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[JORMBO]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/battlefield-5-fails-to-meet-sales-targets-and-ea-e/1100-6464832/

Electronic Arts announced earnings results for the all-important holiday season, and it wasn't the kind of performance the company wanted to see. Amid a "tumultuous" year, EA said the company overall did not perform up to expectations. One title that failed to hit targets was the World War II shooter Battlefield 5.

The game sold a massive 7.3 million units in the time between launch in November and the end of the year, but this was 1 million short of what EA had projected. As for why the game struggled, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the marketing campaign failed to capture the attention of players. The campaign lacked a "creative center," the company said, though it shared no other details.

Wilson added that the game's delay from October to November hurt Battlefield 5 because it meant that the game was going up against titles already discounted for the holiday season. Not only that, but Battlefield 5 struggled because of "unprecedented competition," Wilson said. He mentioned Fortnite, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and Red Dead Redemption 2as titles that ate away at Battlefield 5's sales to some degree.

Not only that, but Wilson suggested that EA's decision to prioritise Battlefield 5's single-player over the new battle royale mode, Firestorm, hurt Battlefield 5's sales. Firestorm is launching in March, and it won't be the first battle royale game from EA, as it just recently launched Apex Legends from Titanfall studio Respawn Entertainment.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Next time don’t insult your consumer base, and try to be a little more tactful explaining creative decisions.

 

[Shin]

Maybe it's time for EA to admit to self that BF won't sell CoD or Rockstar numbers as every time it's like clockwork "falls short".
Maybe Bad Company 3 in a Vietnam settings, puur jungle no sci-fi shit or twisted realities...I think that might sell better than current BF numbered entries.

 

[Threeshotgamer]

Eh they told me not to buy it so I didn't.

 

[Panajev2001a]

They also blamed focus on a Single Player campaign instead of yet another Battle Royale mode...

 

[iconmaster]

 

[Pankratous]

Nobody will care about the BR mode.

 

[Allandor]

just 7.3... Franchise is dead

well not really. Maybe just to much. Battlefront and battlefield year after year is sometimes to much.

and then there was the horrible e3 that pissed of customers. And battle royal is not what most fans wanted. That's not what someone would connect with battlefield.

 

[LostDonkey]

Nobody wanted WW2 but they ahead anyway.

 

[InterMusketeer]

I'm surprised the game still sold that much to be honest, even if the price dropped by a lot and quickly after release. But hey, I can't say I'm not a little happy it failed to meet expectations, though those expectations seem pretty ridiculous anyway.

 

[Supreme Allah]

Im dissapointed. 7.3 million is too much.

 

[leo-j]

That's a lot of game sales for a game that was considered a flop release by many......

 

[JORMBO]

That's a lot of game sales for a game that was considered a flop release by many......

The game hit 50% off a week after it came out and pretty much has stuck at that pricepoint since. It sold half as much as BF1 even at a heavy discount.

 

[VulcanRaven]

7.3 millions sounds a lot. Maybe they were expecting too much. I agree what he says. The marketing campaign failed to capture my attention. BF1 had better trailers.

 

[nikolino840]

Next time don’t insult your consumer base snd try to be a little more tactful explaining creative decisions.

Most have already decided to not buy before the ea answer... Just for the reveal trailer..this Is Just an excuse

 

[manfestival]

Well they are probably looking at raw units but who knows how many units were sold at 50% off. Even with this tactic they were still massively under in sales. Everything adds up if anything.

 

[TheShadowLord]

Most have already decided to not buy before the ea answer... Just for the reveal trailer..this Is Just an excuse

sounds about right

 

[Barakov]

That violin in no where near small enough.

 

[isual]

get woke, go broke.

 

[Jigsaah]

Its a shame. I honestly like the game. They made some bad PR decisions, but the game itself is solid. I think this is the best outcome we could have hoped for. It shows EA not to mess with the consumer. It was just enough to give them pause and I'm sure in the future they will think twice about forcing inclusion and telling their customers not to buy a game if they don't like something about it.

Edit: Wait they didn't mention anything about their bad PR decisions?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

BF was:

- Delayed a month
- No BR mode
- Quirky SJW type of storyline

Money talks and EA learned its lesson. I guarantee you all (bookmark this post), the next BF game that comes out (usually 2 year gaps), it will be:

- On time (releasing before Call of Duty)
- Will have BR mode
- Will get back to authentic types of storylines
- You won't be seeing any #Everyonesbattlefield PR

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The game hit 50% off a week after it came out and pretty much has stuck at that pricepoint since. It sold half as much as BF1 even at a heavy discount.

