EA’s Stock Plummets Due to Battlefield V Sales Performance

EA experienced its biggest drop in stock price in more than a decade as its shares dropped by 18 per cent on Tuesday. The “significant changes” which took place during the third fiscal quarter as described by its CEO Andrew Wilson is expected to last through the fourth quarter. The majority of these “changes” were caused by the Battlefield V which sold fewer than EA had expected.

Till date, 7.3 million copies of Battlefield V have been sold according to EA’s COO and CFO, Blake Jorgensen. This is lower than the expected target EA had set and is one million short, the company had hoped to bring more subscribers to its Origin Access Premier which would have helped its market share.

The 18 percent drop brings EA closet to its lowest drop ever, a 25.5 percent drop which happened which happened on December 17, 1999 as noted by MarketWatch.

Speaking in a conference call, Wilson said the delay in Battlefield V’s launch also contributed to this as the price was discounted so it could compete with other games during the holiday period. The game which was released November 20^t last year was battling with Red Dead Redemption 2, arguably PS4’s greatest game till date which was released around the same time and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. This had a detrimental effect.

“As a result of these decisions, we struggled to gain momentum and did not meet expectations for the quarter,” Wilson said. “We made some calculated decisions that did not work as planned in Q3 and we did not execute well in other areas of our business. Against the backdrop of a very competitive quarter, the combination of those factors led to our underperformance.” Wilson said.

In Q3, EA had a total net revenue of $1.289 billion, lower than its expected $1.375 billion. EA’s shared fell as low as $74.71 in late trading due to the results. One positive aspect for EA is its Apex Legends which gained one million unique players within 24 hours of its launch. February is expected to be a huge month for EA with the release of Anthem, one of the most anticipated PS4 games this year. Despite all these, EA has lowered its outlook for revenue for the incoming fourth quarter.

Source 1, Source 2