electronic arts

Celebrate EA Play to Give 2018 and get a Droid Mini-Pet

As part of EA’s Play to Give campaign, BioWare as part of the EA corporation, is partnering with three charitable organizations: the United Nation’s HeForShe, PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, and Ditch the Label. These nonprofits strive to create a world where everyone can play and feel welcomed. Check out the news below: Celebrate EA Play to Give 2018 From Friday, June 1, 2018, through Sunday, June 3, 2018, anyone who joins the battle in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and completes three group missions will earn the new MB-6 Micro-Defender Droid Mini-Pet and celebrate the EA Play to Give campaign!* Through EA Play to Give, we’re celebrating the importance of inclusion and play and the positive connections it makes for all the diverse players around the world. Help us celebrate what everyone in our galactic community contributes to our galaxy! Next weekend, team up with friends new and old in…

Read More

Microsoft to acquire Electronic arts and Valve?

Here is an interesting rumor that made the news yesterday.  “A reliable source close to Microsoft” with reports of “internal shifts” told Polygon , that Microsoft is creating the necessary situation for an acquisition of Electronic Arts, Valve and Korean outfit PUBG Corp. The reason for the buy up should be to get more exclusives games to the XBOX One. A large acquisition of this nature, especially of publishing titan EA, would be a substantial step in bolstering Microsoft’s gaming software division. Buying Steam would alleviate their problems with the Windows Store. EA is about a 25 billion dollar company. Valve is not a publicly traded company but it is estimated to be about 10 billion dollar company. (estimated based off primary shareholder being worth around 4 billion and holding over 50% of share and aligned with previous estimate growth) Bluehole would be a relatively small acquisition and not sure if it brings…

Read More

Electronic Arts downgraded by Morgan Stanley on disappointing ‘Star Wars’ Sales

Morgan Stanley downgraded Electronic Arts  from Overweight to Equalweight with a price target of $120.00 (from $126.00). Analyst Brian Nowak comments: “Recent disappointing Star Wars Battlefront 2 third party data (NPD and GfK ) cause us to lower our Star Wars unit estimate from 13mn in F3Q to 10mn. These lower unit expectations flow down to the bottom line.” I find this quite interesting as Star Wars: Battlefront was the most downloaded playstation game in december 2017.  Most analysts also remains optimistic. Of the 19 brokerages covering EA, 16 rate the shares a “buy” or “strong buy.” In addition, EA’s average 12-month price target of $128.52 represents a 16% premium from the stock’s current perch, and is in uncharted territory for the shares. This implies that more downgrades and price-target cuts could be on the horizon. Brian Nowak also had some thoughts on the rollout of “Star Wars Battlefront 2” microtransactions: It’s unlikely…

Read More

Petition to Revoke EA’s Star Wars License

We all know how upset players have been with EA over the controversial launches of both Star Wars Battlefront I and II. When we all thought Battlefront II was going to be better, the redeeming game even, they threw a curveball and added loot crates. There was such an uproar over that, they actually had to suspend the idea (at least for now). For many Star Wars gamer fans, this was the last straw. EA has the rights to Star Wars games but it would seem they keep fumbling the ball with one mistake after another and the fans are the ones suffering. That’s why there is now a petition asking Lucasfilm to revoke EA’s license for making Star Wars games. Right now, it’s an exclusive license which means no other companies can make Star Wars games. So far, over 60,000 people have signed the petition and it’s still climbing. What…

Read More

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…

Read More

Visceral studio closing down. Unnamed Star Wars game moved to EA Vancouver

EA posted an update on the VISCERAL Star Wars project late last night.   According to EA’s Vice President Patrick Söderlund, the studio is being closed down, and the game is being moved over to other EA studios, which will see the game through until its release. The Star Wars title was announced in 2013, and had that former Uncharted and Naughty Dog director Amy Hennig on the team, who was co-writing the title with Todd Stashwick. Posted by Patrick Söderlund Our industry is evolving faster and more dramatically than ever before. The games we want to play and spend time with, the experiences we want to have in those games, and the way we play…all those things are continually changing. So is the way games are made. In this fast-moving space, we are always focused on creating experiences that our players want to play…and today, that means we’re making a significant change with one of our…

Read More

EA Star Wars: A Look Ahead

EA Star Wars has given us a new video that talks about what we can expect in the future from EA regarding the Star Wars franchise. In just about 3 1/2 minutes, we see some great highlights of what is to come, as well as the team behind these amazing games. You’ll hear from representatives of DICE, BioWare, Motive, Visceral Games, Capital Games, and Respawn Entertainment. There’s not really any footage into any of the games, although we do see some brief footage of the design process. We do hear story from people from these teams, what Star Wars means to them, and how they put that passion into the games they create for us, fellow fans. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the video for yourself below, then take a minute and tell us what you think. Take a look at what’s going on with some of…

