“I’m-a Luigi, number one!”
IN THE NEWS
Three digits. That’s the threshold EA’s stock surpassed for the first time in its trading history Tuesday. After-hours trading pushed EA’s price to a high of $103.97 at 6:15 p.m EST. The jump was caused by EA’s record net revenue report, according to Jeff Grubb and Dean Takahashi at Venture Beat.
“With this latest surge in value, EA’s market capitalization is now also nearing $30 billion. That makes it one of the biggest companies in the gaming industry. For 2017, EA generated $4.845 billion in revenues. That’s up from $4.396 billion in fiscal 2016, and the company owes that continued growth to its expanding digital sales. While physical gaming sales were flat year-over-year, digital jumped from $2.409 billion to $4.874 billion.”
EA can credit part of its success to FIFA 17, Takahashi writes. The game boasts 21 million players, and “EA Sports tried a different tactic this time with the story, which chronicled a young up-and-coming player’s road to soccer fame. The story has character-driven cutscenes and more drama than you might see just playing the game.”