broad complementary nature of College Plus Madden is proving out.
Andrew Wilson: Great questions. First, let me touch on Madden plus college. Again, as we went into this, as we look to reinvent and relaunch college football after over a decade, a few things are true. One is that there are more football fans broadly in this country than there have ever been.
Andrew Wilson: As it relates to ultimate team, specifically, one of the things that our teams have done really well is actually think through what does it mean for a player who plays both college and plays Madden? And how do we give them value across both of those gameplay experiences? And ultimately, how do we make those experiences greater than the sum of their parts? Again, we're coming into the Madden season off the back of an incredibly strong Madden 24, incredibly strong engagement in the football, traditional football off season, which for us typically is demonstrative of good forward progress against the next iteration.
Speaker Change: As it relates to Ultimate Team specifically, one of the things that our teams have done really well is actually think through what does it mean for a player who plays both College and plays Madden, and how do we give them value across both of those gameplay experiences, and ultimately how do we make those experiences greater than the sum of their parts.
Speaker Change: It's early, you know, again, we're coming into the Madden season off the back of, you know, an incredibly strong Madden 24, incredibly strong engagement in the off-season, in the football, traditional football off-season, which for us typically is demonstrative of, you know, good forward progress against the next iteration.
Andrew Wilson: Two, college football in and of itself has grown dramatically since we were in the marketplace for the game over 10 years ago. And the combination of those two things led us to believe that these two products or these two services would be complementary in nature, and that, in fact, college football would bring in new players to the overall community and actually bring players back who hadn't been with us for some time. It's very early, but I would tell you our thesis has so far been proven correct.
Andrew Wilson: Madden 25 is going to be the best Madden we've ever made. I know I say that every year, but the teams continue to outdo themselves, including a whole bunch of new modes and new ways to play, combined with a whole new set of players that have come into the community through college football that will be providing a path. If they haven't already bought the MVP bundle, a path from college into Madden and building gameplay experiences that are not only complimentary from the ability to purchase both, but a complimentary from the ability to experience both. And so, again, it's early days in our Q2.
Speaker Change: Madden 25 is going to be the best Madden we've ever made. I know I say that every year, but the teams continue to outdo themselves, including a whole bunch of new modes and new ways to play, combined with a whole new set of players that have come into the community through college football that will be providing a path, if they haven't already bought the MVP bundle, a path from college into Madden, and building gameplay experiences that are not only complementary from the ability to purchase both, but a complementary from the ability to experience both.
Andrew Wilson: We have grown the community overall. There's been a meaningful percentage of players who have come in through the college experience, are new to us, or haven't been with us for over two years. As it relates to Ultimate Team specifically, one of the things that our teams have done really well is actually think through what it means for a player who plays both college and Madden, and how do we give them value across both of those gameplay experiences, and ultimately, how do we make those experiences greater than the sum of their parts.
Andrew Wilson: Again, we're coming into the Madden season off the back of an incredibly strong Madden 24, incredibly strong engagement in the offseason, in the traditional football offseason, which for us typically is demonstrative of good forward progress against the next iteration. Madden 25 is going to be the best Madden we've ever made. I know I say that every year, but the teams continue to outdo themselves, including a whole bunch of new modes and new ways to play, combined with a whole new set of players that have come into the community through college football that will be providing a path, if they haven't already bought the MVP bundle, from college to Madden and building gameplay experiences that are not only complementary from the ability to purchase both but complementary from the ability to play. They're complementary from the ability to experience both.
Unknown Executive: College is often an incredible start. Pre-orders in Madden are off to a really strong start. Our expectation that the two will be complimentary over time.
Speaker Change: And so, again, it's early days in our Q2, college is off to an incredible start, pre-orders in Madden are off to a really strong start, our expectation that the two will be complementary over time.
Unknown Executive: Your next question comes from a line of crystal from UBS. Your line is open. Great, thank you. So, fiscal 1Q came in ahead of your expectations, and fiscal 2Q guidance also seemed stronger than where the street was prior to today.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Chris Schult from UBS. Your line is open.
Andrew Wilson: And so, again, it's early days in our Q2. College is off to an incredible start. Pre-orders for Madden are off to a really strong start, and our expectation is that the two will be complementary over time. Your next question comes from the line of Chris Schult from UBS. Your line is open. Great, thank you. So fiscal 1Q came in ahead of your expectations, and fiscal 2Q guidance also seems stronger than where the street was prior.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Chris Schult from UBS. Your line is open.
Chris Schultz: Great, thank you. So fiscal 1Q came in ahead of your expectations and fiscal 2Q guidance also seemed stronger than where the street was prior to today. Can you just help us think through why we didn't see that flow through to the full year outlook and is it fair to say you were trending toward the higher end of your prior range?
Stuart Canfield: Can you just help us think through why we didn't see that flow through to the full year outlook, and is it fair to say you were trending toward the higher end of your prior range? And you also cited strong soccer performance contributing to the fiscal 1Q beat. Recognize it was towards the end of the quarter, but can you help us size up if you think COPA and Euro provided and might not repeat as we look forward? Thank you. Thanks for the question, Stuart. Just stepping back, I think I mean, yes, we're building great momentum. We think about the guidance coming out of Q1.
Speaker Change: And you also cited strong soccer performance contributing to the fiscal 1Q beat. Recognize it was towards the end of the quarter, but can you help us size up what you think COPA and Euro provided and might not repeat as we look forward? Thank you.
Christopher Joseph Schoell: Hey Chris, thanks for the questions, Stuart. Just stepping back, I think, I mean, yes, we're building great momentum when we think about the guidance coming out of Q1. We just talked a little bit at length about Q2 with Andrew's commentary a second ago and how we're thinking about framing up the quarter. We've obviously reflected the continued progress we're seeing in the momentum we're building and the return to growth by default of that guide range inside of Q2. Also, I think it's reflective of the momentum that we're building as we deliver on the long-term financial framework we're laying out, which accelerates growth, increases operating leverage, and drives cash back to shareholders.
