View Vexes Electronic Arts

EA said the game could be out in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 or be pushed to early 2009. "Our focus is quality over speed," said Riccitiello. "We want to make sure with Spore we build a sustainable franchise along the lines of Sims and not release something that is goes just one or two titles."

Analysts were expecting the game to start selling in fiscal 2008.

For the first quarter, excluding items, the Redwood City, Calif.-based company forecast an EPS loss between 34 cents and 40 cents on sales between $350 million to $400 million, significantly wider than analysts' forecast of a loss of 9 cents a share on revenue of $460.6 million.

For the full fiscal 2008, EA sees EPS of 90 cents to $1.20, excluding items, vs. the $1.34 estimated by analysts. The company guided sales at $3.1 billion to $3.4 billion, lower than consensus of $3.61 billion.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, the company said seven of its games sold more than 3 million copies.

EA expects to launch more than 15 of its wholly owned games this fiscal year.

Full-year revenue in North America was up 5% to $1.66 billion, Europe grew 7% to $1.26 billion, and Asia was down 15% to $164 million.