Battlefield 4 Drives Down Electronic Arts Share Price

[Andy Chalk]

Battlefield 4 Drives Down Electronic Arts Share Price

Electronic Arts' share price has taken a beating thanks to the very ugly launch of Battlefield 4 and the potential delays it could force on upcoming releases.

It's no secret that the launch of Battlefield 4 has been a mess, to the point that EA publicly announced yesterday [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130245-EA-Halts-Work-on-Battlefield-4-DLC] that all work on future DLC expansions has been halted so DICE can focus on fixing the game. That's good news for gamers, at least as far as it goes, but bad news in the eyes of investors: After climbing dramatically over the course of 2013 from a low of under $14 to a peak of almost $28, EA's share value started to tumble in mid-November, dipping under $20 at one point today.

Coincidence? Probably not. As Seeking Alpha points out, weak Battlefield 4 sales caused in large part by its shoddy state at launch could keep EA from hitting its quarterly financial goals; furthermore, the all-out effort to fix the game might even lead to delays in Star Wars: Battlefront and Mirror's Edge, two highly anticipated games currently scheduled to come out in 2015/16.

EA's share price has begun to edge back up and at last check sat a little over the $21 mark, an improvement over its pre-noon low of $20.48 but still a far cry from its position prior to the release of Battlefield 4.

Source: Seeking Alpha [http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/1448421?source=email_rt_mc_readmore]


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[funksobeefy]

someone will die if they delay Star Wars Battlefront

 

[J Tyran]

Good, feedback like this is the only thing EA would respond to. Give them "worst company in America" awards every year, take every opportunity to criticise them on forums and blogs and threaten boycotts for every game they make and it would not have as much of an effect as this. Hopefully the message "releasing buggy, rushed games = unsettled investors" will sink in this time.

 

[suitepee7]

someone will die if they delay Star Wars Battlefront

i dunno, if it's anything like BF4, i'd rather not have my memories tainted...

i fucking love battlefront, but my faith has been shaken with the BF4 release. the fact that EA registers this as a real issue though is a tad worrying. reassuring that they have the right priorities, but worrying that is got this bad in the first place so EA had to admit there was a big issue rather than deny the extent of the issues.

like i said though, i'm glad they've got their heads on straight in terms of priorities for once

 

[fix-the-spade]

So after BF4's enormous hype damaged CoD: Dog's sales and EA rushed out their release without doing the proper testing... nobody wins.

I can't help but be immensely satisfied by that, even though I do love playing BAttlefield.

 

[Church185]

Wow, is it really that bad for everyone else? I've run into some annoying things in this game, crashes during the Singapore mission when trying to beat it's trophy score, crashes during multiplayer, basically just game crashes in general. But, I haven't had a problem getting my multiplayer rank to 40 [http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/soldier/Church185/stats/935791257/ps4/]. I figured since everyone on the PS4 has the same hardware that the problems would be similar across the board. If you are experiencing the game being flat out unplayable feel free to quote me and let me know.

EDIT: PSA for anyone who likes BF4 and plans to continue playing it into the future. Try to get on and play at least one match today. If you log a match today you should receive a 3x scope for the M1911 pistol. This scope was formerly reserved for DICE devs only but they are giving it out to people who play today as a sort of apology. It might not be the best apology, but this weapon attachment might not be obtainable in the future so you might as well grab it now while it's available.

 

[RooksEye]

I just have to say, when it works, it's a blast. My friends and I who got it on PS4 have had a ton of fun. But, like I said, when it works. Hopefully they get it working soon.

 

[fix-the-spade]

What are you talking about? both Battlefield 4 and CoD: Ghost's sales are way down from there direct predecessor's on PS3 and 360 due to the new consoles where CoD: Ghosts is number one for both.

Overall sales for both are down on what their respective publisher were expecting, notice how much Activision hasn't been banging the drum about Ghosts sales?

 

[wooty]

Not just bugs, but some of the things in the game dont sit well with me. AT weapons are near useless, this vehicle "reload bar" is frustrating too....

I could moan about other things, but I'm sure I'd only get "intellected down" or waved away with the damp flannel of excuses.

