Normally these articles are slightly alarmist making it sound like a company will fall over becuase of one bad game release and when you look at the share price over time it is still up. but this one is interesting. EA are down 15% over the past 12 months because of this one drop.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 51 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yeah most game news websites don't understand stocks but in this case, DA Vanguard was a massive failure. In the press release, the game was played by 1.5 million people. Not copies sold, just played. This probably includes people that just bought a month of EA Play to check it out.

The newest fifa game (EA sports FC now) also under-performed but they didn't say much about it beyond that. A few more flops and it sounds like EA could be following Ubisoft into crashing hard.

[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 44 points 3 days ago (1 children)

EA could be following Ubisoft into crashing hard.

I wouldn't miss them. I'm still mad at EA about what they did with Westwood. And they haven't stopped being shit.

[–] yggstyle@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Justice for command and conquer.

[–] Andonyx@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Legend of Kyrandia. 😭

[–] yggstyle@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

🫂 Westwood was such a great studio.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Schreier's added context to this is that FC is far more responsible for the financial underperformance than Dragon Age.

[–] CMLVI@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They won't say that though, because they have a built in narrative of "we were too woke"; convenient excuse for a less micro transaction heavy game to be blamed, as well as an excuse to be more strict on themes in their games. None of the problems are solved, but they have a scapegoat.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't think this is a narrative EA is leaning into. Frankly, even if it sold less than they forecast, I'm sure they were happy they sold as much as they did given the troubled production it was converted from.

[–] CMLVI@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't particularly think it is either, just that's it's conveniently there. The prevailing narrative about failed games recently has been wokeism, and not just the simple fact that games are increasingly shitty as the point isn't a compelling narrative or gameplay, but how many micro transactions can be squeezed out of a franchise.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Did Veilguard have microtransactions?

[–] CMLVI@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I don't think so, but it is "woke", and that's a good enough reason for many to stick their fingers in their ears and claim that's why it didn't sell well.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Another way to see that 15% drop is hinted at in the article:

EA FC generates around $2 billion annually, Reuters reports, with around $800 million of that made up by Ultimate Team.

Loot boxes made EA $800M last year. It's easy to see why EA and other publishers demand MTX in games. Can we amend "Don't preorder" with "and ignore micro transactions"?

[–] projectmoon@forum.agnos.is 9 points 2 days ago

@chicosuave@lemmy.world Pretty sure that ignoring micro-transactions has always been "a thing" to take a stand against. But of course, when it comes to the general public, no one ever does.

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 13 points 3 days ago

slightly alarmist

Positively though, in the case of EA.