Speaker Change: Hey Chris, thanks for the questions Stuart.
Unknown Executive: Just stepping back, I think, I mean, yes, we're building great momentum when we think about the guidance coming out of Q1.
Stuart Canfield: We just talked a little bit at length around Q2 with Andrew's commentary a second ago and how we're thinking about framing up the quarter. We've obviously reflected the continued progress we're seeing in the momentum we're building and the return to growth by the thought of that guide range inside of Q2. Also, I think it's reflective of the momentum that we're building as we deliver on the long-term financial framework we're laying out, which accelerated growth, increasing operating letters, and driving cash back to shareholders. We think inside of Q2; obviously, we reflected the combination of an aggregate growth in football.
Unknown Executive: We just talked a little bit at length around Q2 with Andrew's commentary a second ago and how we're thinking about framing up the quarter.
Speaker Change: We've obviously reflected the continued progress we're seeing in the momentum we're building and the return to growth by default of that guide range inside of Q2. Also, I think it's reflective of the momentum that we're building as we deliver on the long-term financial framework we're laying out, which accelerated growth.
Stuart Canfield: We think inside of Q2, obviously, we reflected the combination of an aggregate growth in football. We do believe FC, although only having one week inside the quarter, does continue to grow in live services, and we'll assess where four-game goes as we tackle the transition last year and bring players into the game up front. We are being prudent and pragmatic about how we see APEX over the first six weeks and the last six weeks of Season 21, as we head into Season 22, and that's the first time that we've seen two American Football tiles launch in the same quarter, as we think about both the sales curve for college over the next sort of two to five weeks, and secondly, how we see players engage in time both between Madden and college as we wrap up the Q2 guide.
Speaker Change: Increasing operating leverage and driving cash back to shareholders.
Speaker Change: We think inside of Q2, obviously we reflected the combination of an aggregate growth in football. We do believe FC, although only having one week inside the quarter, does continue to grow in live services, and we'll assess where four-game goes as we tackle the transition last year and brought players into the game up front.
Stuart Canfield: We do believe FC, although only having one week inside the quarter, does continue growing live services and we'll assess where four game goes as we tackled the transition last year and brought players into the game up front. We are being prudent and pragmatic around how we see Apex over the first six weeks and the last six weeks of season 21 as we head into season 22. And that's the first time that we've seen two American football titles launch in the same quarter as you think about both the sales curve of college over the next sort of two to five weeks.
Speaker Change: We are being prudent and pragmatic around how we see APEX over the first six weeks and the last six weeks of Season 21 as we head into Season 22. And that's the first time that we've seen two American football titles launch in the same quarter as you think about both the sales curve of college over the next sort of two to five weeks.
Stuart Canfield: And secondly, how we see players engage in time both between Mountain College as we were out the Q2 guide.
Speaker Change: And secondly, how we see players engage in time both between Madden and college as we weigh up the Q2 guide. As we think about the full year, I'm reiterating, obviously we're literally four months into the year. We have both Madden, FC, and Dragon Age still ahead of us.
Stuart Canfield: As we think about the four year and reiterating, obviously we're literally four months into the year. We have both Madden FC and Dragon Age still ahead of us. We do expect by phasing to continue to show growth and build growth out through the year through the four year, but also we'll look to come back in our next earnings once we get through those major releases at this point.
Stuart Canfield: As we think about the full year, I'm reiterating, obviously, we're literally four months into the year. We have both Madden NFL, and Dragon Age still ahead of us. We do expect, by phasing, to continue to show growth and build growth out through the year, through the full year. Obviously, we'll look to come back in our next earnings once we get through those major. Your next question comes from the line of Corey Carpenter from J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.
Speaker Change: We do expect, by phasing, to continue to show growth and build growth out through the four year. But obviously we'll look to come back in our next earnings once we get through those major releases at this point.
Cory Carpenter: Your next question comes from the line of Corey Carpenter from JP Morgan. Your line is open. Great. Thanks for the question. We didn't ask about the video game after Strike.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Corey Carpenter from J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.
Speaker Change: Great, thanks for the question. We're going to ask about the video game After Strike. How would you frame the potential risk of disruption to the business broadly in the near term? And then specifically, at what point could this start to have an impact on your release schedule? Thank you.
Cory Carpenter: How would you frame the control risk of disruption to the business broadly in the near term and then specifically at what point could this start to have an impact on your really schedule. Thank you.
Andrew Wilson: So let me let me first say, you know, we deeply value our talent actors who are an important part of the work we do to deliver the incredible entertainment experiences that our players enjoy around the world. You know, we're working very closely. This is not an EA specific situation. This is an industry-specific situation, and we're working diligently to negotiate at the table. The way it works now in terms of our products specifically is that the strike is limited to games commencing production after September 2023, including live service games. So we don't expect any near-term disruption to any of the games we haven't developed or any of the live services we're currently running.
Unknown Executive: So let me first say, you know, we deeply value our talented actors who are an important part of the work we do to deliver the incredible entertainment experiences that our players enjoy around the world. You know, we're working very closely; this is not an EA-specific situation; this is an industry-specific situation, and we're working diligently to negotiate at the table. The way it works now in terms of our product specifically is that the strike is limited to games commencing production after September 2023, including live service games.
Speaker Change: So let me first say we deeply value our talented actors who are an important part of the work we do to deliver the incredible entertainment experiences that our players enjoy around the world.
Speaker Change: We're working very closely. This is not an EA-specific situation. This is an industry-specific situation, and we're working diligently to negotiate at the table.
Speaker Change: The way it works now in terms of our product specifically is that the Strike is limited to games commencing production after September 2023.
Unknown Executive: So we don't expect any near-term disruption to any of the games we have in development or any of the live services we're currently running. That being said, we're committed to continuing to bargain in good faith and are hopeful that the parties can expediently resolve our issues at the bargaining table. But we're not anticipating any significant short-term impact.
