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EA CEO: Company to Expand eSports Initiatives

Liking what it’s seen thus far with its Competitive Gaming Division (CGD, gaming company Electronic Arts (EA) is looking to expand eSports initiatives during its next fiscal year (starting April 1), according to company CEO Andrew Wilson.

The focus for CGD is to “grow engagement in some of our biggest global franchises,” Wilson told analysts Jan. 31 in an earnings call for EA’s third quarter (ended Dec. 31). “With strong results to date, we will now expand EA competitive gaming even further in FY18, fueled by more competitions, new sponsors and broadcast partners, and original programming,” he said.

Going forward, “players will be able to compete in dozens of competitions, from online leagues to massive regional championships like our ‘FIFA Online 3’ Championship in Korea, to our biggest events yet on a global stage,” including the FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) Championship Finals and the Madden NFL Championship, he said, adding EA will also “kick off” competitive gaming events for its “Battlefield” game series later in the year.

The eSports category helped EA’s results in the third quarter, according to Wilson. It was “an excellent year for FIFA competitive gaming” in particular, he said, referring to the company’s soccer game franchise. He added: “Our eSports competitions for players at all levels have led to dramatic increases in engagement among competitive players. Through Q3, ‘FIFA 17’ competitors were playing nearly three times more than the rest of the FIFA community, and we expect the excitement will continue as we add more competitions, more broadcasts and more content in the year ahead.”

The company’s total third-quarter revenue inched up to $1.15 billion from $1.07 billion in the third quarter a year ago. Despite packaged game and other non-digital game revenue falling to $464 million from $501 million, digital revenue offset that, growing to $685 million from $569 million. EA also narrowed its loss to $1 million from $45 million.

Demand for EA’s two big holiday game releases – “Battlefield 1” (another entry in a major EA game series despite the title) and “Titanfall 2” – proved to be a mixed bag. EA “sold more units than we expected to sell in ‘Battlefield,’ and we sold less units than we expected” for ‘Titanfall 2,” CFO Blake Jorgensen said on the call. But he pointed out that the concept of units sold is becoming less significant to EA’s business, so “we’re going to actually spend less time talking about units going forward.”

“Battlefield 1” represented EA’s “biggest ‘Battlefield’ launch ever,” Wilson said. EA is seeing “massive engagement” for the game and the title is growing the company’s global ‘Battlefield’ community, he said, adding that the “unique player base” of the latest entry in the series is more than 50% larger than that of ‘Battlefield 4’ in its comparable launch quarter, with “more than a third of players being new to the franchise or new to EA.” Premium players of “Battlefield 1” will have early access to the first expansion pack for the title that’s coming in March, and “we will continue to bring more maps, more armies and more amazing content to the game in the months to come,” he said.

Meanwhile, “player satisfaction scores for ‘Titanfall 2’ are among the highest in our portfolio,” Wilson told analysts. The game “will be played for a long time to come, with new maps, modes and content updates continuing to expand the experience and engage our players,” he said, adding EA was “excited about our long-term plans” for the “Titanfall” series.

He added that EA was “deeply committed” to players in the “Battlefield 1” and “Titanfall 2” communities and, “throughout the year ahead, we will continue to launch new content and new experiences” for the titles.

Upcoming EA game releases will include a new “Star Wars Battlefront” title in the 2017 holiday season, a new “Need for Speed” title in fiscal 2018, and new intellectual property from its BioWare development studio at the end of that fiscal year, he said.

Wilson went on to say that the game industry was “poised for continued growth” as the console market “continues to strengthen, mobile continues its expansion, and more companies are entering the space and investing in new platforms.”

EA expects to report revenue of about $1.48 billion and profit of about $513 million for the fourth quarter (ending March 31).

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter projected EA will report “significant growth for the foreseeable future driven by cost discipline, digital sales growth, and impressive” game franchises, he said in a research note Feb. 1. EA shares were trading 0.14% higher at $83.55 in early afternoon trading the same day.