Electronic Arts Inc. saw a stark drop in share prices after it announced fiscal projections for 2025 that were much lower than anticipated.
EA said its initial guidance for fiscal year 2025 anticipated "mid-single-digit growth," however, the company did a complete 180-degree turn and is now projecting "a mid-single-digit decline" instead.
Two initiatives were specifically mentioned by the company as the reason for a drop in revenue, with EA blaming its Global Football program for the majority of the loss.
This is in reference to EA FC 25, the brand's flagship soccer game that lost its FIFA partnership in recent years. FIFA has since signed a deal with studio Konami in 2024 for licensing and are rumored to be planning a new game.
While EA's Global Football had two consecutive fiscal years of double-digit growth in sales, in 2024, the sector "experienced a slowdown" of around mid single digits, EA said in a press release.
The other failed project was Dragon Age: Origins, EA's latest dive into extreme wokeness, which missed projections by "nearly 50%" in terms of users at 1.5 million.
As a result of these missed projections, net revenue predictions have dropped since previous reports.
In projections released in October 2024, EA expected net bookings of approximately $2.40 billion to $2.55 billion for the third fiscal quarter of 2025, which ends in March. That projection has been updated to approximately $2.215 billion.
FY 2025 was projected to garner between approximately $7.400 billion to $7.700 billion. That figure has also been updated to a range of $7 billion to $7.150 billion.
"We continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio," CEO of EA Andrew Wilson claimed. "However, Dragon Age and EA SPORTS FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectations."
Wilson claimed early feedback on the soccer game's latest update was "encouraging" and that the company remains confident in its long-term strategy.
As a result of the new projections, EA's stock prices dropped to its lowest point since early 2020, going from around $142 per share to about $115 per share in a day.
Dragon Age: Origins saw significant backlash in September after fans noticed its overwhelming inclusion of political, and even biological, beliefs in the game's plot and mechanics.
Gender pronoun options featured "they/them," and gender options were also added, including "nonbinary."
Gamers were able to select on or off for "top surgery scars," which specifically refers to transgender surgeries. This is in addition to a second, more general option for scars on the player's body as well as options for cellulite.
The storyline was littered with gender ideology and dialogue that was incredibly specific to certain identities. Not only did the game contain entire cutscenes dedicated to teaching gamers how to correctly use (and apologize for the misuse of) pronouns, it featured plotlines about a character — who is a mythological creature — coming out to her family at dinner as "nonbinary."
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