Delaying the
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince game moves $120 million in revenue out of Electronic Arts' fiscal year 2008, the company said in a recent SEC filing.
The title, based on the film of the same name, was originally slated to release in November 2008, but EA and Warner Bros.
said yesterday that the game would be held back to release day and date with the film in Summer 2009.
Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian estimates about 3 million units in sales for the title, while both he and Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz say they don't expect a great deal of cumulative impact on EA's earnings per share as a result of the delay, though Creutz lowered estimates slightly to account for it.
The title is developed by EA's Bright Light Studio, who also developed the
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix game, and will launch on Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, Nintendo DS, Windows PC and Mac, and mobile devices.
