EA's chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen has discussed whether or not the Battlefield franchise should be annualised at a UBS conference.
"The challenges are you've got to most likely do it out of two studios because it's hard. It's a two-year project.
"Battlefield takes us about two years to develop and so you want to make sure that you're sharing talent across studios, so you keep [the] core talent of the product and the experience for the consumer there. You also want to be really careful that you don't destroy the franchise along the way. You got to make it exciting and different, but at the same time you want to make sure you maintain a great franchise.
Jorgensen noted that Battlefield games have unusually long life-spans once they're released.
"And Battlefield is a product that doesn't just sell once. It sells for 24-months associated with not just Battlefield, but all the additional Battlefield Premium activities that the consumer wants. So you've got to be careful that you don't destroy some of that tail that is on the Battlefield product."
However, he did explain that by releasing Battlefield bi-annually it does create problems for the company's balance sheet.
"If Battlefield does well this year, you've dug a hole for next year. How do you fill that hole?"
To fill that gap in 2014 he pointed to the new UFC title that's in the works and "a magnificent Dragon Age… That should be a big hit for us next year."
EA is also publishing Titanfall which is likely to be a significant hit when it launches in March. At the conference he also spoke about EA's Star Wars deal which he revealed lasts 10 years.
