EA has reduced its projected bookings for the 2025 fiscal year, citing the underperformance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and EA Sports FC 2025. Per reporting from Bloomberg, the company now projects bookings of USD $7-7.15 billion for the year, down from the previous guidance of USD $7.5-7.8 billion. Live service bookings are also slightly down by “a mid single-digit percentage” although EA had projected a mid single-digit increase.
Per Bloomberg, this disappointment is largely being pinned on EA Sports FC 2025, which performed weakly over the holiday period, but Dragon Age: The Veilguard has also caught some flack. It’s believed this game missed EA’s expectation’s by around 50% – although it did reach 1.5 million players during the last financial quarter.
Given the game released at the very end of October, and had only been on sale for two months prior to reporting, that’s still a fairly strong effort, but it appears EA had much higher expectations for the game. As for the reasons why the game underperformed, it’s worth noting many AAA games have failed to meet expectations over the last year, for an array of reasons.
One of the biggest games of 2024, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, was considered a sales disappointment. Warner Bros. Discovery labelled its entire games division as underperforming in 2024. Ubisoft recently announced a need to restructure after a string of financial disappointments.
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There’s multiple factors working away behind the scenes. Cost of living pressures are hitting everyone, everywhere right now, and games are a luxury item that typically fall off the list when budgets are tight. There’s also the matter that expectations for games are set higher than ever, as games cost so much more to make now. Naturally, that means more money needs to be made to justify the effort that goes into them.
Whatever the case, and despite widespread glittering reviews on launch, it appears Dragon Age: The Veilguard has not met EA’s expectations so far. As a single-player game with a rich story, it will likely have long-term appeal, and will continue to sell well in the months and years ahead, but its launch has failed to impress.
Regardless of this, EA remains confident about its long-term future plans, and expects growth heading into its next financial year. As noted by Bloomberg, EA will release more comprehensive financial results on 4 February 2025.