A few weeks ago, EA made some unfortunate headlines when the company’s social media account tweeted a joke seemingly dissing people who are only into single-player games.
The reaction was swift and harsh, not just from the public but from game developers, including some of EA’s own employees. During a recent earnings call this week, EA CEO Andrew Wilson reassured investors that single-player games are still a major part of the company’s output.
When asked about how single-player games fit into the company’s portfolio, he said:
“As we think about single-player games, we think it’s a really, really important part of the overall portfolio that we deliver in fulfillment of those core motivations.
The way we plan for it over time is really just looking at our community, and looking at how they’re spending their time, and looking at where motivations may or may not be fulfilled. And we’ll look to supplement that with the addition of new online games, new multiplayer games, and new single-player games.”
EA’s CFO Chris Suh followed that up with a more sobering statement, noting that live services account for the easy majority of EA’s total business and thus easily the long-term priority:
“If we think about the model impact and the financial impact of it, I think the first thing to always keep in mind is that live services still encompass, on a trailing 12-month basis, over 70% of our business, and that has been a proven, very reliable, highly reoccurring revenue stream, and that will still be the predominant driver in our P&L [profit and loss] long-term.
Second, we’ve talked a lot about the areas of investment that we’re making, and that’s both in the live service as well as some of the single[-player] title launches that you’ve seen. And so over the course of time, we’ll continue to invest, our long-term growth will continue to invest in the ongoing, stable performance of our live services business and there’ll be some puts and takes along the way.”
EA has primarily grown over the past decade-and-a-half by doubling down on multiplayer live-service games and monetization methods (microtransactions, loot boxes, tons of DLC) that have been profitable and at times controversial.
At the same time, they’ve shied away from single-player titles despite plenty of the studio’s most acclaimed works being that kind of game including the “Mass Effect,” “Dead Space,” “Dragon Age,” “Crysis” and “ Mirror’s Edge” franchises along with titles like “Titanfall 2” and “Jedi: Fallen Order”.
Of course, not every multi-player or live service title by EA has been a hit. Recently copies of 2019’s high-profile multiplayer game failure “Anthem” were spotted on sale for a penny each with a Reddit user posting videos of themselves using copies of the game as drinks coasters.
Source: VGC, IGN