Shares in EA fell six per cent yesterday to $21.01, hitting a seven-month low, following the problematic launch of Battlefield 4 with numerous bugs within the videogame, reports MarketWatch. Battlefield 4 was EA’s most-anticipated holiday title, but suffers from a number of significant technical concerns including a delayed PS4 update intended to correct a “one-hit kill” bug (patch rolling out now) and crashes caused by exceptionally large friends lists.
This has hit EA’s share price hard after its dramatic incline during 2013, from a low of under $14 to a peak of nearly $28. However, as mentioned above, the company took a financial beating Thursday, as shares dipped under $20 at one point.
Orders have been given to game developer DICE to halt all work on all other projects including Star Wars: Battlefront, the Mirror’s Edge reboot and the Battlefield 4 DLC expansions, to concentrate on resolving the recent outbreak of issues within the game. But EA clarified that “The work being done to stabilize Battlefield 4 does not impact our release schedule for future titles,” as any delays in those other two highly anticipated games, scheduled for release in 2015/2016, would probably incur more loses for the company.
"We will not stop until this is right," said EA, "We know many of our players are frustrated, and we feel your pain."
Serious competition for Xbox One and PS4?
In related news EA CEO Andrew Wilson has recently claimed that he isn’t sure how much longer Sony and Microsoft will continue dominating the gaming market, even following the successful launches of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, reports Forbes. Wilson believes that it’s only a matter of time before other major tech players such as Apple and Google gets involved in the living room game space. We have heard similar musings from Valve CEO, nearly a year ago.
The recent success of the next-gen gaming consoles indicates that “Microsoft and Sony have a real opportunity to build a strong following and a strong install base while they continue to be the single best way to get high fidelity, high definition interactive entertainment to your 80-inch television.” said Wilson. But he also mentioned that “three years from now, four years from now, they're going to be under some fairly stiff competition for the living room, from mobile providers, from Apple, from Google, from Roku, from Comcast, to try and own that living room experience.”
Wilson also stated that EA will follow gamers to whichever platform they choose to play on, other major gaming publishers would surely do the same.
