It seems that with every successful franchise these days, there is a question that always comes up; Do we want to annualize? It has happened with Assassins Creed, Call of Duty, and apparently Battlefield. In a UBS conference, when asked by an analyst, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen explained in detail why they would not be able to annualize the Battlefield franchise.
He said,
“And Battlefield is a product that doesn’t just sell once, it sells for 24-months associated with not just Battlefield, but all the additional Battlefield Premium activities that the consumer wants. So you’ve got to be careful that you don’t destroy some of that tail that is on the Battlefield product.”
He makes a very good point in that premium memberships provide enough content for about two years. If EA or even DICE wanted to do a yearly game, it would run the risk of oversaturation and not being able to sell the premium memberships. Could you imagine buying the Battlefield 4 premium membership earlier this week and then finding out that Battlefield 5 will be announced next month? This type of scenario is what any smart publisher would want to avoid.
Are you glad that the Battlefield franchise won’t be treated like the Call of Duty franchise? Comment below!