50% in the US?

Here in Canada it was bargain binned for $30 (and reg price for games is $80). 62.5% off after one month is insane.

I was tempted for $30, but I don't play shooters much anymore. If this was 3-4 years ago, I would have totally snapped it up for $30.

 

[JORMBO]

Its a shame. I honestly like the game. They made some bad PR decisions, but the game itself is solid. I think this is the best outcome we could have hoped for. It shows EA not to mess with the consumer. It was just enough to give them pause and I'm sure in the future they will think twice about forcing inclusion and telling their customers not to buy a game if they don't like something about it.

Edit: Wait they didn't mention anything about their bad PR decisions?

No mention of PR choices.

50% in the US?

Here in Canada it was bargain binned for $30 (and reg price for games is $80). 62.5% off after one month is insane.

I bought it when it came out for $59.99 (US). By the next week it was $29.99 and has mostly been that price ever since.

 

[thelastword]

It may very well be that RTX bogged them down a bit too, the delay did not help.. Funny enough, that BFV landed after the turing cards dropped......

 

[VertigoOA]

These games have grown to a scale too large to produce for just a 60$. The demands of the player and continuous content... I can see how it’s not enough.

Players and grumble all they want but there’s a huge difference in the amount of content available in games today than any generation before it.

 

[JoeyWestSide]

I disagree. The delay was a good move. Cod wanted to be first and moved early so that with the delay was a good buffer for people to jump on. It was the first big game before the holidays too. I truly think that if the siphon which is br wasn't so strong and pulled in a million directions, all else being equal bf5 would be at 10 mil. And it will get there. Keep updating it and bf5 will have legs for 2-3 years and be on top like ubi. If they do bf5 can sell another 7 mil over time especially if the br is solid. I don't understand how the pr is bad with this game. They were standing by their decision to keep allowing players to play as a female. Isn't that good? People just want and like to be bitter so they are.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

These games have grown to a scale too large to produce for just a 60$. The demands of the player and continuous content... I can see how it’s not enough.

Players and grumble all they want but there’s a huge difference in the amount of content available in games today than any generation before it.

True. Budgets are way higher.

BUT, game sales are also much more than old gens. Also, ever since games were released on disc or digital, the production costs drop like a rock opening up more profit margin. The old days of cartridges for $60 US had estimated costs for a rom chip and plastic box being something like $15 alone.

A DVD/BR disc and plastic case is probably $2 tops.

 

[Shmunter]

Maybe they’ll keep their Woke garbage out of historical events in the future. Nah what they’ll do is create fantasy settings where pink haired non gender specific soldiers are the default.

 

[DeepEnigma]

They also blamed focus on a Single Player campaign instead of yet another Battle Royale mode...

These people are just not connected to reality. Or just straight up lying. They are not going to admit the real reason, that would be social media suicide.

 

[VertigoOA]

These people are just not connected to reality. Or just straight up lying. They are not going to admit the real reason, that would be social media suicide.

Not having battle royale was a huge misstep when their competitor was ready. Campaigns are the least important part of player retention for the big pvp brands. SJW nonsense is in every game.

 

[Tygeezy]

They also blamed focus on a Single Player campaign instead of yet another Battle Royale mode...

I actually agree with that one. Nobody plays battlefield for single player. In fact, the games prior to bad company didn't even have single player. Instead of focusing on getting a good battle royal mode out there they wasted precious resources on a garbage woke single player campaign that distorts actual historical events.

 

[danielberg]

This is soo crazy to me not too long ago a game that sold 1 million was considered a success now 7 million is bad for certain franchises holy crap

 

[captainraincoat]

Insulting your userbase and telling them not to buy the game if they don’t like them making up shit in the game is not the best way to get your battlefield players to merge across from other games..they reaped what they sowed

The game itself also has some design choices which go against all previous bf games

3D spotting gone
Extra animations for entering/exiting stuff
Revive mechanics
Lying around “sunnytayta”
Some classes have shit weapons

The above things make bfv not a very fun game to people who have played all the bf games since bf1942

I’ve said this before..they strived for realism but forgot the fun

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I actually agree with that one. Nobody plays battlefield for single player. In fact, the games prior to bad company didn't even have single player. Instead of focusing on getting a good battle royal mode out there they wasted precious resources on a garbage woke single player campaign that distorts actual historical events.

SP in shooters is one of those nice to have, but not mandatory things.

