Earlier this week,Electronic Artsbegan preparing forworse than intended fiscal resultsfor the fiscal year.
The publisher points to two main causes for lower than expected revenue:Dragon Age: The Veilguardmissed its sales projections by 50% despite reaching 1.5 million players.
However, a bigger cause for concern lies with the underperformance ofEA Sports FC 2025. EA’s soccer franchise, formerly known asFIFA, used to be a tentpole in terms of growth and revenue.
This year’s poor critical reception led to it failing to reach sales goals. Despite not having theFIFAbranding last year,FC 24performed well and was one of 2023’s best selling games. Whilecritical reviews were positive, players were upset with the state of the game, citing bugs, gameplay errors, and being far worse than last year’s entry.
EA’s Stocks Take A Down Turn Following News of Poor Performance
Reutersreports that EA’s stock price sank over 15% on Thursday, resulting in a nearly $6 billion loss from its market value of $37.3 billion.
While theBioWareRPGDragon Age’s poor performanceis cause for concern, analysts point toFC 25’s failure as a bigger cause. Reuters reports that the game normally generates $2 billion annually, $800 million of which comes from the Ultimate Team Mode.
“Ultimate Team has come to be viewed as a near Swiss clock of interactive media bookings growth. If it is stagnant, it puts enormous pressure on EA to fill the void,” analysts at MoffettNathanson said. IfFC 25doesn’t reach sales expectations, Ultimate Team spending will undoubtedly result in a revenue loss.
EA also brought backEA Sports College Footballthis past year, but even its success cannot compensate for the poor performance of its other marquee franchises.
EA Sports FC 25
WHERE TO PLAY
