Scheduled for May 1, 2023, the closure ofApex Legends Mobile, whose development had been entrusted to specialists from Lightspeed Studios, a subsidiary of Tencent well known for PUBG Mobile, immediately reminds us how fragile certainties are in the mobile market. The gigantic success of the game on consoles and PC will therefore have been useless to impose itself on an increasingly crowded mobile sector. Only eight months after its debut, this title tailored specifically for mobile gaming is going to mobile gaming heaven. “Despite Apex Mobile’s strong start, the ongoing experience was not going to meet our players’ expectations. After months of working with our development partner, we have made a joint decision to end mobile gaming. Our love for the Apex universe and our players remains unchanged. We look forward to exploring this universe, its characters and its stories with you.“, explains EA in its press release.
But the club struck twice during the publisher’s financial results, which also announced the end of the development of Battlefield Mobile, a project announced with great fanfare at the same time as the last living room opus, Battlefield 2042, and which was supposed to be released in 2022 to give birth to a new ecosystem. As rival Call of Duty prepares to roll out a mobile version of Warzone, Electronic Arts is no doubt making this decision with regret. But let it be said, the Battlefield team, now under the responsibility of veteran Vince Zampella, has begun pre-production of new experiences, while updates to Battlefield 2042 continue. “We remain firmly committed to unlocking the enormous potential of Battlefield. We’re hard at work evolving Battlefield 2042 and are in pre-production of our future Battlefield experiences in our studios around the world.“, can we read.
EA wants to unify its next mobile games with other platforms
On paper, EA still intends to decline franchises Apex Legends and Battlefield on iOS and Android, once these games have been redesigned from the ground up to match current market expectations. It’s unclear exactly what that means, but CEO Andrew Wilson’s comments at the conference suggest EA may have canceled Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile because those titles were separate games from their home counterparts and the new priority would be unifying the playerbase across all platforms (console, PC, mobile). Epic Games can sneer, he whose Fortnite has applied this rule from the very beginning.
“And most importantly, looking at the mobile market, the biggest and most successful new launches are those that are deeply connected to the whole franchise, where there isn’t always cross-play. , but cross-progression and a sense of being part of one unified community and one unified gaming experience“, explains the CEO. In the meantime, stopping the development of Battlefield Mobile made a victim, the Industrial Toys studio, which Electronic Arts had bought in 2018 and which was working on Battlefield Mobile For 3 years. Founded in 2012 by Alex Seropian, Tom Harris and Brent Pease, the studio made a name for itself with the FPS Midnight Star.
FIFA 23 could break franchise records
For the October-December 2022 quarter, Electronic Arts reported revenue of $1.88 billion ($1.78 billion a year earlier) and net income of $204 million (vs. $66 million). dollars). Positive figures which do not prevent the financial director Chris Suh from evoking the difficulties of the current market to explain the rare values slightly down in the group’s results. “In the face of growing market uncertainty during the quarter, we took steps to protect profitability.”he says to reassure shareholders.
It must be said that if FIFA 23 is on its way to becoming the biggest success in the history of the franchise, thanks in particular to sales up sharply by more than 50% in North America, the releases of the last quarter have not not fully met expectations. And there were only two: Need for Speed Unbound and NHL 23. Even Apex Legends had a slightly quieter end to the year than usual, says management. Without Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, pushed back to April 28, EA is still keeping high goals for its entire fiscal year and anticipates revenue of at least $7.52 billion as well as a net profit of at least $858 million.