Can Battlefield Hardline Provide A Bumper Start To Electronic Arts?

+13.77%
Upside
133
Market
151
Trefis
EA: Electronic Arts logo
EA
Electronic Arts

The American game giant, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA), has changed its business strategy over the last few years. As a matter of fact, almost all the top game developers are focusing more on improving their existing franchises rather than releasing numerous other small titles. This business plan has not only been reaping better margins for the company over the last few years, but also helped EA to provide better game features to the gamers, as its research team can focus more on improving the graphics, in-game features, and other minor details of its existing core franchises.

2014 was marked with strong console demand coupled with lagging software sales. However, after the holiday period, the trend reversed, as the software sales outperformed year-over-year, with 5.5% and 6.5% increases in software sales in January and February, respectively. On the other hand, the hardware sales (mostly console sales) declined 23% y-o-y in January 2015, and rose just 9% y-o-y in the month of February. [1] [2]

Electronic Arts has been the leader in the sports genre games for over a decade now. The company’s core sports titles: FIFA and Madden NFL, has dominated the gaming industry in their respective geographical regions. Moreover, 2014 was even more special for FIFA fans, as the company released a special edition of its soccer title: 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, ahead of the FIFA World Cup held in June. Furthermore, FIFA fans gave a huge response to the annual edition: FIFA 15, making it the second highest selling title worldwide on all the major platforms in 2014. In 2014, EA entered into the holiday period without its new Battlefield title, whose launch got delayed. This affected the company’s market share in the First-Person Shooter (FPS) category.

Relevant Articles
  1. Beating S&P500 BY 11% YTD, What To Expect From Travelers Stock?
  2. Up 50% Over The Last 12 Months, Is Hyatt Stock Still Attractive?
  3. Capital One Stock Gained 44% In The Last 6 Months, What’s Next?
  4. Up 8% Year To Date As 5G Gains Traction, What’s Next For Verizon Stock?
  5. Up 32% In The Last 12 Months, Where Is BNY Mellon Stock Headed?
  6. Rallying 30% YTD, What’s Spurring The Rally In Applied Materials’ Stock?

Our $54 price estimate for Electronic Arts’ stock is 5% below the current market price.

See our complete analysis of Electronic Arts stock here

Recently, EA also announced that the trailers and details of the first downloadable content pack for Dragon Age: Inquisition- Jaws of Hakkon, will be released shortly.  The expansion pack will be first available on Microsoft’s Xbox One and PC.

Battlefield Hardline: The Wait Is Over

Electronic Arts, along with Visceral Games, recently launched its much awaited Battlefield Hardline title last week in North America and Europe. [3] It is one of the major releases of the company in this calendar year. The game is available in all major retail stores, as well as for digital download on all major gaming platforms. Battlefield Hardline features new features of gameplay that is different from other traditional Battlefield titles, as the new game focuses on police, heists, and war on crimes, and not the usual military settings. The game features many new gameplay modes, such as Heist, Blood Money, Hotwire mode, Rescue, and Crosshair mode. [4]

According to the famous game review websites, such as GameRankings and Metacritic, the game got mostly positive reviews, primarily praising the action-packed sequences, details of the different campaigns, and newly featured different modes. Moreover, the retail version of this game topped the U.K. software charts in its first week after the launch. Furthermore, it became this year’s best selling title so far.

The Battlefield franchise is one of EA’s few efforts to enter into the FPS foray. The previous edition of this franchise: Battlefield 4 has been one of the popular FPS games. The title sold nearly 2.3 million units in 2014 on Sony’s PlayStation platforms. Battlefield Hardline is one of the first few game titles launched this year, and this might additionally attract those gamers who are looking for new FPS titles to try out on their new console systems. The next few weeks will give us a clear view of the response of the gamers to this title.

View Interactive Institutional Research (Powered by Trefis):

Global Large CapU.S. Mid & Small CapEuropean Large & Mid Cap

More Trefis Research

Notes:
  1. January NPD report 2015 []
  2. February NPD report 2015 []
  3. EA and Visceral games announce Battlefield Hardline is available now []
  4. Battlefield Hardline: Wikipedia link []