EA Q1 2018 Results (MEA 'significant contributor')

Whatever they've released is going to "drive" sales - like last year during his same quarter when a Star Wars mobile game "drove" sales thanks to "outperformance."

Pad it's stats? Specific numbers? Ridiculous argument. Expecting a numbers release for just ME:A is incredibly naive. As I've said before, this is an investor call, not a fan call. The reason they mention ME:A as driving year-to-year sales and contributing to digital sales is because it did, not because of some ridiculous conspiracy.

By your logic of "significant contributer" = "game underperformed", every other EA game must have completely bombed for Andromeda to be noted as a "significant contributor". Except it's a record year for EA, so...

Oh right, I would literally have a better chance of convincing a brick wall of anything by smashing my head against it than anyone would have at convincing you of objective reality using actual facts.

When the DLC is announced, the whole forum will be pointing and laughing at you.

Initially expected numbers are always skewed high. Then the projected sales come into play.

But EA mentioned a big part of their success was driven by ME: A

I can only speak for myself (naturally) but it troubles me to see that Andromeda is not at all in the cards for the Q2-Q3 period, as laid out by Andrew Wilson (see Prepared Comments, pages 4 to 6). And it's not like they're only mentioning new games 'cause they do talk at length about Battlefield 1 and how it "will continue to evolve" with updates, maps, expansions, the works. They even mention The Sims 4 coming to Xbox One and PS4. They could've easily snuck in a reference about continuing to support Andromeda with patches and multiplayer content at the very least. My read (and I'd really like to be wrong about this) is that they've closed the book on Andromeda.

Pages 4 to 6 list:

• "unprecedented levels of innovation" — I don't think a standard DLC for a currently-released game qualifies there. Battlefield 1 lists a number of new features coming to the game in its "expansion pack".
• "new games in some of our most popular global IP" — They're definitely not going to release a sequel less than a year after the first game.

Neither of these things are things ME:A DLC would be listed under in the first place.

Well, there is a missing element to all this and that's time. How fast did they expect the game to reach 5m copies? I could draw a parallel (and have done so in another thread) to what happened with 2013's Tomb Raider; the game sold 3.4m copies in four weeks and Square Enix stated it underperformed. They later announced it reached profitability by year's end, probably surpassing 5m sales. I'd say these expectations are unrealistic but I don't know their (internal) numbers.

Probably read the Q3 FY15 transcript that says, "Dragon Age: Inquisition had by far the most successful launch in BioWare's history, exceeding our expectations."

Since EA hasn't exactly touted their own horn with Andromeda one could assume the game did not meet their sales expectations.

I would prefer hard data but we're never gonna get that.

*shrugs*

EDIT: Well, shit. Also from the Q3 FY15 transcript:

BF1 and SIM's are significant contributors to quarterly revenue, quarter to quarter. Mentioning continue support for ME:A in the way of patches and MP content doesn't have a place in a quarterly report, particularly since neither of those elements contributes to earnings.

"Closing the book" on Andromeda would have been no mention of the game at all or stating that it's at end of life. That's when you know a publisher is through with a title.

As mentioned by someone in this thread(?) Bussinesses love to tout out game that went above their expectations. ME: A may not meet EA's lofty goals, but clearly they're very happy with the launch and mentioned that it carried most of the revenue.

The only thing about the statements is that EA said the numbers were driven by ME:A sales captured in the quarter. So that means a lot of the revenue they're counting towards ME:A for this quarter is the 53 million that they moved from last quarter.

A lot of those sales would be from pre-orders or first week sales.

When EA looks at how well the game is doing they're going to look at the sales post launch, whether they fell off more than expected, or stayed near their forecast. That will help tell them how much the reviews and word of mouth hurt the game, and how viable it is going forward.

Which is why now you have another round of surveys and a second free trial. They're trying to gauge the game's perception now compared to when it was released, and then they'll decide what to do.