Electronic Arts Loses $3 Billion in Stock Value

DooKey

DooKey

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EA stock is down 8.5 percent this month and CNBC is attributing that fact to the latest EA stunt with loot boxes and unlocks in Star Wars Battlefront II. Furthermore, analysts believe the micro-transaction model EA is using may not be viable going forward and it really didn't help that Battlefront II didn't sell well over the Black Friday shopping period. I think the EA chickens are coming home to roost.

"Battlefront II is the pointy tip of the iceberg. … The biggest recent controversy has centered around EA's Star Wars Battlefront II, where early evidence suggests player anger over a mishandled loot box economy may in fact be impacting initial sales," Cowen's Doug Creutz wrote in a note to clients Monday.
 
Told my friend last week to short EA stock.
Really need to get off my ass and start playing markets, been far too many times in past I got it right and wish I'd got onboard.
 
If I were an analyst I'd be more concerned about how many formerly-respected series and studios they've trashed. It's a clear pattern of behavior, nothing new. This time it's caught on with the general public though, so it's finally being reflected in stock prices and evaluations. Guess they should have thought twice about screwing with Disney/Star Wars...
 
"Electronic Arts shares are still up 39 percent year to date through Tuesday in anticipation of future profits stream from micro-transactions."

Bought the game and enjoy it but they won't ever see a cent from me via micro transaction.
 
I think the EA chickens are coming home to roost.
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You have another think coming.

1. EA does something shitty.
2. Consumers react temporarily and stock goes down.
3. EA keeps doing shitty things to gamers and gets away with most of it unnoticed
4. Consumers still buy EA games.
5. EA makes profit and stock price recovers and increases in value over long term trend.
6. Rinse and repeat

This has been happening for like 5-10 years. Proudly I can say my last EA game was Warhammer Online.
 
The funny thing about speculative markets like stocks is that anything off the absolute peak is treated with panic, even if it's still way up YTD, even if the YTD gain far exceeds any improvement in the company's/commodity/etc performance would explain.

But fuck EA. I was a big Wing Commander/Ultima fan when I was a kid, and EA trashed both of those.
And Maxis (Sim City), and Bullfrog (Magic Carpet) and a bunch of other companies.
 
BreezeDM said:
You have another think coming.

1. EA does something shitty.
2. Consumers react temporarily and stock goes down.
3. EA keeps doing shitty things to gamers and gets away with most of it unnoticed
4. Consumers still buy EA games.
5. EA makes profit and stock price recovers and increases in value over long term trend.
6. Rinse and repeat

This has been happening for like 5-10 years. Proudly I can say my last EA game was Warhammer Online.
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More than 5-10 years. People have been complaining about EA's business tactics since at least the mid 80s. And yet, they're still around.

One of the best RPGs of all time, Ultima VII (1992), is a thinly veiled reference to the evil of EA.

https://casualaggro.wordpress.com/2...reference-to-how-terrible-electronic-arts-is/
 
they should just watch the dunkey video, loot boxes are a big part the issue however the game is also fundamentally broken.
 
I wouldn't turn this into some kind of idological fucking crusade here.....EA is a company, they've made good games and crappy ones. Their current business model is shit, and that is what the community is rallying against. We don't want to see EA die (I don't want to see thousands of people out of work who never did anything but work their asses off to pay their mortgages), we need to see EA get out of this mindset of releasing shitty, shallow online-only games and then loading up the games with microtransactions that can dramatically affect your game experience depending on how patient or anxious you happen to be.

They stop that, we love EA again for listening and changing their ways.
 
Paladin21 said:
Guess they should have thought twice about screwing with Disney/Star Wars...
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what makes me chuckle is there are still people who think that EA pulled loot boxes because they "finally listened to the customer".. HAHAHAHAHAHA

if the new star wars movie wasnt about to be released disney couldnt have given 2 fucks, and the game would still have loot boxes, and people would still be buying them.
 
Paladin21 said:
If I were an analyst I'd be more concerned about how many formerly-respected series and studios they've trashed. It's a clear pattern of behavior, nothing new. This time it's caught on with the general public though, so it's finally being reflected in stock prices and evaluations. Guess they should have thought twice about screwing with Disney/Star Wars...
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Burning something established to the ground is how you increase short term profits, normally. Usually it's by over committing and under supporting. But lately its been these fiasco's. Anyway the stock market assumes they are exploiting these developer houses until they break and that's a good thing to them.
 
HeadRusch said:
I wouldn't turn this into some kind of idological fucking crusade here.....EA is a company, they've made good games and crappy ones.
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IMHO this is an ideological issue and the company has done very little to help gaming in the last decade or more. Saying it's an issue with their business model and not the company itself is like saying Nazi's would have been great if they just stopped killing jews after the first 6 million. Releasing a new mission statement and saying you are going to move in a new directions doesn't make up for all the bad things you have done.

They buyout studios that have a good reputation for releasing good games, force them to create bad games, and then shut them down. Odds are if those companies didn't sell out they would still be making great games, continuing series that many of us loved. It's not entirely EA's fault as most devs know what they are getting into but that doesn't mean EA should be shown any love.

