Electronic Arts CEO faces Nintendo Switch 2 question in recent earnings call

Michael Hickey Analyst, The Benchmark Co. LLC  

Hey, Andrew, Stuart, Katie, thanks for squeezing me in here. First question, kind of a challenge, Andrew, because it hasn’t been announced, but we obviously have a fair amount of evidence that the Switch 2 from Nintendo should come out this year. And from what we know, it’s going to be a bigger display, more horsepower. It seems like it’s something a platform that would better lend itself to your games. So in as much as you can sort of talk about an opportunity that’s not been officially announced, just curious if you think you can have more success on that sort of platform that seems better geared towards your games?

The second one is sort of looks like 2025 is not called an investment year, but most of the growth here is driven by your core games and live services. But you look at your longer-term pipeline, you think about Battlefield, Mass Effect, Star Wars, obviously you’ve been great in the action genre. I think you’re still developing a shooter from Respawn as well. [indiscernible] (00:41:28) free-to-play. Maybe user-generated content. Then licensed property is like Iron Man, Black Panther. I mean, all of those seem feasible by fiscal 2027. So just sort of curious, and I know you kind of talked about your longer-term growth opportunity. Near term you focus on levers, but do you think you’re sort of in a position here in the next few years to sort of accelerate your top line growth just given how substantial your pipeline appears to be? Thanks, guys.

Andrew P. Wilson Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Electronic Arts, Inc. 

Yeah. A lot there, and you were a little quiet in the beginning. But I think what you’re asking or were suggesting there has been some rumors that Nintendo is doing a new console, and to the extent that I’m able to comment on things that are not yet announced, do I think that might benefit our company and our portfolio?

Again, I can absolutely not comment on anything that’s not been announced or acknowledge it in any way. What I would say, though, is to the extent that platforms over the course of the last 20 years have come out and offered improved CPU, GPU, memory, battery life, screen resolution, to the extent those things have happened where we’re able to deliver more immersion for our players, particularly around our biggest franchises like FC, like Madden, like Battlefield, like Apex, that has typically been very good for our business. Our players’ ability to really experience our games at the highest level has typically worked out very well for us. And so without commenting at all on anything around Nintendo or the Switch, I would just say new platforms are good for us. Where new platforms offer improved CPU, GPU, memory, battery life, screen resolution, that typically is a plus for our particular portfolio of games and the community that plays them.