Battlefield V doesn’t look strong going by the pre-orders and some other statistics.
Let’s start with Patrick Söderlund. He was the CEO of DICE until 2006 when Electronic Arts have acquired them. From that point, he held several high-ranking positions in the publisher, and he recently was the chief design officer. However, he announced that he is leaving EA „to start a new chapter in his life later this year.” How is Söderlund (whose departure will mix up the internal structure of EA as well…) related to Battlefield? Well, the franchise is mostly developed by DICE that he led until the Electronic Arts acquisition, and his position meant he had oversight of the games’ developments, too, including Battlefield V, which is meant to compete against this year’s Call of Duty, Black Ops IIII.
Perhaps Söderlund is leaving due to the lack of success of Battlefield V. Who knows? The game’s not out yet, though! Indeed, but some statistics make the analysts say a few worrying things about the World War II shooter. Piper Jaffray thinks Battlefield V is the „earthenware pot” this year with its release date.
Out of the five significant games, Battlefield V is the third, which means it could quickly be overshadowed by the others, which is what happened in 2016 to Respawn’s Titanfall 2. Also, Piper Jaffray’s survey (which involved 300 US-based gamers) says the least interest is towards Battlefield V out of the five games…
They also looked at the YouTube trailers’ like/dislike ratios. Only Battlefield V has more dislikes than likes (it has a less than 1 ratio), and only 2016’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare pulled it off (and with its 0.2 ratio, this game had five times more dislikes than likes…). Meanwhile, Battlefield 1 has a 50.3 ratio, which means there is a massive drop off. Piper Jaffray also pointed out that despite a crowded release schedule, good games can be successful in long-term. 2015’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III (which even had E3 2018 news!) kept selling well, while Infinite Warfare’s sales nosedived reasonably quickly…
That’s not all: Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Needleman reports that Cowen Group’s analysts pointed out the low pre-orders for Battlefield V, and they also think Titanfall 2’s fate awaits Battlefield V.
Remember; this game is meant to be supported in the long run, and it would be Electronic Arts‘ major autumn title…
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