Games developer EA saw solid growth in its mobile games business during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, with sales in this business outstripping its figures for pure-play gaming handhelds. It said that its Q4 2011 mobile revenue was US$70 million, up 27 percent year-on-year. In contrast, revenue for products for Sony’s PlayStation Portable and Nintendo’s DS was US$44 million, down 25.5 percent from US$59 million in the prior year, due to sharp shrinkage in its PSP sales. The company noted that growth in its smartphone activities more than offset a reduction in feature-phone related revenue. Mobile still forms a small part of the company’s business: total net revenue for the quarter was US$1.1 billion.

In a conference call, the company also noted the benefits its acquisition of mobile developer Firemint will bring, stating that the price of this transaction is “less than US$25 million.” It said that “they are extremely talented developers. They’re already proven to us with a couple of blockbusters and there’s more in the works. And as we look at the acquisition, overall on price, it’s less than US$25 million. If we look at the actual EBIT multiple, it’s in the 4x range. And so, by any metric, it’s a great pick up and we’re super excited to have that talented team join EA.”