EA's packaged game sales continue to slump as digital revenue rises

Profits and revenue from mobile and digital games seem to be on the rise at Electronic Arts, which announced its fourth quarter and fiscal year financial results today for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. The company took pains to highlight its mobile business, claiming that EA mobile games had more than 130 million active monthly players and generated record-breaking revenue for the fiscal year. Based on the numbers, digital sales seem to be doing well for EA. The company reported roughly an 8 percent growth in digital sales for the quarter, reporting revenue from digital products of $491 million, up from $453 million reported at the end of last year's fourth quarter. On the bad side, EA's packaged good sales slumped roughly 15 percent year-over-year, down to a reported revenue of $618 million for the fourth quarter of 2014 from the $730 million reported this time last year. The company also reported mild losses for the fiscal year, with net revenue down roughly six percent to $3.58 billion from the $3.8 billion the company reported at the close of the 2013 fiscal year. Quarterly profits were up year-over-year, rising roughly 14 percent to $367 million for the quarter from $323 million the year prior. However, there was a stark dropoff when you look at the fiscal year as a whole -- EA reported $8 million in net income for fiscal year 2014, down 92 percent from the $98 million in net income the company reported for fiscal year 2013. "It was a transformative year for EA in a dynamic year for our industry," stated EA CEO Andrew Wilson in a press release announcing the results. "I'm even more excited for the new experiences we will deliver in fiscal year 2015 and beyond." Looking ahead, the company intends to reported a net revenue of approximately $4.38 billion this time next year. The company is expected to address these results in a conference call later today, and we'll update with any meaningful information from the call. Update: Though the lion's share of the call was spent rehashing the company's earnings report, a few interesting bits of information regarding EA's performance were revealed. To wit, CEO Andrew Wilson stated that the NPD reported 925,000 PC and Xbox One copies of Titanfall were sold through U.S. retail outlets in the month of March, and EA will continue its relationship with Respawn Entertainment under a new publishing agreement. In addition, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen lauded the company's digital sales performance and predicted that digital revenue would make up half of EA's total revenue in fiscal year 2014.