Battlefield 5 - going back to WW2

[Olinser]

Honestly I feel like this was a Ghostbusters or Last Jedi strategy.

At some point, somebody in authority in EA realized that Battlefield 5 was a shitty product and they were not going to be able to deliver the promised content by the release date. Setting aside the SJW bullshit, the game was unfinished, extremely long queue times, connectivity issues, and a host of other problems, with promised content missing.

At that point they had 2 choices:

1) Delay the game significantly to make it an acceptable product on release
2) Find some bullshit to distract away from the actual state of the game.

They chose option 2 and INTENTIONALLY smacked the hornets nest with their in-your-face SJW bullshit. And it actually worked. NOBODY was talking about the actual state of the gameplay for months. Distract from the game itself, get those sweet SJW Wokebucks, have huge upfront sales from all the SJW and Wahmens that buy the game because its so woke (LUL), and then dismiss all critics as just mad about teh strong wahmens.

But just like Ghostbusters and Last Jedi, they BADLY underestimated how much diving into SJW bullshit was going to hurt their up front sales. Because as anybody who has ever looked at the breakdown of people that ACTUALLY BUY AAA games like Battlefield 5, its 90%+ males. Idiot non-gamer SJW types that keep getting into high positions in game companies keep being convinced by the bullshit of 'Gamerz are 50% women!' and that there is a mythical untapped marked of Wahmen Gamers that just need to be catered to.

So they went full SJW to try and distract from the lackluster state of the gameplay, the mythical unicorn Wahmen Gamer didn't materialize, and they crashed and burned as many before them have.

Seriously, how many games have to fail trying to cater to the so-called women gamer before they finally acknowledge that playing Candy Crush doesn't make you a gamer?

 

[Drakron]

Honestly I feel like this was a Ghostbusters or Last Jedi strategy.

I think you are mistaking things, Ghostbusters was very aggressive with the message of "watch this movie or else your a misogynist" in a attempt to force people into watching as Last Jedi there was noise but nowhere near what Ghostbusters did and a lot of that noise come after the movie was out and underperfoming with people that had a interest in its success being very defensive, like JJ Abrams.

Battlefield 5 started the whole thing from the start with the trailer and did exactly what Ghostbusters did, in a way its amazing when people pick up that yes women WERE in WWII and yes, we have no problem with having women in WWII as long is HISTORICAL but that wasnt what DICE did, they rewrote history and people picked on that because one thing is having a scenario were you play as say a female soviet pilot that existed and you can shut down people that complain by simply saying "this is historical, it happened" but instead the so called "feminists" cannot even bother to do that and just change historical events to fit their agenda ... they might as well remove Soviet from the war if its "problematic".

They certainly used the Ghostbusters strategy but unlike Ghostbusters where the success or failure would only be known when the movie premiered, BF5 pre-orders numbers shown there was a lack of interest in the game, you can see how EA shifted strategy around when pre-orders started because they realized it wasnt going to work but the problem was people at DICE keep shooting their mouths and due to Balkanization of media, all the usual suspects keep pushing the narrative as EA was likely panicking as their attempt at turn around was not being heard because the gaming media was too busy moral signaling to create traffic.

This is why Soderlund left because you dont just say to consumers "dont like it, dont buy it" as you have someone you answer to, that being EA board that wasnt exactly trilled about the whole situation he helped creating, this is also why he left before the game was released with EA trying and failing to turn the ship, I suspect others at DICE will be shown the door or be transferred to other studios were they will have a nice office with a window and only a nice office with a window.

 

[vonAchdorf]

They didn't have a clear marketing message and direction. Back to WW2 and "realism", versus cartoony characters and action and non-soviet women in close combat, made it unclear what type of game they planned to sell. In their own insecurity, they resorted to insulting their customer base to appeal to non-buyers, which is always a good idea. Also if you want to make a fortnite-y game, you better have the battle royale mode ready at launch, not months after.

 

[Dexter]

https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/23/battlefield-vs-sales-are-more-like-hardline-than-battlefield-1/

Battlefield V is the first Battlefield game to miss the NPD’s top 10 this decade
Jeff Grubb@jeffgrubb January 23, 2019 4:01 PM

Above: Battlefield V will have players taking on co-op missions with friends.

Battlefield V did not finish in the top 10 best-selling games of 2018 in the U.S., according to tracking firm The NPD Group. Instead, the World War II shooter ended up at No. 14. That puts it behind Grand Theft Auto V (11), Mario Kart 8 (12), and FIFA 19 (13).

