Sales of Battlefield 5 fell short of EA’s expectations. And the company already knows what caused it.
What happened? Battlefield 5 was released in November 2018, and it quickly became clear that it was not selling as well as EA hoped. Just weeks after the release, there were already many discounts aimed at boosting sales.
In EA’s latest earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson spoke about how Battlefield 5’s sales fell short of expectations. However, it is believed that the title will perform well in the future.
Why did Battlefield 5 sell so poorly? Andrew Wilson addressed the reasons for the lower sales figures during the earnings call. It involved the release timing and the absence of a battle royale mode.
The delay of the release from October to November made it particularly difficult for Battlefield 5. This pushed it deeper into the competitive Christmas sales window. Although it was still far from Red Dead Redemption 2, that likely did not help.
They made the decision to prioritize content such as the single-player experience at launch over a battle royale mode, Wilson explained. “As a result of these decisions, we struggled to gain momentum and did not meet our revenue expectations for the quarter.”
Fans are eagerly awaiting a battle royale mode. Firestorm has already been introduced by EA and could push player numbers up again.
When is Firestorm coming? The BR mode for Battlefield 5 launches in March 2019, and the developers believe that Battlefield 5 will flourish again as a result. “We are responding to our players in Battlefield 5 by bringing the content they most want to the live servers. At a pace that will provide the community with new experiences over many months.”
EA believes Battlefield 5 will continue to do well for a long time because the Battlefield community is loyal to the series. As Dualshockers reports, Battlefield 1 still has 4 million players, and even the Battlefield 4 community still consists of about 2 million active players.
In Battlefield 5, the new cooperative mode Combined Arms is now available, but the teaser has caused some complaints:
