This news probably shouldn't come as too big of a surprise, but BioWare's troubled sci-fi shooter ANTHEM doesn't appear to be selling all that well. During its recent finance call, publisher EA said the game hasn't met its expectations. When you consider that servers are struggling to fill up due to a lack of players, that sounds about right.
However, it's not all doom and gloom. The publisher has also commented specifically on the game's digital sales performance, revealing that ANTHEM is its best-selling digital game ever. Apparently, digital business is booming for the company at the moment, accounting for about 75 per cent of its profits. It also stated that nearly half of all console software sales are made digitally.
With regards to the game itself, EA once again affirmed its support. “We continue to invest heavily in Anthem, with developers working on game quality, content, systems and game mechanics," said COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen. "It’s great original IP and we’ve doubled down on the product."
[source vg247.com]
Comments 13
I feel sorry for Bioware employees.
EA: "Keep polishing that turd boys!"
They did say that "if you don't like what's in their game then don't buy it."
Don't EA say this about every game now? Granted it didn't have great sales but just seems they have unrealistic expectation for sales and that maybe make good games not riddled for microtransaction
Sales expectations are always mad - I mean look at the marketing on Anthem. It was everywhere. The issue is that the game is fundamentally flawed at a conceptual level. The Kotaku expose revealed that and showed there is no quick fix for its problems.
Bioware should be making starwars single player rpg rather than this gaas / destiny like titles
Sells more than quite a lot of AAA games but EA are 'disappointed' the game hasn't sold as well as they had overly estimated, overly promised to their share holders...
I have NO doubt that despite this, it sold well enough to be profitable. Some dev/publishers celebrate selling 1m games yet EA expect their games to sell 10m. Mass Effect: Andromeda failed to meet Sales Expectations too yet was still profitable for EA.
Its becoming a recurring theme - games that are 'disappointing' their Publishers expectation - all profitable, all selling in numbers that many other AAA games would love to have - yet haven't met their publishers expectation. Its either 'greed' or completely misreading the gaming market, completely over estimating gamers interest in their products. It seems they expect unfinished, incomplete games to sell on the promise that over time, these games will be fixed, will be polished, will have the content they weren't ready to ship at launch and expect them to sell in ridiculously unachievable numbers and so fail to meet sales expectations...
I think so far every recent EA game has failed to meet sales expectations. In other news water is wet.
I just hope Anthem won’t get dropped like Andromeda did. I highly enjoy Anthem but it needs a hell lot more content and items, which will then also help with increasing the drop rates.
I think the phrases 'we invest heavily' or 'we will continue to support' are EA shorthand for 'we are abandoning said game but don't want to outright say it because of backlash so this statement should keep you quiet'
When a game sets a record in sales and its still considered disappointing should really be showing that these stupid targets that companies promise investors is just that, stupid. I have yet to play Anthem as I'm waiting to see how Bioware fixes existing issues but when it's masters are constantly taking jabs at it instead of actually supporting them I can't have much hope. Send some people from your other subsidiaries to help bioware EA and maybe you can make Anthems sales better and make sure the next game is a hit to please corporate
Those $20 skins wont sell themselves.
Send some money Apex's way! They seem to need better designers for character skins and Battlepasses.
"EA revealed that Anthem was its most successful digital game ever, selling more copies digitally than any other game in company history."
I'm finding this puzzling. I think they are twisting their words to make it sound better than it is. How can it not be a massive success if this is true? They have so many hit games and uber popular sport games yet this one sold better digitally than them all? There is something missing in the wording.
Maybe they mean digital sale preorders or 1st week of launch, but I can't see how it's is better than all their other games, unless they specifically meant for Bioware and not EA. Or they even could have meant more digital to physically ratio sales.
I do like Anthem, but it’s not really finished for a looter shooter. It’s fun, but then you play The Division 2 (granted this is Ubisoft’s second effort) and you realize how far Anthem has to go and how much the game is lacking in content.
And I wonder, not only about this game in particular, but games that are underdeveloped, don’t these people PLAY games? They seem to make mistakes that have been around for years by older games. 🤦🏼♀️
Serves EA right for making a subpar game I say.
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