Electronic Arts (who are discussed today separately for another reason as well) revealed its strategy.

Apex Legends in the focus, Titanfall and Battlefield on hold!

Let’s start with the obligatory financial results. They had 1.2 billion euros of revenue in the previous financial quarter, which is a tenth higher year-on-year. Instead of 230, they had 241 million operating profit, and their net profit grew from 229 to 768 million euros. The company still sees an increase in digital game sales.

During its financial earnings call, Andrew Wilson, the CEO, and Blake Jörgensen, the COO and CFO, revealed Electronic Arts’ plans for the next fiscal year (which runs from April 2020 to March 2021). They both expressed several times that EA’s „core business is fueled by live services.” For the next console generation, EA’s goal is to „drive live growth” in franchises such as Apex Legends, FIFA Ultimate Team, Madden, and The Sims.

Apex Legends’ growth has somewhat decreased since its February shock launch, but the game still has over 70 million players. Wilson explained that the game’s dev team has been growing since its launch, becoming a „core franchise,” and Electronic Arts has big expectations for the game because of its growth onto mobile and other platforms (so, who wants to guess that it is getting a Nintendo Switch, a PlayStation 5, and an Xbox Project Scarlett port?), as well as its growth in China, plus the eSports. Jörgensen added that Electronic Arts considers the game (which is getting invested into) as its annual shooter for the next fiscal year and that it is a ten-year franchise for the company. Thus, we can bid Battlefield adieu: it will show up in the fiscal year starting April 2021, meaning the series will skip next year, and it means THE NEXT GAME WILL BE A NEXT-GEN TITLE.

Respawn is behind Apex Legends, and as such, we have to mention Titanfall from them. Electronic Arts is not forgetting about it: „We really want to keep the team hyper-focused on [Apex Legends] because we see there’s so much opportunity there, so I can’t give you a sense of if and when [Titanfall 3] will come, but it’s still a great brand and we certainly won’t forget about it down the road,” Jörgensen said.

NBA Live is taking a sabbatical, so Take-Two’s basketball game is not getting a competition this year – EA Sports’ take on the NBA series is coming next year with a next-gen formula. EA wants to add another annual sports release next to Madden, NHL, and FIFA. Also, Electronic Arts has „exciting remasters of fan favourites, including the Command and Conquer game we’ve already disclosed,” plus two unannounced games from third-party developers, and there are also new games in development at Motive, DICE, BioWare, and Criterion. We also shouldn’t forget about the Medal of Honor VR game, which got recently announced either. Speaking of BioWare: they are working on a new Dragon Age game, but it won’t come out at least until April 2022, meaning it is yet another next-gen title. EA plans another Star Wars game for that fiscal year as well.

Live services, eh? Who wants to guess that Need For Speed: Heat, which is out on November 8 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, will get microtransactions post-launch? (The game must sell between 3-4 million units by April. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s expectations are in the 6-8 million range. The two Battlefront games have sold 33 million units total so far.)

Source: Gamesindustry, GameSpot

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