That makes Battlefield V the first Battlefield game this decade not to crack the NPD’s annual top 10 list. And it means that the game performed closer to Battlefield: Hardline and Bad Company 2 than Battlefield 1, relative to the rest of the software market.

I went back and looked at previous NPD charts, which track physical and digital sales in the United States. Here’s where each Battlefield game ended up on the list from their debut year.

• 2018: Battlefield V was No. 14
• 2016: Battlefield 1 was No. 2
• 2015: Battlefield: Hardline was No. 10
• 2013: Battlefield 4 was No. 4
• 2011: Battlefield 3 was No. 4
• 2010: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was No. 10

These numbers are all in terms of dollar sales and copies. They also don’t include any sales made on EA’s Origin client. It is also worth noting that Battlefield V is the first game in the series to launch included in the EA Origin Access Premier subscription service from the day of its launch.

I’ve also reached out to EA for a comment.

But without more details from the publisher itself, the NPD data suggests that Battlefield V is not keeping up with its predecessors.

 

[Wunderbar]

Incline

 

[sullynathan]

During EA’s fiscal earnings call today, CEO Andrew Wilson announced that Battlefield V missed its sales expectations for the holiday quarter.

Wilson attributed Battlefield V’s underperformance to several factors. First was the game’s month-long delay from October 19 to November 20, which pushed the title into a busier holiday season. Wilson also pointed to prioritizing single-player content over Battlefield V’s still unreleased battle-royale mode as a contributing factor to the poor sales. Later in the call, CFO Blake Jorgensen offered specific numbers: Battlefield V has sold 7.3 million copies, putting it 1 million units below the company's expectations.

EA Conference Call Via Game Informer

 

[DayofBlow]

Most of the unit sales came after the big price cut. Still managed to miss the target by a mill and their revenue from units sold was in the shits thanks to the cut. Nice.

 

[Olinser]

Yeah I don't believe the '7 million sales' number is even true.

They massively slashed the price days after release and were doing stuff like giving away copies of Battlefield 5 with Nvidia cards.

They lost tens of millions of dollars on this game. And they deserve it.

 

[sullynathan]

Yeah I don't believe the '7 million sales' number is even true.

Why not? How many people do you think actually bought Nvidia cards and got BFV? A couple few thousand at most? 7 million isn't that large when considering that there were a good 10 games from 2018 that sold even more than that with their own official sales numbers.

 

[DemonKing]

Just from personal experience most of the local BFV servers here in Australia (PC) are usually full with players waiting in line to get in at peak times (nights/weekends).

I suspect there might be more than a few players who are there due to EA Access subs which won't show up in sales numbers. If you take out the SJW BS (I still can't stand it when I hear a girlie scream when I shoot someone in game), gameplay wise this is no doubt the best BF game for years. They just got killed by the SJW nonsense.

 

[Dexter]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...nks-after-latest-battlefield-video-game-flops

Electronic Arts Plunges After Latest Battlefield Game Flops
By Christopher Palmeri
5. Februar 2019, 22:48 MEZ Updated on 6. Februar 2019, 00:55 MEZ

• Rival games Fortnite and Red Dead also are weighing on results
• ‘It’s always a battle,’ executive says after weak earnings

Attendees watch a preview for the Battlefield V video game during an EA Play event in Los Angeles.

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Electronic Arts Inc. plummeted as much as 19 percent after its latest Battlefield title flopped and competition from rival video games like Fortnite contributed to a “difficult quarter.”

The first-person shooter game, which was released in November, faced heavy competition during the holiday season. Fortnite and Red Dead Redemption 2 in particular vied for customers’ attention, Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said in an interview.

“It’s always a battle, for time more than a battle for money,” he said.

Adjusted revenue for the quarter ending in March will be $1.17 billion, EA said on Tuesday, compared with the $1.47 billion average of analysts’ estimates. Last quarter’s sales and earnings also fell short of Wall Street estimates.

Upgrades to the Battlefield game are coming, including a Fortnite-style battle-royale mode, but they won’t come in time to save the current quarter.

It’s no secret that the industry is going through a period of upheaval as gamers forgo console games and embrace battle-royale titles like Fortnite. But the pace of decline in EA’s packaged goods was still eye-opening, with net revenue down 15 percent to $1.55 billion in the 12 months that ended in December.

EA shares fell as low as $74.71 in late trading after the results were released. The stock had gained 17 percent this year.

The holiday season is a critical period for video-game makers, and investors are eagerly awaiting how other companies fared. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the maker of Grand Theft Auto, reports its earnings Wednesday morning.

 

[Dexter]

Yeah I don't believe the '7 million sales' number is even true.

