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1521010cookie-checkEA Says Star Wars Battlefront 2 Disabled Microtransactions Will Not Hurt Its Fiscal Year 2018
Industry News
2017/11

EA Says Star Wars Battlefront 2 Disabled Microtransactions Will Not Hurt Its Fiscal Year 2018

EA has taken to a securities filing to say that Star Wars Battlefront 2 disabled microtransactions will not hurt its fiscal year 2018 financial guidance. EA and DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 is out now for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

EA, not too long ago, has posted up a filing report regarding its fiscal year 2018 financial guidance. Looking under “Item 7.01” we see the company talk about the temporary lock on microtransactions through a “Regulation FD Disclosure” that reads:

“On November 16, 2017, Electronic Arts Inc. (“EA”) announced in a blog on its website at www.ea.com/news that it will turn off all in-game purchases for the Star Wars Battlefront II title until further notice. This change is not expected to have a material impact on EA’s fiscal year 2018 financial guidance.”

So what does this actually mean? Well, it means that the publisher, EA, does not expect the disabled feature to hurt its predicted sales and earning results by the end of the fiscal year, which ends on March 31st, 2018.

Let’s take a closer look at the letter and how it reads:

“This change is not expected to have a material impact on EA’s fiscal year 2018 financial guidance.”

In other words, EA is admitting that the implementation of microtransactions outweigh that of actual sales of Star Wars Battlefront 2, and that the merit of the actual game does not matter so long as enough people, while the live service was active, generated expected revenue.

The concerning part about this is how many more games will come out with live services that are the sole aim of the project rather than the actual game itself. And going by the current trend of microtransactions finding their way into a significant amount of games, what will happen if a committee regulates the way how publishers and developers implement them? Will publishers and developers pull the plug and commit similar actions like Konami and its upcoming game Metal Gear Survive?

I say this because Reality Gaming Group over the very successful un-released Reality Crash game knows that once all live services alike are regulated their appeal diminishes, which could put all future games holding said future in deep trouble.

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