EA has announced today that it is revising its outlook for the fiscal year after a slowdown in Global Football net bookings growth, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard missed the company's internal targets by nearly 50%.
In a press release, the company said it was reducing its expectations for the fiscal year ending March of 2025 from mid-single-digit growth to mid-single-digit decline. The largest culprit, EA says, was global football, aka EA Sports FC, which it says experienced a slowdown last year in Q3 after two consecutive fiscal years of double-digit net bookings growth. In the press release, EA CEO Andrew Wilson specifically pointed to EA Sports FC 25 as underperforming.
But in addition to global football, EA also mentioned that Dragon Age "engaged" 1.5 million players during the quarter, which was down nearly 50% from the company's projections. Notably, EA does not say the 1.5 million number was unit sales - Dragon Age: The Veilguard was also available as a part of EA's Play Pro subscription service. Additionally, it's not clear whether EA is counting a free trial of the game that was available through the cheaper EA Play subscription in the 1.5 million number either.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard released on October 31, 2024, and EA's report only covers the final quarter of the year through the end of December, meaning these engagement totals encompass the game's first two months on the market. It's worth noting that 1.5 million (or thereabouts) isn't an awful sales number, and companies overestimating sales targets is nothing new. In its first three days on the market, The Veilguard managed to debut at No.6 on Circana's charts for the top-selling games in the US, and that's not including Steam digital sales. However, an analyst we spoke to in November suggested that Veilguard had a tough road ahead:
"Just looking at the first days of sales and initial engagement levels via Circana's Player Engagement Tracker, it's been a good - but not great - launch," said Mat Piscatella at Circana. "Dragon Age: The Veilguard did not reach the launch week sales levels of either Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth or Dragon's Dogma II, and it will be a bit of an uphill battle to reach Inquisition's lifetime sales."
There's been some smoke around Dragon Age: The Veilguard's struggles, such as it receiving a significant discount just a month after launch for Cyber Monday, and the departure of its director, Corinne Busche, from BioWare just last week. We've chronicled some of the game's development challenges already, including layoffs and the departure of several project leads at different stages.
We also thought Dragon Age: The Veilguard was amazing, saying it "refreshes and reinvigorates this storied series with enjoyable action combat, a fantastic cast of companions, and moving character writing."
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
