Executives from Electronic Arts had a lot to talk about yesterday during their latest quarterly financial report. So let’s dive right in…
CEO Andrew Wilson kicked things off by confirming that the next game in the Battlfield franchise is being prepped to launch sometime during the company’s 2022 Fiscal Year (which runs from April 1, 2021 – March 30, 2022) for the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett. In the meantime, developer DICE will spend 2020 creating updates and new content for Battlefield V:
Our Battlefield franchise and its community are also a major focus for us, and we’ll add new content and new ways to play Battlefield V in FY ’21. Targeting new innovation that will be enabled by next-gen platforms and a growing install base on the new consoles, our next Battlefield game is set for FY ’22.
With one of the company’s strongest developers taking an extra year to polish their next game, you might be wondering what EA has on tap for 2020. Thankfully, COO Blake Jorgensen used his portion of the presentation to fill in the gaps.
Jorgensen said that EA has multiple unannounced titles scheduled for release in 2020, including a pair of games from the publisher’s EA Partners program, and possibly at least one remaster (which would release alongside the already-announced Command & Conquer Remastered). He also talked quite a bit about Apex Legends, and confirmed that EA’s shooter will be coming to “new platforms and mobile” in the near future. While it’s possible he’s referencing the Switch in that quote, he’s more likely referring to the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett.
Looking further out, Jorgensen even mused about the status of Dragon Age 4. According to the executive, fans shouldn’t expect the next entry in BioWare’s acclaimed RPG franchise to arrive before EA’s 2023 Fiscal Year (which begins on April 1, 2022).
Finally, Andrew Wilson came back around to comment on the recent decision by the NCAA to allow college athletes to receive monetary compensation for their name or likeness. While many fans are hoping this means that EA will resume production on the NCAA Football franchise, Wilson would only say that the company is watching the situation closely:
With respect to NCAA Sports in general, yes, we have been in that business before as well. We saw the news today as did you, said by the NCAA Working Group. That news today was new to us. We’re still digesting it. We would anticipate that there is still a number of things that would have to happen over the coming years before we will be able to get back into that business, but certainly we’re watching closely.
EA’s next major releases, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Need For Speed Heat, will both be released in November.
