During this evening’s EA financial call the subject of Esports was raised and EA was keen to point out that their Esports team is making great strides. Games such as FIFA, Madden and “future titles” which will continue to engage gamers and viewers according to EA. They are also looking closely at what’s been doing well and other ” growth vectors and profitable revenue” opportunities.
The recent battle royale craze has not escaped EA’s attention. During the call it sounded like they were showing interest in the genre and are keeping a close eye on it adding:
“What the team of PUBG has done is deliver a new level of innovation that changed the way people were playing first-person shooter games. We’re respectful and complimentary of what they have been able to do we’ve seen that continue with Fortnite. It’s clearly a mode of play that the global FPS population are interested in, and given that we have some of the best shooters in the marketplace you might expect we are also thinking about new and innovative ways to play. That does’;t mean just kinf of PUBG replicas inside the Battlefield universe, but it does mean that our Battlefield team are looking at how they innovate in every aspect of the game including core gameplay and map design.”
Can we expect a Battlefield battle royale game? With so much money being generated by PUBG and Fortnite it would not surprise us if EA was to jump on the bandwagon. At some point, the battle royale market will implode as more developers attempt it so perhaps EA will let this one play out and steer clear. However, when there’s money to be made you can guarantee EA will try and take a slice of it.
