Pocket gaming's worth $540 million to EA

It's been called everything from the 800lb gorilla of the games industry to, well, the really big gorilla company that dominates the games industry. But the most recent financial figures from Electronic Arts reveal the publisher is developing deep pocket gaming pockets to go with its silverback muscles.

Around 20 per cent of EA's total revenues now comes from what the company defines as Mobility: that's DS, PSP, GBA and mobile games to you and me. For the period from the start of April 2006 to the end of March 2007 it accounted for a hefty $540 million of sales, up 37 per cent on last year's total of £394 million.

The biggest component was PSP sales, which were £258 million, but this was down 28 per cent year-on-year. The best performer was DS, with sales up 145 per cent to $104 million, while the lagging GBA business did $39 million in sales, down 63 per cent.

EA's mobile games sales (which were massively boosted in this period, thanks to its late 2005 acquisition of Jamdat), were up an impressive 140 per cent to $139 million.

In comparison, EA's biggest competitor in the mobile space, Gameloft, recently announced its annual sales at €68 million ($92 million). This was a rise of around 46 per cent year-on-year; Gameloft's sales have risen organically, rather than explosively due to acquisitions.

Something else that's interesting about the mobile sales compared to the handheld consoles is their relative stability. Christmas is the peak buying time for PSP, DS and GBA, with the period accounting for around half of annual sales. Mobile sales are spread much more equally throughout the year, however, with EA banking around $35 million of mobile downloads and subscriptions every three months.