Fortnite Could Have A Lasting, Significant Impact On Gaming Industry Overall, EA Says

Battle royale games like Fortnite and PUBG could have a major, lasting impact on the gaming industry overall, according to publisher Electronic Arts. During a Q&A with investors today following the company’s latest earnings report, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said EA welcomes innovation because it helps bring new players to gaming, which in turn helps EA.

“We welcome innovation in the industry,” Jorgensen said. “That’s what makes this business so exciting and fun to operate in. If you look back over the 20 or 30 years, the innovation that one game team’s done goes through the whole industry. It’s fantastic. We welcome innovators like Fortnite or PUBG that really help everyone’s thinking. We feel that’s great for the business as whole.”

While Fortnite is supremely popular, a single game is not going to sink publishers like EA. Jorgensen intimated that Fortnite’s success has had some level of impact on its business–because of course it has–but he said the impact hasn’t been meaningful. He pointed out that no one game can capture 100 percent of the market.

While Fortnite as a shooter game is theoretically competing with EA’s lineup of shooters like Battlefield and Battlefront, Epic’s title is also helping expand the shooter category. He theorised that Fortnite is helping bring young players to gamers, who may eventually move on to other games–like maybe the next Battlefield game.

“In particular, [Fortnite is] bringing younger people into the marketplace and younger people into first-person shooters, and I think that’s good for the long run health of that category for all of us in the industry,” Jorgensen said.

During the last EA earnings call in January, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the global FPS community is undoubtedly interested in battle royale games like Fortnite and PUBG. And while he did not rule out adding a battle royale mode to a Battlefield game, he said EA’s wider focus is to think about “new and innovative ways to play” across all of its games.

In other battle royale news, Fortnite recently added an Avengers: Infinity War crossover event that brings Thanos to the game.

The 10 Fastest Movies to Gross $1 Billion at the Box Office

Avengers Infinity War has been speeding past multiple box office milestones of late, grossing $1 billion in record time, just ahead of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Infinity War took 11 days to reach the $1 billion mark, while Force Awakens was close behind at 12 days. There is talk that the latest Avengers film may even break the record currently held by Jurassic World, which (for now) stands as the top-grossing summer movie of all time with a haul of $1.67 billion. No summer movie has ever broken the $2 billion mark, but analysts are hopeful that Infinity War could be the first.

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BioWare’s New IP Anthem Will Let You Play Early

EA has teased more high level details on BioWare’s new IP, Anthem, which was announced last year and is in the works for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. In the prepared remarks of EA’s latest earnings report today, CEO Andrew Wilson said Anthem is “stunning and ambitious,” adding that the game will offer “something entirely new” for games. He added that Anthem may have some kind of Early Access-style release, where BioWare launches an unfinished version of the game and makes changes over time based on fan feedback.

“Every dimension of this game will offer something entirely new for a wide audience of players–from a new universe with unique stories that BioWare is creating, to the cooperative gameplay, to the epic and beautiful environment that constantly evolves around players,” Wilson said.

A scene from BioWare's E3 2017 reveal trailer
A scene from BioWare’s E3 2017 reveal trailer

“Anthem is a fundamentally social experience, and we will open new ways for fans to join the community and play early, enabling us to shape and refine the game with their input and feedback. We’re deeply excited to launch this brand-new franchise, and equally excited to work with our players to make Anthem a game they can’t wait to play and share with their friends for years to come.”

Anthem is due out in early 2019, though it is not completely clear if this pertains to full release or when EA plans to put it out for the early play period that Wilson mentioned. It’s worth noting that the wording on Anthem’s early play period sounds like a step beyond the kind of early play that EA/Origin Access members get. Subscribers get to play most EA-published games around five days before their public release. If EA wants to have enough time to factor in fan feedback and make meaningful changes for Anthem, the early access period would theoretically have to be much longer than five days.

During a Q&A with analysts today, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said Anthem will launch during the last month of EA’s fiscal year, which means March 2019. Previously, all we knew was that the game was due out in early 2019.

In other news, Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah recently confirmed he had joined the Anthem project, also in the role of executive producer. We’re expecting to learn more about Anthem during E3 2018 next month, so keep checking back with GameSpot for more.