![]() ![]() At this point in time it is extremely unlikely we will be seeing any sharp turns resulting in massive gains for EA, but, on the flip side, I also don’t think there will be any more major losses either (for the rest of 2018 at least). With the game appearing to be unfinished and many unsatisfied with the product they received in the end, it has put the final nail in the coffin for EA for 2018. This brings us to the launch of Battlefield V, or rather the Origin Access trial, on November 9th, appearing to fuel that final clear downwards tick. ![]() The only thing that I can chalk it up to at this time is investor nervousness about previously mentioned news. Looking through the internet, I am unable to find any clear signs of why the price began to decline once again. The announcement of a new Sims 4 expansion pack helped to bring back investors, but this rise in price was brief. To help bring extra context to this, the Motley Fool has a table that breaks down digital revenue as a percentage of total revenue for EA from 2010 to 2017. Because this drop only takes into account physical sales, it is unlikely that there was a total change greater than 10%. The news about FIFA 19’s sales being down 25% versus FIFA 18 had investors, yet again, bailing on EA. With loot boxes bringing in Millions for them, EA does not want to remove loot boxes from FIFA Ultimate Team™. That 17% of total revenue means EA brought in 823.65 Million through loot boxes from those games, which accounts for 28.65% of their total digital revenue. ![]() In fiscal 2017, Ultimate Team across FIFA and Madden NFL generated 17% of EA’s total revenue. While their press release does not clearly state it, FIFA Ultimate Team™ is one of EA’s biggest revenue generators. The tides turned back in EA’s favor when it was announced that FIFA 18 had sold 24 million copies worldwide, and investors started to look towards FIFA 19. This likely contributed to the push-back. Originally Battlefield V was scheduled to launch on October 23rd, putting it in direct competition with Red Dead Redemption 2 (Release Date: Oct 26th) and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (Release Date Oct 12th), which would be a problem as many people would not likely be willing to spend approximately 200$ so quickly on games. ![]() Between the 29th of August and September 5th, the price dropped from $128.52 to $111.55 (a 13.2% drop). EA attempted to do damage control at this point by stating, “Moving the launch of Battlefield V out by four weeks will enable EA to deliver the best possible experience for gamers but will push some net bookings out of fiscal year 2019 and into fiscal year 2020.” The resulting sell-off after this news suggests that stockholders were most likely not satisfied with what EA was telling them instead choosing to believe EA lacked confidence in the game. This brings us to the first news that can be directly linked to Battlefield V and a corresponding drop in EA’s stock price that was truly severe On the 30th of August, EA announced that Battlefield V would be delayed. This decline was not as severe as the previous one, taking approximately two weeks to go from $131.91 (Aug 14th) to $128.52 (Aug 29th) (a 2.57% drop). However, with the leak from Patrick Söderlund after his departure (Aug 14th), EA’s stock price went back on the decline as stated earlier. While there was no sudden upturn in price after the announcement, the price slowly began to rise back up. The launch of Origin Access appears to be what finally stopped that sharp decline in the stock price. ![]()
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