In a recent earnings call, Electronic Arts (EA) CEO Andrew Wilson expressed his interest in seeing another entry in developer Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi series. While no official announcements were made, Wilson’s comments have sparked excitement among fans of the franchise. A Desire for More Jedi Adventures During the Q&A portion of EA’s first quarter earnings call, Wilson was asked about the publisher’s future approach to the Star Wars franchise, particularly concerning live services and ongoing engagement. Although he didn’t make any official announcements, Wilson spoke highly of EA’s partnership with Disney and Lucasfilm and the success of games like Star Wars Battlefront, the popular Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes mobile game, and the Star Wars Jedi series. “Our teams are always thinking about what new experiences we might be able to create,” Wilson said. “Certainly, I would love to see more in the Jedi franchise over time. It’s just…
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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Soars Beyond Expectations, Becoming a Strong Contender for 2023’s Best Game
In EA’s latest earnings call for the quarter ending March 31, the recently released Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was not included as it launched on April 28. However, EA emphasized the game’s exceptional early performance. EA revealed that Jedi Survivor has been “very strongly” outperforming their internal projections, with millions of players already engaged. The game has even exceeded the success of its predecessor, Fallen Order, which is notable considering Fallen Order accumulated 10 million players within its first year and 20 million players around 1.5 years after launch. This success led to the creation of the sequel now being enjoyed by gamers. Jedi Survivor has been praised for building on the strengths of Fallen Order, resulting in a significantly improved gaming experience. The game has been compared to the leap in quality between Assassin’s Creed 1 and 2. While some sequels falter due to excessive changes or ill-conceived additions,…
EA Shareholders Vote Against Pay Packages
A majority of EA’s shareholders have voted against EA’s proposed compensation package for its top executives. What does this mean exactly? Early in July, the CtW Investment Group, one of EA’s pro-labour shareholders, urged investors to vote against the Say on Pay proposal and if it had passed, this would have given EA total control over how it compensates the top execs outside of their salaries. But in the beginning of August, there was the annual shareholder meeting and 68% of shareholders voted to reject the executive pay proposal. Over 171 million votes were cast against it, compared to 59.6 million in favor according to regulatory SEC financial filing made the same week. “Shareholders issued a resounding rebuke of Electronic Arts’ deeply flawed executive pay practices that does not incentivize executives to create long-term value,” said CtW executive director Dieter Waizenegger. “This vote is a clarion call for the board to stop piling…
EA’s Fourth Quarter Earnings Call
Electronic Arts did their fourth-quarter earnings call and there were a few interesting tidbits about Star Wars. There wasn’t loads of info about Star Wars in there, so you may not want to listen to the entire call unless you’re an investor, or just really into following what EA is up to. We took the liberty of pulling out some of the Star Wars highlights to make it easier for you. We’ll link to the full call below if you want to listen. You know they couldn’t have this meeting and not talk about Star Wars Battlefront II, so let’s see how it was mentioned: EA said they continue to be committed to the game by listening to player feedback and making changes as needed. They pointed to the progression system revamp as well as Solo Season 2 as some examples of their commitment. The return of microtransactions in SWBFII…
EA Is Now Ironically Stuck With $60 ‘Battlefront 2’ And No Good Way To Re-Monetize It
forbes.com had an interesting article the other day, regarding how EA now is “stuck” with a game they can’t monetize as they want to. Here’s a summary of some of the points: Battlefront got backlash for having a $50 season pass and launching with barebones content. In Star Wars Battlefront 2 they changed the system and promised free DLC while using microtransactions and loot-boxes to monetize the game. Thanks to the backlash, they have removed microtransactions . . . but they’ve stated that they’re planning on reinstating them. If they do bring back microtransactions tied to progression then they will still face backlash. If they bring back lootboxes with only cosmetic items they’ll still draw ire. They’ve already enticed responses from multiple governments on the issues of lootboxes. That leaves them with really only one path forwards that won’t bring back a ton of backlash: Implementing an online store with microtransactions…
Star Wars Battlefront business forecasts
