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Metro
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
EA is going to make a new Battlefield game every year claims source
As excitement mounts for Battlefield 6, a prominent analyst claims that EA is planning to copy the release schedule and studio set-up for Call Of Duty. Not for the first time, EA is getting excited about the prospect of Battlefield becoming a true rival to Call Of Duty. This has happened multiple times in the past, with previous entries, but the hype behind Battlefield 6 does seem especially potent, especially given how many people have been playing the open beta. It's still unlikely to come very close to the sales figures or player numbers for this year's Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 but if it does well then it will encourage EA to plough more resources into the franchise and, inevitably, create more sequels. According to one industry figure the plan is to eventually have yearly sequels, by mimicking the way Call Of Duty works, with three separate studios working in rotation. Ignoring the fact that the Call Of Duty system has become increasingly unpredictable in recent years, as games take longer to make, the comments suggests that it will be five or six years before EA is able to churn out sequels at the rate they want. That sounds believable enough, and getting carried away with the potential success of Battlefield, before it's had a chance to prove itself, is certainly something EA has done multiple times before, but the problem with the rumour is that it comes from controversial industry analyst Michael Patcher. Not only that but the information is from the same podcast in which Patcher claims that Sony's live service game Fairgame$ had been cancelled. Something which he ended up retracting just hours later, while admitting, 'I have no info on the game at all.' Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. That was a rumour though, which Pachter does not usually peddle in, whereas the Battlefield information supposedly comes from personal conversations with EA developers. 'I talked to EA, Byron Beede, good dude, former Activision guy who worked at Infinity Ward with Vince [Zampella]. He's running the Battlefield franchise. And their goal is three studios making Battlefield on a three year basis. So they can get to Battlefield annually,' said Patcher. 'He said it's going to take five or six years before they can get two in a row, so we're not going to get there for a while. But that's their plan.' More Trending If that information had come from anyone other than Pachter it would have had few doubters, but so far there's been no attempt from Byron Beede to deny the story, which is something at least. Especially since it became available on Game Pass, there's been some debate as to whether it still makes sense to have a new Call Of Duty game ever year, especially as publishers now make more money from microtransactions than they do game sales. While yearly sequels used to be commonplace in the games industry they're now almost exclusively limited to sports titles and Call Of Duty. Whether Battlefield will be added to that list remains to be seen, as even if Battlefield 6 is a major hit a lot can change in the five years necessary to set up the new studio system Pachter is describing. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Games Inbox: What is the best generation of video game console? MORE: Here's the one reason why I'm not buying Battlefield 6 – Reader's Feature MORE: PETA gives Nintendo free advertising by complaining about the cows in Mario Kart
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GameStop stock slides 23% after announcing strategy shift and plans to buy $1.3 billion worth of Bitcoin
Shares of Bitcoin. The company said Tuesday its board voted unanimously to raise $1.3 billion to purchase Bitcoin, while simultaneously closing a 'significant number' of retail stores. Although the news was greeted with a 14% same-day stock bump, the initial excitement faded quickly. On Thursday, shares of the embattled video game retailer were down 23% over the past 24 hours. GameStop's new plan involves investing a portion of the company's 'cash or future debt and equity issuances' in Bitcoin, according to an SEC filing. The company will raise money for Bitcoin purchases by offering convertible senior notes—a combination of debt and equity financing—to their investors. The goal of the new investment strategy is to 'provide sufficient liquidity to meet the day-to-day financial obligations of the Company, and to optimize investment returns,' the company said in the SEC filing. GameStop has been struggling for years, and played a starring role in one of the most bizarre business stories of the decade thus far, after the company's stock unexpectedly skyrocketed in 2021 thanks to a popular uprising of retail investors. But despite the wild share-price boost (which was later turned into a movie), the company is confronting a long-term shift in customer appetites over the past decade from physical to digital video games. GameStop reported a 28% decrease in sales from 2023 to 2024, falling from $5.3 billion to $3.8 billion, according to an SEC filing from Tuesday, and it closed a quarter of its locations within the last year. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune. GameStop isn't the only company to change its business model to focus more on crypto investing. Software company Strategy adopted Bitcoin as a reserve asset in 2020, and has seen its stock price surge over 3,000% in the last five years after amassing 500,000 Bitcoins. The company's stock has become attractive to investors who want access to Bitcoin's price movements, but don't want to hold the currency directly. But while that plan has worked out for Strategy so far, it may not work for other companies. Michael Patcher, an analyst at investment management firm Wedbush Securities, told Fortune that by comparison, GameStop's stock will be more expensive and offer less exposure to Bitcoin. 'There is an opportunity for corporations to buy cryptocurrency that doesn't exist for individual investors, so that explains some of Microstrategy's appeal,' Patcher said, referring to Strategy by its old name. 'However, Microstrategy trades at a lower premium to its liquid assets than GameStop trades.' This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
