EA Sports FC 25 and Dragon Age Fall Short of Expectations

Electronic Arts revised its outlook for the current fiscal year due to a slowdown in its Global Football live service, while Dragon Age: The Veilguard fell almost 50% short of the company's expectations.

EA's original guidance for fiscal year 2025 anticipated mid-single digit growth in live services net bookings. However, the company now expects a mid-single digit decline, with Global Football, particularly EA Sports FC 25, accounting for the majority of the change. "Global Football had experienced two consecutive fiscal years of double-digit net bookings growth", the publisher said, but the franchise experienced a slowdown as the early momentum seen in the third quarter did not continue. In addition, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, released at the end of October, attracted approximately 1.5 million players in Q3, almost 50% below the company's expectations.

"During Q3, we continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio; however, Dragon Age and EA Sports FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectations," said Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA. "This month, our teams delivered a comprehensive gameplay refresh in addition to our annual Team of the Year update in FC 25; positive player feedback and early results are encouraging. We remain confident in our long-term strategy and expect a return to growth in FY26, as we execute against our pipeline."

EA now expects net bookings for the third fiscal quarter to be approximately $2.215 billion, about €2.13 billion (previously expected to be $2.4 billion to $2.55 billion) and an updated range of $7.000 billion to $7.150 billion for fiscal year 2025 (about €6.73 billion to €6.87 billion). For the third fiscal quarter, EA now expects GAAP net revenue to be approximately $1.883 billion. The company will announce its results for the third fiscal quarter on 4 February 2025. On the stock markets, the EA share is currently down over 12 per cent.

"We continue to balance investment for future growth with operational discipline, and remain committed to EA’s long-term financial framework," said Stuart Canfield, CFO of EA. "As we look to FY26, we expect to grow as we launch more of our iconic franchises."

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