EA Says Two Of Its Major AAA Titles 'Underperformed' In 2024

It's a shame. Dragon Age Veilguard is such a great game and deserves way better.
Also Dead Space didn't sell that good.
These are rough times and I'm 100% sure the reasons are these restrictions.
People are way too stingy these days with games.

I can't speak on dragon age but I've bought every other FIFA/eafc game for probably the last 18 years but I swore off it this year never enough improvements in the gameplay the game is just a waste of money really!

Depending on the budget, 1.5m copies in new sales doesn't sound like a failure for dragon age really. But they did wait 10 years to release a sequel, which is Kingdom Hearts levels of madness.

Making billions isn't enough!

Must have growth! Bigger profits, more money, until all the money is gained and then we still want more!

Must feed the monster INVESTOR!!!!

I don’t even think it’s a matter of the games not tech selling well…I think that publishers have ridiculous quotas and think every single game has to be a massive hit or it “doesn’t meet expectations”

Last year was the first time since 2009 I didn’t buy FIFA day one and this year is the first time i won’t buy it at all. The changes year on year are so minimal and they never seem to address issues that have plagued it for over a decade. It needs a truly massive gameplay and mode refresh or EA need to go full F2P and just release a much cheaper yearly squad update. It has long since passed its peak and it looks like even the hardcore fanbase are acknowledging that.

Honestly all Dragon Age games had lukewarm sales on release.

I’m sure DA will have a ‘long tail’ sales-wise, but a ten-year gap between releases means that a lot of people nowadays won’t even know much about the series. EA have nobody to blame but themselves for that.

Don’t do fifa but I thought dragon age was great and really enjoyed the adventuring around different locations and side missions and combat.
To many complained about this game.

Won't be long before the new DA hits EA Access will it?

Totally deserved in each case, for different reasons

1.5 million engaged could mean a lot of things.

It could mean total sales, but that’s really doubtful. It could mean sales-before-refunding for folks who got it on Steam, tried it and hated it and got their money back. It could include people who played it via GeForce Now for free.

Words matter. If this was actual games sold where they got some appreciable money back, they’d actually say SOLD, not engaged.

So they spent a decade working on a D.A. sequel, stripped away everything that made D.A. awesome, threw in a bunch of nonsense no one wanted, and then it bombed? Well, color me shocked, stunned, and amazed.

DA Veilguard looks like it costs north of $100 million from the production values alone. It's too bad that dialogue from scenes and some scene tone are suspect. Those should have been reworked to better fit a sword and magic setting.

I just want a really good Battlefield game again. Last good one was, Battlefield 4.

Wonder if EA is factoring in that, to my knowledge, all their games eventually go to EA online service. So why buy the game?

Again, I'll stress, these online subscription services hurt the developers bottom line. It is going to lead in downfall of gaming, or at very least, noticeable decline in overall quality of games.

lol. Good to see. Triple A gaming is a cesspool.

@Kloppo guess what, Dragon Age is in a great state and has no bugs, it runs like a dream on Series X.
But when I see how many likes you got, it makes no sense going on here.

I don't know what it wanted to be, but the franchise lost its identity with this iteration.

@Coletrain I agree with sales of EA FC I mean it goes either way there and when they release, whatever happens for the rest of the year sales too who knows but they want 'desperate' sales.

Dragon Age it was going to go either way of sales or people that happy with the outcome of the game even besides the 2014 to 2024 wait.

But not the Kingdom Hearts part.

That fanbase even if not 2 to 3 gap they got enough of a GBA game, DS, PSP, 3DS to then 3. They got enough games in that time just not a number on the box.

The stories still counted between games I'm pretty sure (own the complete not played them or watched enough videos on them but I assume people that were new to them and reviewed them would say so of story connection and gameplay), not oh a spin off I assume they are relevant for their subtitles. That fanbase got games. They weren't suffering. Just like any other more than what 5-7+ even 10 entries in a series. While Dragon Age even if maybe a mobile game like Mass Effect got Infiltrator on mobile has less then 5 and no remasters. Obvious difference there like many other IPs that have less games.

Even 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue came out before 3. They got games. So besides the Remix collections of them they got Dream Drop Distance and 2.8 Prologue so they didn't wait till 2019 after 2012 they got something in-between. The 2000s period was more busy of releases then 2010s but they still got games.

I'm not a KH fans but at the same time, series with more than 5 games are doing it good.

It's like seeing Mega Man fans go oh we didn't get a game in the last few years yeah and you got like 20+, they had enough ideas out there or focus on other IPs, let alone games with 1 game and that's it never touched again, just not each main/sub series as busy as prior periods. They have plenty to play in that universe if they haven't. XD

@SuntannedDuck2 oh yeah Kingdom Hearts has games coming out of its a** (although I think most of them are awful apart from dream drop distance, and this is coming from a KH fan.)

Was just using it as a frame of reference for length between sequels. Also, by the time KH4 comes out the fan base from KH1 will have aged what, 25-30 years? For something that's 1 continuous story, if you ask me, that is madness

EA only really has Apex going for it. I was just thinking about how great their Lord of the Rings and Stars Wars games are not it's just sports games and Apex. Anything I'm missing? Know they've had a lot.of new big IP miss the mark

If only people stopped buying madden

Dragon Age Veilgard is a masterpiece. It's my favorite game of all time. It shipped in a perfect state. I experienced zero bugs. The writing is absolutely fantastic and it has the best combat of any game ever. It's a shame that internet trolls diminished it's sales.

@Coletrain For sure. I can't say for sure but fair enough.

It's a fair frame of reference still no doubt.

Yeah age of players/customers for sure Then again with Ratchet 2007 to 2021 I've thought the same, end the story already, we either gave up, kept going or are so old we want it to end besides them focusing on younger audiences or anyone else to buy in we have waited long enough. Not so release wise I think compared to other games/series but of just get it over with.

2016 was eh but Rift Apart as much of a messaging to the fans and a appeal to many audiences was so boring to me I was like I'm done. Because it was just a generic game.

But obviously many games have those long gaps, revivals or whenever they can/whatever sales results of course.

@SuntannedDuck2 yeah R&C is probably slightly different though because they're so self contained. But I get ya, they're totally gorgeous games but by the time I finished 2016 I was done too.

Kingdom Hearts and DA:V expect a certain amount of understanding for the prior titles, and let's face it Inquisition came out just after Skyrim when dragon related RPGs were on a roll 🤣 so I totally get them not hitting the same heights. The FF7 remake stuff looks to be having the same issue with diminishing returns on the sequel. Just seems like Bioware/EA should have kept their expectations in check for this one, and I still think 1.5m sales is brilliant

Dragon Age isn't a system seller. It's a niche game for hardcore gamers. I would love to see the pitch deck and market research they did see how they got to 3 million players as an estimate. I played the last install and it was such a beautiful game for Xbox One. Shame this one didn't do better.