Electronic Arts has revised its projected revenues for the 2025 fiscal year sharply downward in a preliminary financial results release, from $7.4–7.7 billion to $7–7.15 billion, as both EA Sports FC and Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed to meet expectations.
We don't cover a lot of business-focused news at PC Gamer, but this is interesting for two reasons: The sudden sharpness of the decline in expected revenues—potentially more than half a billion dollars, and I'm not an industry analyst but that sure seems like a big change over a single financial quarter—and also the reasons for it. EA said that after two years of double-digit net bookings growth, its Global Football franchise "experienced a slowdown" in the current fiscal year, while Dragon Age: The Veilguard "engaged approximately 1.5 million players during the quarter, down nearly 50% from the company’s expectations."
"During Q3, we continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio," Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson said. "However, Dragon Age and EA Sports FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectations.
"This month, our teams delivered a comprehensive gameplay refresh in addition to our annual Team of the Year update in FC 25; positive player feedback and early results are encouraging. We remain confident in our long-term strategy and expect a return to growth in FY26, as we execute against our pipeline."
The underperformance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard is more disappointing for me personally, but the decline in EA Sports FC is the bigger surprise. EAs's FIFA series has been a bedrock moneymaker for years, and the transition to EA Sports FC following the loss of the FIFA license seemed to be going relatively smoothly, although some fans haven't been entirely happy with it. But the company now expects its live service net bookings—basically the money it makes on DLC sales and microtransactions, which have historically been driven in large part by the Ultimate Team mode—to see a "mid-single-digit decline."
Electronic Arts' share price took a sharp drop following the release of the preliminary financial report. More details will likely be revealed when EA announces its full third-quarter financial results on February 4.
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