EA Predicts Star Wars: Battlefront Will Sell 13 Million Copies

[Recusant]

Will the game sell thirteen million copies? Probably. Despite the fact that even total newcomers have literally hundreds of Star Wars video games to choose from, the appeal of the new and shiny is hard to resist.
Will the game sell thirteen million copies by the end of March? Almost certainly not. The lure of "the first new Star Wars movie in years" is only so strong; remember how well all the pre-release Phantom Menace tie-ins sold? That delay was a whole lot longer.

In a more immediate sense, though, I'm frankly alarmed by what I'm reading here. The game comes out in mid-November. The targeted date is March 31st. Even expanding November to include the whole month, that's not six months, folks; it's five.

 

[Valkrex]

Yeaaaaaa, don't see this happening to be honest. The beta got a resounding "Meh" from a lot of people that played it, and the beta had 9 million participants. If it does reach this number it will take a long time.

 

[Naldan]

I think this is part of a strategy to increase their share value. You know, stock exchange. Everyone who holds shares of EA is looking at this game, everyone who's interested in EA shares as well.

 

[Redvenge]

I saw a 5-10 min gameplay trailer for this. I thought to myself "that looks like fun". However, I don't think I'm the target audience for this game. I see it as a fun diversion for a few hours, probably never to play it again. I'm not going to shell out the asking price for something I won't play that much.

What demographic are they targeting to reach this goal of 13 million? That is a lot of disposable income.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Oh boy, does it ever sound like they're tempting fate here.

Spoiler

They'll probably still sell that many copies. They could release Star Wars brand tampons and male fans would still buy them on name alone.

Then again, despite the number of players in the beta, a lot of players were displeased with the game. There has been significant amounts of criticism against the game.

 

[FalloutJack]

Really? Well, EA, I predict that you will fail, that you will blame people who aren't at fault, and you will attempt to kiss all our asses...but of course we won't believe you because you're all idiots.

 

[shintakie10]

I think this is part of a strategy to increase their share value. You know, stock exchange. Everyone who holds shares of EA is looking at this game, everyone who's interested in EA shares as well.

Of course thats the point.

The problem comes in that if they don't reach that new and improved target their shareholders will take the task for it and their share value will drop far more than it could possibly gain from making this announcement.

 

[synobal]

I laugh, but lets be honest Starwars is such a powerful franchise I could see it happening. I won't be one of those 13 million or how ever many they sell but thats because I have no more faith in dice or activision.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Oh dear...you know what you're doing, Escapist. A low hanging fruit if ever there were any. However, let's not dismiss this news as worthless. I have learnt now that this game is nothing more than a savvy business decision, instead of a labour of love. How very telling.
Actually, when you think about it, things make even more sense. They could have revived any StarWars game they wanted for this new film. I will let you guys guess as to why they picked Battlefront, and yes, it is horrifically cynical.

 

[otakon17]

Welp time to add my voice to the throng(wow spellcheck recognized "throng" I'm impressed). Considering that the game is not gonna have a lot of meat to it(like another certain MP only game that came out with touted DLC numbering over $100 *coughs*EVOLVE*coughs*) or Titanfall, the initial "burst" will be pretty high in sales and activity. Then when folks see that it's got barely nothing to it and start to regret their purchase for being a one-trick pony, the game will start to die.

Why won't publishers realize you cannot charge for an MP only game with this little actual content to it then shill them for the rest. Take TF2 which has been free for like, EVER on PC and even then was only $20 on consoles(with about 5 other games on launch!) and is STILL strong to this day because of community support and communication.

Maybe the "failure" of this game will be enough to snap EA out of it's own fartsmelling reverie and make them realize that they need to re-prioritize their business strategy.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

I think they overestimating this, this game has had such bad PR I can't see that happening. Then again I said the same thing about watchdogs and sold that selled like shit, So what do I know.

What are you talking about? Watch_Dogs didn't have bad PR until after everyone bought it and realized how bland it was. Up until release though, it was the most anticipated game on the market.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

I think they overestimating this, this game has had such bad PR I can't see that happening. Then again I said the same thing about watchdogs and sold that selled like shit, So what do I know.

What are you talking about? Watch_Dogs didn't have bad PR until after everyone bought it and realized how bland it was. Up until release though, it was the most anticipated game on the market.

did you forget about the downgraded graphics or the preorder madness that was going on?

