EA has recently released its financial earnings report for the second quarter of 2013's fiscal year and it seems the Battlefield franchise is now the publisher's new goldmine.
According to EA's numbers, Battlefield 3's subscription service — Battlefield 3 Premium — has now over two million subscribers. For those keeping score, this is a rather significant jump of over 700,000 new subscribers from July's 1.3 milion subscriber base.
In keeping line with BF3 Premium's success, EA has also revealed that Battlefield 3 has now shipped over 17 million copies worldwide. Mind you, this is shipped and not sold. But seeing as retailers are still ordering, I'm guessing people are still buying DICE's shooter.
Add those impressive figures to FIFA '13's sold through number of 7.4 million units, and this might just offset EA's disappointment with Danger Close's Medal of Honor Warfighter — supposedly, the publisher's big game holiday 2012 title.
Frank Gibeau, EA president, commented that "On the strength of our digital extensions, FIFA and Battlefield are the two biggest revenue events in our company’s history. Both are well on their way to becoming billion dollar annual franchises."
Regarding Gibeau's statement, does this mean the Battlefield franchise will be an annual franchise, too? Not to be pessimistic, but I highly doubt Warfighter will even come close to half of Battlefield 3's success. If so, can DICE handle a yearly iteration of its Battlefield franchise?
While we can't answer that for now, given Battlefield 3 Premium's success, I think it's safe to say that Battlefield 4 Premium is now an inevitability.
One thing's for certain though, Activision's Call of Duty franchise now has a formidable new opponent.
Would you be okay with a yearly Battlefield game? If so, do you think DICE can keep the quality up if they did?
