(Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc (O:EA) reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit and did not raise its full-year profit and sales forecasts as much as expected, sending its shares tumbling 7 percent in after-hours trading.
Electronic Arts' quarterly revenue has fallen short of analysts' estimates for the first time in two years, despite strong sales of the newly launched "Star Wars: Battlefront".
The highly anticipated first-person shooter game was launched in mid-November, halfway through the third quarter and a month ahead of the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens".
The company said on Thursday that sales of the game had already surpassed 13 million units, the number of copies it had expected to sell by March.
Electronic Arts, popularly called EA by gaming aficionados, raised its full-year adjusted revenue forecast to about $4.52 billion from $4.50 billion, and its adjusted profit forecast to about $3.04 from $3.00 per share.
Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $3.10 per share on revenue of $4.56 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"The problem was in the guide for the full year," said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.
EA's digital revenue, a higher-margin business, has been growing steadily, and comprised about 45 percent of total adjusted revenue in the third quarter, up from 41.8 percent in the second quarter.
The helped the company's adjusted revenue increase 26.3 percent to $1.80 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31.
But analysts were expecting revenue to rise to $1.81 billion.
The video-game publisher's adjusted profit of $1.83 was just ahead of analysts expectations of $1.81 per share.
The Redwood City, California-based company's shares were down 7 percent at $64.85 in extended trading. The stock closed at $69.79 on Thursday on the Nasdaq.