EA Mobile is Suddenly Worth Watching Again

[Music] Awesome.
We have a major piece of news from Andrew Wilson himself. He now gives a [ __ ] about mobile.
No, he didn't. He didn't say that.
Not.
All right, let's let's talk about EA's quarterly earnings before before we break it down. They reported their net bookings by platform. To be honest with you, there's nothing too exciting here. It just kind of I don't I don't know where the stock price is really coming from, Eric. I mean, is there any deeper insight here? Their their actual numbers here in terms of net bookings by platform looks uninspiring. It looks marginal at best.
At the end of the day, like they've been just basically banking on FIFA for like the last decade, right? That's the only thing that's been a good story for them. Obviously, uh
college football
college football did really well. Yeah, we were talking about that dual skew that made a [ __ ] ton of money. Like the skew itself was one of the top selling like not just the individual games but the dual skew. But there was another big bright spot and it was EA Sports FC

mobile soccer. It's up in terms of downloads and revenue. They've been running this product forever. They do the seasonal updates if you remember which is why we have a time series from Sensor Tower that stretches all the way back to 2017. You can really really clock the different eras of EA through this. And it is reaching all-time highs. I mean, don't me wrong, there are some highs in in January 2023, but it's steady state in terms of downloads and revenue have never been healthier. It's doing around it looks like 20 million looks like 20 million a month, which is extremely healthy. And Andrew Wilson says it had over 50 million installs and its DA growth year-over-year was impressive, underscoring their ability to scale live content effectively.
Got it. I mean,
I [ __ ] hate the spin. I just [ __ ] hate the spin on this [ __ ] right? They've been [ __ ] this game up for the last like decade. Like, how could you [ __ ] this up as much as they [ __ ] it up
in Vancouver, right? They like tried to maintain control of Vancouver and

Redwood Shores and it didn't [ __ ] work because they don't understand the mentality of mobile gaming at all, right? And so they basically export this [ __ ] out to the Chinese group and they're the ones that are [ __ ] crushing it, you know? So, let me just say the team in China knows what the [ __ ] they're doing, right? The team in Rabbid Shores put all the people that are actually working on this FIFA game in China and they're the ones that have basically effectively monetized this thing that should have been monetized a decade ago, right?
Oh, you mean the the FC Sports game. The the increases we're seeing. Oh, it's okay. Because the other game here that I want to talk about was FC Sports Empire,
which is this is more like it, right?
Yes. So, this is one that's out of China. And I mean the thing that's frustrated me is they've had this foot like RPG system, FIFA Ultimate, this ultimate team system, and they haven't really scaled it outside of this framework. Like there's no reason you can't build builder games or squad RPGs or a million different things with kind of this framework or even just literally using the FUT marketplace as like a a

centerpiece. This really could have been web 3 before web 3. And so this sports FC is building the normal free-to-play builder mechanics around that FUT process. So, if you look at the screenshot here, you're like building your club store. You have a quest system. You have uh, you know, a power score. You have characters that you're collecting. Just like in the Squad RPG, you're training them up. Like, it's basically the normal foot experience, but without the real time aspect, which I think there's a massive opportunity to capitalize on. I'm just surprised they haven't done it sooner. From what I understand from talking with someone is that this game is about to get canned, which would like break my heart, especially if like the mobile game is doing really well. I don't know why you would poo poo the spin-offs. I thought this is the right direction for the franchise. Like how else are they going to grow? What is left? Like they got Battlefield to squeeze more out of. They tried to squeeze out of Apex and it blew up in their face. Like what what is left?
Yeah. First of all, these guys have not executed at all, right? In terms of outside of of sports franchises, right?

And you know, Apex did really well for a while, but that's kind of fallen off the fall off the So, they've been living on sports and primarily FIFA, and that's why the stock took a big hit because FIFA was down last year because of some snafu with with the game development. Anyway, that seems to be solved and fixed, and they seem to be fine on that. What I think people are hoping for is Battlefield, right? Battlefield is supposedly going to be like the help to save them and to get them into this the shooter category with a live service. And I think people are starting to expect that to be something that's incremental for them, not only for this year, but for next year and the year after, etc., etc. So, it all kind of hinges on this performance. And so, what they're bidding the stock up in anticipation of this, and if it furters in any way, the stock's going right back down, right? So, it's like this is like the g the the game that people are playing.
So, this is all this is all basically battlefield expectations is what's driving the stock price,
right? And they do have a pipeline of products in theory. I mean, they canceled a few things, but they have

some things that are coming as well, but I I think it's basically anticipation of Battlefield and the fact, you know, the Battlefield like the the reveal stuff that we talked about last week did pretty well. You know, I think people are kind of excited. They have a good window right now with Call of Duty kind of flailing. So, yeah, that's it.
I thought it was actually I I didn't watch the trailer before, you know, before we recorded. I know it wasn't a gameplay trailer, but they did a really nice job on like this game is about destructible environments. If you're going to have a USP come through in a non-gameplay trailer, I thought they did a pretty good job of that. Lay on sea, air, I was like, "Oh, I kind of Battlefield has never been bad trailers. I will say that they have mastered I mean, go back and watch the trailers. Some of the best trailer counts. Battlefield 1's trailer. Oh, even 2042.
I concur with this. I mean, if there's one thing that Laura Mielli knows how to do is have a marketing team that makes great [ __ ]
And so, I was not surprised to see that it, you know, I hope that the gameplay

measures up to it. And then, so, Phil, I just wanted to say on management, um, and so I've been doing a little bit of deep dive into sports and the subcategories of sports. The management aspect of sports, especially with football, is one of the smallest categories. It's not necessarily like a global play pattern. Germans love it, but it it tends to not be like a mass market opportunity in a little bit more niche. And
I mean, look at fantasy sports. Fantasy sports does multi-billions. I think it depends on what you're including the TAM number.
The management of how you're describing it. I'm going to build my stadium and my team and those things versus like real life, you know, minuteto minute. I'm following a team that are real life players. So management means two different things in that world. like fantasy sports is one thing. You're right. Versus management with which is another thing which which is what I've been checking into now. The the thing that I think is interesting crass if both games are being managed out of China this kind of goes against the well

we should have the franchise teams manage the mobile skew versus a centralized mobile team. So now it's like okay now it's option three or option C which is we're going to start sending things to China to manage. So, that seems interesting. I didn't I didn't realize that.
No, I mean, I've said this a million times. Like, the fact that they're trying to have the teams manage the mobile SKUs internally makes no sense. It never made sense. They should have.
Absolutely.
But I I think this is an extension of the idea of having standalone mobile teams managing the mobile games, right? If you have a team in China that's doing all the work, [ __ ] Vancouver, right? Like, keep making FIFA. You guys are great, but don't mess with the mobile game, right? Period. Do you know where this game is being made? The one that it's China is dying. Empire is China. Is it really? Yes.
FC. By the way, all use of FIFA in this conversation should be related to FC EA FC mobile.
Is FIFA online China as well? The freetoplay PC skew.

Yeah. Historically.
Yeah.
Was it China or was it
Yes.
For years? It's like even back when I was there.