Battlefield 1: Electronic Arts Reveals Sales Prediction for the Game

Video game publisher Electronic Arts officially reveals its post-launch sales predictions for the forthcoming World War I inspired shooter Battlefield 1.

According to Electronic Arts’ latest earnings report for Quarter 1 of the Financial Year 2017, the publisher’s chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen revealed it has projected Battlefield 1 sales after launch will be “slightly under” what the first-person shooter franchise usually does on an annual basis. Even with that being the case, EA is confident that Battlefield 1 has the potential to go beyond its prediction.

Within Electronic Arts’ most recent financial report, Jorgensen explains the standard figures for the series, and holds out hope for Battlefield 1 to live up to the hype behind it, especially considering the fact that it was an E3 2016 Games Critics Award Winner. Regarding the potential for the title’s sales at the moment, though, the EA CFO said, “We’ve told people that typically a Battlefield title does about 15 million in a year. Our guidance is slightly under that and we hope that that excitement builds and it’ll go through that number, but for now it’s slightly under that number.”

Also found within Electronic Arts’ Q1 FY2017 earnings call is the mention of how the company believes Titanfall 2 will fare in the market upon release. As for the Respawn Entertainment-developed game, Jorgensen said that the first entry in the franchise sold a little over 7 million units, and the second installment should do better, saying, “We think it’ll do more than that, but it’s probably closer to 10 million than it is to 15 million as built into our guidance.”

Taking Electronic Arts’ sales expectations into account for both Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2, one can consider its stance on the issue to be somewhat conservative, at least for theWorld War I shooter. For instance, not long after DICE and EA put forth the former title’s official reveal trailer, fans quickly caused the footage’s popularity to surge, giving itover 1 million likes on YouTube in just a few short days, and setting the groundwork for it to become the most liked trailer of all time on the global video-sharing website.

Furthermore, while Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 share launch dates that are three weeks apart, EA has said it’s not concerned about releasing them in the same year, let alone that close to one another. Bearing this particular positive outlook in mind, it’s a wonder why Electronic Arts is setting its expectations for Battlefield 1‘s sales to be lower than what has typically been expected out of the franchise in the past.

One possible reason as to why Electronic Arts is dialing back its projected estimates for how many units Battlefield 1 will move is due to the fact that Activision’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare drops just two weeks after the DICE-developed shooter does. Of course, while it’s fashionable to dish out hate for the Call of Duty franchise in online forums, comments sections, and message boards, it’s a given that the series is a sales juggernaut, so it’s conceivable that EA has observed the possibility of more fans gravitating toward Infinite Warfare. At any rate, it will be interesting to see how well each of the aforementioned titles make out once they go on sale later this year.

[Source: GR]