EA's Share Price Plummets After Reports Of Disappointing Financial Performance

Maybe they'll start making switch sports games.

That's shocking news, really, how sad. Champagne!!!!!

People will celebrate this without thinking of the fact it will give the execs more reason to close studios and/or let go hundreds of people to myth please the shareholders. In an ideal world, the execs would be the ones losing their jobs.

That's a bit more than a dip.

Dragon Age was a bit of a mess, but I wonder how much the FIFA/FC name change has affected EA? Or perhaps the price increase and the add ons has made people think they don’t have to buy it every year?

My reaction: (No One Mourn The Wicked)

And goodness knows the EA lives are lonely
Goodness knows the EA die alone
It just shows when you're EA , you're left only
On your own

Yes, goodness knows the EA lives are lonely
Goodness knows the EA cry alone
Nothing grows for EA, they reap only
What they've sown

How is it that a company of EA’s size produces so few games. Is it because most of the profit goes to shareholders and not into making actual games? It baffles me. Ninty is actually quite a small company yet they produce many more games and R&D hardware and the rest. Profit for profits’s sake has gone too far. If EA disappeared would the industry be worse off?

Echoing what someone has already said. It'll be the hard workers heads on the chopping block, not the executives making the horrible executive decisions.

Way back when (starting in Genesis days), EA was the go-to publisher. Helicopter ‘Strike’ series, ‘Road Rash’, while brand mainly anchored by officially licensed (NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL, PGA etc.) sports titles. The embedded yellow plastic tab on side of cartridges also helped with at least uniqueness.

Now kind of anyone with some skill and creativity can seemingly develop a worthy enough title at home. (Just can’t brand as ‘NFL’ or ‘Super Mario’, etc.). All while (at least the sports title anchor) has lost its prestige with same content recycled year after year.

Losing MLB license and ‘giving up’ on NBA also does not help. Same with the latest PGA game (at least with needing to be connected online even when in single player and with full local install - a big what the foo).

I am not concerned, in fact I feel relieved. I hope this is a sign that gaming is healing and about to go a healthier direction again. Which means make games for gamers.

Anyway, I think it is time you pulled a barf in front of gamers EA and everyone who is like you.

@WheresWaveRace
They have the firm belief that the bigger and the more money they spend on a game, it'll return their investment by ten-fold. That and their ceaseless ambition to make their games live-service and expecting it'll generate enormous monthly revenue. To them, smaller games aren't worth it because what profit they will get is too miniscule for their liking.

Want to hear a insane thing?
Just check for yourself about how many games EA actually released on GameCube…

No secret that GC sold nowhere near much ss PS2, yet EA supported GC fully.
There’re so many older EA games which vould run fine on Switch, but no…
I have a feeling of that many devs are restricted by… I’m not telling that.

Really hope that they won’t makes the same ”evaluation” BS like many did during the 3-4 first years on Switch with Switch 2. But I wouln’t gets surprised if it happens again.

Ouch!!! They will be holding some high level meetings today, and laying off people on Monday. Modern day business morals.

This must be doom and gloom for EA, according to journalists.

@Keman Let me add to your comment, EA was one of the first third-parties to work with Nintendo IPs. Mario, Luigi and Peach appear as guests in NBA Street V3 and SSX On Tour, the Japanese versions even add Mario to their names.
Meanwhile, Little Mac from SNES Super Punch-Out!! Is a guest in Fight Night Round 2, while also including an emulated version of the SNES game.

Maybe this will be enough to encourage them to start making good games… nah, that’s a pipe dream

This is good for the gaming industry. EA are poison.

Boo hoo, you're breaking my heart.

@HammerGalladeBro They did loads on Wii too with some real highlights. Good versions of sports games with online play, 32 player Medal of Honor Heroes 2 with some of the best shooter controls on the console, Boom Blox, SSX Blur.

EA hasn't had a good game since Garden Warfare 2.

Putting out a good game that people actually want to play would be a nice change of pace and would probably help that share price. Nintendo knows about courting the masses and making fun the first priority, and that's why they can tear it up with a slightly polished Wii game. And Nintendo still nabbed recognition from GLAAD.

EA have become far too cocky in recent years and the failure to hold the FIFA license spoke volumes.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see them swallowed up by Xbox tbh.
EA are complacent and are now paying the price .

@JohnnyMind Yeah, I had always hoped they would put out Battlefront on the Switch (of course, I now know why they didn’t). And even though I’m not into sports games, I’m still wondering why Madden hasn’t shown up on the Switch, as FIFA-FC and even The Show have.

@BaldB3lper78 Hasn’t everybody at this point?

Yes, hopefully better support for the Switch 2. There are games I would have liked to see on the Switch. But if they don't support the system I can't buy them. I hope they have plans to release Mass Effect Legendary Edition on Switch 2.

I smell a buyout

i have never forgiven e.a for letting the ultima series die..

Releasing essentially the same game repackaged for $70 every year isn’t exactly the best decision, but the people making the poor decisions are the ones this will most likely effect the least

@Axecon The delicious irony if that would happen, omg!! 😂🤎

I understand some of you thinking of the people actually making games, but nothing will change of these execs don't get the fear of god struck into them...and since they only believe in money this is the best way!

