In their earnings call over Q3 results, Electronic Arts sought to allay fears about Battlefield 4 sales, claiming that it was not due to any issues with quality or development.
At launch, the game suffered from a myriad of issues on all five platforms it was released on. These issues were not resolved for months, and technically speaking, DICE is still making fixes on the game. In the following months, allegations that EA purposely misled investors regarding the game’s development led to three separate lawsuits, presumably from groups of investors in different states.
While EA remains reticent at releasing numbers, rumor is that based on NPD reports, Battlefield 4, much like EA’s other flagship titles, has sold below the numbers of its predecessor, and has done so consistently through the months since its launch.
In the earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson reiterated that they believe the game’s lower performance is due to the drop off in sales on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. He also asserted that they recognized user’s complaints of technical issues quickly and DICE acted on fixing said issues immediately.
DICE head Patrick Soderlund was also there, and he claimed that the incident was a lesson learned by the dev team. He reiterates that they thought the game was ready when they did, and they were overwhelmed with the issues from releasing in so many consoles.
EA may be constrained from changing their tune or making further comments because of current pending litigation. If you did buy this game at launch, do you feel that EA is being on the level here? Let us know how you feel in the comments.
