Battlefield 5's Poor Sales Numbers Have Become a Disaster For Electronic Arts (seekingalpha.com)

dryriver writes: Electronic Arts has mismanaged the Battlefield franchise in the past -- BF3 and BF4 were not great from a gameplay perspective -- but with Battlefield 5, Electronic Arts is facing a real disaster that has sent its stock plummeting on the stock exchanges. First came the fierce cultural internet backlash from gamers to the Battlefield 5 reveal trailer -- EA tried to inject so much 21st Century gender diversity and Hollywood action-movie style fighting into what was supposed to be a reasonably historically accurate WWII shooter trailer, that many gamers felt the game would be "a seriously inauthentic portrayal of what WW2 warfare really was like." Then the game sold very poorly after a delayed launch date -- far less than the mildly successful WW1 shooter Battlefield 1 for example -- and is currently discounted by 33% to 50% at all major game retailers to try desperately to push sales numbers up. This was also a disaster for Nvidia, as Battlefield 5 was the tentpole title supposed to entice gamers into buying expensive new realtime ray-tracing Nvidia 2080 RTX GPUs.

Electronic Arts had to revise its earnings estimates for 2019, some hedge funds sold off their EA stock, fearing low sales and stiff competition from popular Battle Royal games like Fortnite and PUBG, and EA stock is currently 45% down from its peak value in July 2018. EA had already become seriously unpopular with gamers because of annoying Battlefield franchise in-game mechanisms such as heaving to buy decent-aiming-accuracy weapons with additional cash, having to constantly pay for additional DLC content and game maps, and the very poor multiplayer gameplay of its two Star Wars: Battlefront titles (essentially Battlefield with laser blasters set in the Star Wars Universe). It seems that with Battlefield 5, EA -- not a company known for listening to its customers -- finally hit a brick wall, in the form of many Battlefield fans simply not buying or playing Battlefield 5.

Comments

Re:Who would have thunk?

[Mashiki]

Or, you know... it's just not a very good game. Couldn't have anything to do with it, though, no - it's just those SJWs getting their just desserts! Of course!

No, they went out and catered to the SJW's then told people that "if they didn't like the agenda. To not buy it." So it looks like people didn't buy it. Then the guy who pushed it "left" the company. No no, it wasn't telling people to fuck off that cratered sales. It was just a bad game...or a combination of it was a bad game and telling their market to fuck off.

Re:Who would have thunk?

[Ashthon]

So instead they should cater to the misogynist, historically challenged incel gamers out there?

I think you need to get a clue. Let me explain what actually happened.

EA claimed they were "telling the untold stories of WW2," but what they instead did was to rewrite history to push feminist propaganda. The game tells the story of Operation Gunnerside in which a team of Norwegian commandos destroy a Nazi heavy water production facility. However, in the game EA/DICE have written the Norwegian commandos out of history. Instead, the team who destroy the Nazi facility is a strong, empowered, educated mother and daughter team, who are not only scientists but unstoppable soldiers who can physically overpower any man. Clearly, this isn't "telling the untold stories of WW2," but rewriting history to push an agenda. There's a video here which shows the game scenario and then explains what actually happened during WW2. It's quite long, but you only need to watch the first five minutes and you'll get the point.

The whole game was a work of propaganda, designed not to appeal to gamers, but to force feminist propaganda on players. Then, despite completely rewriting history, they told gamers they were "uneducated" and said, "if you don't like it, don't buy it," which is why so few people bought the game.

But hey, don't let reality get in your way. Just keep claiming it's all the fault of "historically challenged incel gamers." Moron.

Re:Who would have thunk?

[stealth_finger]

Can you tell me how many black females with amputations and prosthesis were fighting in WWII on the front lines?

Can you tell me how many made it into the final game? Oh yeah, zero. That shit was cut fast but you wouldn't be able to tell from all the people seemingly still frothing at the mouth over it.

Re:DICE is the real problem

[Rockoon]

The, lets say. female vocalisations are barely noticeable at best.

Stop being a lying fuck.

For fuck sakes.

Re: Who would have thunk?

[Nidi62]

Women served as tankers, artillery crew, fighter pilots, and even frontline infantry for the Red Army in WWII. Quite a few became highly decorated. And of course women also played significant roles as partisans on the Eastern Front and the various resistances in Western Europe.

Re:Far Cry 5 had similar controversy

[Mashiki]

Far Cry 5 had similar controversy and ended up the best selling entry in the series. It's not the SJWs ruining things, it's the BF3 launch all over (minus the worst of the bugs).

I seem to remember the main complaints were SJWs complaining that it really wasn't a "time to shoot racists" simulator full of backwards Christians in KKK regalia(instead it being a drug-running cult), and then went out of it's way actually portray Montana as really not a racist shit hole. Montana still being partly shit is up for debate. You can find the mainstream game site complaints on that on sites like Polygon or RPS if you really want.

Re:Far Cry 5 had similar controversy

[Shadow of Eternity]

BF5 pandered to SJWs, FC5 pissed off SJWs. That's the difference.

Re:Far Cry 5 had similar controversy

[RedK]

Far Cry 5 had the absolute OPPOSITE controversy, and it's easy to see by the fact the "complaining" is coming from the people praising BFV. Namely, TheVerge, Vox, Polygon and other SJW pandering "gaming" blogs suddenly writing negative pieces about Far Cry 5 :

https://www.theverge.com/2018/...

Literally :

Ever since its reveal nearly a year ago, Far Cry 5 has invited controversy. Whereas most shooters have players aim their weapons at zombies, demons, or Nazis, Far Cry 5 takes place in Montana, and its enemies are American citizens who bear a strong resemblance to the stereotypical image of a modern, young white supremacist. The first piece of art for the game was a re-creation of The Last Supper, but with Southern hipsters wielding guns and knives and a tablecloth that was an alternate reality version of the American flag.

In the months since, the developers at Ubisoft Montreal have been hesitant to draw any true parallels between the gameâ(TM)s world and the real world. And after playing a few dozen hours of the game, the reason for their reticence is clear: Far Cry 5 doesnâ(TM)t have anything to say about race in America. It doesnâ(TM)t have much to say at all. Itâ(TM)s a big, dumb action game with an artificial sheen implying depth.

How disingenuous to you have to be to pretend both games received the same kind of "controversy".

Re: Who would have thunk?

[Nidi62]

Which is nowhere same as regular army.

My Grandma walked through Second World War with Soviet Army, as medical personnel. She told me many stories about THE war, yet not one was about female soldier.

I've read monographs and firsthand accounts from Wehrmacht soldiers(if you are interested in the subject Eastern Inferno by Hans Roth is incredible about the Eastern Front that specifically mention female combatants multiple times. One particular one that stood out is about a tank with a husband/wife crew where the wife, after the husband was killed, continued to fight on with her tank. Another was Red Army medics defending a bunker with hand grenades and female soldiers found dead next to anti-air emplacements. Then there are the mobilized workers at places like Stalingrad, a female foreman leading her workers into battle was explicitly mentioned. Sounds like your Grandmother was a nurse and most likely served behind the front lines and later in the war when Germany was on the retreat. I am sure she went through a lot and had some incredible stories, but women fighting on the frontlines is an established fact.

Re: Who would have thunk?

[HornWumpus]

Movies show comic book history.

They also don't show the Ruskys and the Germans as _allies_ invading and splitting four nations at the start of the war.