Vasaratti


Despite the launch of the great battle royale shooter Apex Legends, EA have had a pretty terrible week. After reporting their earnings for the previous financial quarter in a recent shareholder conference, which were apparently disappointing across the board, their stock plummeted 13.3% - the steepest single-day decline since 2008 - netting them a reported loss of $3.7 billion.

Explaining why their performance came in under projections, EA discussed their new plan for Madden not appealing as broadly as they would have hoped, but one of the main culprits seemed to have been Battlefield V. At launch back in November there were reports that sales were down, but now we know that the publisher expected to sell over 8 million copies within the quarter, of which it only managed 7.3 million.

What's more interesting, though, are the reasons EA gave for this underperformance. Taking aim at the game's story, CFO Blake Jorgensen explained that the developer's focus shouldn't have been on the single-player portion of the experience, but rather the battle royale mode, Firestorm, which had to be delayed until March 2019. The lack of this mode, which in part made Call of Duty: Black Ops IV such a massive success, is apparently being viewed as Battlefield V's biggest problem.

This was bandied around along with other excuses, including a "poor start" for the marketing campaign and a competitive Fall window, but it's clear that the publisher still believe single-player is actively harming their revenue stream. It's interesting that EA would put the blame on these elements, rather than acknowledge the pushback the game received from its initial trailers, or the way the game has been supported post-launch, with DICE making controversial changes to entice new players, only to go back on them a few weeks later when they didn't sit right with the hardcore.

It doesn't really matter why BF V actually disappointed, though, what matters is EA still very much thinks single-player is an unimportant element of its games. That's perhaps to be expected after the cancellation of Visceral's single-player Star Wars game, and shifting their story-driven developers in Bioware over to a live-service shooter in Anthem, but it still brings into question how long the publisher will continue to include a solo modes in their titles.
www.whatculture.com/gaming/ea-blame-single-player-for-3-7-billion-dollar-loss-2
cao lalasticlala

Maybe they shouldn't have released Titanfall 2 smack right in the middle of battlefield & CoD... Maybe they should have handled the backlash better with Battlefield V... SP didn't f**k them up, they did that all by themselves and stop with this BS narrative. Just STFU & take your L. Stop trying to shove loot boxes down our throats, Belgium couldn't take their BS anymore, they ended up banning loot boxes all together. Finally, stop s**tting on Star Wars, they took out Visceral, shelved their SP Star Wars game, canabalised it into some nonsense online, then cancelled that one too. Nonsense and ingredients. EA, read the bloody room, instead of pushing this BS narrative.

cao:
Maybe they shouldn't have released Titanfall 2 smack right in the middle of battlefield & CoD... Maybe they should have handled the backlash better with Battlefield V... SP didn't f**k them up, they did that all by themselves and stop with this BS narrative. Just STFU & take your L. Stop trying to shove loot boxes down our throats, Belgium couldn't take their BS anymore, they ended up banning loot boxes all together. Finally, stop s**tting on Star Wars, they took out Visceral, shelved their SP Star Wars game, canabalised it into some nonsense online, then cancelled that one too. Nonsense and ingredients. EA, read the bloody room, instead of pushing this BS narrative.

EA is literally just a printing press for money at this point. It seems the foremost consideration in any decision they make is "How can we make the most money off this?". Customer satisfaction seems to be the absolute lowest consideration at this point. That Battlefront 2 thing still remains one of the daftest things I've ever seen.
I didn't even know about the Belgium thing, but the way EA is going, it's not a bad idea at all. It's unfortunate that literally every game they make has to have some form of in-app purchases or loot boxes shoehorned in. Apex Legends has gotten off to a good start, but I trust EA to find some way to ruin it.

HyDef:


EA is literally just a printing press for money at this point. It seems the foremost consideration in any decision they make is "How can we make the most money off this?". Customer satisfaction seems to be the absolute lowest consideration at this point. That Battlefront 2 thing still remains one of the daftest things I've ever seen.
I didn't even know about the Belgium thing, but the way EA is going, it's not a bad idea at all. It's unfortunate that literally every game they make has to have some form of in-app purchases or loot boxes shoehorned in. Apex Legends has gotten off to a good start, but I trust EA to find some way to ruin it.

It's illegal to have them in Belgium - it's considered gambling.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43906306
Plus, EA actually defied them and Belgium went after their a$$.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-10-ea-reportedly-under-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-due-to-fifas-loot-boxes

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-01-29-ea-buckles-in-belgium-stops-selling-fifa-points-following-loot-box-gambling-pressure

cao:

It's illegal to have them in Belgium - it's considered gambling.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43906306
Plus, EA actually defied them and Belgium went after their a$$.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-10-ea-reportedly-under-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-due-to-fifas-loot-boxes

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-01-29-ea-buckles-in-belgium-stops-selling-fifa-points-following-loot-box-gambling-pressure

Thank you for that, great reads. The part I found most funny was how everybody but EA (of course) complied when they told them to get rid of loot boxes. Tsk tsk.

HyDef:


Thank you for that, great reads. The part I found most funny was how everybody but EA (of course) complied when they told them to get rid of loot boxes. Tsk tsk.

2K did try to get their fans to contact their government about it... https://www.2k.com/myteaminfo/be/