Dragon Age: The Veilguard 'engaged' 1.5 million players in its launch quarter, which was 50% below EA's expectations
EA has posted a preliminary announcement of financial results for the company's third quarter of the current fiscal year, ahead of the full results release on February 4. In the preliminary announcement, EA shares a revised outlook for the full year, slashing net bookings from the range of $7.5~$7.8 billion to the range of $7.0~$7.15 billion.
While diminishing performance of EA SPORTS FC 25 is cited as the primary reason for the lowered forecasts, EA stated that Dragon Age: The Veilguard also missed its target expectations. According to EA, Dragon Age "engaged approximately 1.5 million players", which was about 50% below expectations. The 'engaged' wording is likely used, instead of shipped or sales, to account that Dragon Age: The Veilguard can be played through an EA Play Pro subscription on PC.
We've shared the announcement below, in full.
EA’s initial guidance for fiscal year 2025 anticipated mid-single-digit growth in live services net bookings1 . However, the company now projects a mid-single-digit decline, with Global Football accounting for the majority of the change.
Global Football had experienced two consecutive fiscal years of double-digit net bookings growth. However, the franchise experienced a slowdown as early momentum in the fiscal third quarter did not sustain through to the end. As a result, EA revises its outlook for Global Football to end the fiscal year down mid-single-digit at the midpoint of the new outlook. Separately, Dragon Age engaged approximately 1.5 million players during the quarter, down nearly 50% from the company’s expectations.
As a result, EA is providing preliminary results for its third fiscal quarter and updating its fiscal year 2025 net bookings outlook. It now expects net bookings of approximately $2.215 billion for the third fiscal quarter and an updated range of $7.000 billion to $7.150 billion for fiscal year 2025.
For its third fiscal quarter, EA now expects GAAP net revenue to be approximately $1.883 billion and approximately $1.11 in GAAP diluted earnings per share.
“ During Q3, we continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio; however, Dragon Age and EA SPORTS FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectations,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA. “This month, our teams delivered a comprehensive gameplay refresh in addition to our annual Team of the Year update in FC 25; positive player feedback and early results are encouraging. We remain confident in our long-term strategy and expect a return to growth in FY26, as we execute against our pipeline.”
“We continue to balance investment for future growth with operational discipline, and remain committed to EA’s long-term financial framework,” said Stuart Canfield, CFO of EA. “As we look to FY26, we expect to grow as we launch more of our iconic franchises.”
EA will announce its results for the third fiscal quarter ending December 31, 2024 on February 4th, 2025 and will host a conference call at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to discuss its quarterly results and financial outlook. Listeners may access the conference call live via a dial-in number or audio webcast.