EA To Hit Higher End Of Guidance Thanks To Sims Social, Says Analyst

Thanks to the success of The Sims Social and its sports franchises, Electronic Arts is expected to hit the upper end of its quarterly financial guidance when it announces its results next week, according to analysts. The consensus among analysts places estimates at around $965M for the company's Q2 ending September 30, which is toward the higher end of the company's guidance of between $925M and $975M. Wedbush Morgan's estimates put revenues slightly higher than consensus, at $968M. According to analyst Michael Pachter, this is due to an increase in sports game sales versus last year, as well as higher-than-expected player numbers for the company's main Facebook initiative, The Sims Social. Wedbush is anticipating that the company will raise its annual guidance when reporting on its Q2 performance on Thursday. The company's current guidance sees revenues for the year at $3.83B, versus an analyst projections of around $4.1B. However, Pachter warns that the upcoming Battlefield 3 -- which Wedbush anticipates selling 4M copies on PC and at least that many more on consoles -- may have technical issues at launch, which could effect review scores "by 5 percent or more," and could therefore hurt share prices.