EA says it’s going to ‘double down’ on a handful of ‘massive online communities’
Electronic Arts plans to significantly increase its focus on a handful of its biggest online franchises over the coming years.
The company will “invest disproportionally” in the likes of EA Sports FC, Apex Legends and The Sims – “massive online communities” in which CEO Andrew Wilson sees the potential for “exponential growth”.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference on Wednesday, Wilson said the value of companies like EA has typically been forecast based on their release slate for the next five years.
“I don’t think that’s gone, but I don’t think it’s nearly as important as it once was,” Wilson said. “I think If you fast forward 10 years, there’s probably going to be, I don’t know, a dozen, two dozen of these massive online communities. They’re 100 or 200 million-plus communities, and there can only be so many.”
Wilson mentioned Activision’s Call of Duty and Take-Two’s Grand Theft Auto in the same breath as EA’s leading properties. Fortnite would be another example of what he referred to as “IP as a platform”.
The FIFA franchise (soon to be EA Sports FC) has a network of 150 to 200 million people engaging daily for 90 minutes at a time, “moving backwards and forwards in these little atomic units”. Apex Legends has “about 175 to 200 million players” and 70% retention, he said.
“As you look at us and our company, what you’re going to see from us is us really double down and reallocate investment towards these five or six massive global online communities that we have the benefit of growing,” said Wilson.
“We are very blessed in that we have FC, we have Madden, we have Battlefield, we have The Sims, we have Apex, we’re building out Skate. And so, we’re going to disproportionately invest in IP as a
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