EA confirmed to Wall Street Journal that Battlefront II shipped 9 million copies during its launch quarter, that’s 4 million down on the original game released in 2015. Blake Jorgensen, EA’s CFO, said during an earnings call yesterday that Battlefront II underperformed, and that they had modeled 10 million shipments for Battlefront II during its first quarter. Additionally, Jorgensen said that Battlefront II will re-introduce microtransactions “in the next few months.”
EA removed microtransactions from Battlefront II just before the game’s public release in the wake of significant blowback from the community.
EA caught a lot of flak over how Battlefront II allowed you to buy loot boxes–which contained items that affected gameplay–for real money. It remains to be seen what changes there could be to the loot box system when microtransactions do return.
Whatever the case, EA says it believes in microtransactions as a means to “enhance the experience in our games.” However, the company cautioned that EA needs to do this the right way to avoid another Battlefront II-type situation.
“Going forward, we believe that live services that include optional digital monetization, when done right, provide a very important element of choice that can extend and enhance the experience in our games,” EA said. “We’re committed to continually working with our players to deliver the right experience in each of our games and live services.”
Also during the call, EA talked about how Battlefront II, overall, was a “learning opportunity” for the company. For starters, it was collaboratively developed between three studios, while the aforementioned controversy over the digital economy was a learning experience as well, the company said.
While Battlefront II may have missed EA’s initial sales targets, 9 million shipped in three months is still a massive achievement. Additionally, Jorgensen went on to say that EA is expecting Battlefront II to sell as many as three million more units during its current fiscal year, boosting its total to potentially as many as 12 million units. This would compare to 14 million units shipped for the 2015 Battlefront during its fiscal launch year.
EA added that its efforts to make Battlefront II a game that keeps players coming back is working. Over their respective first three months, Battlefront II players logged twice as much play time as the 2015 Battlefront game.
Read more from the earnings call at the link below.
