Game of two halves for FIFA 18 Irish firm

PRE-TAX losses at the Irish arm of the game giant behind the mega-selling FIFA 18 rose sharply to €301,000 last year – but new accounts show that revenues rose 4pc to €24.45m at Electronic Arts Ireland.

Some of the Galway-based company’s other bestselling games include Plants v Zombies, The Sims, Dragon Age and Battlefield.

Numbers employed increased from 365 to 387 – some of those employed in the company’s Quality Assurance team are engaged in testing the latest games before they are released.

The directors said the trend in rising revenues will continue. Staff costs last year increased from €14.5m to €16.6m. The loss takes account of non-cash deprecation costs of €1.5m.

Along with the Galway staff testing the firm’s latest games, the base also provides support to customers across 16 different languages, including English, French, German, Polish, Hungarian, Finnish, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish, Czech and Slovak.

The company’s lease costs last year totalled €1.68m concerning its Galway base and a data centre in Dublin.

A breakdown of revenues last year show that €16.3m was generated in Europe with the remaining €8m in the US.

Directors’ pay last year increased from €211,000 to €341,000. The accounts show that after paying corporation tax of €7,000, the firm recorded post-tax losses of €308,000.