EA’s latest earnings call discussed its approach toward single-player and live-service games and revealed what its plans are in both regards.
Around the early 2010s, it was established that EA was changing its focus on game development, believing the idea of a story-driven, single-player experience to be “finished.”
It’s no secret that EA has leaned as heavily on microtransactions as much as anyone, thanks to successful concepts such as FIFA and Madden’s Ultimate Team.
However, during EA’s Q1 2023 earnings call, it was made clear that EA has re-evaluated its stance toward single-player games moving forward.
EA claims “single-player games are really important”
After delivering a whole bunch of statistics and data to show how EA is performing across various areas of the company, the EA representatives were quizzed about upcoming games and the process behind them.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson delivered some concrete facts regarding the game’s investment in sports titles saying that “F1 22 sales are up double-digits launch to-date, as the sport continues to boom” and FIFA seeing “record business in Q1.”
Wilson then provided clarification on the company’s revitalized attitude in terms of single-player gaming: “As we think about single-player games, we think it’s a really, really important part of the overall portfolio that we deliver in the fulfillment of those core motivations.”
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Wilson also added: “The way we’ll plan for it over time is really just looking at our community and looking at how they’re spending their time and looking at where motivations may or may not be fulfilled and we’ll look to supplement that with the addition of new online games, new multi-player games, and new single-player games.”
He also discussed how players love to “seek adventure in games such as Star Wars Jedi” and the company is always looking to “expand and diversify” its portfolio.
It’s made clear though that EA has no intention of abandoning its approach to live-service titles, such as Apex Legends, as Chief Financial Officer Chris Suh explained: “I think the first thing to always keep in mind is that live services still encompass, on a trailing 12-month basis, over 70% of our business, and that has been a proven, very reliable, highly reoccurring revenue stream, and that will still be the predominant driver in our P&L long-term.”
So whilst EA is likely to never give up their hugely successful live service model, it’s positive to see that they also have no intention of ceasing production on single-player games.
This is evident in upcoming games such as Star Wars Jedi Survivor and the Dead Space Remake.