If anything, they probably included every "Subscription", Giveaway, and maybe even Beta player in that number to get it that high given that BFV was below the Sales of BF: Hardline on the NPD charts.

Member they sold it half-off a week after release, and even had Free giveaways to make this look better than it actually is:

Need to get those player numbers up for the Quarterly Report:

 

[unfairlight]

Apex Legends has had an amazing launch though, it will probably get them back on their feet.

 

[Dexter]

Apex Legends has had an amazing launch though, it will probably get them back on their feet.

 

[unfairlight]

Just check what the most played game on Twitch is right now. People are very positive on the game, I expect it to have some longevity.

 

[A horse of course]

Apex Legends has had an amazing launch though, it will probably get them back on their feet.

It's f2p, people will jump on the next bandwagon right after.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Lol:

But the pace of decline in EA’s packaged goods was still eye-opening, with net revenue down 15 percent to $1.55 billion in the 12 months that ended in December.

The Codex has sleeping cells in the most unexpected places, who knows...

 

[unfairlight]

It's f2p, people will jump on the next bandwagon right after.

It's wait and see, in that case. I have a feeling this game will be the new hotness for a while.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Battle Royale mod is coming

and they got choppers

 

[sullynathan]

it's odd that the biggest attraction of battlefield, large open environments and scale with vehicles and lots of players, has been taken by other games, turned up to 11 and gotten even more popular leaving them in the dust. Even COD does it now too.

 

[gerey]

Battle Royale mod is coming

and they got choppers

BFV is a fantasy game. If orcs and women can freely run around killing men by the dozen, why can't dumb looking contraptions like those be featured?

 

[Olinser]

Battle Royale mod is coming

and they got choppers

BFV is a fantasy game. If orcs and women can freely run around killing men by the dozen, why can't dumb looking contraptions like those be featured?

I actually said that DICE and EA were just monumentally stupid with their YOU HATE DA WAHMENS bullcrap.

They wanted to have their cake and eat it to. They knew WW2 was far and away the most popular fan dream for Battlefield, but they also still wanted those Fortnite microtransactions for ridiculous weapons.

So they made that RIDICULOUS annoucement trailer with barbed wire cricket bats, prosthetic arms, and samurai swords. When that blew up in their faces they tried to fall back on the YOU HATE TEH WAHMENZ crap to try and collect those sweet SJW wokebucks.

And the problem was they didn't GO ALL THE WAY.

I said right at the start of the slow motion train wreck that to actually have been successful they needed to have 5 more seconds off footage on the exact same trailer.

As the jeep with STRONG WAHMEN ROBOT ARM rides off, it suddenly gets stomped by Hitler riding a T-Rex.

10 million copies.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

10 million copies.

how many of these were purchased at a discount?

 

[Olinser]

10 million copies.

how many of these were purchased at a discount?

/facepalm

It sold 7 million. The point I'm making is they WOULD HAVE SOLD 10 million by embracing the ridiculous rather than riding the Woketrain.

 

[gerey]

BFV is a fantasy game. If orcs and women can freely run around killing men by the dozen, why can't dumb looking contraptions like those be featured?

I actually said that DICE and EA were just monumentally stupid with their YOU HATE DA WAHMENS bullcrap.

They wanted to have their cake and eat it to. They knew WW2 was far and away the most popular fan dream for Battlefield, but they also still wanted those Fortnite microtransactions for ridiculous weapons.

So they made that RIDICULOUS annoucement trailer with barbed wire cricket bats, prosthetic arms, and samurai swords. When that blew up in their faces they tried to fall back on the YOU HATE TEH WAHMENZ crap to try and collect those sweet SJW wokebucks.

And the problem was they didn't GO ALL THE WAY.

I said right at the start of the slow motion train wreck that to actually have been successful they needed to have 5 more seconds off footage on the exact same trailer.

As the jeep with STRONG WAHMEN ROBOT ARM rides off, it suddenly gets stomped by Hitler riding a T-Rex.

10 million copies.

They seem to have made two mistakes. First mistake was assuming that the Fortnite audience was going to drop the free Fortnite and pay EA $60 to play an inferior version of the same game, and the second one was assuming women and their beta orbiters play games, let alone WW2 games.

Then, as you said, their marketing campaign was a complete disaster. Obnoxious, in-your-face, made to be as insulting as possible with all the womyn, negros and homos prancing around, and when called out on their idiocy they tried to shame people into silence. Just goes to show how utterly out of touch EA has become.

Anthem is just further proof they're still stuck in the "[insert name of game] killer" and will waste inordinate amounts of money chasing non-existent demographics.

how many of these were purchased at a discount?

6 million. Shipped by train.