Read More

EA Teases Future Star Wars Games and More

You know how we love Star Wars games and we know you do too. Now EA is giving some indication that we might have some more Star Wars games on the way soon. CFO Blake Jorgensen said this week that Battlefront, mobile game Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, and free-to-play MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic did “extremely well” in 2015 and will continue to perform well in the time ahead.  He then goes on to say that the sky is the limit for Star Wars games and the brand, which really is not a surprise to anyone at this point. EA has the license to the brand for the next 10 years and with the new films coming out as well, we can bet they will do all they can to make the most of this opportunity. “We see it as a great start–building a strong base of people that…

Read More

Electronic Arts Cuts Staff At Visceral Games To Focus On New Star Wars Title

According to Game Informer, it has been confirmed , that EA has laied off  a smaller number of staff over at Visceral. “We made a small staffing change in our Visceral studio today to support the needs of the studio’s two current development priorities: content for Battlefield Hardline Premium and an unannounced Star Wars project,” an EA representative told us via email.  “We are working to ensure the smoothest transition possible for the impacted employees.” Electronic arts did mention anything about Amy Hennig and Todd Stashwick, who are leading the work on a still not official named Star Wars game, so we don’t know if they are affected by these changes. EA declined to share specific numbers impacted by the change. In April, Visceral’s Steve Papoutsis left EA after 14 years. Scott Probst currently leads Visceral’s efforts, including work on follow-up content for Battlefield Hardline and the upcoming Star Wars game.

Read More

If EA Created a New Star Wars Game

We love Star Wars games around here and most of you will know that there has been no shortage of ideas for them but very few that make it to completion and then stick around for any period of time for people to actually enjoy them. This can be very frustrating for the Star Wars gamer fan. How many games in the past couple of years have we seen scrapped? (Stop it already developers!) So here is a question to ponder: If EA was to create a new Star Wars game that isn’t part of an existing series (like Battlefront, Rogue Squadron, etc.) what would you want it to be about? If you could write the plot and script for a new Star Wars game, what would your game be about? Would you be looking for something with more of a Star Wars Galaxies feel to it or would you…

Read More

Origin users reporting unauthorized purchases appearing on their accounts

Origin users are reporting unauthorized game purchases on their accounts, pointing to EA’s platform falling victim to a hack. The reports first surfaced on Reddit and it is unclear as to how widespread this issue is. It could be that just a handful of users had poor passwords and had their accounts hacked, but another major and possible scenario is that Origin itself got hacked as a whole and that the hackers are now using their financial details to make unauthorized purchases. Some are looking at the November hacking of Origin, which was made by group DerpTrolling. They reported to have stolen information from over 1.7 million Origin accounts, but nobody really took this threat seriously. Maybe the group actually did get some valuable information, and after seeing the success of Lizard Squad and their hacking of Playstation Network and Xbox LIVE, have decided to take the next step. The…

Read More

EA Opens new Star Wars Website

Leland Chee (Manager of the Holocron over at Lucasfilm Story Group), posted an interesting tweet Yesterday. Unknown to most people, Electronic arts, have now started a website for all thing related to upcoming Star Wars video games in development by EA. Over a year ago, EA and our partners at Lucasfilm and Disney reached a multi-year, multi-title exclusive licensing agreement for the creation of new Star Warsgames aimed at core gamers across consoles, PC, mobile and tablets. Today, we’re excited to be launching a new Web Site for EA’s Star Wars games. StarWars.ea.com is a singular destination for Star Wars fans to learn more about the exciting new games in development at EA. Right now, you can find new videos and the latest on Star Wars™ Battlefront™ from DICE, and Star War™: The Old Republic™ from BioWare. This will be pretty interesting to follow for now on. You can check…

Read More

EA Should Use These Star Wars Games as Inspiration

We all know that EA is a big leader in Star Wars video games. With the new canon, we know that they can also do pretty much anything they want in terms of story and put a Star Wars spin on it. But is this really the best way to do it? Are we steering too far away from what made us all fans in the first place- the original story and movies? What if new Star Wars games complemented the new movies coming out? cinelinx tells us what they think EA should use as inspiration for future Star Wars games: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Star Wars Starfighter for the PS2 Star Wars Republic Commando Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (no complaints from us on this one) They go on in their article to explain why they think these games are the best representation…

Read More

50 EA Titles to be Taken Offline Next Month Including Star Wars: Battlefront

Big news from EA this week about online service updates coming as soon as June 30th. EA will be pulling more than 50 titles with online multiplayer components and it could affect some games you still play. This can be frustrating news to those of us who still play some of these titles. There are several games that I still play with friends or family and several that are really only fun in multiplayer format so it’s a real let-down that they are pulling them offline. I can respect and understand that an online game will have a lifespan and that it is not reasonable to expect them to be supported forever but it’s still sad to hear this news. Check out the list of 50 titles yourself and see if any of your favorite games are on there. Take note of the following Star Wars games on the list:…

