Electronic Arts’ Highlights At This Year’s E3 Event
The American gaming giant, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA), has released some of the most popular sports video games in the industry in the last decade, including FIFA, Madden NFL, UFC, and NHL. Without doubt, the company is a dominating force in the industry’s sports video game genre. EA accounted for 14% of the total video game sales in 2014 with its sports titles alone. The latest edition of the famous soccer simulator FIFA—FIFA 15 accounted for 46% of the total sport video game sales in 2014, indicating the immense popularity of the franchise. On the other hand, Madden NFL sustained its strong momentum in the North American region; Madden NFL 15 sold roughly 5.84 million units, as of April 4, 2015, with North American accounting for 86% of the total game sales. [1]
At the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California from June 16 to June 18, gamers had their eyes on the new titles to be released in the latter half of this year, including EA’s annual editions of the sports, shooter, and science fiction titles.
Our $65 price estimate for Electronic Arts’ stock is roughly the same as the current market price.
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Takeaways From EA’s Presentation In E3 2015
Electronic Arts had their pre-event conference on 15th July, where the company presented demos, trailers, and details about its upcoming releases for this year. The games include: Mass Effect Andromeda, Need For Speed, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Star Wars Mobile Game, NBA Live 16, Plants Vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2, Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, NHL 16, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, Madden NFL 16, and FIFA 16. Here are some of the major highlights of the conference:
EA announced its intent to release another edition to the all-time famous racing franchise: Need For Speed, after the absence of its edition last year. This game will be launched both for the consoles and the mobile devices, on November 3, 2015. Electronic Arts broke the annual trend of 13 consecutive years, when the company decided not to release any Need For Speed title in fiscal 2015. This disappointed many racing game lovers, as well as affected the company’s revenue growth in the holiday season. The new game features an in-game map almost twice that of the previous edition. Moreover, this time the company has introduced a robust customization feature, after much demand from the gamers. This might definitely attract more users. The re-entrance of the title will boost the company’s revenue growth in the latter half of the current fiscal.
Electronic Arts is coming up with the next edition of its massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Star Wars: The Old Republic on October 22. It is set within BioWare’s Old Republic era of the Star Wars Universe, and is the fifth digital expansion for the series. This expansion is said to focus more on cinematic storytelling with nine chapters, unlike its previous expansion packs. Moreover, the new expansion pack is free to all the Old Republic subscribers.
The Action-Adventure franchise is all set to see a prequel release, with the launch of Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. According to VGChartz, the previous edition of the game sold nearly 2.3 million units. [2]. At the 2015 E3, the company released the trailer for this game, exhibiting the elements of the game’s storyline and other features, such as improved graphics and innovative gameplay. However, the game is set to be launched in the first quarter of 2016.
- Sports Titles
Apart from the new innovative titles, EA also showcased the details and features of its core sports franchises, which attracted the dedicated sports game lovers. The expected highlight among these games was FIFA 16, which is coming up with a new feature this year: female teams. The trailer of the soccer simulator boasted improved graphics, new stadiums, new kits, and other enhanced features. Like the previous editions, this year’s edition is also one of the most awaited sports titles this year, and might remain the core money-minting franchise for the company. The game is all set to be launched in the usual penultimate week of September 2015.
The other limelight of the event was America’s most popular sports game: Madden NFL 16. Gamers were hooked on the trailer of the game, as the new edition showcased new player spotlights, dynamic goals, and on-field cameras. The game is scheduled to be released in August 2015. However, earlier in May this year, the company announced that the Deluxe Edition of the game is available for pre-order. [3] This helped in generating early hype among the gamers, and might eventually boost the unit sales in the initial stages of release.
The E3 event has always been helpful for Electronic Arts in letting its users (gamers) know about their favorite game. This has generally helped the company in selling more title units during the initial stages of launch. EA has more expectations this year, as software sales are expected to increase, and also due to the launch of some new, and some old favorites.
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