Speaker Change: Including live service games. So we don't expect any near-term disruption to any of the games we have in development or any of the live services we're currently running. That being said, we're committed to continue to bargain in good faith and are hopeful that the parties, you know, can...
Andrew Wilson: That being said, we committed to continue to bargaining good faith and are hopeful that the parties, you know, can expediently resolve our issues at the bargaining table, but we're not, you know, we're not anticipating any significant short-term impact at EA.
Speaker Change: Expediently resolve our issues at the bargaining table, but we're not anticipating any significant short-term impact at EA.
Andrew Merrick: Your next question comes from a line of Andrew Merrick from Raymond James. Your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Marok from Raymond James. Your line is open. And thanks.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from a line of Andrew Marok from Raymond James. Your line is open.
Andrew Merrick: And thanks for taking my questions. If I could please first, can you remind us of some of the factors that go into the decision to release or not to release a game on both previous gen and current gen consoles and how those factors may be are set up for your big five franchises, maybe thinking of college football on Gen 9 only and Madden on Gen 8 and Gen 9, but some features only on Gen 9 thanks. It's not a perfect science, I would say. On balance, it comes down to where we expect the player base to show up at a scale that makes supporting the platform make financial sense for us.
Andrew Jordan Marok: Thanks for taking my questions. Two, if I could, please.
Andrew Jordan Marok: Thanks for taking my questions. Two, if I could, please.
Andrew Jordan Marok: First, can you remind us of some of the factors that go into the decision to release or not to release a game on both previous-gen and current-gen consoles, and how those factors maybe are set up for your big five franchises? Maybe thinking of College Football on Gen 9 only, and Madden on Gen 8 and Gen 9, but some features only on Gen 9. Thanks.
Andrew Wilson: First, can you remind us of some of the factors that go into the decision to release or not to release a game on both previous-gen and current-gen consoles, and how those factors maybe are set up for your Big Five franchises? Maybe thinking of college football on Gen 9 only, and Madden on Gen 8 and Gen 9, but some features only on Gen 9. Thanks.
Speaker Change: It's not a perfect science, I would say.
Speaker Change: On balance, it comes down to where we expect the player base to show up.
Speaker Change: at a scale that makes supporting the platform make financial sense for us. It is not a zero cost to support each generation of platform, and typically as we think about where the player communities are showing up at the greatest level, that's where we're supporting those platforms.
Andrew Wilson: It is not a zero cost to support each generation of platform, and typically, as we think about where the player communities are showing up at the greatest level, that's where we're supporting those platforms. Typically, what has happened is our larger franchises have had more dispersed platform engagement, by virtue of the fact that they are more geographically diverse, and different geographies evolve at different rates across those platform generations.
Andrew Wilson: It's not a perfect science, I would say. On balance, it comes down to where we expect the player base to show up on, you know, at a scale that makes supporting the platform make financial sense for us. It is not zero cost to support each generation of platform. And typically, as we think about where the player communities are showing up at the greatest level, that's where we're supporting those platforms.
Speaker Change: Typically, what has happened is our larger franchises have had more dispersed platform engagement by virtue of the fact that they are more geographically diverse and different geographies evolve at different rates across those platform generations.
Andrew Wilson: Typically, what has happened is our larger franchises have had more dispersed platform engagement by virtue of the fact that they are more geographically diverse, and different geographies evolve at different rates across those platform generations. Many of the smaller franchises, or the franchises that don't represent our biggest, those players are typically migrating much more quickly to new platforms.
Andrew Wilson: Many of the smaller franchises that don't represent our biggest, those plays typically are migrating much more quickly to new platforms. And as you think about a property like college in particular, something that hasn't been on the platforms for the last 10 years, we really made the decision to be forward-looking on that, and really developing. The team worked incredibly hard on college, and if you've read any of the reviews on college, what they've been able to do on these new platforms is truly extraordinary. And the uptake that we've seen across the new platforms would suggest that the platform decisions we made were the right ones.
Speaker Change: Many of the
Speaker Change: Smaller franchises are the franchises that don't represent our biggest.
Speaker Change: Those players typically are migrating much more quickly to new platforms.
Andrew Wilson: And as you think about a property like College, in particular, something that hasn't been on the platforms for the last 10 years, we really made the decision to be forward looking on that and really develop it. And the team worked incredibly hard on College. And if you've read any of the reviews on college, what they've been able to do on these new platforms is truly extraordinary, and the uptake that we've seen across the new platforms would suggest that the platform decisions we made were the right ones. There was a question earlier around AI as it related to college.
Speaker Change: And as you think about a property like college in particular,
Speaker Change: Something that hasn't been on the platforms for the last 10 years.
Speaker Change: We really made a decision to be forward-looking on that and really develop. And the team worked incredibly hard on college and if you've read any of the reviews on college
Speaker Change: You know, what they've been able to do on these new platforms is truly extraordinary. And the uptake that we've seen across the new platforms would suggest that the platform decisions we made were the right ones. There was a question earlier around AI as it related to college.
Andrew Wilson: There was a question earlier around AI as it related to college. And the reality is we had an incredible team working on this, but we had to get 11,000 new star player heads into the game. For those that don't track our industry or track our sports games in particular, we typically, in any given year, will develop about 500 to 1,000 star heads inside of one of our games. And over the course of a platform generation, through the hand tooling of that, we ultimately fill out the full roster of star heads in our games. And of course there were ebbs and flows in that, but as we were launching college on a new generation of platforms to a new generation of fans, with the world's largest single sport NIL deal, where image was a really important part of the process, getting 11,000 star heads into the game was a top priority for us.
