With the release of The Force Awakens only two weeks away, the world is in the grips of Star Wars mania, and yet, surprisingly, reports indicate the recently released Star Wars Battlefront is not selling as well as it could. At a recent investors meeting, GameStop exec Tony Bartel singled Star Wars Battlefield out as a game that is not meeting sales expectations…
“We’re not going to quantify it in terms of actual numbers, but we had high expectations that diminished somewhat as it got closer and it failed to hit those lowered expectations.”
Ouch. Bartel also reportedly singled out Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Halo 5: Guardians as disappointments.
Well, it seems as though EA boss Peter Moore is ready to start a battle of his own, as he’s shot back against GameStop’s sales report…
“GameStop’s comments were interesting and little bit of a surprise to us. There is no weakness that is perceptible yet in the title and I want everybody understand that based on where we think this title is and based on the marketing beats ahead of us, in particular the movie launch over the next two weeks, we feel very comfortable we’re going to hit the numbers we’ve given analysts, investors and Wall Street alike.”
Against my better judgment, I’m going to side with GameStop in this little spat. They simply have nothing to gain from saying Star Wars Battlefront is underperforming, and reading between the lines, it seems like EA is really hoping the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens saves their bacon.
While I thought Star Wars Battlefront was a solid game, it seems like gamers are rejecting these kind of multiplayer-only, DLC heavy experiences. Evolve didn’t do great business after a lot of hype, and now Star Wars Battlefront may be struggling, even as Star Wars stuff is at its hottest. Take note, video game publishers.
via Eurogamer