No March Madness NCAA game from EA this year
Electronic Arts Inc. won't have a new March Madness NCAA basketball game for the first time since 2003, another sign of the company's recent struggles.
The game was missing from the product release list that Redwood City-based EA (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced last week but it wasn't until Saturday that it acknowledged that it was dropping March Madness.
"We do not have an NCAA Basketball game in development at this time, and we're currently reviewing the future of our NCAA Basketball business," an EA Sports rep told the GameSpot Web site. "This was a difficult decision, but we remain a committed partner to the NCAA and its member institutions."
In its most recent quarter, EA posted a third quarter loss of $82 million, or 25 cents a share, narrowed from a loss in the same period last year of $641 million, or $2 a share business cards design.
Its revenue was $1.24 billion, down from $1.65 billion in the year-ago quarter.
The company said it expects fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of between 2 cents and 6 cents a share, far below analyst projections of 13 cents a share.
It said fourth-quarter net revenue is expected to be $925 million and $1 billion. Adjusted revenue is expected to be between $800 million and $850 million, below Wall Street's projection of $851 million.