EA Bleeds $3.1 Billion in Stock Value Over Battlefront II Fiasco

[btarunr]

Electronic Arts (EA) bled USD $3.1 billion (£2.3 billion) in stock value at the markets over the week, as the company scaled down its controversial loot-crate system deployed in "Star Wars: Battlefront II." The company is fighting a PR debacle as gamers complain of terrible pricing of the base-game, DLC, and an aggressive loot-crate system that's drawing the attention of government regulators around the world, who are threatening to impose gambling regulations against the game.

The concept of loot-crate is simple. You pay a seemingly small amount of money for a "mystery box" containing either something great (like weapon-attachments), or something of no tangible impact on gameplay (like skins). You're incentivized to buy more loot-crates in hope that you'll get something better. This becomes a gamble. In 2016, EA earned over $800 million in profits selling loot-crates among other micro-transactions, across various game franchises, such as Battlefield and Need for Speed. With EA scaling down several of its ancillary revenue models for the game, the studio's stock bled 8.5 percent month-to-date. Drew Crum, an analyst with investment firm Stifel also attributes underwhelming Black Friday sales of the game to EA's bear-hug.



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[rob49152]

Oh let me check my loot crate to see if I feel bad for EA....

NOPE!!

 

[Totally]

Oh let me check my loot crate to see if I feel bad for EA....

NOPE!!

You should crack open another one the feels might be in there.

 

[Kanan]

They got too greedy and now the whole thing imploded. Congrats and well done. Learn from it, go back to being a decent company or go down for good.

 

[Solaris17]

They got too greedy and now the whole thing imploded. Congrats and well done. Learn from it, go back to being a decent company or go down for good.

This.

If anything this is the perfect example of capitalism. The people spoke with there wallets (investors) and EA is gonna carry that weight.

 

[techy1]

good, not that I care about Battlefront... but I am damn sure every game developer is watching this and thinking: "hmm... EA got a bit too greedy and got backlash, I wonder how this will play out... if this will quiet down - maybe we also can get away with a more "loot" in future?"... I hope this brings answer to all of them (for this moment)

 

[the54thvoid]

I may be wrong but the share price falling means investors DONT like that loot crates are gone for now. Investors and stock prices have nothing to do with the 'ethical' value. Price dropped because shareholders sold stocks because loot crates were good for them.
Generally, a drop in share price means investors think the company made a bad move.

 

[chaosmassive]

its not enough, they need to suffer even more

 

[Readlight]

I can not run my purchased crysis 2 maximum games whiteout that shit Origin same is in Steam!

 

[dj-electric]

go back to being a decent company or go down for good.

>man EA -k decent
>'decent' not found

 

[LogitechFan]

So how this is gambling and crates in TF2 (for which you need a paid key to open) is not?! I hope if EA suffers, Valve's ass gets hammered too, for years and years and years of illegal gambling.

 

[erixx]

Their only game I buy is BF (and I would prefer another publisher). And the "crates game" inside BF1 is a horrible pile a horsebung, I feel so stupid clicking on them getting "weapon skins" and imbecile "puzzles parts" (wtf?), seriously they want me to spend money on crates? hahahahahaha NO WAY

 

[RejZoR]

I wish Need for Speed fans would blow EA for stupid Speed Cards which are essentially the same junk as Star Cards in Star Wars Battlefront 2. Instead, idiots are actually defending EA for it. It's crazy what kind of spineless and without any quality standards playerbase NFS now has.

 

[EntropyZ]

They are reaping what they have sown. I agree on them either doing something about it or just disappear and sell their IPs to someone who can make better use of them. But they would rather take them to their grave than see someone else making money off of them.

 

[punani]

All gamers right now

 

[Prima.Vera]

EA is a constant TOP 3 runner, year by year, for THE WORST COMPANY award, hopefully will get 1st or at least 2nd place too this year.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

I am so happy about this, I hope this gives them some food for thought

 

[ShurikN]

Bleed and die, EA.... bleed and die.

 

[RejZoR]

I am so happy about this, I hope this gives them some food for thought

It just might. Just having a title of worst company of the year didn't change them. Maybe bleeding out 3 billions for being an ass to customers will.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

It just might. Just having a title of worst company of the year didn't change them. Maybe bleeding out 3 billions for being an ass to customers will.

Remains to be seen...I think loot boxes should disappear from all games just ban them all

 

[Aquinus]

No sympathy. I hope EA fails in an epic flame of karma. I already had grown to hate EA before this even happened. If they can get away with this kind of response, what the hell does it take for the company to fail?!

 

[_JP_]

I may be wrong but the share price falling means investors DONT like that loot crates are gone for now. Investors and stock prices have nothing to do with the 'ethical' value. Price dropped because shareholders sold stocks because loot crates were good for them.
Generally, a drop in share price means investors think the company made a bad move.

Makes sense. That or all the flak means loss in sales and potential failure of the microtransactions system EA implemented for recent and forthcoming AAA releases.

 

[progste]

GOOD. It's time they payed for all the good companies they ruined.

 

[Prima.Vera]

100$ for Deluxe version?? Are you kiddin' me!?!? EA trash!

 

[Frick]

Let Bioware die with them.