Thursday, November 30th 2017
EA Bleeds $3.1 Billion in Stock Value Over Battlefront II Fiasco
Electronic Arts (EA) bled USD $3.1 billion (£2.3 billion) in stock value at the markets over the week, as the company scaled down its controversial loot-crate system deployed in "Star Wars: Battlefront II." The company is fighting a PR debacle as gamers complain of terrible pricing of the base-game, DLC, and an aggressive loot-crate system that's drawing the attention of government regulators around the world, who are threatening to impose gambling regulations against the game.
The concept of loot-crate is simple. You pay a seemingly small amount of money for a "mystery box" containing either something great (like weapon-attachments), or something of no tangible impact on gameplay (like skins). You're incentivized to buy more loot-crates in hope that you'll get something better. This becomes a gamble. In 2016, EA earned over $800 million in profits selling loot-crates among other micro-transactions, across various game franchises, such as Battlefield and Need for Speed. With EA scaling down several of its ancillary revenue models for the game, the studio's stock bled 8.5 percent month-to-date. Drew Crum, an analyst with investment firm Stifel also attributes underwhelming Black Friday sales of the game to EA's bear-hug.
Source:
GameRevolution
The concept of loot-crate is simple. You pay a seemingly small amount of money for a "mystery box" containing either something great (like weapon-attachments), or something of no tangible impact on gameplay (like skins). You're incentivized to buy more loot-crates in hope that you'll get something better. This becomes a gamble. In 2016, EA earned over $800 million in profits selling loot-crates among other micro-transactions, across various game franchises, such as Battlefield and Need for Speed. With EA scaling down several of its ancillary revenue models for the game, the studio's stock bled 8.5 percent month-to-date. Drew Crum, an analyst with investment firm Stifel also attributes underwhelming Black Friday sales of the game to EA's bear-hug.
64 Comments on EA Bleeds $3.1 Billion in Stock Value Over Battlefront II Fiasco
www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/7eqpy6/no_belgium_did_not_rule_lootboxes_as_gambling/
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Although..Meaning it might happen, but hasn't.
Can't wait. EA can screw off to the mobile gaming space, its what they seem to love anyway. Let's pray Battlefront 2 convinces them that PC releases are too hairy these days.
If I was a shareholder and bought 1 year ago at 75, Id still be pretty ok with todays 105 post "shit-storm" value.
If you really want to hurt them, dont give them your money.
Will they all be doing what they like best, doubtful. But then again, us gamers just want the best of those devs, the rest can go do something else ;)
Although I love Indie games (he'll, 4 of them are in my top 10 for the year) I don't want a gaming world where that is all there is.
The best product comes from companies that are truly motivated for growth, not the ones painstakingly trying to uphold their eco system and leech it dry with ever increasing overhead and underhand methods to fool customers into buying more of their product. It works that way in all entertainment, really.
If the usual suspects (Hollywood) create another blockbuster, nobody is surprised and its more of the same. When a relatively small budget and studio puts out a movie like, for example, 28 days later, its memorable, it has authenticity, it offers something fresh. Even today, if you asked me 'Best zombie film?'. Still that one. If I recall correct, they had like 300k to make it, and yet, every single scene of that film has greater impact than 2 hours of Hollywood blockbuster flinging six dozen clichés at you.
Music business: once the mainstream picks up on a trend, you can kiss the authenticity of a new style goodbye, as it gets mixed down to the same generic crap as everything else.
I'll refer to my personal signature: the only constant in time is change. And add to it: Change, and new movement is where the real gems are to be found.
Real change only happens through struggle; without struggle there are no casualties and without casualties or risk thereof, there is no drive to actually change. So no, not going to be sad AT ALL to see EA clear out of regular gaming. Again: let em go to mobile, suits their business model a lot better, they even say so themselves.
As for your fear of a desolate landscape where nobody wants to be: PC gaming is a growth market... you grossly overstate the influence of EA on that if you think others will follow. I honestly cannot think of a single marketplace where a company would ever consider 'leaving too' after a competitor leaves a gaping hole in the market behind. As long as there's demand, there's product. You refer of course to budgets, scope, size of games that could then be made... but again... TW3, Horizon Zero Dawn, 2017 was one of the better years in gaming of all time (quantity, diversity, quality) and yet somehow we fear gaming is going to shit. Stop this irrational fear, because even economically it makes zero sense.