EA focuses on sports games: A changing trend

EA is planning on releasing more sports games other than Madden, FIFA and NHL games in fiscal year 202.

EA Sports VP, Cam Weber said, “We’re looking a little further ahead into the future. We definitely do expect to increase the number of sports games we launch each year. We have a number of new games in incubation or early pre-production. Some of them are familiar faces you might remember, and others are completely new.”

The sports division of Electronic Arts is home to a myriad of different franchises, yet only five have had releases in the past four years: Madden, FIFA, NBA Live, UFC and NHL. It’s widely rumoured that EA will bring back its EA Sports UFC franchise this year, while another report mentioned that EA is reviving its golf games. The company for years worked with Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour series, but after the two companies split apart, EA signed PGA Tour player Rory McIlroy for a new franchise. However, it fizzled out after one release.

Weber pointed out on the call that EA currently has more than 400 sports league licenses, which help the company make sports games that appeal to players around the world. In 2019, Madden NFL 20 was the third highest-selling game of the year in the US, only behind NBA 2K20 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. In addition to sales of the base EA Sports games, EA makes a huge amount of money from their Ultimate Team modes and micro transactions. So we can definitely expect more sports titles from EA in the near future!