Andrew Wilson: And the reality is, we had an incredible team working on this, but we had to get 11,000 new star player heads into the game. For those that don't track our industry or track our sports games in particular, we typically develop about 500 to 1,000 star heads inside of one of our games. And over the course of a platform generation, through the hand tooling of that, we ultimately filled out the full roster of star heads in our games. And, of course, there were ebbs and flows in that.
Speaker Change: And the reality is, is we had an incredible team working on this, but we had to get 11,000 new star player heads into the game.
Speaker Change: For those that don't track our industry or track our sports games in particular.
Speaker Change: We typically, in any given year, will develop about 500 to 1,000 star heads inside of one of our games. And over the course of a platform generation, through the hand tooling of that, we ultimately fill out the full roster of star heads in our games.
Andrew Wilson: But as we were launching College on a new generation of platforms to a new generation of fans, with the world's largest single sport NIL deal, where image was a really important part of the process, getting 11,000 star heads into the game was a top priority for us. The reality is that our teams are incredible and built workflows to facilitate that, but they were amplified and accelerated through AI and machine learning. And we were able to take in a whole plethora of photo imagery across 11,000 players and build workflows where AI and machine learning would generate heads.
Speaker Change: And, of course, there were ebbs and flows in that, but as we were launching college on a new generation of platforms to a new generation of fans,
Speaker Change: with the world's largest single sport NIL deal where image was a really important part of the process, getting 11,000 star heads into the game was a top priority for us.
Andrew Wilson: The reality is our teams are incredible and built workflows to facilitate that, but they were amplified and accelerated through AI and machine learning. And we were able to take in a whole plethora of photo imagery across 11,000 players and build workflows out where AI and machine learning would generate heads. And our very talented artist would be able to come in and touch up and enhance those heads versus having to go through the full head development program.
Speaker Change: The reality is our teams are incredible and built workflows to facilitate that, but they were amplified and accelerated through AI and machine learning. And we were able to take in a whole plethora of photo imagery across 11,000 players.
Speaker Change: and build workflows out where AI and machine learning would generate heads and our very talented artists would be able to come in and touch up and enhance those heads versus having to go through the full head development program.
Andrew Wilson: And our very talented artists would be able to come in and touch up and enhance those heads versus having to go through the full head development program. In the absence of AI, we simply would not have been able to deliver college football at the level we did, even though we'd given the team many, many years in development. And so to answer both of those questions, typically when we think about past-gen versus future-gen, it comes down to geographic dispersion, it comes down to community dispersion, and it comes down to where we think the greatest gameplay will happen.
Andrew Wilson: In the absence of AI, we simply would not have been able to deliver college football at the level we did, even though we'd given the team many, many years in development. And so to answer both of those questions, typically when we think about past gen versus future gen, it comes down to geographic dispersion and it comes down to community dispersion, and it comes down to where we think the greatest gameplay will happen. And as it relates to college specifically, it was a decision that we made because we were really building the franchise for the future. It was the first time we had done it in 10 years.
Speaker Change: In the absence of AI, we simply would not have been able to deliver college football at the level we did, even though we'd given the team many, many years in development.
Speaker Change: And so to answer both of those questions, typically when we think about past gen versus future gen, it comes down to geographic dispersion, and it comes down to community dispersion, and it comes down to where we think the greatest gameplay will happen. And as it relates to college specifically,
Andrew Wilson: And as it relates to college specifically, it was a decision that we made because we were really building the franchise for the future. It was the first time we had done it in 10 years, and the level of gameplay and the level of visual fidelity that we did was a combination of many years of work by our incredible teams amplified and accelerated by AI, something that we just wouldn't have been able to do as little as two or three years ago.
Speaker Change: It was a decision that we made because we were really building a franchise for the future. It was the first time we had done it in 10 years, and the level of gameplay and the level of visual fidelity that we did was a combination of many years of work of our incredible teams amplified and accelerated by AI, something that we just wouldn't have been able to do as little as two or three years ago.
Andrew Wilson: And the level of gameplay and the level of visual fidelity that we did was a combination of many years of work, our incredible teams amplified and accelerated by AI, something that we just wouldn't have been able to do as little as two or three years.
Andrew Merrick: Really helpful. Thank you for the detail.
Andrew Wilson: Really helpful. Thank you for the detail.
Andrew Wilson: And if I could sneak one in, I got to ask my quarterly APEX question. I wanted to touch on that player reception to the APEX Battle Pass changes. I guess what does that reaction say about the APEX players' ability to bear further monetization? And how does it kind of inform your approach going forward?
Speaker Change: Really helpful. Thank you for the detail. And if I could sneak one in, I got asked my quarterly Apex question. I wanted to touch on that player reception to the Apex battle pass changes. I guess, what does that reaction say about the Apex player's ability to bear further monetization? And how does it kind of inform your approach going forward? Thank you.
Andrew Wilson: And if I could sneak one in, I got asked my quarterly APEX question. I wanted to touch on player reception for the APEX battle pass changes. I guess, what does that reaction say about the APEX player's ability to bear further monetization? And how does it kind of inform your approach going forward? Thank you.
Andrew Wilson: Thank you. Yeah, I mean, first I would say we're really excited for the upcoming season 22 and 23 of APEX. The APEX, the Respawn team has been working diligently on all of the things that are going in, you know, profound improvements in gameplay and modalities of play and geographic culturalization. You know, these seasons that will be bigger and more content rich than usual. And, you know, we're giving our teams the time to create and develop those updates. And our expectation is that, you know, our players will receive them incredibly well. As we think about battle pass specifically.
Andrew Wilson: Yeah, I mean, first, I would say we're really excited for the upcoming seasons 22 and 23 of Apex. The Respawn team has been working diligently on all the things that are going in, you know, profound improvements in gameplay and modalities of play, and geographic culturalization. You know, they've got these seasons that will be bigger and more content-rich than usual.
Speaker Change: Yeah, I mean, first I would say we're really excited for the upcoming season 22 and 23 of Apex. The Respawn team has been working diligently on all the things that are going in, you know, profound improvements in gameplay and modalities of play and geographic culturalization.
