Star Wars fans have been calling for Disney to bail out of their exclusivity deal with Electronic Arts because of how poorly the publisher has handled the franchise. However, Disney has a different point of view on EA than their consumers.
During a transcribed 2019 First Quarter call, Robert Iger spoke on how Disney has tried and failed in the past to enter the gaming industry.
"And we've found over the years that we've never been good at the self-publishing side of things," Iger said, "but we've been great at the licensing side, which obviously doesn't require that much allocation of capital."
Screenshot of the Igers video game comments in the transcript
Iger also praised Disney's "close relationship" with EA, adding "we've had a good relationships with some of those we're licensing to, notably EA and the relationship on the Star Wars properties."
Mr. Iger praising EA was a bit surprising considering how little the publisher has done with the exclusive Star Wars license. Over the course of six years, EA has produced two mediocre Star Wars games with less than positive reviews by consumers and has cancelled several others, including Star Wars 1313 and Visceral Studios open-world Star Wars game, which was described as "Star Wars meets Uncharted".
EA CEO Andrew Wilson didn't actually want the Star Wars license to begin with. Mr. Wilson wants Electronic Arts to focus on games that the publisher owns like FIFA and Battlefield that will bring more revenue directly to the publisher rather than buying licenses from other companies.
Unfortunately for EA, focusing on those titles might not be as profitable as the publisher wants to believe, as Battlefield V undersold by one million units and the Belgian authorities forced EA to comply with anti-gambling laws and remove the ability to purchase in-game currency in FIFA 2018 and 2019, making it harder to sell card packs.
EA has also been suffering from a consumer backlash following the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 controversy which only got stronger when Chief Design Officer Patrick Soderlund told critics of Battlefield V "accept it or don't buy the game."
Gamers took his words to heart and decided not to buy the game. And after EA announced that Battlefield undersold by one million units, investors began to lose faith in the publisher as well, with EA stock plummeting from $92.52 to $75.20.
Maybe after the EA dropped the ball in 2018, maybe they'll turn around and put effort into Star Wars: Fallen Order. Because its clear that consumers and investors don't share the same "good relationship" that Disney has with EA.
No comments:
Post a Comment