Titanfall 2 out this fall, new Star Wars Battlefront confirmed for 2017 - EA FY16
Star Wars Battlefront sold-in over 14 million units in fiscal year 2016, according to the latest Electronic Arts financial statement.
Star Wars Battlefront shipped 14M units, Titanfall 2 out this fall
In financials terms, sold-in or shipped means sold to retailers. Sold-through would indicate a figure in customers hands.
According to EA, the Star Wars Battlefront player base also expanded by over 15% with those "new to the EA ecosystem."
In Q4 alone, there were 9.4 million unique players across EA's Battlefield titles, and Madden NFL mobile players grew 30% year over year compared to the same quarter in 2015. Downloads for all Madden titles are up 50%.
EA said during the call to investors it has a new, unannounced IP in the works which we will hear about "soon." Whether this is the action title the Jade Raymond's new studio is working on remains to be seen.
During the call to investors, CFO Blake Jorgenson said the company was working on an action game which may not see a release until fiscal year 2020 or 2021. Whether this too is the action game Raymond's studio is working on was not noted.
The Sims 4 player base grew by nearly two-thirds throughout the fiscal year, and The Sims FreePlay on mobile reached 200 million installs life-to-date.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst will be the first game to release for fiscal year 2017 on June 7, followed by FIFA 17, Madden 17 and NHL 17 during Q2.
During Q3 this fall, Titanfall 2 will release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and the first look at gameplay will be shown during EA Play in June.
The Battlefield 1 trailer has been viewed almost 23.2 million times since its debut on Friday, May 6 and the company was excited enough to mention this during the call to investors.
EA's CEO Andrew Wilson said as far as the next Battlefield 1 goes, the team at DICE said WWI would be the best place to set a game due to the fact people rode into the war on horses and came out on subs and tanks. This was an intriguing era for the developer and an era where they could show warfare innovation - as the team stated when it was announced.
The shooter also releases during the firm's Q3 2017 on October 21 worldwide.
More Star Wars Battlefront games are coming, as previously reported in late 2015 and again in January 2016. CFO Blake Jorgenson confirmed, once again, a new game in the Star Wars franchise would release once a year. EA has a 10 year contract with Disney to develop Star Wars titles, if you recall.
The Respawn and Visceral Games titles in the franchise are both in the works, as previously reported. These should be interesting considering each have big names such as God of War's Stig Asmussen and Uncharted's Amy Hennig attached, respectively.
EA is also opting to skip releasing as NBA title this year, opting instead to release NBA Live 17 next year. A mobile version will release sometime this year.
New ways to bring players into NBA Live 17 on consoles is in the works, and the title will release during Q4 FY17.
Q4 FY17 will also see the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Bioware confirmed the release window today.
The numbers
During the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2016 net income was $899 million compared to $395 million year-over-year (yoy). Digital net income was $715 million compared to $614 million during Q4 2015.
Packaged goods revenue came in at $593 million compared to $571 million yoy. For the quarter, full net revenue was $1.31 billion compared to $1.9 billion yoy.
For the full fiscal year net revenue was $4.4 billion of which 55% or $2.41 billion was digital.
Xbox One and PlayStation 4 titles brought in $468M for the quarter while Xbox 360 and PS3 titles brought in $328 million.
PC and browser games contributed $221 million (see pg. 16 PDF).
EA CFO Blake Jorgenson said since there are few third-gen games being developed, he feels that any mid-cycle updates - if there are any - will be geared toward compatibly issues across consoles.
Jorgenson said this is an important issue for consumers, and Microsoft has started to listen with its backwards compatibility feature. He said while the company can't say it's familiar with Sony or Microsoft's plans other that what it has heard publicly, compatibility will be an important part of a mid cycle, again, if there is one.