Speaker Change: These seasons will be bigger and more content rich than usual and we're giving our teams the time to develop those updates and our expectation is that our players will receive them incredibly well.
Andrew Wilson: And, you know, we're giving our teams the time to creatively develop those updates, and our expectation is that, you know, our players will receive them incredibly well. As we think about Battle Pass specifically, we should just take a step back. You know, the team is always iterating and innovating to bring about the best experience for our players. Our intention this time around was really to improve the overall value and experience across our Battle Pass offerings for our players.
Andrew Wilson: So we should just take a step back. You know, the team is always iterating and innovating to bring about the best experience for our players. Our intention this time round was really to improve the overall value and experience across our battle pass offering for our players. And we wanted to kind of make sure that things were approachable, realistic, and accessible for our global community. That being said, even as we iterate through that, our respawn team listens and learns and is meaningfully connected with their community. And as it became apparent that the community had real feedback around how we're dealing with some of those aspects of the battle pass, the team was able to react and make those changes dramatically.
Speaker Change: As we think about Battle Pass specifically, we should just take a step back. The team is always iterating and innovating to bring about the best experience for our players.
Speaker Change: Our intention this time around was really to improve the overall value and experience across our Battle Pass offerings for our players. And we wanted to kind of make sure that things were approachable, realistic, and accessible for our global community.
Andrew Wilson: And we wanted to kind of make sure that things were approachable, realistic, and accessible for our global community. That being said, even as we iterate through that, our Respawn team listens and learns and is meaningfully connected with their community. And as it became apparent that the community had real feedback around how we're dealing with some of those aspects of Battle Pass, the team was able to react and make those changes dramatically.
Speaker Change: That being said, even as we iterate through that, our Respawn team listens and learns and is meaningfully connected with their community. And as it became apparent that the community had real feedback around how we were dealing with some of those aspects of Battle Pass,
Stuart Canfield: I don't think this speaks to broader monetization overall for the franchise. I don't think this speaks to the community's propensity to want to spend in the context of their ongoing live service experience that is Apex. I just think it was one of those moments where we made a series of really positive changes. And in search of, you know, ongoing iteration around how we deliver those changes. You know, we did some things that the community weren't aligned with, and we've been able to realign with them and our expectations. We moved towards 22 and 23 that the community will be incredibly receptive to what we believe are going to be two seasons of incredible content.
Speaker Change: The team was able to react and make those changes dramatically.
Andrew Wilson: I don't think this speaks to broader monetization overall for the franchise. I don't think this speaks to the community's propensity to want to spend money in the context of their ongoing live service experience that is APEX. I just think it was one of those moments where we made a series of really positive changes and, in search of ongoing iteration around how we deliver those changes, we did some things the community wasn't aligned with, and we've been able to realign with them.
Speaker Change: I don't think this speaks to broader monetization overall for the franchise, I don't think this speaks to the community's propensity to want to spend in the context of their ongoing live service experience that is APEX.
Speaker Change: I just think it was one of those moments where we made a series of really positive changes.
Speaker Change: and in search of, you know, ongoing iteration around how we deliver those changes.
Speaker Change: We, you know, we did some things the community weren't aligned with, and we've been able to realign with them. And our expectation is we move towards 22 and 23, that the community will be incredibly receptive to what we believe are going to be two seasons of incredible content.
Stuart Canfield: Andrew, just to add on quickly to that, just to talk about sort of the financial framework we're using, just to kind of reiterate, you know, although we saw those declines year over year, they were in line with our expectations per the foundation of Q1. We have put in place, you think about the Q2 guide given the strength I talked to in the whole framework for EA, a more measured outlook, particularly as we introduce new innovations and game mechanics. And we just alluded to coming into Season 22 and 3. We do think the comps obviously naturally get easier through the second half and back into the year.
Stuart Canfield: Andrew, just to add quickly to that, just to talk about sort of the financial framework we're using, just to kind of reiterate, you know, although we saw those declines year over year, they were in line with our expectations per the foundation of Q1. We have put in place, you think about the Q2 guide, given the strength I talked about in the whole framework for EA, a more measured outlook, particularly as we introduce new innovations and game mechanics, Andrew just alluded to coming into season 22 and three.
Speaker Change: Andrew, just to add on quickly to that, just to talk about sort of the financial framework we're using, just to kind of reiterate.
Andrew: Although we saw those declines year over year, they were in line with our expectations per the foundation of Q1. We have put in place, as you think about the Q2 guide, given the strength I talked to in the whole framework for EA, a more measured outlook, particularly as we introduce new innovations and game mechanics.
Stuart Canfield: We do think the comps obviously naturally get easier through the second half and back end of the year. Still a long way to go in the year, but know that we've been more moderate in Q2 as we come through that guide.
Andrew: Andrew just alluded to coming into season 22 and 3. We do think the comps obviously naturally get easier through the second half and back end of the year. Still a long way to go in the year but know that we've been more moderating Q2 as we come through that guidance.
Stuart Canfield: It's a long way to go in the year, but know that we've been more moderating Q2 as we come through that guidance.
Colin Sebastian: Your next question comes from a line of Colin Sebastian from Baird. Your line is open. Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Andrew, maybe just to start off higher level, one question we get quite frequently from investors. Really is trying to understand that in industry level, the relatively, I guess, sluggish growth trends in the past few years. We talked a lot about competition for time and money, but are there other dynamics at work that you would highlight that are external TA that could then turn into catalyst or brief some oxygen into the demand side of the market.
Operator: Your next question comes from a line of Colin Sebastian from Baird. Your line is open.
Andrew: Your next question comes from a line of Colin Sebastian from Baird. Your line is open.
Colin Alan Sebastian: Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Andrew, maybe just to start off at a higher level. One question we get quite frequently from investors is really trying to understand that at an industry level, the relatively, I guess, sluggish growth trends over the past few years. We talked a lot about competition for time and money. But are there other dynamics at work that you would highlight that are external TA that could then turn into catalysts or breathe some oxygen into the demand side of the market?
