It seemed like it was going to be a rough quarter for Electronic Arts after the dismal launch ofBattlefield 5in November, and EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed as much today.
To lead off today’s financial call going over revenue and sales for Q3 of FY2019, Wilson stated up front that it was a rough quarter for the publisher. “The video game industry continues to grow through a year of intense competition and transformational change. Q3 was a difficult quarter for Electronic Arts and we did not perform to our expectations,” Wilson said. He went on to say how they are looking to fix things saying, “We are now applying the strengths of our company to sharpen our execution and focus on delivering great new games and long-term live services for our players. We’re very excited aboutApex Legends, the upcoming launch ofAnthem, and a deep line-up of new experiences that we’ll bring to our global communities next fiscal year.”
EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen, however, added that it wasn’t all bad last quarter, pointing out thatFIFAspecifically continues to be one of the strong titles for the company. “FIFAstands out as a robust franchise through a tumultuous year in the video game industry,” Jorgensen said.
Jorgensen went on to also point to the future of this calendar year and whatEA has lined up saying, “Elsewhere in the business, we’re making adjustments to improve execution and we’re refocusing R&D. Looking forward, we’re delighted to launch Anthem, our new IP, to grow Apex Legends and related Titanfall experiences, to deliver new Plants vs. Zombies and Need for Speed titles, and to add Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to our sports titles in the fall.”
Even though it was a bad third quarter for EA, the publisher still has quite a bit lined up to end this fiscal year. Respawn’sApex Legendsjust released yesterday and BioWare’sAnthemis set to launch by the end of this month. Plus,Battlefield 5is slated to finally receive its long-awaited battle royale game mode next month. We’ll see if these three things can be enough to turn around EA’s struggles to end the fiscal year over the coming months.
