Star Wars Battlefront 2 sales miss targets, EA blames loot crate controversy (update)

Sales of Star Wars Battlefront 2 fell short of Electronic Arts’ expectations, and the publisher is citing the furor over the game’s microtransactions as the primary explanation, reports the Wall Street Journal.

EA sold about 9 million copies of Battlefront 2 during the three-month period from October-December 2017, the third quarter of EA’s 2018 fiscal year, according to the Wall Street Journal. (The game launched almost exactly halfway through the quarter, on Nov. 17, 2017.) That was about 1 million fewer than the 10 million copies that EA had expected to sell, the newspaper reports.

Blake Jorgensen, the company’s chief financial officer, told the Wall Street Journal that the publisher’s guidance calls for sales of another 1 million to 3 million copies by the fiscal year’s conclusion at the end of March. The higher end of that estimate would still put Battlefront 2 behind its predecessor — EA shipped more than 14 million units of the original Star Wars Battlefront in its 2016 fiscal year.

Revenue from Battlefront 2 to this point is also much lower than EA had wanted, since the company removed microtransactions from the game just before launch after they ignited a controversy among early players. It is not currently possible to buy “crystals,” the in-game currency, or loot crates.

EA said at launch that it would reinstate the microtransactions eventually. Jorgensen told the Wall Street Journal that in-game purchases will return “in the next few months,” although he said the publisher’s fourth-quarter guidance does not take them into account. The Wall Street Journal also notes that Jorgensen “blames the controversy in large part” for Battlefront 2’s sales shortfall.

Update: In an investor call this afternoon, EA CEO Andrew Wilson denied that the kerfuffle surrounding Star Wars Battlefront 2 and its microtransactions had soured the relationship between the publisher and Disney, from which EA licenses the rights to make Star Wars video games.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the press,” said Wilson. “We have a tremendous relationship with Disney and we have built some amazing games together, and we have been very proactive with that relation in the service of our players.”

Wilson added that he expects no trouble with Disney whenever EA decides to add microtransactions back into Battlefront 2, saying, “We’re at a point where, when we make the decision that we have the right model for players and our community, I have no doubt that we will get the support of Disney on that.”

Owen Good contributed to this report.