During a recent earnings call, EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson commented on the importance of single-player games to EA’s portfolio. Wilson’s comments during the earnings call (thanks, VGC) reiterate that single-player games are a “really, really important part of the overall portfolio” for EA.EA discussed single-player games in a recent earnings callA joke tweet from EA — “they’re a ten but they only like playing single-player games” — didn’t go down too well with its audience, with a lot of players and developers feeling that it belittled and undermined how much love there is for single-player games. Now, on a much more serious note, Wilson has reiterated the importance of single-player games to the company. Wilson first outlined what EA believes are some of the “core motivations” for players: “inspiration, escape, social connection, competition, self-improvement, creation — these things that bring us together as players of games. And the creation of worlds, the building of characters, and the telling of stories is really important in the fulfilment of some of those motivations.” Wilson continues, adding, “When we think about our portfolio and we think about building it out, we really think about it on two key vectors. One, how can we tell incredible stories? And two, how can we build tremendous online communities? And then how do we bring those two things together?” While also discussing the ideas of online communities and growing its network, Wilson adds, “And as we think about single-player games, we think it’s a really, really important part of the overall portfolio that we deliver in the fulfilment of those core motivations. And the way we plan for it over time is really just looking at our community, and looking at how they’re spending their time, and looking at where motivations may or may not be fulfilled. And we’ll look to supplement that with the addition of new online games, new multiplayer games, and new single-player games.”CFO Chris Suh did note, meanwhile, that live services make up over 70% of EA’s business: “If we think about the model impact and the financial impact of it, I think the first thing to always keep in mind is that live services still encompass, on a trailing 12-month basis, over 70% of our business, and that has been a proven, very reliable, highly reoccurring revenue stream, and that will still be the predominant driver in our P&L [profit and loss] long-term,” Suh explained.Some of EA’s upcoming single-player games include the sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. What do you think of EA’s comments?
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