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EA raises sales expectations for Anthem

Nirolak

Nirolak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,660
EA announced that they've raised their expectations for Anthem, and that they're feeling very confident about the raised expectations.

They raised it because of the various metrics they track. They also note that it's tracking very well digitally, so it should be particularly high margin for them.

There's still a bit left in the call, so I'll update if they say more. Most people are just asking about FIFA and mobile though.

This was on EA's fiscal call: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/2utrg2ya/dmediaset/audio

The fourth quarter will be stronger than we had originally forecast, driven by higher expectations for Anthem and Command and Conquer Rivals.
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Net bookings from full-game downloads are expected to grow 20% to 25%. This is significantly above our original expectations, primarily driven by the strength we are seeing in Anthem, which we expect to skew strongly digital, plus the digital shifts for our other titles. We continue to model an underlying shift of around five percentage points a year to digital.
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Source: https://s22.q4cdn.com/894350492/files/doc_financials/2019/q2/Q2-FY19-Prepared-Remarks.pdf

The other two quotes were from the Q&A, so they aren't written up currently.
 
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DMVfan123

DMVfan123

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,365
Virginia
Great to hear, most anticipated title of 2019 for me, think it has the potential to be MASSIVE
 
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RationalGinger

RationalGinger

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,004
I will wait for reviews - as should everyone else. If it turns out to be a better Destiny I'll jump right in. The gameplay and no PVP messing up ability design has already piqued my interest but I won't jump in day 1.
 
monketron

monketron

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,965
Less excited now that Bungie has sorted it's shit out with Destiny. But will still give it a try.
 
Powerofthecloud

Powerofthecloud

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,489
I think it is more a current deflection of battlefield V's inevitable poor outing. Anthem has not shown really anything yet to get excited about as well. Yesterday's video did no favors.
 
Lannisters1798

Lannisters1798

Member
Apr 27, 2018
2,448
I'm going to wait until a sale if I even get Anthem. Got burned so badly by purchasing the Andromeda Deluxe Edition at launch.
 
Kolx

Kolx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,505
I'm conflicted about Anthem. I don't see any hype for it here or on Twitter among hardcore or casuals, but then I remember it's a destiny clone with EA behind it.
 
Ze_Shoopuf

Ze_Shoopuf

Member
Jun 12, 2018
4,028
definitely waiting for reviews, especially for an EA GaaS.

for me to bite there better be some meat in this, and not just grinding for loot.
 

rras1994

Member
Nov 4, 2017
5,801
Kolx said:
I'm conflicted about Anthem. I don't see any hype for it here or on Twitter among hardcore or casuals, but then I remember it's a destiny clone with EA behind it.
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Given the amount of questions poor Mark Darrah has to endure about it on Twitter, I'd say there's a heck of a lot of interest.
 
Velocity:Design:Comfort

Velocity:Design:Comfort

Banned
Nov 23, 2017
4,302
People saying this is an era bubble thing, why do you think that casuals are going to flock to this game?

This is not a new cod or new Battle Royale game which the buzz still seems to be about. Even in the loot genre, there's

-blizz is likely to launch a competitor
-destiny is kind of good now or at least perceived to be
-division 2 for the grittier shoot bang loot fans

Loot fans have settled in somewhere already, and the shared world hype has fallen to other genres that don't seem to be going away soon. Is it blind faith in ea marketing?
 
Powerofthecloud

Powerofthecloud

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,489
Velocity:Design:Comfort said:
People saying this is an era bubble thing, why do you think that casuals are going to flock to this game?

This is not a new cod or new Battle Royale game which the buzz still seems to be about. Even in the loot genre, there's

-blizz is likely to launch a competitor
-destiny is kind of good now or at least perceived to be
-division 2 for the grittier shoot bang loot fans

Loot fans have settled in somewhere already, and the shared world hype has fallen to other genres that don't seem to be going away soon. Is it blind faith in ea marketing?
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At this point they have to launch the game before they shut the studio down.
 