Colin Alan Sebastian: Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Andrew, maybe just to start off higher level, one question we get quite frequently from investors really is trying to understand that an industry level, the relatively, I guess, sluggish growth trends the past few years, we talked a lot about competition for time and money.
Andrew: But are there other dynamics at work that you would highlight that are external TA that could then turn into catalysts or breathe some oxygen into the demand side of the market?
Colin Alan Sebastian: And then my second question is on the Sims franchise, and I appreciate some of the updates there. As one of the ten poll franchises and brands, I'd like to hear a bit more about how you think about growth there, for example, reducing friction to bring more players or expanding onto other platforms or other initiatives. That would be very helpful. Thank you.
Andrew Wilson: And then my second question is on the Sims franchise and appreciate some of the updates there and as one of the 10 poll franchises and brands hoping to hear a bit more about how you think about growth. There, for example, reducing friction to bring more players, or expanding on to other platforms or other initiatives. That would be very helpful. Thank you. Okay, great, great questions.
Speaker Change: And then my second question is on the Sims franchise, and I appreciate some of the updates there. And as one of the ten poll franchises and brands, hoping to hear a bit more about how you think about growth.
Speaker Change: They're, for example, reducing friction to bring in more players or expanding onto other platforms or other initiatives. That would be very helpful. Thank you.
Andrew Wilson: Okay, great, great questions. The macro, as we think about the industry broadly, and I speak to this more about the industry than I do about electronic arts specifically, is that we did see some pretty meaningful peaks coming through COVID around both play and watch in the context of our interactive entertainment industry. As a company, we've continued to grow out of COVID. But that hasn't been true for the whole industry. And so certainly, I think there's some impact there.
Andrew Wilson: At the macro, as you think about the industry broadly, and I, and I speak to this more about the industry than I do around Electronic Arts specifically, is that we did see some pretty meaningful peaks coming through COVID around both play and watch in the context of our interactive entertainment industry. As a company, we've continued to grow out of, out of COVID. That hasn't been true for the whole industry. And so certainly, I think there's some impact there. You know, we also see, and I've talked about this in past calls, we are seeing kind of a secular shift happening in the context of our industry.
Speaker Change: Okay, great, great questions. The macro, as we think about the industry broadly, and I speak to this more about the industry than I do around electronic arts specifically, is that we did see some pretty meaningful peaks coming through COVID around both play and watch in the context of our interactive entertainment industry.
Andrew Wilson: We also see, and I've talked about this in past calls, we are seeing kind of a secular shift happening in the context of our industry. And that is a movement towards the biggest franchises in the industry, franchises that facilitate an expanded definition of play, the ability for the community to come and create content that extends and enhances their experience, and the ability for people to go and watch that content. What we see now is that 25-30% of all engagement in our industry is actually watching content, not just playing content.
Speaker Change: As a company, we've continued to grow out of COVID. That hasn't been true for the whole industry.
Speaker Change: And so certainly I think there's some impact there. We also see, and I've talked about this in past calls, we are seeing kind of a secular shift happening in the context of our industry, and that is a movement towards the biggest franchises.
Andrew Wilson: And that is a movement towards the biggest franchises in the industry, franchises that facilitate an expanded definition of play, the ability for the community to come and create content that extends and enhances their experience. The ability to go and watch that kind of what we see now is, you know, 25, 30% of all engagement in our industry is actually watching content, not just playing content. Incidentally, that correlates to monetization at nearly the same levels as playing does over the course of time. And connection is becoming a really, really important part as I watch our community play inside of our games.
Speaker Change: and the industry franchises that facilitate an expanded definition of play, the ability for the community to come and create content that extends and enhances their experience.
Andrew Wilson: Incidentally, that correlates to monetization at nearly the same levels as playing does over the course of time. And connection is becoming a really, really important part. As I watch our community play inside of our games, the modality of play that involves deep connection with their friends is becoming more and more important. And so I do think, as we look at the industry broadly, not all of the industry has been making that transition at the same rate.
Speaker Change: The ability to go and watch that kind of what we see now is, you know, 25-30% of all engagement in our industry is actually watching content, not just playing content.
Speaker Change: Incidentally, that correlates to monetization at nearly the same levels as playing does over the course of time, and connection is becoming a really, really important part as I watch our community play inside of our games.
Andrew Wilson: The modality of play that involves deep connection with their friends is becoming more and more important. And so I do think, as we look at the industry broadly, not all of the industry has been making that transition at the same rate. I do believe Electronic Arts has been working diligently against that transition. If you look at our three strategic pillars, two of the three are about massive online communities and enhancing the power of communities beyond the bounds of games. And we've been investing meaningfully in those, and you start to see that come about in the context of what you see inside of college football, what you'll see inside of Madden, what you'll see inside of FC.
Speaker Change: The modality of play that involves deep connection with their friends is becoming more and more important.
Andrew Wilson: I do believe Electronic Arts has been working diligently to make that transition. If you look at our three strategic pillars, two of the three are about massive online communities and enhancing the power of communities beyond the bounds of games. And we've been investing meaningfully in those, and you're starting to see that come about in the context of what you see inside of college football, what you'll see inside of Madden, what you'll see inside of FC, certainly what we're building into The Sims.
Speaker Change: And so I do think as we look at the industry broadly, not all of the industry has been making that transition at the same rate. I do believe Electronic Arts has been working diligently against that transition. If you look at our three strategic pillars,
Speaker Change: Two of the three are about massive online communities and enhancing the power of communities beyond the bounds of games, and we've been investing meaningfully in those. And you're starting to see that come about in the context of what you see inside of college football, what you'll see inside of Madden, what you'll see inside of FC, certainly what we're building into The Sims. We've talked a little bit about that being at the very center of what Battlefield is doing. And of course, you know, with the many hundreds of millions of people who play Apex, that sense of connection and community is important there as well.
