EA has confirmed that it intends to double down on live services features in its core franchises because, you know, the people have been so vocal about absolutely loving it when games have live service stuff shoved into them.
VGC reports that EA reaffirmed its commitment to live service following the success of its digital games during its second fiscal quarter, which ended September 30, 2019. EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen confirmed that digital accounted for 68 percent of the total ($922 million) during the quarter, and that over 50 percent of the publisher's games are now sold digitally.
"The strong results this quarter illustrate the power of our live services and our core franchises," Wilson told investors. "Strength in Ultimate Team, The Sims 4 and FIFA Online drove live services performance above our expectations."
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"Looking ahead, we are doubling down on live services combined with our core franchises. We're investing in games that people play for longer and engage with much more deeply. This focus will continue to drive growth and profitability for the company through the remainder of this year and beyond."
This news is bound to be met with criticism from those who believe that live service models are having a detrimental affect on both gaming and gamers, but the fact of the matter is that as long as people keep pouring in money into these practices, EA and other publishers are going to continue pushing them.
Elsewhere during the call, we learned that EA has a ton of new games in development, including a string of exciting remasters of "fan favourite" franchises and a new entry in the Battlefield series.
Whatever these remasters could be, they're currently unannounced and shrouded in mystery, but we do know that EA plans to release them during fiscal year 2021, which means we can expect them anytime between April 2020 and March 2021. Hopefully this means more details will be revealed soon. Fingers crossed for a Need For Speed Underground 2 remaster, then.
As for Battlefield VI (or whatever they end up calling it), we know that DICE is working on at the moment, that it'll take "full advantage" of next-gen hardware, and that it's planned for fiscal year 2022, which runs from April 2021 to March 2022.
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Beyond that, the publisher also confirmed that Motive, DICE, BioWare, Maxis, and Criterion are all working on unannounced titles that are planned to release in the next few years.
Featured Image Credit: EATopics: Apex Legends, EA