Years on from infamous comments about singleplayer being dead and defending a lack of singleplayer campaigns in Star Wars: Battlefront, EA now has some good news for investors: Mass Effect Legendary Edition smashed EA’s projections.
The comments were made as part of EA’s investor call this morning, which was pretty was almost universally positive on all fronts. Just about everything was firing for the conglomerate in the quarter. Their new racing franchise in F1 2021, courtesy of the Codemasters acquisition, is doing well. Battlefield 2042 trailers were viewed over 210 million times, a clear indication of how 2042 has been received in comparison to Battlefield V.
But a neater story underneath all of that was the success of Mass Effect Legendary Edition, a remaster that was in the rumour stage for at least two years before it was officially announced. That anticipation was always going to translate into sales — especially given how Mass Effect Andromeda turned out — but obviously, EA didn’t factor in just how much people wanted to bang Garrus again:
There is enduring power to the franchises and IP that we are building. The launch of Mass Effect Legendary Edition – the remaster of the first three Mass Effect games – reignited the passion of fans around the world, driving sales performance well above our expectations. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order coming to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 was also a moment for new and returning players to jump into that amazing game. We are continuing to invest in both of these franchises, as well as more of our amazing IP.
Apex Legends is continuing to do well for EA, with the battle royale having generated $US2 billion in revenue for EA so far. That’s likely to soar once the mobile version finally launches, although the ninth season of Respawn’s shooter is doing just fine as is with 13 million active weekly players. It Takes Two also got a shoutout for outperforming expectations, meaning that one of the industry’s most lovably outspoken developers will probably continue to be his weird, wonderful self.
Investors also pressed EA for additional info on the Dead Space reboot and the publisher’s expectations. Andrew Wilson, EA’s CEO, said “there’s not a lot more I can share about that” and the game was “a little ways out”. “It was one of the most demanded titles, just after Skate, and the response was very positive that we’re back in development,” Wilson added.
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