Of course, it's human nature to have as much content as possible, but at the end of the day, a shooter's best feature is MP. Black Ops 4 ditched SP and did a-okay.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Not having battle royale was a huge misstep when their competitor was ready. Campaigns are the least important part of player retention for the big pvp brands. SJW nonsense is in every game.

I am talking more about your exec having meltdowns and telling people not to purchase your game. Is that in every game too?

 

[VertigoOA]

SP in shooters is one of those nice to have, but not mandatory things.

Of course, it's human nature to have as much content as possible, but at the end of the day, a shooter's best feature is MP. Black Ops 4 ditched SP and did a-okay.

It ditched it and is going to outperform it’s predecessors. It’s doing more than okay

 

[VertigoOA]

I am talking more about your exec having meltdowns and telling people not to purchase your game. Is that in every game too?

Yea... no you weren’t. You just brought that up now....

 

[SirKicksalot]

BF3 sold 8 million in a month lol
BF4 sold 7 million in 6 months
BF1 sold 15 million in 3 months
BF5 went straight to the bargain bin and sold half as much as BF1 in 2.5 months (I still don't know when it actually launched)
I don't know or care where Hardline fits

 

[DeepEnigma]

Yea... no you weren’t. You just brought that up now....

Yes... yes I was.

 

[Tygeezy]

I am talking more about your exec having meltdowns and telling people not to purchase your game. Is that in every game too?

The pr and marketing for this game was obviously very bad. It was also a mistake to not have battle royal ready and waste resources on their trash single player campaign.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Insulting your userbase and telling them not to buy the game if they don’t like them making up shit in the game is not the best way to get your battlefield players to merge across from other games..they reaped what they sowed

Social media..... the thing that can help or kill your product.

And that's the thing EA/DICE does with BF a lot more than Call of Duty. Activision studios typically keep their mouths shut every year and just release preview vids.

Directors and whomever wants to grab the mic at DICE love promoting..... Above the Call, #Everyonesbattlefield, telling BF gamers to stuff it if they don't like it.

For all the gamers who criticize Call of Duty as a repetitive small mapped game..... how often have you ever seen IW, Sledgehammer, Treyarch ever get into squabbles with gamers on Twitter?

 

[Come On Tars]

I think it's crazy how much damage you can do to a muiltimillion dollar launch with tweets and such. Kind of scary how many people pay the price for certain employees

 

[Dr. Claus]

Nobody wanted WW2 but they ahead anyway.

A lot of people wanted WW2. Too bad that isn't what we got.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

Whilst 7m sales might not seem too bad, I would wager a comparatively large proportion of those sales were made with discount after the first month of release.

 

[VertigoOA]

Whilst 7m sales might not seem too bad, I would wager a comparatively large proportion of those sales were made with discount after the first month of release.

These publishers want fortnite money and there’s no doubt the budget of battlefield is way, way, wayyyyyy beyond fornite.

 

[DeepEnigma]

These publishers want fortnite money and there’s no doubt the budget of battlefield is way, way, wayyyyyy beyond fornite.

And the proper thing to do is to build a new F2P franchise instead of shoeho...

Like they just did.

On a side note, my hopes for the Respawn Star Wars game is fading fast with the Single Player comment by Wilson.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

And that number is in unit sales. I would take a gander that BFV's dollar sales are even worse.

 

[Fake]

And EA Explains Why

This should be fun.

Not only that, but Wilson suggested that EA's decision to prioritise Battlefield 5's single-player over the new battle royale mode, Firestorm, hurt Battlefield 5's sales.

 

[VertigoOA]

And the proper thing to do is to build a new F2P franchise instead of shoeho...

Like they just did.

On a side note, my hopes for the Respawn Star Wars game is fading fast with the Single Player comment by Wilson.

I’m not sure that battle royale has to be its own game. With how Blackout is doing... I could see it just becoming a new staple mode in some shooter franchises with each release. It’s going to be interesting to see what Activision does this holiday with cod... I would rather just seem them expand on black ops 4 for the next two years

 

[DeepEnigma]

I’m not sure that battle royale has to be its own game. With how Blackout is doing... I could see it just becoming a new staple mode in some shooter franchises with each release. It’s going to be interesting to see what Activision does this holiday with cod... I would rather just seem them expand on black ops 4 for the next two years

What I mean is, you are not going to get Fortnite money with $60 premium for an asking price.

BR is basically King of the Hill but expanded on, which used to be a staple in all FPS shooters before publishers started doing away with player run dedicated servers and started controlling the game modes with drip feeding releases of said modes.