Battlefield V's Lack of Battle Royale Blamed for Poor EA Financial Results

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(Image credit: EA)

EA executives admitted in the latest quarterly fiscal report for Q3 FY19, announced late yesterday, that it didn’t do as well as it expected. The company was most disappointed in the low Battlefield V sales, as well as its mobile-gaming revenue.

Battlefield V Sales Disappoint

EA’s executives noted that it sold 7.3 million copies of Battlefield V in the latest quarter, which was 1 million less than its guidance for this quarter. The executives attributed this to the game’s lack of a battle royale mode at launch and blamed developers for focusing on the single-player mode too much.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the game's battle royale mode, called Firestorm, will launch next month. It’s not clear yet whether or not EA will add microtransactions to this mode, as Activision has done for the battle royale mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Based on information currently available, using the mode will only requires owning the game.

“Intense Competition”

Wilson noted that the company’s poor performance was also due to “intense competition” in the video gaming industry in fiscal Q3 2019.

However, he admitted that this the competition they had to face was partially EA’s own fault, noting that with the delayed release of Battlefield V from October to November, "the combination of a poor start in our marketing campaign with a longer development cycle that put us in a more competitive window," as quoted by Ars Technica.

Mobile Gaming

EA said that the launch of its new mobile game Command and Conquer: Rivals wasn’t as strong as expected. Additionally, the changes it made to Madden Mobile failed to increase monetization. Its mobile games made 23 percent less revenue in the the latest quarter.

The company reassured investors that its sports games and its microtransaction systems within some of its games are still performing well. EA also said that its new Apex Legendsgame had a solid launch.

Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gggplaya
    Scapegoat excuse. Everyone knows what really happened. When you tell people, "If you don't like it, then don't buy it" you're basically shooting yourself in the foot. The idea of a business is to sell to as many customers as you can, not to push political agendas.
    Reply
  • Gam3r01
    Yes because Battlefield fans are truly upset at the lack of BR mode (/s)
    Reply
  • rssbailey
    Ok EA what a cop out! Stop bending over fans and adding cash grab BS to your games IE small content update for $20 every 4-6 weeks that's just greed! And Single player games (and im not alone im sure) are where IMMERSION in the universe you have created is strongest and blaming the team for to much time on it is just pathetic and further cements the reason I have not and will not purchase any more games from you!
    Reply
  • DookieDraws
    Here's a suggestion, EA. Give your game developers the time needed to properly work on, and market their games. Seems everything these days are rushed to be released, resulting in poor performance. When a game is released half baked, word of mouth spreads like a wild fire. And what does that do? It turns away potential buyers of that particular game, resulting in poor sales. Why not take the time to get it right to begin with? Doing so would benefit you greatly, EA.

    As a long time BF fan, since the very first BF game, I hate seeing this franchise go into the crapper.
    Reply
  • TMTOWTSAC
    Not to mention all the hype surrounding Ray Tracing, finding out it was going to be a $600 feature (until the rtx 2060 was announced), and then the delays. To say nothing of the general pushback against EA after the Battlefront debacle.
    Reply
  • zfreak280
    21747751 said:
    Scapegoat excuse. Everyone knows what really happened. When you tell people, "If you don't like it, then don't buy it" you're basically shooting yourself in the foot. The idea of a business is to sell to as many customers as you can, not to push political agendas.

    This goes to show that a very large number of people actually watch game unveilings and can be turned off from buying a game by one executives comments. Furthermore, I firmly believe that it was mostly fans watching because, characters and skins aside, the game is very similar to past battlefields. The average gamer isn't going to buy a battlefield game that is similar to past battlefields. Battlefield fans buy battlefield games, and battlefield fans aren't going to abandon battlefield because of the battle royale fad.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    They'll be surprised when the next BF game, focused solely on BR at the direction of the CEO, is also a flop.
    Reply
  • updownwaste
    Selling 7.3 million copies at 60 plus is a flop?
    Oh right this is big Pubs/devs. first world problems.
    Reply
  • acelaya35
    Game who's formula left unchanged for 17 years blames lack of formula that everyone else is already doing for poor sales.

    Gee, how about this, SPEND MONEY ON SOMETHING NEW AND DIFFERENT.
    Reply
  • SkyBill40
    Uh, no. That's *not* it whatsoever, guys... but go ahead and think whatever you wish. You're a bunch of people on a board worried about profits; you're not gamers.
    Reply