Electronic Arts Inc.'s latest Star Wars game, which has been mired in controversy over its use of microtransactions, failed to meet sales expectations in the company's third quarter of fiscal 2018.
Speaking during a Jan. 30 earnings conference call, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said the company had expected to sell about 8 million units of "Battlefront II," but fell short of that by less than a million units.
The backlash incurred by the game's microtransactions prompted EA to pull them out of the game on the eve of its official release Nov. 17, 2017. The company's CEO Andrew Wilson called the game a "learning opportunity" and gave assurances that future updates would help improve the overall experience for gamers.
Star Wars Battlefront II at EA Play 2017 |
Jorgensen, meanwhile, added that the next Star Wars title would be a new action game being developed by Respawn Entertainment, the video game studio that EA acquired late in 2017. According to the CFO, the still-untitled game has a tentative release window for EA's fiscal 2020, which runs April 2019 to March 2020.
"We never intended to build an experience that could be seen as unfair or lacking clear progression so we removed the feature that was taking away from what fans were telling us was otherwise a great game," Wilson said. "We're now working hard on more updates that will meet the needs of our players, and we hope to bring these to 'Battlefront II' in the coming months ahead."
Speaking about titles scheduled to release this year, Wilson said a new "Battlefield" title is set to launch from the company's DICE studio, while the EA SPORTS development team will roll out new FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL and NBA Live titles. EA also plans to launch two new mobile games based on the company's "fan favorite" intellectual property, or IP.
Wilson also confirmed that "Anthem," a new project from BioWare, will now release in early 2019 instead of fall of this year as originally announced.
"We're really excited by the way the next 'Battlefield' is shaping up and it probably doesn't make sense to launch 'Anthem' right up next to it," Wilson said. "And when you think about 'Anthem' as a brand new IP, we also believe it makes sense to give it its own launch window so that we can give it the focus and attention it deserves."
EA posted a net loss of $186 million in its third quarter of fiscal year 2018, a significant drop from a $1 million loss in the prior-year quarter as the company recognized a $176 million incremental expense due to the new U.S. tax law.
Total net revenue for the quarter increased slightly year over year to $1.16 billion from $1.15 billion. Digital revenue increased to $780 million in the quarter from $685 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue from packaged goods and other net revenue, however, fell to $380 million from $464 million.