Well, DragonAge was horrible. I can’t believe they butchered a high profile IP like that.

FIFA / FC might still suffer from the name change.

Hopefully this urges them to do better going forward.

@Reztobi you're probably right, they're all evil 🤣

Normally I would celebrate bad things happening to rich people, unfortunately EA is the best AAA American publisher by virtue of the other 2 being so so SO much worse. So this may bite us all in the arse soon.

Plants vs zombies 3??
How incredibly strange!
They released this game like 3 years ago. They pulled it off the app store. And now they are “reworking?” it to be released again?

@Erigen "modern audiences" are the ones sounding most derangedly paranoid about "agendas", "wokeness" and other boogiemen that remain moonspeak and drivel to my own millennial posterior. Not sure if that's a result of my many married peers having children only to leave their upbringing to the more conservative family elders or just another layer of volatile fanship and consumerist entitlement's evolution, but neither origin story makes the trend look any prettier. Thankfully, "online controversies" are the general extent of these dodos' impact, although they also like to claim a post factum part in the commercial struggles of any fiction work they accuse of "wokeness" (which, as Concord alone can illustrate, usually simmer down for no lack of more reality-grounded reasons).

@Yosti Mass Effect is a G7/G8 series so it certainly doesn't sound like something to require NS2's spec bump. Maybe except for Anrdomeda, depending on its optimization aptitude, but even the first trilogy would be plenty. Not that I haven't been eating good across EA's existing Switch menu as it is.

@johnedwin Ultima series. Such good games!! Oh I don't pity for EA ! Please abandon game industry!!!

@eltomo I wouldn't say all of them but I'd be willing to bet money that a good majority of them have got a political agenda they want to push on society, especially middle and upper management.

Unfortunately a friend of mine was talking about this a while ago and he said something I never considered, the gaming industry is among the best paying industry to get into if you're a talented developer. Which means the industry will inevitably attract developers who have no interest at all in video games and are actually activists in their free time.

This is something I never really considered before as I automatically assumed many people working on creating video games also enjoy playing them too.

But since the gaming industry has become the biggest entertainment industry in the world by a wide margin, that has started to shift and the industry is attracting people who not only have no interest in video games but also want to push a political agenda.

Unfortunately EA are one of the main places these guys decided to go too, Ubisoft being another.

This same thing also happened with video game journalism too.

@Keman Yeah, FIFA Street, NBA Street, Burnout 1 and 2, and, of course, SSX. Those were the days!

EA is a ***** company that has made too many ***** games that follow too many money-grubbing trends; its failing is not the existence of minority representation in one video game. Let's not forget they were voted the worst company LONG before DAtV.

@reztobi AAA Game Devs as a whole notoriously underpay devs and writers relative to other industries because countless people want to work on games and will undervalue themselves to do so.
And, uh, maybe you haven't noticed, but there IS no money in game journalism. No money, and no job security. The number of sites where game journalists of any political leaning can write actual articles is dropping every month. Most game journalists are being bent over backwards to produce slop of the highest order, chasing fluctuating SEOs with drivel. Freelancers write about games for the love of it, because it's hardly a sustainable career.
Liberals exist. Some of them work in the game industry. Sometimes they're given the freedom to tell the stories they want to tell. That's the conspiracy.

You love to see it. I will always enjoy watching EA and Ubisoft struggle.

I'm surprised that their shares hadn't plummetted sooner, given how EA have been essentially ignoring the best-selling console since 2017. Excluding the FIFA games, I can't even count to five the number of games that EA have released on Switch since its launch nearly eight years ago! It Takes Two... some other indie game that escapes me... a single Need For Speed game, and MySims... have I missed anything?

I would have bought the FC games had they bothered to include the complete games on the cartridge. All things considered, I would have preferred more "Legacy Editions", which were better products overall (at least with respect to the physical releases). What a shame, as I was initially excited about the new engine after six years.

The Sims was one of my absolute favourite franchises of all time, and I obsessively bought almost every game for every platform that I owned during its heyday, but they've irreparably destroyed it beyond what even the most pessimisstic recesses of my imagination could ever have anticipated, and it seems that every other month they manage to set the bar even lower. Thank God I never contributed a cent to The Sims 4.

EA need to stop playing safe and doing the same thing every single year, there are so many different and unique sports that if they made games about would certainly do well, sports such as Surfing, Hockey, Sky Diving, Parkour, Basketball, Rollerskating, Beach Volleyball, Athletics, Sailing, Tennis etc

EA start exploring different sports rather than the same old ones! You got to be a bit more creative you’re becoming DULL.

The only good thing they have released in the last 20 years is the MySims series. And they own PopCap games but refuse to put them on Nintendo consoles after Nintendo DS, which is a major loss. (PopCap = Bejeweled, Bookworm, Zuma, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies, etc).

Make better games that are actually fun to play. If you can't do that, then get out of the business. It's that simple.

Sweet, time to buy!!

