SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Electronic Arts Inc. reported better-than-expected revenue Monday afternoon for its fiscal fourth quarter, though the company also saw a sharp drop in active subscribers for its “Star Wars” multiplayer game that hit the market late last year.

The results from “Star Wars: The Old Republic” — as well as a disappointing forecast for the current fiscal year — help send the videogame publisher’s shares down more than 5% in after-hours trading on Monday following the results.

Another component in the company’s outlook is a “major” game title that has been pushed out of the year, though EA would not provide further details on the game.

The stock had already slumped more than 26% since the first of the year — mostly on worries about growth of the new franchise that is one of the company’s biggest bets in trying to expand its digital business. The shares closed the regular session up fractionally at $15.13.

“In terms of the quarter, they met expectations,” said Colin Sebastian of Robert W. Baird, adding “but I don’t think anyone was expecting a 400,000 decline in ‘Star Wars’ subscribers.”

For the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, EA EA, -1.70% reported net income of $400 million, or $1.20 per share, compared with net income of $151 million, or 45 cents a share, for the same period last year. Revenue came in at $1.37 billion compared with $1.09 billion for the same period last year.

Those results include deferred revenues from past sales of certain game titles, as well as items such as stock-based compensation.

On an adjusted basis, EA said it earned $56 million, or 17 cents a share, for the recent period — in line with Wall Street’s estimates.

Revenue on an adjusted basis came in at $977 million compared with $995 million in the same period last year. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $958 million, on an adjusted basis, according to consensus estimates from FactSet Research.

The company said sales in the recent quarter were primarily driven by the hit new release “Mass Effect 3,” as well as “FIFA Street 4,” “SSX” and “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.”

But “Star Wars: The Old Republic” showed signs of weakening. EA said active subscribers totaled 1.3 million at the end of the quarter — down 24% from the 1.7 million reported at the end of the December period, when the game first launched.

“The trend is clearly downward, and for an MMO like this, you don’t want to see a decline this early on,” Sebastian said.

Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities said the numbers for “Star Wars” during the quarter suggest the game might “level off” at the 1-million-subscriber mark, compared to some earlier estimates of 1.5 million subscribers, “so the franchise is far less valuable.”

He added, though, that the current valuation of EA’s stock is “ridiculously cheap.”

Analysts were expecting EA to end the recent quarter with about 1.6 million active subscribers — defined as those paying for subscriptions along with players who are still in the free month of trials after buying the game.

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During a conference call, EA chief executive John Riccitiello noted that a higher mix of the “Star Wars” subscriber count is made up of paying subscribers than it was in the previous quarter. He also downplayed the significance of the title somewhat, noting that the company has bigger franchises that are more important to its overall business.

“In our portfolio in terms of property from a franchise, it’s in our top 10 but it’s not in our top 5,” Riccitiello said. “So I understand there’s a modest amount of interest, but I don’t know if it warrants as much interest as what we’re seeing right now.”

In the call, EA execs outlined their plans to continue to grow the company’s digital side aggressively. EA was able to close the fiscal year with $1.2 billion in digital revenue, and the company expects to grow sales in this area by more than 40% in the current year.

The company is also planning to invest about $80 million in the current fiscal year into games for the next generation of console cycles. Nintendo NTDOY, +1.47% is planning to launch its Wii-U later this year. Sony SNE, +0.25% and Microsoft MSFT, -1.04% are believed to be working on the next generation of their consoles, though no formal announcements have yet been made.

However, EA’s overall revenue guidance for the 2013 fiscal period was $4.3 billion — below the $4.52 billion expected by Wall Street. The company’s revenue forecast for the current quarter was $500 million, compared to $581 million expected by analysts.

The game pipeline for the current fiscal year includes new releases from several of EA’s flagship properties, including “Madden NFL,” Need for Speed” and “FIFA,” as well as new versions of popular shooters such as “Medal of Honor” and “Crysis.” The company also expects to release more expansion content for “Star Wars” this year — including two expansion packs in the current quarter.