Electronic Arts Misses (Update)

SAN FRANCISCO -- Video-game publisher Electronic Arts(ERTS Quote) narrowed its loss for its first fiscal quarter, but missed analyst expectations.

The company reported a loss of $95 million, or 30 cents a share, in the quarter vs. a loss of $132 million, or 40 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding charges, EA lost $135 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with a loss of $69 million, or 22 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 41% to $609 million from $431 million a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting a loss of 34 cents a share on revenue of $639.8 million.

Sales were driven by the launches of Battlefield: Bad Company, UEFA EURO 2008, Burnout Paradise and continued strength of its game Rock Band launched in partnership with Harmonix and Viacom's(VIA Quote) MTV Networks, said EA. The Battlefield: Bad Company game sold 1.6 million copies.

Including all charges, EA reported revenue of $804 million, up from $395 million the year before. During the quarter, EA had a net benefit of $231 million related to the recognition of deferred revenue for some online enabled games.

Shares of EA were down $1.30, or 2.7%, to $46.10 in recent extended trading.

Despite concerns of a weak economy, Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown told TheStreet.com that he expects no impact on video games sales in the upcoming holiday season.

"The video games industry follows a cycle that is driven by hardware and games for a console's installed base," said Brown. "So we have increased our internal assumptions for industry growth rate from 15% to 20% this year to more than 20%."