The upcoming first person shooter Star Wars: Battlefront is predicted to be a huge seller for EA Games and the Star Wars franchise. With the release of Star Wars Episode VII during the New Year, it should help raise the popularity of the new game even more. Taking a look back to 2005 when the first Battlefront game was released it was a hit amongst many and rated 6th in overall sales, according to NPD. The new Battlefront game should be much better in comparison to the 2005 version with the new updated technology we have now. It will most likely be appealing to casual gamers and hardcore gamers alike, making the number of potential sales to rise even more. It could surpass the sale of other major first person shooters, such as Battlefield 4 and Destiny, which will release this year. Seeking Alpha has some insight on how they believe the…
SWToR remains a challenge after Electronic Arts (EA) releases Quarterly report
Electronic Arts (EA) recently released their regular quarterly report that offered a glimpse on the performance of the mega-company. While overall, EA performed extremely well, a closer look of their released documentation revealed that SWToR didn’t contribute to the company’s overall performance. In specific: Net Revenue For the three months ended September 30, 2014 , net revenue was $990 million and increased $295 million , or 42 percent , as compared to the three months ended September 30, 2013 . This increase was driven by a $476 million increase in revenue primarily from the FIFA and Battlefield franchises, and Titanfall. This increase was partially offset by a $181 million decrease in revenue primarily from the SimCity, Crysis and Dead Space franchises, and Star Wars: The Old Republic . Service and Other Revenue For the three months ended September 30, 2014 , service and other revenue was $454 million , primarily…
EA’s Survival Has Been “A Rare Feat”
We’ve talked before here about the ups and downs of EA. They’ve had a rough couple of years and those shareholders who are still holding on saw stock drop from around $25 back in the winter of 2011 to just about $11 last August. Now they’re back up to around $18 a share. So those who have stayed in it for the long haul are seeing their efforts pay off. At last week’s Game Developer’s Conference, GamesIndustry International talked to EA president Frank Gibeau (a possible replacement for Riccitiello) about the state of EA: “It’s a dynamic industry. At one moment social is the hottest thing in the history of man, and the next minute it’s not. One minute console is dead, the next minute console is incredible. There’s no market in Russia, Brazil, China, and now we’re seeing some of the largest markets in the world in the emerging market. The…
EA Financial Call
Electronic Arts had a financial call yesterday. Unfortunately there weren’t much news about how SWTOR are doing, other then early indications for SWTOR F2P transition were positive. In other news coming out of the financial call, Electronic Arts said its loss for the third quarter narrowed from a year ago, mostly on lower expenses. Adjusted profit, which excludes special items, beat estimates by a penny, although revenues fell short of expectations. Moving ahead, the company detailed its outlook for the fourth quarter and revised its full year guidance. Electronic Arts third-quarter loss narrowed to $45 million or $0.15 per share from $205 million or $0.62 per share last year. Excluding items, earnings dropped to $0.57 per share from $0.99 per share last year. On average, 26 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.56 per share for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items. Revenues for the third quarter dropped to $922 million from…
EA to Release Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2013 Results on Jan. 30, 2013
EA issued a press release today that they will have their 3rd quarter fiscal year 2013 results on January, 30th. “In conjunction with this release, EA will host a conference call to review its financial results for the third quarter, discuss its outlook for the future and may disclose other material developments affecting its business and/or financial performance. Listeners may access the conference call live via a dial-in number or audio webcast.” Details as follows: Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 2:00 pm Pacific Time (5:00 pm Eastern Time) Dial-in numbers: Domestic: 773-799-3213; International: 888-677-1083 Passcode: EA Webcast: http://ir.ea.com EA’s financial results release will be available after the close of market on Jan. 30, 2013, on EA’s web site at http://ir.ea.com. A dial-in replay of the conference call will be available until Feb. 14, 2013 at 203-369-0099 (domestic) or 866-356-3373 (international). An audio webcast replay of the conference call will be available for one year at http://ir.ea.com. This is the first earnings call since SWTOR…
SWTOR is Growing- Now More Subscribers than Ever!
I wrote yesterday about how some observers think SWTOR is sinking and that its subscribers are dying off. There are gloom and doom prophecies and even a haters Facebook group but no one really knew for sure how well the game was performing. However, the numbers are now out and it looks like SWTOR isnot doing so bad. In fact, they have more subscribers than ever before andboast 1.7 million active subscribers. DualShockers shared some insight on the story today. Electronic Arts had its Q3 2012 Fiscal Earnings Conference Call and CEO JohnRiccitello explained that SWTOR is actually doing quite well after all. He explains: “Star Wars: The OldRepublic is developing a committed community of players withmore than 1.7 million active subscribers and growing.” And the game also sold more than 2 million copies. This isbetter-than-expected results from the popular MMORPG, something that EA reallyneeded as skeptics feared their stock value would…