At EA, DS game sales are up, up, up, mobile's steady but PSP's down

Like Sony, EA's just revealed its financial figures from the big Q3 Christmas 2007 period (October-December), which show the company making more revenue than ever before – $1.5 billion – although still totalling a small loss of $33 million on those sales.

Breaking down the figures for handheld games, or 'Mobility' as EA labels it, DS was by far the most impressive performer, with sales up 122 per cent from $55 million in Q3 2006 to $122 million.

EA released five DS games during that time; Boogie, Need for Speed ProStreet, EA Playground, The Sims 2 Castaway and The Simpsons Game. (A rather mixed bag we thought.) Still, DS sales accounted for eight per cent of EA's total turnover.

Four PSP games were released – Medal of Honor Heroes 2, NBA LIVE 08, The Sims 2 Castaway and The Simpsons Game – compared to five in the same period last year, and sales were down 37 per cent to $74 million, compared to $118 million in 2006.

Conversely, sales of mobile games during the three months were up nine per cent to $38 million from $35 million in Q3 2006. Unlike sales of console and PC games, mobile revenues tend to be much less variable depending on the time of the year. However, these were the highest quarterly sales EA Mobile has ever posted. The company released 13 mobile games during the period.

Meanwhile, GBA sales were down 90 per cent to $2 million, demonstrating the effective end for the platform. EA also released four iPod games, but didn't break out any specific sales figures for these.

Combining everything, EA's mobility sales were up three per cent to $236 million, which accounted for 16 per cent of EA's total sales during the period.