Re: I know why they introduced SBMM so close to 2020
@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.