EA has recently had its Q3 FY2022 earnings call and it does not bode well for Battlefield 2042 as it gets excluded.
The Q3 FY2022 earnings call revealed details about the sales of the latest title of the Battlefield franchise, Battlefield 2042, and also other popular titles. In reality, the title was not mentioned at all in its earnings highlights or press release. In the actual call, this is where the EA executives shared their disappointment of the game.
CEO Andrew Wilson bluntly said the third quarter was a challenge since the launch of Battlefield 2042 “did not meet expectations.” CFO Blake Jorgensen was even more disappointed with the sales of the game and called it “disappointing”. He added that this was a difficult Battlefield launch compared to the others. Both executives did not share any sales figures of the game.
“Developing this game with our teams working from home for nearly two years ultimately proved to be challenging,” said Wilson. “Through our processes for testing and preparation, we believed the experience was ready to be put into our players’ hands.”
The CEO said they did not anticipate the performance issues players met during the problematic launch. He even commented on the design decisions of the developers saying it “did not resonate with everyone in our community.” He did confirm that EA and DICE will still make more improvements and updates to Battlefield 2042, big ones too.
Wilson did mention the recent announcement of the first season being delayed to early summer, but his response was just the same as what DICE said. There was a cost though to the delay, as EA had to downgrade its net booking expectations for the full fiscal year by $100 million.
Jorgensen said the same thing as well relating to the delay. He said EA is fully committed to turning the game around and building a sustainable live service. They would make these decisions even though there would be some consequences like the downgrade of its net booking expectations.
Battlefield 2042 is now available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.