Forum Discussion

Babbediboopi's avatar
Babbediboopi
6 years ago

I know why they introduced SBMM so close to 2020

Its simple. They wanted people to get so frustrated so literally hundred thousands of new smurf accounts got created, boosting their numbers for their annual evaluation with sponsors and financiers.....
gameplay discussion
VoKks9's avatar
VoKks9
6 years ago
@Babbediboopi Doesn't the game average around 8 million users a week? Didn't they just announce the global series tournament with 3mill in prizes? Plus whatever else they have to spend to make it happen. Seems like an odd move if they want to create revenue.

''EA reported $1.209 billion in net sales, up 6.3% year over year''
I doubt they need to force a few hundred thousand players into smurfing to get a few sponsorship deals.

I do hate SBMM though!
pastaclown's avatar
pastaclown
6 years ago

@VoKks9 averaging 8 million players in comparison to the 50-70 million they hit after launching is pretty underwhelming. Judging by the player statistics quoted here, it really doesn't look good on paper to only have 8 million recurring players despite hitting highs of 50 million a few weeks after launch. https://www.statista.com/statistics/980430/apex-legends-players/

In addition, EA reporting a net increase in sales doesn't necessarily mean that Apex itself is thriving. EA has a lot of products, so an increase in net sales doesn't mean much until we get a detailed breakdown of what products contributed the most to said sales. 

https://ir.ea.com/financial-information/quarterly-results/default.aspx

https://s22.q4cdn.com/894350492/files/doc_financials/2019/q4/Q4-FY19-Transcript-Final.pdf

https://s22.q4cdn.com/894350492/files/doc_financials/2019/q4/Q4-FY19-Earnings-Release-Final.pdf

I've very briefly skimmed through the final transcript and the earnings release, and while both do mention Apex Legends, they don't really talk too much about how it's contributed to overall total profit, rather as a general point, they just say it's doing pretty good. The closest things to an actual numerical value of contribution is from the transcript, where they say Apex has, " Live services net bookings were up 24% to $845 million, primarily driven by Apex Legends.", and, " we expect live services to grow 10% to 15%, led by Apex Legends". Let's not also forget that Star Wars: Fallen Order is an EA game, and was immensely popular and well received, which may also contribute to the net total sales, rather than Apex. 

  • VoKks9's avatar
    VoKks9
    6 years ago
    @pastaclown I appreciate it's a considerable drop but It's no secret they payed big streamers a lot of money at launch, which gave the game a lot of publicity and I assume many of the streamers fans signed up to play too. A big drop was to be expected, people tried the game out, the ones who enjoyed it stuck around and the others went back to something else. 8 - 10 million weekly player is good consistent number and any sponsors would be looking for consistency, rather than a game that fluctuates up and down too much.

    The increase in EA's profits is relevant to show why they are not that desperate for sponsors. It's over a billion pound company, if Apex were in such a state of desperation they wouldn't need to resort to some scheme to force player's into smurfing for extra accounts. An 8 - 10 million consistent and recurring player base is more than enough for sponsors and generating a few hundred thousand account creations would make no difference.It doesn't matter how many accounts created, as i'm sure they will be much more interested in how many are actually online and playing the game.One person can make several smurf accounts but he can only play one at a time, meaning the average weekly players will remain the same no matter how many accounts one person creates. The amount of accounts registered means little if there is no correlation between that and a increase in weekly players.

    They're a business and at the end of the day, if Apex wasn't doing well enough for them they would not be holding a tournament with a 3 million dollar prize pool plus set up costs, venue costs e.t.c.

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