EA plans to release four major non-sports titles before April 2021

EA plans to release four major non-sports titles before April 2021

By Sean Carey, 31 Jan 2020
Comments
Last night, EA held an earnings call for the Q3 of FY2020 and revealed some of its plans for the following fiscal year (April 2020 - March 2021), surrounding new releases. In that period, EA plans to publish eight new major games, four of which are annual sports titles, but four are based on existing IPs. The publisher also emphasized the live service model and mentioned another four games being made by smaller developers.

On the call, Chief Operating Officer of EA, Blake Jorgensen, said, "We're launching four sports titles including new games in our blockbuster FIFA and Madden franchises." He continues and mentions that another four titles will be published from existing IPs and that EA has plans to publish another four titles from smaller developers, "[and] four other titles that draw from the breadth of our IP. We'll also publish four titles globally from smaller developers."

The call continues and specifically touches more on sports franchises such as Madden and FIFA as you'd expect, but nothing about EA's NBA Live series, where most recently, the publisher decided to cancel NBA Live 20. As for the other four titles that are based on EA's existing IPs, EA has not given anything away as to what those games could be. CEO Andrew Wilson mentions later in the call that EA is looking forward to delivering games from "new partner and indie titles" which probably alludes to the four games from smaller developers mentioned by Jorgensen.

Jorgensen goes on to say that using the live service model — prevalent in games like Apex Legends and Star Wars Battlefront II — allows EA to produce strong financial results and reduces the publisher's dependency on individual titles, "We create long-term value by growing strong live services, launching new content and expanding our reach. This broad-based model reduces our dependency on individual titles, decreases risks and enables us to deliver financial results for our shareholders through a constant stream of high-quality entertainment for our players."

Andrew Wilson continues with more praise for the live service model, saying that the EA is designing "experiences for longevity" and "creating communities where our players love to connect, share and compete with friends for months and years to come. Our live services for Apex Legends, EA SPORTS Ultimate Team, The Sims 4, Star Wars and more continue to grow in player engagement and will bring more great creative content and in-game events to those communities throughout the year ahead."

In total, EA has 14 games set to be published (two of which are mobile games) in the upcoming fiscal year. Other than the obvious sports franchise releases, it's unknown just what to expect from the publisher. With the next console generation, EA is seemingly excited for the likes of the Xbox Series X and the PS5. Blake Jorgensen believes that with the new consoles, EA can do more with its games, "The power of those consoles are going to be a lot better than the power of the existing consoles, which means a really simple thing, we can do a lot more.

"And so you will start to see things over the next couple of years that we're doing with games that will blow people's minds. It's going to be fun and great to see how our existing games will evolve like a FIFA or a Madden, but also see how new games will evolve or be developed under that much higher power."

Source: Seeking Alpha
Industry News

Written by Sean Carey
Hey everyone! I'm Sean. I have been writing gaming content for various outlets over the past few years while studying a degree in Journalism. I grew up on everything PlayStation — mainly Metal Gear Solid, with a brief foray into the world of Xbox. Nowadays, you'll find me mainly playing multiplayer PC games, but with the recent addition of the Xbox Game Pass for PC, I'm looking forward to improving my TA Score.