Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Laura Miele: Yes, very well said. And to layer on to what Andrew has outlined is that we are — think about we are such a talent-centric company. And when you have the incredible talent and development leadership that we do, that we’re lucky to have at Electronic Arts, oftentimes, as leaders we evaluate and look at how can we remove barriers, help the speed at which they develop and how they show it for our players. So we are incredibly focused on lifting up and removing friction for our talent so they can show up for our players every day. And we’ve talked about it a lot on this call about being a live service company and having content and updates in learning and turning and tweaking and using our levers to show up for our players and optimize that.

That requires a vertical — more vertical organization. And it requires as little friction and as much connection to go-to-market ideas, go-to-market strategies, commercial thinking around how we show up for players, as well as the game design, as well as technology. So the more we can integrate that, the faster we can accelerate the potential of our growth. And candidly, the more unleashed and untethered our talent feels, and it’s a far more gratifying experience for them, we believe. And I will just tell you, too, on the entertainment side, we were just focused incredibly like lasers on execution. And so we know we have great talent. We know we have these incredible brands in skate, Sims, Apex, Battlefield, Marvel, Star Wars. We know we have the makings of incredible product experiences.

Now we have to have heads down, execute, help the teams move as quickly as they can, accelerate that through technology and support and let them run, so we can get to this growth that we know we are capable of in the coming years.

Matthew Cost: Great. Thank you. And then just quickly on M&A. There was a small mobile gaming M&A deal in the news today, which is the first time that something like that I feel like has come across the radar in a while. Is there more opportunity? Are things — are conversations maybe restarting in terms of potential acquisitions that have been paused over the past year or two? And do you see opportunity to do more? Or with Glu and Playdemic and Codemasters, you feel like you’ve kind of brought in what you need to bring in for now?

Andrew Wilson: I think right now, we feel very good about who we are as a company and the capabilities and talent and teams and IP we have across the organization. And we have a very clear strategy and an even clearer pipeline for growth across IP and across platforms. That being said, I think we’re always looking for great opportunities to drive even more growth and entertain even more people through great games and experiences in IP. And we’ll continue to work and look at that over the course of time. But it’s not something right now that we’re actively engaged in.

Matthew Cost: Thank you.

Katie Burke: Thank you. Operator, next question, please.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Colin Sebastian with Baird. Your line is open.

Colin Sebastian: Great. Thanks. Good afternoon and congrats again to Laura and Stuart. I guess, first, just following up on Apex. Maybe to put a finer point on some of the changes, Andrew and Laura, you talked about with the game. Is the expectation that we’ll see in Season 18 some of that improvement in engagement given the game mechanics and the monetization there? And then secondly, just on Star Wars, just kind of curious to learn more about the plan and the expectations as we look to see that extend in terms of the lifetime of the franchise as well as live services. I think more detail there might be useful as well. Thank you.

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