Andrew Wilson: We've talked a little bit about that being at the very center of what Battlefield is doing. And, of course, with the many hundreds of millions of people who play Apex, that sense of connection and community is important there as well.
Andrew Wilson: Certainly, what we're building into the Sims, we've talked a little bit about that being at the very center of what Battlefield is doing. And of course, you know, with the many hundreds of people who play Apex, that sense of connection and community is important there as well. And so I do believe as we, as we continue to move through this transition and games fulfill motivations and needs of our players beyond play, we will see more hours spent in the context of our broader communities, both playing more, creating more, watching more, and connecting more. And our senses, we look at the shifts now around broader entertainment. Is our industry in particular, and within our industry, our franchises in particular, will benefit disproportionately as Gen Z and Gen Alpha continue to grow and age up and fulfill their entertainment needs through interactive games as their first form of entertainment.
Speaker Change: And so I do believe as we as we continue to move through this transition and games fulfill motivations and needs of our players beyond play.
Speaker Change: We will see more hours spent in the context of our broader communities, both playing more, creating more, watching more, and connecting more. And our sense is we look at the shifts now around broader entertainment, in our industry in particular, and within our industry, our franchises in particular, will benefit disproportionately as Gen Z and Gen Alpha continue to grow.
Andrew Wilson: And our sense as we look at the shifts now around broader entertainment is that our industry, in particular, and within our industry, our franchises, in particular, will benefit disproportionately as Gen Z and Gen Alpha continue to grow and age and fulfill their entertainment needs through interactive games as their first form of entertainment. Sims 4 specifically, again, as we've talked about, we're committed to continually evolving The Sims 4 experience with over 15 updates in the coming year.
Speaker Change: and age up and fulfill their entertainment needs through interactive games as their first form of entertainment.
Andrew Wilson: And we're already starting to see new social things come into that, new marketplace things come into that, and new user-generated content opportunities come into The Sims 4. And The Sims team is committed to continuing to evolve that. And you should think about that in the context of more social interaction across The Sims community and more platform expansion and modality of play expansion. And so, while the teams will continue to advance and expand Sims 4, we will also be adding new experiences that bring deep social connection and broader platform expansion in key geographies around the world.
Andrew Wilson: Sims 4 specifically, again, we, you know, as we've talked about, we committed to continually to evolve the Sims 4 experience with over 15 updates in the coming year. And we're already starting to see, you know, new social things come into that, new marketplace things come into that, and new user generated content opportunities come into The Sims 4. And the Sims team is committed to continue to evolve that.
Speaker Change: Sims 4 specifically, again, you know, as we've talked about, we're committed to continually to evolve the Sims 4 experience with over 15 updates in the coming year, and we're already starting to see, you know, new social things come into that, new marketplace things come into that, and new user-generated content opportunities come into the Sims 4. And the Sims team is committed to continue to evolve that.
Andrew Wilson: Beyond that and not a lot to talk about today, and we'll talk more about this at the earnings invested day in September. Is we're looking to add to that universe and really build out that community globally. And you should think about that in the context of more social interaction across the Sims community and more platform expansion and modality of play expansion. And so while the teams will continue to advance and expand Sims 4, we will also be adding new experiences that bring deep social connection and brought a platform expansion in key geographies around the world.
Speaker Change: Beyond that, and not a lot to talk about today, and we'll talk more about this at the Earnings Investor Day in September .
Speaker Change: is we are looking to add to that universe and really build out that community globally. And you should think about that in the context of more social interaction across the Sims community and more platform expansion and modality of play expansion. And so while the teams will continue to advance and expand Sims 4, we will also be adding new experiences that bring deep social connection and broader platform expansion in key geographies around the world.
Clay Griffin: We have time for one more question. Your final question comes from a line of clay griffing from Martha, Nathanson. Your line is open. Thanks for taking the question. This is a follow-up to the conversation on the industry.
Operator: We have time for one more question. Your final question comes from a line of Clay Griffin from Moffett Nathanson. Your line is open.
Speaker Change: We have time for one more question. Your final question comes from a line of Clay Griffin from Moffitt-Nathanson. Your line is open.
Clayton Keever Griffin: Thanks for taking the question. This is a follow-up to our conversation about the industry. I guess, you know, Andrew, how has your thinking evolved on free-to-play as a monetization strategy in this HD world versus the multimodal, the multimodal monetization success you've had with EA Sports, just getting back to this topic of industry growth. Do you feel like free-to-play has, at least in some part, been dilutive to industry pricing power or maybe gamers' perception of value?
Clayton Keever Griffin: Thanks for taking the question. This is a follow-up to the conversation on the industry. I guess, Andrew, how has your thinking evolved on free-to-play as a monetization strategy in this HD world versus
Andrew Wilson: I guess, you know, Andrew, how does your thinking evolved on free-to-play as a monetization strategy in this HD world versus the multi model, the multi-modal monetization you've success you've had with EA Sports? I mean, just getting back to this topic of industry growth, do you feel like free-to-play has at least in some part been dilutive to industry? In industry pricing power or maybe gamers' perception of value? The short answer is no. I mean, free-to-play game started in Asia, you know, what is probably two decades ago now or a little more. And certainly started to take, you know, form meaningfully in the West, probably in the last decade.
Clayton Keever Griffin: The multimodal monetization success you've had with EA Sports, just getting back to this topic of industry growth, do you feel like free-to-play has at least, in some part, been dilutive to industry pricing power or maybe gamers' perception of value?
Andrew Wilson: The short answer is no. I mean, free-to-play games started in Asia, you know, what is probably two decades ago now or a little more, and certainly started to take shape meaningfully in the West, probably in the last decade. The industry has continued to grow broadly across both the traditional premium category and the free-to-play category. And certainly, as you think about mobile coming into that ecosystem, that is almost double the industry overall, and that's primarily a free-to-play mechanic.
