EA’s Conference Call Promises New Titles, Expansion To Remasters, More Mobile Games

During a conference call with EA, quite a bit of new information was announced with respect to the company’s upcoming direction.   As one of the most maligned companies in video games, the company has had a rough go of it this generation with “scandal” after scandal, from their issues with Battlefront II’s Pay2Win Star Card system to the complete implosion of BioWare thanks to the bug-filled, content-vacant Anthem. Nonetheless, the company seems undaunted thanks to incredible sales of games like FIFA, Madden, and Apex Legends, as well as the growth of their streaming service EA Access.

But not everything is perfect.  For one thing, NBA Live 20 isn’t shipping this year at all.  Instead, it’s being redesigned, with plans on introducing more on the game next year.  Presumably, it’s being turned into NBA Live 21.  Though there’s concerns it’ll become a next-gen only title, more likely it’ll become a cross-gen title that has additional resources poured into making sure it runs well on all systems.

EA’s key shooter Battlefield will also take a backseat for the next couple of years.  Battlefield typically ships once every two years, meaning most people were likely expecting a new Battlefield title in 2020 to go along with the new consoles shipping at the end of the year.  But according to EA, the game will instead ship during FY2022.  For them, their fiscal year begins in April and ends in March, so this will be between April 2021 and March 2022.  Considering when most major games like this release, bet on a Fall 2021 release, where the game can sit firmly as a next-gen title.
As for what’s coming from now until March 2021, they’ve already issued a list that includes: an additional sports title to their annual slate, Medal of Honor VR, remasters of fan-favorite games like Command & Conquer, and some third-party games from their EA Partners (A Way Out, Unravel) division.  If this seems disappointing, there also appears to be unannounced titles confirmed that will be announced later on.

At this point it’s worth mentioning that Respawn’s only projects in the works this year were not merely Apex Legends and Jedi: Fallen Order.    More interesting perhaps is that EA has spent most of this generation refusing to do remasters, but have suddenly decided to do a 180.  Since their big titles outsell basically everything not named “Grand Theft Auto” every year, perhaps this is an attempt to raise awareness of certain IPs they want to do more with in the future?
It’s also confirmed they plan on doing more updates with games like Battlefield V, Apex Legends, The Sims 4, Battlefront II, as well as Anthem.  This lines up with what we’ve seen from AAA titles lately, as games continue to focus on Games as a Service elements to keep existing games going for longer than they would have in the past.  This is seemingly the first time we’ve gotten confirmation directly from EA that they intend to keep Anthem going, however.  No matter what happens, Anthem is never going to be a game that people think BioWare “nailed it” on, but if they can at least make that trailer they released during E3 2017 not feel like vaporware, that’ll still go a long ways towards repairing their reputation.

Perhaps most surprising is them announcing so many new potential major projects.  The new project at Bioware is more likely than not Dragon Age 4, but before getting excited it’s been confirmed that Dragon Age won’t release until sometime after April 2022–likely in the fall.   Of course, it could also be a new Mass Effect, as Mass Effect: Andromeda didn’t sell terribly, and there was still interest shown in keeping the property alive.  If nothing else, it’s very likely we’ll see a remaster of the original Mass Effect trilogy if they’re finally making the turn towards remasters.
As for the new IP at Motive, that’s a company that’s yet to release a single game.  The studio was founded by Jade Raymond in 2015 and was meant to work on both a new IP and a Star Wars game.  Though the Star Wars game was cancelled along with Visceral’s closing in 2017, the new IP should still be on schedule.  Almost nothing is known about it however, other than it being an “action-adventure”.  Considering it’s been in the works since 2015, it’s entirely possible this could be one of the unannounced titles releasing next year?
Ultimately, this is about as hopeful a conference call as we could have gotten from EA.  Though they’re drowning in money thanks to the success of their major titles, they’re aware that they can’t just release those and satisfy the gaming public at large.  For pretty much the entirety of this generation, they’ve always had the E3 conference anyone that wasn’t a sports or FPS fan could safely skip, and while that satisfies a large portion, it certainly doesn’t get everyone.  This sounds more like they’re ready to make the changes necessary to reach more people, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.  Perceptions can change drastically at the end of one generation going into another, so maybe EA can make their turnaround before the new consoles release?
(H/T to ZhugeEX for keeping track of all the information released during the conference call.)