 

[james.sponge]

Wow, how arrogant you must be to assume your internal beta testing will be enough to polish big project like that. BF4 should have been in beta for more than 6 months and, in addition, DICE should have launched test servers to test out every new and dlc crap. EA could have avoided all this mess with just a little bit of rational thinking.

 

[GeterianMarsus]

I wonder if this will be a lesson to publishers that they shouldn't kick their games out the door before they even have their pants on. It probably won't be, but it's a nice thought.

 

[Ichigo]

Why are people still buying EA´s shitty games? How many broken games have they released the last year and people said it was a mess? Still they can repeat it endlessly it seems because no one really cares. Battlefront will suck too. They probably just take any BF game and change the models to stormroopers.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

So after BF4's enormous hype damaged CoD: Dog's sales and EA rushed out their release without doing the proper testing... nobody wins.

I can't help but be immensely satisfied by that, even though I do love playing BAttlefield.

What are you talking about? both Battlefield 4 and CoD: Ghost's sales are way down from there direct predecessor's on PS3 and 360 due to the new consoles where CoD: Ghosts is number one for both.

Actually sales for battlefield 4 are down 70 percent compared to battlefield 3 and COD ghosts sales are down 50 percent from Black ops 2. Plus, didn't you see Activision never gave the launch day sales for Ghosts this year yet they did so for every COD every year before?

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Why are people still buying EA´s shitty games? How many broken games have they released the last year and people said it was a mess? Still they can repeat it endlessly it seems because no one really cares. Battlefront will suck too. They probably just take any BF game and change the models to stormroopers.

Clearly, people AREN'T buying Battlefield 4 if the share price is dropping over it. If you want to dislike EA, that's your prerogative. If you want to decide, before any information has been released on it, that Battlefront will suck, feel free to do so. But it's a bit unfair to slam other people for not agreeing with you, especially when a significant portion of people do.

Also, BF 4 has only sold slightly over 4 million copies...on 5 systems. In comparison, BF 3 has sold nearly 7 million copies on the 360 alone, and a total of 16 million copies on the 3 systems it was released on. Granted, BF 3 has a two-year lead, but that is still a huge drop in sales between the two games. People aren't "still buying EA's shitty games", at least not to the level they should.

 

[MaddKossack115]

Good, feedback like this is the only thing EA would respond to. Give them "worst company in America" awards every year, take every opportunity to criticise them on forums and blogs and threaten boycotts for every game they make and it would not have as much of an effect as this. Hopefully the message "releasing buggy, rushed games = unsettled investors" will sink in this time.

I agree with everything except giving EA "'Worst Company in America' awards every year". True, EA is a pretty bad company, but I'm pretty sure there are say, banks cooking up Ponzi schemes, or factories violating OSHA standards, or retail outlets buying from sweatshops overseas that deserve the title of "Worst Company in America" a LOT more than a video game publisher that push glitchy games out to market without playtesting.

Now, "Worst GAMING Company in America" - that's something EA deserves hands down. Better spread the word to make that a specific category, so we don't overhype EA to the same levels as, say Goldmann Sachs and co...

 

[MorganL4]

Good, feedback like this is the only thing EA would respond to. Give them "worst company in America" awards every year, take every opportunity to criticise them on forums and blogs and threaten boycotts for every game they make and it would not have as much of an effect as this. Hopefully the message "releasing buggy, rushed games = unsettled investors" will sink in this time.

Nope, if that was the case, then they would have learned their lesson after Sim City. But they obviously didn't.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I do not care about Battlefield. Not my cup of tea, but I had no idea things were this bad. Is the game just super buggy or something? The reviews I saw gave it pretty solid marks and didn't mention bugs. So what happened?

 

[james.sponge]

I do not care about Battlefield. Not my cup of tea, but I had no idea things were this bad. Is the game just super buggy or something? The reviews I saw gave it pretty solid marks and didn't mention bugs. So what happened?

You know you can't really give an AAA title a score of less than 80% because:
-fanboys will cry
-publishers will cry
-developers will cry
-game magazines/sites won't receive review codes for any new games from said publishers
-little kittens will die
-everyone will cry

also review copies of the game might have not been the same version we got in retail/digital distribution.