EA postpones NBA Live 20 basketball game until the last quarter of this year

Electronic Arts has presented its figures for the past quarter and reports that NBA Live 20 will be released in October, November or December of this year. That is later than the company stated earlier.

The quarterly earnings presentation now lists NBA Live 20 for release in the last three months of this year, while EA released another similar presentation in May with the title listed for a July through September release. . That would have been a logical release period, given that the US NBA basketball league kicks off in October. A spokesperson for the publisher tells Polygon that the postponement is due to a ‘different approach’ to NBA Live 20. It is not known what changes are involved; the spokesperson says more details will be announced in the coming quarter.

The quarterly figures show that EA achieved a turnover of $701 million from online sales. That is an increase of 1 percent compared to the same quarter a year earlier. Of this revenue, $504 million is attributable to live services; these include season passes, single DLC and proceeds from Ultimate Team modes in games like Fifa, Madden, and NHL. That $504 million is an increase of 12 percent and represents a 72 percent share of total online sales.

EA had revenue of $1.21 billion in the quarter, compared to $1.14 billion a year ago in the same period. Profit came in at $1.42 billion, compared to $293 million a year earlier. However, this significant increase is not so much related to very good sales; EA has included a tax windfall of $1.09 billion in this profit figure.