Who wins with DLC? 77% of EA's revenue now comes from online services and game add-ons

[Dieter Holger]

Electronic Arts, creators of The Sims, the Mass Effect franchise, several EA Sports titles and the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront video game, are now making most of their money from game add-ons and digital gaming services. Online video game services and add-ons -- which can take the form of downloadable content (DLC) -- accounted for a whopping 77% of the $693 million in revenue EA made during the first-quarter.

Since the majority of EA's revenue now comes from digitally distributed products, the company no longer needs to invest as much in manufacturing or shipping video games. Thanks in part to the reduced costs, EA had a 32% rise in profits over last year, earning them $442 million.

Online video game services like Ultimate Team, which let you create your dream soccer team and compete with FIFA 15 gamers, contributed immensely to EA's profits. This kind of add-ons are more important than ever; EA doesn’t deliver as many video games every year as they used to.

EA is already hyping up the November release of Star Wars Battlefront, which analysts expect will sell over 10 million copies. EA's rise in share value -- which saw a high of $74.79 last week -- is thanks to the excitement around Star Wars Battlefront, said the company's financial chief Blake Jorgensen to the WSJ.

Star Wars Battlefront is designed to mimic the look of the new Star Wars film debuting in 2016. Watch the Star Wars Battlefront teaser below.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/61600-who-wins-dlc-77-ea-revenue-now-comes.html

 

[yRaz]

Well what the F*** do you expect when they break up a partially finished game into several parts before launch and try to get 500% the base games original value. I haven't bought an EA game in years and don't plan on buying another one anytime soon.

and just in case you forgot.....

 

[noel24]

Well, if games contribute only 22%, that explains why they stopped making those. LOL

 

[rcj22001]

EASports, it's in the game. For an additional $4.99

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Well, if games contribute only 22%, that explains why they stopped making those. LOL

Pretty much.

 

[Misagt]

This is why I don't buy or play EA games anymore. Frankly they don't even register when I think about gaming anymore. Nothing they have done is remotely interesting in gaming in years. Aside from Bioware's games those at least are well done within the confines of the EA's controll

 

[Dimitriid]

Not impressed: Let's not forget that both Nintendo with the Wii and Zygna used to make their money based on the superfluous casual market and that popularity crumbled to dust. EA will eventually suffer the same faith since they bet everything on micropayments and DLC and it's just not sustainable to exploit only the lowest common denominator that are 1 new fad away from dropping you like a stone.

 

[yukka]

Pretty sure new Star Wars film is due 2015.

 

[Adhmuz]

"Battle of Jakku is the first upcoming DLC for Star Wars Battlefront, which launches publicly on December 8, 2015."

The game comes out end of November... Why can't this just be part of the game instead of waiving it around in players faces who didn't pre order this POS EA Title, oh wait, that's self explanatory, EA is **** and probably haven't finished ironing out the bugs, nor will they ever.