Andrew: form meaningfully in the West probably in the last decade.
Andrew Wilson: The industry has continued to grow broadly across both the traditional premium category and the free-to-play category. And certainly, as you think about mobile coming into that ecosystem, that is almost double the industry overall, and that's primarily a free-to-play mechanic. So, as we think about this, when you, you know, in the context of building a massive online community, certainly right now there's about three billion people who consider themselves gamers or players around the world. Many are looking to fulfill different needs and motivations as part of their play experience, depending on what platform and what geography they come from.
Speaker Change: The industry has continued to grow broadly across both the traditional premium category and the free-to-play category. And certainly, as you think about mobile coming into that ecosystem, that is almost double the industry overall, and that's primarily a free-to-play mechanic.
Andrew Wilson: So as we think about this, when you, you know, in the context of building massive online communities, certainly right now, there are about 3 billion people who consider themselves gamers or players around the world. Many are looking to fulfill different needs and motivations as part of their play experience, depending on what platform and what geography they come from. Our orientation right now is to support all business models. And if you look at our biggest franchises, FC being the biggest, of course, we have modes of play across premium, across free-to-play, across live service, across console, across PC, across mobile, and that, you know, that franchise has grown on every platform, every modality of play, and across every business model since we brought that in.
Speaker Change: So as we think about this, in the context of building massive online communities, certainly right now there's about 3 billion people who consider themselves gamers or players around the world.
Speaker Change: Many are looking to fulfill different needs and motivations as part of their play experience, depending on what platform and what geography they come from. Our orientation right now is to support all business models. And if you look at our biggest franchises,
Andrew Wilson: Our orientation right now is to support all business models. And if you look at our biggest franchises, FC being the biggest, of course, we have modalities of play across premium, across free-to-play, across live service, across console, across PC, across mobile. And that, you know, that franchise has grown every platform, every modality of play, and across every business model since we brought that in. So as we think about American football, as we think about Apex, as we think about Battlefield, as we think about The Sims, our belief is that if we're building out for a global player base of over three billion players, and we're looking to build communities in and around our biggest IP of many hundreds of millions of players, our ability to utilize free-to-play as a mechanism to reach more people on console, PC, and mobile.
Speaker Change: FC being the biggest, of course, we have modalities of play across premium, across free-to-play, across live service, across console, across PC, across mobile, and that franchise has grown every platform, every modality of play.
Andrew Wilson: So as we think about American football, as we think about Apex, as we think about Battlefield, as we think about The Sims, our belief is that if we're building out for a global player base of over 3 billion players, and we're looking to build communities in and around our biggest IP of many hundreds of millions of players, our ability to utilize free-to-play as a mechanism to reach more people on console, PC, and mobile, and then offer different monetization opportunities, whether that's in small increments, whether that's in battle passes, or whether that's in full premium purchases, that will likely drive meaningful growth, not just the industry, but for our customers.
Speaker Change: and across every business model since we've brought that in. So as we think about American football, as we think about Apex, as we think about Battlefield, as we think about The Sims, our belief is that if we're building out for a global player base of over 3 billion players,
Speaker Change: And we're looking to build communities in and around our biggest IP of many hundreds of millions of players.
Speaker Change: Our ability to utilize free-to-play as a mechanism to reach more people on console, PC, and mobile
Andrew Wilson: And then offer different monetization opportunities, whether that's in small increments, whether that's in battle passes, or whether that's in full premium purchases, that will likely drive meaningful growth, not just the industry, but for our company.
Speaker Change: and then offer different monetization opportunities, whether that's in small increments, whether that's in battle passes, or whether that's in full premium purchases, that will likely drive meaningful growth, not just for the industry, but for our company.
Andrew Wilson: So thank you for all being here and for all of your great questions. Again, I want to extend my deepest appreciation to our teams for their passion, their hard work, and their commitment in delivering an incredible quarter. And I must add, from college campuses and NFL fields across the US to the hallowed soccer pitches around the world, football is back. This is going to be a big football quarter for us. In my humble opinion, this is the most exciting, energizing time of the year for sports fandom.
Andrew Wilson: So thank you all for being here and for all of your great questions. Again, I want to extend my deepest appreciation to our teams for their passion, their hard work, and their commitment to delivering an incredible quarter. And I must add, from college campuses and NFL fields across the US to hallowed soccer pitches around the world, football is back. This is going to be a big football quarter for us. In my humble opinion, this is the most exciting and energizing time of the year for sports fandom.
Speaker Change: So, thank you for all being here and for all of your great questions. Again, I want to extend my deepest appreciation to our teams for their passion, their hard work and their commitment in delivering an incredible quarter. And I must add, from college campuses and NFL fields across the U.S. to the hallowed soccer pitches around the world.
Speaker Change: Football is back, this is going to be a big football quarter for us. In my humble opinion, this is the most exciting, energizing time of the year for sports fandom.
Unknown Executive: With that, I'll close by saying I'm extremely excited about what our future holds and look forward to sharing more about our pop-up pipeline and longer-term strategy to deliver growth to all of our shareholders and our Investor Day on September 17th in New York City. Thank you for being with us. That concludes today's meeting. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect. Please wait; the conference will begin shortly.
Andrew Wilson: With that, I'll close by saying I'm extremely excited about what our future holds and look forward to sharing more about our pipeline and longer-term strategy to deliver growth to all of our shareholders at our Investor Day on September 17th in New York City. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker Change: With that, I'll close by saying I'm extremely excited about what our future holds and look forward to sharing more about our pipeline and longer-term strategy to deliver growth to all of our shareholders at our Investor Day on September 17th in New York City.
Operator: That concludes today's meeting. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect.
Speaker Change: Thank you for being with us.
Speaker Change: That concludes today's meeting. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.
Operator: Please wait; the conference will begin shortly.