Electronic Arts Reports Steeper Loss; Shares Decline

Electronic Arts was hit by a loss that was deeper than a year ago, excluding items, and both the company's bottom line and topline were worse than expectations.

Excluding charges related to stock options expenses and restructuring, the video game maker lost $135 million, or 42 cents a share, in its fiscal first quarter, compared with a loss of $69 million, or 22 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

Sales for the most recent period reached $609 million, compared with $431 million last year.

Analysts saw the company reporting a loss of 34 cents a share on sales of $640 million, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Electronic Arts shares lost more than 3 percent in extended electronic trading. The stock finished Tuesday almost 3 percent higher at $47.40.

Electronic Arts said it expects fiscal 2009 profit and sales to grow sharply, fueled by upcoming games such as "Spore," "Mirror's Edge" and "Dead Space."

Excluding the recognition of deferred revenue for certain online games, the company expects fiscal 2009 sales of $5 billion to $5.3 billion. Analysts' estimates had been right in the middle of that range, at $5.15 billion.

- Wire services contributed to this report.