Are you a big fan of Ultimate Team? You better be, because EA has said that it’s “doubling down on live services combined with our core franchises”. This is on the back of increased FIFA Ultimate Team and Madden Ultimate Team engagement, as well as the long-tail success of Apex Legends and The Sims 4.
“We’re investing in games that people play for longer and engage with much more deeply,” explained COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen. “This focus will continue to drive growth and profitability for the company through the remainder of this year and beyond.”
The comments suggest that this strategy will extend to titles beyond its core roster of sports releases, so expect any hypothetical Star Wars or Dragon Age games on the horizon to follow the same suit. While this is unlikely to go down well, you can’t really argue with the financials: the firm made over $493 million from live services during its most recent quarter.
[source ir.ea.com]
Comments 15
I Really Think Someone Should Try And Buy Bioware Off Of EA And Try To Salvage That Studio.
and to say that there was hope with star wars:fallen order that EA realised that they needed to change direction by allowing 1 of their studios to make a SP only game without MTX or live service stuff.
but nope guess it will be back to their usual mistakes after it's release.
Thank goodness I don't really buy any of EA's schlok in the first place...
Didn't EA say a while back they wanted to change their reputation? That they didn't want to win worst company of the year awards anymore? I guess that went out the window.
And Anthem's failure seems to have gone over their heads.
I hope Star Wars Fallen Order is good just to see some light at the end of the MTX tunnel.
I've never touched Ultimate Team, and I never will... it just doesn't interest me. I wish they'd split it off as a separate title to be honest, as I just want to play virtual footy.
There's nothing in EA's catalogue of recent and current games that pique my interest that they haven't already butchered with their "live service" slop.
Great........... More live service trash.
@AdamNovice They doing alright making 500 million in a quarter. Yet all I see is outrage online, I guess they don’t represent the player base.
@jdv95 I suppose if Fallen Order ends up being a good single player game without any micro transaction rubbish, then we can hope it’s successful enough to maybe persuade EA there is still decent money to be made in those games.
@atastyelixir
Agreed. I play fifa occasionally against my friends and the career mode. Have never touched Ultimate team nor do i have any interest to.
EA died for me with Mass Effect Andromeda. Mass Effect 3 was the last EA game i was actively hyped for
It looks like next months Star Wars game is the only EA game I'm going to be buying then for quite some time
Sigh...I had some witty comment about doubling down and my sphincter muscles but honestly what’s the point. This is the reality of a big chunk of 3rd Party AAA gaming these days. Enough people have been conditioned to be repeatedly conned out of their money via the “jackpot highs” and repetitive grinding of Live Service gaming. It’s a Lost Cause now. When I fired up an old PS2 game a while back and saw EA’s logo I was genuinely surprised how long it had been since I saw it; and that made me sad. They actually published some good stuff back in the distant days when it seemed like they had a shred of respect for games and their player base.
They said they wanted to stop being voted “Worst Company in America”, they just didn’t say they planned to do so not be changing positively but by psychologically manipulating people that what they do is good.
Now where was I going with all this rambling? Oh yeah Screw EA, I hope all their toilets burst overflow simultaneously after a company funded vindaloo lunch.
"This is on the back of increased FIFA Ultimate Team and Madden Ultimate Team engagement"
Whyyy?! People, stop! There are so many better games that don't take all your money!
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