The only people who should be supportive of EA are their stock holders. They certainly do a great job at generating profits even if it is at the cost of destroying everything they touch.
 
most-excellent.jpg
 
Kardonxt said:
IMHO this is an ideological issue and the company has done very little to help gaming in the last decade or more. Saying it's an issue with their business model and not the company itself is like saying Nazi's would have been great if they just stopped killing jews after the first 6 million. Releasing a new mission statement and saying you are going to move in a new directions doesn't make up for all the bad things you have done.

They buyout studios that have a good reputation for releasing good games, force them to create bad games, and then shut them down. Odds are if those companies didn't sell out they would still be making great games, continuing series that many of us loved. It's not entirely EA's fault as most devs know what they are getting into but that doesn't mean EA should be shown any love.

The only people who should be supportive of EA are their stock holders. They certainly do a great job at generating profits even if it is at the cost of destroying everything they touch.
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Small studios are to blame for selling out to the highest bidder as well. If you sell out your business to EA you know whats coming, how can you not.
 
Riptide_NVN said:
"Electronic Arts shares are still up 39 percent year to date through Tuesday in anticipation of future profits stream from micro-transactions."

Bought the game and enjoy it but they won't ever see a cent from me via micro transaction.
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You've awarded them for their shitty practices and putting out a worse game than it shuld've been, but you won't extra award them. Yeah...
 
katanaD said:
what makes me chuckle is there are still people who think that EA pulled loot boxes because they "finally listened to the customer".. HAHAHAHAHAHA

if the new star wars movie wasnt about to be released disney couldnt have given 2 fucks, and the game would still have loot boxes, and people would still be buying them.
Click to expand...

Of course, though even without Ep 8 releasing soon Disney would have said something since people were tying Star Wars itself with children gambling. Disney is very protective of anything they feel might hurt their bottom line.
 
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HeadRusch said:
I wouldn't turn this into some kind of idological fucking crusade here.....EA is a company, they've made good games and crappy ones. Their current business model is shit, and that is what the community is rallying against. We don't want to see EA die (I don't want to see thousands of people out of work who never did anything but work their asses off to pay their mortgages), we need to see EA get out of this mindset of releasing shitty, shallow online-only games and then loading up the games with microtransactions that can dramatically affect your game experience depending on how patient or anxious you happen to be.

They stop that, we love EA again for listening and changing their ways.
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They also screwed over developers out of bonuses.
Crushed and shut down studios after acquiring them
They install copy protection that is ineffective and slows down systems
They released how many games that are broken or poorly performing?
And wasn't EA's Origin system loaded full of spyware at one time? https://www.giantbomb.com/articles/eas-origin-service-is-basically-spyware-according-/1100-3616/
 
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Galvin said:
Small studios are to blame for selling out to the highest bidder as well. If you sell out your business to EA you know whats coming, how can you not.
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How can you blame small studio. If a mega corporation came to me with a check for 100s of millions of dollars I would sell in a heart beat. After that if I wanted I'll start up another studio after all contracts and non compete clauses are satisfied I will do so. One would be dumb to pass it up.
 
HeadRusch said:
I wouldn't turn this into some kind of idological fucking crusade here.....EA is a company, they've made good games and crappy ones. Their current business model is shit, and that is what the community is rallying against. We don't want to see EA die (I don't want to see thousands of people out of work who never did anything but work their asses off to pay their mortgages), we need to see EA get out of this mindset of releasing shitty, shallow online-only games and then loading up the games with microtransactions that can dramatically affect your game experience depending on how patient or anxious you happen to be.

They stop that, we love EA again for listening and changing their ways.
Click to expand...

Yeah, no. I do not love EA, never have, they can die in a fire. It would be for the best for everyone.
 
I don't know how small of studios we are talking about. Many of these are successful multi million dollar companies that are selling IPs and essentially entire fan bases for a quick buck.

I don't blame them for selling out and getting the quick pay day but many could have continued developing and doing quite well without selling out to EA. EA is clearly the worst bad guy here (if that's a thing?) but no one is forcing developers to sell out either.
 
I respectfully disagree with all of your opinions :)

I buy games based on the game, not on the past history of the publisher.
 
vegeta535 said:
How can you blame small studio. If a mega corporation came to me with a check for 100s of millions of dollars I would sell in a heart beat. After that if I wanted I'll start up another studio after all contracts and non compete clauses are satisfied I will do so. One would be dumb to pass it up.
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I agree with you, but it's possible to both understand (and side with) their motives and blame them too. It's a little different with companies like EA that have a track record for screwing over smaller company's IP.

Like you said, it'd be stupid not to take the pay day, we all would. But you know if it's EA writing the check then your vision is forfeit.
 
vegeta535 said:
How can you blame small studio. If a mega corporation came to me with a check for 100s of millions of dollars I would sell in a heart beat. After that if I wanted I'll start up another studio after all contracts and non compete clauses are satisfied I will do so. One would be dumb to pass it up.
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He didn't say they were dumb, he said they were partly to blame, and they are in the "gaming industry" perspective. However, with the mega money that EA has, the small developer has to balance their love of their work with the possibility to be crushed by EA, this is the part I don't blame them for as CptCabbit points out.

