EA's CEO just said single player is bad for sales

Going over key statements from EA executive leadership during the most recent earnings call, including CEO Andrew Wilson directly stating that the inclusion of single player, instead of a battle royale mode, was bad for Battlefield V sales.

Both CEO Andrew Wilson, and COO &CFO Blake Jorgensen directly stated that single player was bad for sales, and that the way to recover from a slumped fiscal quarter was to "double down" on micro-transactions.

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[silentstephi]

I seriously wish bioware had a different publisher. I literally play nothing that EA has ever published before bioware was bought by them. Ugh.

[LoveWolves]

AGAIN! the second time they said single player is bad. What did 2018 show? Most of the best selling games were SINGLE PLAYER. Like God of War Game of the Year, Red Dead, Spiderman, etc....

[Makoto]

I hate that EA took the completely wrong takeaway from Battlefield V's failure. It wasn't the story mode but the terrible marketing.

[PTDestroyerOfWorlds]

PLEASE please have this be a topic in the next StV episode! I must know how much faith you two collectively have in DA4 still happening as a single player game, if at all. EA has me STRESSED. 😭🤯🥺

[Avenray]

God... I really really hope they don't ruin DA4...

[shachi_edits]

Yeah sure, the reason Battlefield V did poorly is because it didn't release with a BR mode.

Just ignore the fact that you've released one nearly every year since 2002 and have oversaturated your own market.

Also telling people they are bigots for not liking the latest one regardless of why they didn't like it? Interesting strategy.

[Rainbowhawk]

If BioWare does die, I hope the core staff can join Drew at Fogbank studios to become BioWare reborn. Imagine if they can kickstart their way to success just like Larian did with Divinity Original Sin 2.

But other than that, EA blaming single player will be the way to drive themselves into the ground. But I won’t cry and whine about the countless studios they’ll scapegoat first if it happens.

But my dream is that Sony can purchase BioWare if Ea doesn’t want them anymore. That way they can really compete with Obsidian on the other side.

[relaygaming]

Great video Jordan! I'm definitely worried for the next Dragon Age game. Kinda wish they didn't give us that teaser in December now

[boo]

I think Jordan should do a video on why Bioware are still with EA bcz I honestly can't figure it out

[jonnyso]

That statement about BF 5 just shows how EA doesn't understand what's going on anymore.

[sarahhutchinson]

....was nothing learned from Star Wars?

[offbrandsilverhand]

Why can’t they just accept the fact that the reason EA can’t sell is mainly BECAUSE of micro-transactions, not to mention the backlash they get from corporate endorsement of other more political anti-consumer practices? It’s like you really expect to allow the lead developer of Battlefield come out, call players man-babies, literally tell them NOT to buy the game, and still make good sales?

[andrewwilson]

It is true tough, single-player games are bad for sales!

[duckyF]

They've got their facts backwards.... it's not single player experience that help bf back.... it's literally everything else about EA

All this is very bad for bioware and particularly dragon age and mass effect. Even if Anthem succeeds, EA may consider DA and ME outliers and ask Bioware why they are making them instead of focusing on Anthem-like titles...

Really feeling we may never get a conclusion to dragon age now

[elizabeth]

Here’s my analysis, based on the video: Assuming Anthem does well, EA would most likely rework DA4 to be multiplayer with barely any story and no fleshed out characters, as well as no or very little single player. If Anthem tanks, then I figure they’d just shut BioWare down and we wouldn’t get DA4 at all. Either that or we’d get a extremely lazy version of it and then they’d shut BioWare down after. Do you think those are likely scenarios, or am I being too pessimistic? (although as Ashley says, a pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist)

[TheBaLENced]

Idk if the comments apply to all of EA's games though. I don't expect them to have greenlighted DA4 development if they only wanted to do multiplayer. It'd be pretty bad management to make very drastic changes based on one game underselling.

[dexterjettster]

Ya know, games aren’t just for money. They are supposed to make people happy, but in the wonderful mind of ea, if it won’t make a few hundred million dollars, it’s not worth our time

[christarasylantelas]

Let’s hope that while DA4 still is in an early development phase this multiplayer madness descends.

[Icehypernova]

well... see you all in DA4's battle royale mode 😫

[saymone]

EA: single players are dead



Rockstar: Hold my Beer
CD Projekt Red: Hold my Beer
NaughtyDog: Hold my Beer
Insomniac: Hold my Beer
Ubisoft: I don’t have a Beer