Electronic Arts (EA)

[winston]

not vested

Electronic Arts Reins in Investor Expectations

Intensifying competition is pressuring the video game maker's sales.

by Joe Tenebruso

Digital net bookings -- essentially, the dollar amount of products and services Electronic Arts sold via digital channels -- fell 3% year over year to $1.199 billion.

Battlefield V

The shortfall was due in part to weaker-than-expected sales of Battlefield V, which were negatively impacted by development delays that forced EA to postpone its launch until November.

"Unfortunately, the later release date meant the game launched deeper into a competitive holiday window where heavy price discounting was a big factor," Wilson said during a conference call with analysts.

Launching Battlefield V primarily as a single-player experience -- rather than a multiplayer battle royale format made popular by Epic Games' incredibly successful Fortnite -- also hurt sales. Consequently, EA sold 7.3 million copies of Battlefield V in the third quarter -- about 1 million less than the company expected.

The company cut its full-year net bookings guidance to $4.75 billion, down from a prior estimate of $5.2 billion. It also lowered its revenue forecast to $4.875 billion from $5.15 billion.

The company recently launched Apex Legends, a new free-to-play battle royale game that quickly became the No. 1 title on popular gaming platform Twitch.

Electronic Arts plans to release its highly anticipated Anthem game on Feb. 22 and a promising Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order game this fall.

Source: The Motley Fool

https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/02/ ... tions.aspx

[winston]

vested

SURPRISINGLY, DISNEY IS HAPPY WITH EA'S STAR WARS GAMES

Star Wars Battlefront II is one of several titles EA has made out of the Lucasfilm franchise.EA
THIS WAS A slow week in gaming, but here at Replay we've still got some news for you. For one, fans finally know how Disney feels about its relationship with Electronic Arts—and it's not bad! Also, sales numbers are in for the hottest new battle royale title around and there's a Halo theme park in the works. Yes, you read that correctly. Let's check it out.

Disney Is Pretty Happy with EA Making Star Wars Games, Actually
One of the most uneasy partnerships in games is the one between the publisher EA and Disney. For several years now, since the shuttering of LucasArts games, EA has had an exclusive deal with Disney to make Star Wars console titles.That's all well and good—except for the fact that none of those games have been unmitigated successes and there haven't exactly been a lot of them, either. As a result, many have speculated Disney's deal with EA might not be long for this world—but, apparently, the Mouse House is fine with things as they are.

In a recent earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger replied to questions about the company's relationship with EA by saying that the deal works well for both parties. "We've had good relationships with some of those we're licensing to, notably EA and the relationship on the Star Wars properties, and we're probably going to stay on that side of the business and put our capital elsewhere," Iger said.

"We're good at making movies and television shows and theme parks and cruise ships and the like, we've just never managed to demonstrate much skill on the publishing side of games." Welp, at least Disney is happy. Because, uh, no one else is.

Source: Wired

[winston]

vested

Wow, OK, Apex Legends Is Really Taking Off

Remember earlier this week when we wondered aloud whether Apex Legends could compete in the rather crowded battle royale market? Turns out, it can. In fact, it's doing gangbusters.

Since its release, 10 million unique users have downloaded and started playing the game, according to EA, and at its peak there are about 1 million concurrent users playing.

That is, uh, not normal. Lessons here? Well, people are hungry for battle royale games. And it seems like they really dug Titanfall 2: enough to give Respawn Entertainment the benefit of the doubt with a game that is definitely not Titanfall 3. It helps, too, that the game is good.

Source: Wired

[investar]

nice pick Winston!

[winston]

nice pick Winston!

TQ. It was actually my boy who alerted me to the strong registration of 10m new players within 3 days, for Apex Legends, during it's soft launch.

In comparison, Fortnite now has 200m players so it's still early days for Apex Legends.

Need to remind myself not to look at the price else I would be tempted to sell too early. Need to sit on this one for a while.

[winston]

vested

Electronic Arts gets back in the game

Finally, shares of Electronic Arts rebounded 16%.

Even though the video game specialist took a huge hit after posting poor earnings results earlier this week, today's move higher reflected encouraging reports about the release of its latest game.

Apex Legends has reportedly pulled in about 10 million players since its recent debut, helping to reassure investors that EA still has the ability to come out with popular new content.

Even though competition remains fierce, Electronic Arts has long been a leader in the space, and today's news makes it more likely that the company will stay there for the foreseeable future.

Source: Motley Fool

[winston]

vested

EA Stock Jumps as Apex Legends Looks Like a Formidable Fortnite Competitor

by Kamaron Leach

Source: Bloomberg

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ea-stock ... 29565.html

[winston]

vested

Apex Legends: New, free battle royale game gets a million players in just a few hours

by Andrew Griffin

Players can choose from one of eight different legends, each of which has different abilities and playstyles.

Developers say they hope the game's different characters and abilities, allow players to join together and work out the best strategies to stay alive.

Like other games such as Fortnite, the game will run in seasons. Each new season will be themed and bring a host of relevant content.

The first of those will begin in March and will ask players to pay for a Battle Pass, which will give them access to exclusive cosmetic items that can be earned by playing.

Source: The Independent

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apex-leg ... 00009.html

[winston]

vested

Electronic Arts Has a Smash on its Hands With Apex Legends

Source: Fortune

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/electron ... 52484.html

[winston]

vested

Jul 5, 2018

What Are Electronic Arts' Key Sources of Revenue?

Electronic Arts’ (NASDAQ:EA) key sources of revenues are Products, and Services.

Products refers to digital or physical sale of games and additional content, such as FIFA, Madden, and others, while the Services segment includes recurring revenue sources such as subscription-based models and in-game transactions.

The Services segment account for around 55% of the company’s value, according to our estimates.

Both of the segments will likely perform well in fiscal 2019, led by FIFA franchises, given the ongoing World Cup.

FIFA is EA’s most popular offering, accounting for nearly half of the units sold by the company.

EA is focused on more profitable digital streams, and we expect it to account for 60% of the company’s overall revenues by the end of our forecast period.

Source: Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspecu ... 62844efe1f