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 Lately the company had parted to a lot of verbal sniping. It seems that the biggest third-party publisher in the world is the preferred punching bag for so many gamers. They are those who take potshots at it for everything from its movie-license tie-ins to its monopoly on NFL, NCAA, and Arena football games.

And now the EA executive vice president Frank Gibeau talked about the upcoming "market expansion". This after the company took a financial hit. For the first quarter of its fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2006, the company got a severe a $81 million loss. That is actually $23 million more than the $58 million the company lost during the same period in 2005.

One of the reasons for the shortfall was "the expensing of stock-based compensation," - this is what EA says. The company also hinted that it was spending a lot of money for the preparations of the transition to next-generation consoles.

"We're pleased to be the leading publisher on the Xbox 360. We are on schedule with strong support for the launch of PlayStation 3, and we have increased our development efforts for the Nintendo DS and Wii", said EA CEO and chairman Larry Probst.

But as But Probst was confident, EA CFO Warren Jenson took his cautions: "While the risks of this technology transition remain very real--our franchises are well-positioned for the opportunities ahead," he said in a statement.

The conclusion is that even if the company is still in the red-zone, EA's earnings were better than anticipated.