CptCabbit said:
I agree with you, but it's possible to both understand (and side with) their motives and blame them too. It's a little different with companies like EA that have a track record for screwing over smaller company's IP.

Like you said, it'd be stupid not to take the pay day, we all would. But you know if it's EA writing the check then your vision is forfeit.
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Exactly! If a small game developer created something for the sole purpose of cashing out to the likes of an EA, they are most certainly partly to blame for the way the industry works, however, if they created something out of love and sell because they didn't want to see their value get crushed by the likes of EA, I can't blame them at all and applaud them for making some big money for their hard work and dedication.
 
They actually talked about EA at Church this past Sunday. Part of the hidden dangers that face parents in regards the evil external forces, gambling, sex, drug use. How society is making it the norm more so now than ever.

After service she mentioned that the entire religious industry along with parenting groups nation and world wide have mobilized against gambling, sex, etc, things I mentioned earlier.
 
HeadRusch said:
I wouldn't turn this into some kind of idological fucking crusade here.....EA is a company, they've made good games and crappy ones. Their current business model is shit, and that is what the community is rallying against. We don't want to see EA die (I don't want to see thousands of people out of work who never did anything but work their asses off to pay their mortgages), we need to see EA get out of this mindset of releasing shitty, shallow online-only games and then loading up the games with microtransactions that can dramatically affect your game experience depending on how patient or anxious you happen to be.

They stop that, we love EA again for listening and changing their ways.
Click to expand...
How many second chances do you give someone. EA is the leader for THE worst practice in the business. I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but EA will release games that require a central server, let them flop around for a few years, then shut down the server and you can never play them again. It used to be if a company dropped support for a game, you could still play your fucking game that you paid for. Not anymore. They're a game company that literally kills games. How is that defensible? They killed off Battleforge, Battlefield 2, 2142, etc. These are all games where there was no real technical barrier to allowing private servers once the life cycle was up, but it's a giant fuck you instead. Taking a customer's money for a product, then intentionally designing that product so it should never work again wouldn't be tolerated in any other industry. This shit should be ILLEGAL.

You say EA makes good games and crappy games. I agree. So when their business model is to ensure you can never play the GOOD ones again after a few years, the company just needs to die.
 
vegeta535 said:
How can you blame small studio. If a mega corporation came to me with a check for 100s of millions of dollars I would sell in a heart beat. After that if I wanted I'll start up another studio after all contracts and non compete clauses are satisfied I will do so. One would be dumb to pass it up.
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Funny that, I spoke with an accountant for EA and he said there's definitely two sides of the coin. From the outside it looks like they just buy these small studios and rip them to pieces but in reality a lot of these studios were at the brink of financial destruction before EA bought them. A lot of them had a one off good game and they were under so much pressure to release a second game. If that second game were to fail, they'd be bankrupt and a lot of good people would be fired. With EA, even if the second game wouldn't be as succesful, they would not be in so much trouble because of the vast resources behind them. Just thought that was an interesting line of thought from somebody who sees all the bookkeeping and sense behind certain things.

But yeah, they do make some disastrous decisions lol
 
Then stop buying their games and see if they Adapt or Die. I don't buy EA games unless they are $10 bucks, because I know when I buy one I'm getting a timed rental...I'm leasing the game. So I suppose in my own way I'm helping to kill them off.

I can go one step further and never buy a digital download of an EA game, and only buy a used physical copy...thereby ensuring EA gets none of my direct money, I could probably do that, you know, for the cause.

But EA is just one company, the real problem is Multiplayer-Only games and Games-As-A-Service.......saying EA must die is like saying "IF WE KILL <THIS PERSON>, THEN EVERYTHING WILL BE BETTER". No, it won't, it's an empty victory. You don't want to win the battle, you want to win the War, and the War is Games-As-A-Service.
 
HeadRusch said:
Then stop buying their games and see if they Adapt or Die. I don't buy EA games unless they are $10 bucks, because I know when I buy one I'm getting a timed rental...I'm leasing the game. So I suppose in my own way I'm helping to kill them off.

I can go one step further and never buy a digital download of an EA game, and only buy a used physical copy...thereby ensuring EA gets none of my direct money, I could probably do that, you know, for the cause.

But EA is just one company, the real problem is Multiplayer-Only games and Games-As-A-Service.......saying EA must die is like saying "IF WE KILL <THIS PERSON>, THEN EVERYTHING WILL BE BETTER". No, it won't, it's an empty victory. You don't want to win the battle, you want to win the War, and the War is Games-As-A-Service.
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Nope, more needs to be done. A lot more. Those who are addicted to gambling can mentally not stop buying loot crates / games. Game companies need to be taught that it is not ok to turn video games into an instrument to prey on weak children, teens and adults. There are millions of people out there that cannot control their gaming / spending habits. God willing we can get back to making good games that are free of any BS like most games now.

EA could give a fck less if you enjoy a game. Their motivation is strictly money.
 
Good time to buy then. It'll recover and no one will remember this in a few months. The Internet has a short memory.
 
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