Electronic Arts reported their earnings for the quarter ending December 31, 2022, and most of the news coming out of the publisher wasn’t great. Revenue for the quarter was $1.88 billion, up a modest 5 percent year-on-year, but net bookings for the full 2022 calendar year were down a percent. EA has also adjusted its outlook for the current quarter downward.
The reason for the less optimistic outlook is that the anticipated Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has been pushed back slightly from March to April. Developer Respawn Entertainment had the following to say about the delay…
“For the last three years, the Jedi team here at Respawn has poured its collective heart and soul into Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and we are proud to say the next chapter in the tale of Cal Kestis is content complete. We are now focused entirely on the final stage: bug fixes to enhance performance, stability, polish, and most importantly, the player experience.
Jedi: Survivor is a direct response to the feedback from our community, delivering expansive destinations to explore, evolved combat and traversal, and of course, the continuation of Cal and BD’s story. Making this game has truly made us a better team, and we have pushed ourselves at every level to make this the Star Wars sequel our fans expect from Respawn and Lucasfilm Games.
In order for the team to hit the Respawn quality bar, provide the team the time they need, and achieve the level of polish our fans deserve, we have added six crucial weeks to our release schedule. Thanks to EA and Respawn for giving us the time to deliver the best experience for our players, and to all of you for your understanding.”
In other EA-related news, the somewhat surprising announcement has been made that Apex Legends Mobile is shutting down.
“At Respawn, we aim to provide players with games that are consistently outstanding. Following a strong start, the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has begun to fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence. It is for this reason, after months of working with our development partner, that we have made the mutual decision to sunset our mobile game. Although disappointing, we are proud of the game we launched, are grateful for the support of the Apex Legends community, and are confident that this is the right decision for players. Respawn and the Apex Legends team remain excited about mobile as a platform and look forward to new opportunities to serve players there in the future.”
Apex Legends Mobile will be sunset on May 1, 2023, with all in-app purchases ceasing as of today. Refunds won’t be provided. During today’s EA earning call CEO Andrew Wilson said there are still plans for some sort of Apex mobile experience in the future. Honestly, given the scalability of Apex Legends, just putting the mainline game on mobile would probably make most sense. EA also quietly announced that their yet-to-be-released Battlefield mobile title is ceasing development.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor now launches on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 on April 28. Apex Legends Mobile shuts down on May 31.
The post Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Delayed, Apex Legends Mobile Shuttered as EA Reports Soft Earnings by Nathan Birch appeared first on Wccftech.