Scuffed

Scuffed

Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,376
No real negative for them to do this. I mean any other kind of announcement would be embarrassing so might as well say you expect great sales.
 

rras1994

Member
Nov 4, 2017
5,801
Scuffed said:
No real negative for them to do this. I mean any other kind of announcement would be embarrassing so might as well say you expect great sales.
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They legally aren't allowed to lie in their investor report so there is a negative if this is a lie. If they don't hit those expectations their share price would fall by a large amount.
 
Thatguy

Thatguy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,207
Seattle WA
GameZone said:
Meanwhile the more I hear about this game, the less I want it.
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Same here. All footage of the game looks so derivative. You fly down a decorated tunnel, it opens into a little fighting arena where you fight mobs in very traditional looking 3rd person shooter fights. There are special moves and cool looking effects. But what new thing is this game doing? I can't find it. People really do buy games for pretty graphics though.

They know something we don't.
 
Wandu

Wandu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,165
Still not that interested in it, but I'll keep an eye out to see how it turns out.
 
OP
OP
Nirolak

Nirolak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,660
Velocity:Design:Comfort said:
People saying this is an era bubble thing, why do you think that casuals are going to flock to this game?

This is not a new cod or new Battle Royale game which the buzz still seems to be about. Even in the loot genre, there's

-blizz is likely to launch a competitor
-destiny is kind of good now or at least perceived to be
-division 2 for the grittier shoot bang loot fans

Loot fans have settled in somewhere already, and the shared world hype has fallen to other genres that don't seem to be going away soon. Is it blind faith in ea marketing?
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So far, every game in the genre has performed tremendously well, even with quite poor reviews compared to its peers.

It was also the most popular game on IGN during E3, and IGN is still the biggest traditional gaming site: https://m.ign.com/articles/2018/06/...the-most-popular-games-during-this-years-show
 
Scuffed

Scuffed

Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,376
rras1994 said:
They legally aren't allowed to lie in their investor report so there is a negative if this is a lie. If they don't hit those expectations their share price would fall by a large amount.
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Well it's an expectation they could just say that they expected it to do better but it didn't for <insert reason.> I don't believe they are legally obligated to hit all expectations because any number of things can happen before a launch. Stocks would take a hit anyway if the game does poorly.
 

rras1994

Member
Nov 4, 2017
5,801
Scuffed said:
Well it's an expectation they could just say that they expected it to do better but it didn't for <insert reason.> I don't believe they are legally obligated to hit all expectations because any number of things can happen before a launch. Stocks would take a hit anyway if the game does poorly.
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They can't knowingly lie about it and they mentioned digital pre orders as part of the reason they are upgrading. Companies generally want to do better than their estimate- there's no benefit in setting themselves up for failure
 
trikster40

trikster40

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
682
I have zero interest in BioWare games after the horrible games they've launched this gen. Gonna be some disappointed shareholders when sales don't meet raised expectations.
 
Scuffed

Scuffed

Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,376
rras1994 said:
They can't knowingly lie about it and they mentioned digital pre orders as part of the reason they are upgrading. Companies generally want to do better than their estimate- there's no benefit in setting themselves up for failure
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They don't have to be lying but they could just being overly optimistic. I'm not saying anything nefarious is going on just based on online hype and just a general idea of how much this game is talked about I don't see an increase in interest at all. Unless they had their expectations very low and have increased them.
 

cooldawn

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,467
I only just cancelled my pre-order.

A new Destiny-like experience peaked my interest but gameplay looks really dry...a far cry from Destiny's look and feel. Anthem looks too rigid and seems to take itself way too seriously.

I'm waiting for it to shock me once again.
 
Vic Damone Jr.

Vic Damone Jr.

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,947
rras1994 said:
That it's tracking well digitally and they are expecting it to have a high margin for digital. This is all in the OP, so clearly they have numbers with particularly digital pre orders to back up why they are increasing sales expectations
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That's what I get for not reading, I assumed they were confident from something internal.
 
Irrotational

Irrotational

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,412
5 percent shift per year to digital is interesting. Handy to have some actual numbers for a change.
 
Dandy

Dandy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,645
As a self-admitted Bioware fanboy, at this point, I am almost positive I won't buy Anthem.
 

AndyVirus

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
2,911
With Days Gone delayed there's one less game competing for mind share so unsurprising they're a little more optimistic. I don't think it'll be a smash hit but we'll see.
 
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