EA shutting down for good would be a dream come true…

(Will never forgive them for dissolving Visceral Games and canceling the Dead Space 2 remake!)

@Kiyata Their biggest crime with Popcap is refusing to put Peggle 2 on PC. I want to give them money for it but sure, a console only sequel to a series that started on PC makes sense 🥴

No worries, AI will save them.

@Reztobi You really think there is a big overlap between activists supporting diversity/inclusivity/LGBT and the upper management of huge profit-oriented companies? You think these higher-ups go to leftist protest in their free time? I don't think you've ever really spoken to an activist of that kind if you think they'd generally be intersted in such a job (there are exceptions but it's certainly not the norm)

And nothing of value was lost!

Serves them right. The last EA games I purchased were Orcs & Elves DS and Theme Park DS.

@ecco6t9 I think mine was Fight Night Round 2 on the Gamecube. Loved that.

I've been boycotting EA since 2010's terrible Command & Conquer 4, and in the last 15 years they've done nothing to make me even remotely regret it.

I've read 75% of EA's business is just from "live services" (looboxes, dlc, season passes) and 25% from actually selling games. So hopefully this is a down trend in people buying lootboxes for the nth time in EAFC.

So if EA goes down it'll probably come alongside the hopefully the end of some of the worst practices in gaming history, and open up a gap in the market hopefully to be filled with a company that actually wants to sell games foremost and not squeezing customers with live services.

Plants vs. Zombies 3?!? Why is this the first I'm hearing of a Plants vs. Zombies 3?!

Veilguard got pretty good reviews, but fans trashed it for a litany of reasons. Haven't played it so I can't speak on that, but I assume a lot of ppl outside the diehards just took the negativity too seriously.

This guys are toying with its fanbase, no wonder it backfire them. Plants Vs Zombies 3 has been done for a while now, I don't get it.

They didn't have their finger on the pulse over the last few years; their support for Switch has been a joke, a token gesture at best. Who doesn't support the (potentially) best selling console of all time??

Make games for the Switch or Switch 2 and watch the money roll in.

E. A. SPORTS: It's f***in' lame!

(lol)

@Reztobi Oh no, here we go again with the activists nonsense. Plenty of games that have diversity have done extremely well (Baldur's Gate 3, Spiderman 2, Last of Us 2, etc.), so as much as you want it to be diversity, it's not.

Their shareholders now know how the value of an EA game holds up after a few days of buying it.

I can't believe how many players there are on here running their hands with glee. It's true that EA have been one of the worst companies for moneygrabs of late (and it wouldn't kill them to release a Strike compilation) these are people's jobs and livelihoods on the line.

If your company experienced a downturn and you were for the chop because your management ran things poorly it wouldn't be so funny.

@IronMan30 There's actually belief of questionable behavior going on behind the scenes with the whole access journalism propping up the reviews and being dishonest about the game's quality.
You then have the likes of SkillUp being brutally honest in his review and pulling no punches when needed, speaking things that became the main sentiments behind a lot of what people felt when they played it.

I can't speak about Dragon Age as a series though and don't care too much outside of maybe trying Inquisition. But Valgard's gameplay alone for an RPG entry seemed rather dull just by looking at it.

The Saudi prince announced the country investing $600 billion into the US economy, and he has purchased large stakes in SNK and other gaming companies before. My first thought after hearing that a couple days ago was that he could save western gaming as something of an activist investor by having some of the major companies end or reduce some of their predatory monetization practices.

Oooo, now's the time to invest. 0.1 shares here I come!

EA could’ve made switch- specific versions of Madden, NHL or other sports games but they chose not to. They could’ve brought The Sims to the Switch as well, but nope. Both efforts would’ve resulted in more revenue, but I guess they either hate money or were just downright lazy.

@Ensemen My wife is a research assistant at an org that works for queer rights, and (most already know) I work with the homeless. We have a trans kid, we got a gay kid, etc etc. We and our peers are people that care about the things you are talking about. Thing is, we don't talk about video games or representation in like Hulu commercials, or whatever. Most of us make fun of the cloying efforts to get in our pockets just like my Mexican buddy makes fun of bad media aimed at the Mexican American middle class. You're imagining this boogeyman but we just go to work, hang with our people, and in my case try really hard to raise kids that are kind and compassionate (and who know that Sonic is for sickos). I just work and pay bills and take care of my kids. I even have a bald head and a beard. I look like any conservative that is going to cry about Disney Princesses tm or the sanctity of women's sports. My wife is a pretty lady that likes baseball and whiskey. The difference is we are going out and trying to help people everyday instead of railing against "the bad guys" on social media.
We probably have a lot in common. It's almost like people are TRYING to have us at each other's throats though, ya know????
And Dragon Age has sucked since the second one. Sucks more now, but still sucked then.

@LikelySatan Sorry I'm not so sure what prompted this response, i don't really get how this relates to the things I wrote. I was trying to do exactly what you are mentioning, pointing out an obvious boogeyman, I think we are on the same side here (?)

@Ensemen Cheerfully retracted! I was just trying to dispel some of the strange things people think about their neighbors recently with all the culture war BS.