EA Sports FC 25 Partially Blamed For EA's Lowered Financial Forecast

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EA has announced that it is lowering its financial forecast for the current business year, citing underperformance from its tentpole titles EA Sports FC 25 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard (thanks, VGC).

EA stated that it has initially expected "mid-single-digit growth" for its live service titles, but has now revised this as a "mid-single-digit decline". While the EA Sports franchise had experience two consecutive years of double-digit-growth, the company said that the latest title was unable to sustain its early momentum after launch, stating that "the franchise experienced a slowdown".

In addition, EA mentioned that Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the latest title in Bioware's action-RPG franchise, managed to reach around 1.5 million players since its launch at the end of October 2024, though this was "down nearly 50%" from initial expectations.

As a result, EA now expects "net bookings of approximately $2.215 billion for the third fiscal quarter and an updated range of $7 billion to $7.15 billion for fiscal year 2025".

Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, had the following to say:

"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. 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."

In our 8/10 review for EA Sports FC 25, we called it "the second solid entry in a row from EA" on the Switch, marking a return to form after the publisher shafted Nintendo fans with half-baked 'Legacy' versions of the game.