It looks like Star Wars was a wise investment for Electronic Arts.
Star Wars: Battlefront, the multiplayer shooter from developer DICE, surpassed 13 million copies sold to retailers, according to the publisher’s quarterly financial results. This helped once again push EA to take the spot as the No. 1 publisher on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2015 for the “Western World.” Of course, sold-in to retailers does not mean that 13 million people purchased a copy of Star Wars: Battlefront. At the same time, EA never made any predictions about its sell-through rate to consumers.
“This holiday season we connected millions of players through amazing games across multiple platforms,” EA chief executive Andrew Wilson said in a statement. “From the stunning visuals and gameplay of Star Wars: Battlefront, to the any time, anywhere competition in Madden NFL Mobile, players are deeply engaged across the increasing depth and breadth of the EA portfolio.”
This is a huge win for EA, which took a risk in spending the money to grab the exclusive rights to make big-budget games based on Disney’s Star Wars license. To assure investors that the deal is worth it, the company set a sky-high guidance of 13 million copies sold-in. Surpassing that estimation is the first step in proving the company is on the right path with its biggest licensed movie property.