Read More

EA Won’t Be ‘Worst Company in America’ for the 3rd Year in a Row

Remember when we told you it looked like EA might take home the prize of  ‘Worst Company in America’ for the 3rd year in a row? Well, it looks like good news for them that they fell out of the running in round one. While they may have made some mistakes this year, it looks like there are some other companies who have people upset enough to bump them up in the rankings, sparing EA this year. In the first round, Time Warner Cable beat EA with a 51.2% vs. 48.8% margin. It was a close one but as a TWC customer, I can’t say I am surprised. In past years, I was a huge TWC fan but recent months have told a different story and now their impeding merge with Comcast just pushes them more negative territory. As Consumerist explains: In the narrowest margin of victory since 2011, when BP beat…

Read More

EA Plans to Model Star Wars Games after Batman Arkham Series

Reports and interviews coming out say EA plans to model their Star Wars games after the Batman Arkham series. “We’re not trying to build a game that replicates the storyline of any particular film,” says EA boss. EA is telling the fans we shouldn’t expect the upcoming Star Wars games to be based directly on the Star Wars films themselves. Instead, EA will approach it in the same way that Warner Bros. did with the Batman Arkham series. Basically they are not planning to build a game that copies any particular storyline of the films. Instead, they are going to take the core roots of the IP and create an additional interactive experience that fans can enjoy. This is interesting because it also gives the more flexibility with what they do with the games. Remember EA acquired the Star Wars license exclusively last May and it will last for at…

Read More

EA May Take Title for “Worst Company in America” for 3rd Time

It’s that time of year again and The Consumerist is having their annual contest for the “Worst Company in America”. And funny enough, it looks like Electronic Arts may take the title for the 3rd year in a row. The process of nominations started already and will continue through 5 pm ET on Thursday, March 13. No company except EA has ever managed to win the prize two years in a row (2012, 2013) as we brought you previously. And now it looks like they could take it for a 3rd year. The winner of this prestigious title gets the Golden Poo award. Both times that EA won the prize, Bank of American was next in line. No offense to any readers who may work for BoA but I’m not too surprised. So will EA win out again and remain the reigning champion or will some other bad American company take the…

Read More

Electronic Arts names Andrew Wilson new CEO

Electronic Arts named sports and digital games division head Andrew Wilson its new chief executive on Tuesday, filling the top job after a six-month search to replace John Riccitiello. Wilson took over EA Sports in August 2011 and has been with the company for 11 years. “I envision EA as the World’s Greatest Games Company,” Wilson said. “This is not about what we are aiming for or what we will become. Rather, it is about an unfaltering commitment to what we will be every day. This is an attitude that must drive our culture as one team.” “I also believe EA’s strategy is sound. Our focus on our talent, our brands and our platform together with our investment in next-generation consoles, mobile and PC free-to-play, as part of our ongoing transition to digital, is right. But we have plenty of work ahead to ensure our collective success.”” Wilson, 39, will…

Read More

Frank Gibeau Interview with Venture Beat

Frank Gibeau talks with Venture Beat on EA’s digital ecosystems, Star Wars games, and Titanfall (interview part two) with information about EA’s future, games in the works and more. As you may already know, Electronic Arts has some very large properties in the video game world. FIFA Soccer, Titanfall, Star Wars Battlefront and more are examples of some of the big titles we have coming from EA this fall. Venture Beat talked to Gibeau about this and more in part 2 of this great interview. See a snippet here: GamesBeat: It seems like you guys, as EA, can believe in a digital ecosystem around games. If you’re Disney, you can believe in transmedia. You can do toys and films and whatever. You guys have the Need for Speed film. When do you step outside that? Gibeau: We have an embarrassment of riches in terms of intellectual properties at EA. Then, you couple…

Read More

EA Didn’t Ruin BioWare Games, Says Dr. Zeschuk

We have all heard the rumors: EA ruined SWTOR, EA ruined BioWare, EA destroyed BioWare games. But one of the Doctors is speaking out against these rumors. BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk says he had a hand and a voice in how things operated at EA/Bioware. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, the doctor says: Zeschuk also rejects any notion of Electronic Arts being a negative influence on BioWare. “They don’t second-guess you, they don’t say you shouldn’t do that,” he explains. “We had complete creative control over a lot of it; some fans didn’t like some of it and some of it was experimental, quite frankly.” Well, it’s a sign of honor to own up to your own mistakes, right? It’d be easy for BioWare to blame EA for their lackluster year(or two) but instead he admits that they had too much money and possible too much free reign and they made…

Read More

EA Responds to “Worst Company in America” Poll; Makes History

EA Chief Operating Officer, Peter Moore, has responded to what looks to be EA’s second year in a row winning The Consumerist’s ‘Worst Company in America’ award. Their stock might be on the rise but there are clearly still some issues that EA needs to work out. EA is the first company in the contest’s history to win this award twice (not the type of award you want to brag about, right?) Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore had some things to say about this development: “Are we really the “Worst Company in America?” Moore asks. “I’ll be the first to admit that we’ve made plenty of mistakes. These include server shut downs too early, games that didn’t meet expectations, missteps on new pricing models and most recently, severely fumbling the launch of SimCity.  We owe gamers better performance than this.” He then goes on to explain how last year they won the…

Read More