EA has announced its preliminary financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and full-year ended March 31, 2020. During the earnings call with investors, EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen also gave hints that EA is planning to upgrade all of its titles or at least some of its titles for free for the next-gen. This means that if you own a current-gen game, you will be able to play its ‘enhanced’ version for free on next-gen.
His official statement said:
Note that this year the phasing includes the effect of revenue recognition from the games we are launching for the current generation of consoles that can also be upgraded for free for the next generation.
This clearly shows that EA will allow players to play their favorite games on the next generation consoles which are PS5 and Xbox Series X. We already know that Xbox Series X will support all previous generations of Xbox when it comes to video games while the PS5’s backward compatibility is still a little bit of mystery as Sony announced that majority of PS4 games will be playable on PS5. We don’t know yet which games qualify in the ‘majority’ category yet and what will be the criteria of their selection. So far we know that Apex Legends might be heading to next-gen alongside Fortnite while Ubisoft has confirmed that Rainbow Six Siege will be ready Day One for next-gen.
Blake Jorgensen further continued:
We’ve had a strong year. Our results this quarter prove the value of the live services path we’ve been on now for a decade. The breadth and depth of our live services give the flexibility we need at times like this to meet player needs. I want to thank everyone at EA for rising to the challenge. People across the company have shown extraordinary innovation, energy and ingenuity. Learnings from this period will forever change the way we work at EA.
While detailing its financial reports for its fourth fiscal quarter and full-year ended March 31, 2020, CEO Andrew Wilson said:
We’re humbled to see people around the world connecting through our games during this unprecedented period. Our focus continues to be on everything we can do for our people, our players, and our communities. Thanks to the amazing dedication and determination of our teams at Electronic Arts, we’re able to deliver the games, experiences, and content choices that our players are looking for during this challenging time.
Some of the selected Operating Highlights and Metrics from EA’s latest financial report are:
- Digital net bookings for the fiscal year were $4.052 billion, up 9% year-over-year and now represent 78% of total net bookings.
- FIFA 20 has more than 25 million unique players to date.
- Madden NFL 20 reached the highest engagement levels in franchise history.
- Apex Legends was the most downloaded free-to-play game on PS4 in the calendar 2019.
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has more than 10 million unique players to date.
- In every quarter of fiscal 2020, monthly average players in The Sims 4TM were higher than the comparable period in the prior year.
Further details can be found on the official EA website where the company has also detailed how it is aiming to handle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Which EA titles would you like to see come to next-gen? Let us know in the comments section below.