 

[Bedinsis]

At first I was going to express my doubt in their predictions, but then I realized that everybody else in the thread had already done so. I will therefore play the devil's attorney and try to argue in favour of EA, perhaps my fellow forum readers can gather something of value from it(even if it is just "Your reasoning sucks.")

In the first month of sales for Battlefield 3, a game with a similar premise (multiplayer shooting is the main focus) and from the same studio, they managed to sell 8 million copies. 7 months later they had sold an additional 7 million. They also did that while having a more successful competing product (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3) released in the same time frame.

Assuming they manage to sell 8 million copies the first month and one million each month after that(which was the case of Battlefield 3) they'll land on 11.5 millions. That's off by 1.5 millions.

On the other hand Battlefield 3 was riding on the trend of modern military shooters which lots of people had discovered an appetite for at the time, though it has lessened by now, so therefore the comparison is inaccurate. I therefore wonder how well another space based shooter has sold in the past. How about Destiny?

During the first 4 months of Destiny there was a total of 16 million registered players. And that game was released last fall. So in this day and age numbers of that calibre are most certainly possible.

Combining this with the fact that The Force Awakens release will act as marketing for Battlefront("Timmy liked that Star Battle movie, do you have some game about that?"), and the fact that EA has experience in marketing licensed products(they sold the original Harry Potter games back in its heyday) and the fact that there are more consoles on the market than last fall and that EA has gauged sales figures from beta players before I don't think those numbers are unreasonable. They might be a bit optimistic though.

EDIT: sources are good; all sales figures are gathered from Wikipedia, linking to press releases from the publishers in question.

 

[RedDeadFred]

People are laughing at them, but honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it makes those numbers.

Sure, plenty of people HERE have no plans on buying it, but just like CoD, the masses will eat this shit up.

 

[FalloutJack]

People are laughing at them, but honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it makes those numbers.

Sure, plenty of people HERE have no plans on buying it, but just like CoD, the masses will eat this shit up.

The numbers say no. The game will sell, but not that well.

 

[Naldan]

Of course thats the point.

The problem comes in that if they don't reach that new and improved target their shareholders will take the task for it and their share value will drop far more than it could possibly gain from making this announcement.

Well you would think that, yes... But I've seen this done so often, and somehow they seem to get no negative effects after all.

 

[MiskWisk]

Welp time to add my voice to the throng(wow spellcheck recognized "throng" I'm impressed). Considering that the game is not gonna have a lot of meat to it(like another certain MP only game that came out with touted DLC numbering over $100 *coughs*EVOLVE*coughs*) or Titanfall, the initial "burst" will be pretty high in sales and activity. Then when folks see that it's got barely nothing to it and start to regret their purchase for being a one-trick pony, the game will start to die.

Depressingly, that's actually a good state of affairs in terms of the bank balance. See, if this happens, it means they can justify putting less cash into maintaining the servers for the MP saving money and remove support sooner. Not to mention I highly doubt the DLC is going to actually cost all that much anyway so following through on that promise won't cost much and since barely anyone will care they can half ass that to save costs too. Meanwhile, the initial burst covers the cost of production and gets all the execs get their paycheck.

The only thing this scenario would hit is their reputation but this is EA, they haven't cared about that in years.

 

[Gatlank]

I am reminded of how Vince Zampella tweeted that Titanfall sold over 10 million copies, or has 10 million players (his tweet reads: Celebrating 10 million!). It made me wonder why EA didn't come out with this, considering that they would love to boast this. Then I saw that Titanfall is selling for $9.99. It shows there's an audience, but one that didn't want to pay the $60 price tag. Makes me wonder about how Battlefront will turn out.

Maybe that's how they're getting these numbers. Sell a couple of million with the full price tag and as soon the sales stagnate cut the price to get a boost.
BOOM 13 million copies and the servers will shutdown in a couple of months.

 

[Politrukk]

They expect to overclass their beta-downloads (which were free) that ended up getting an incredibly lukewarm if not bad response due to them cutting features?

Man they must be wanting for this to blow up in their faces.

 

[mysecondlife]

Sure explains the whole $50 DLC and why EA is being smug about it.

Another -1 point for pre-ordering.