EA: Battlefield 2042 Early Access Date Is Now 12 November

Electronic Arts has very recently confirmed that Battlefield 2042 has been pushed back to 19 November. At the time, video games leaker Tom Henderson claimed that this will also push back the open beta and early access dates to October. But now, it looks like it will be pushed even further back than that.

Adam Freeman, EA Europe’s community manager, has shared on Twitter that the new early access date for Battlefield 2042 has now been pushed back to 12 November. This puts it just a week before the launch of the game.

This small window makes the open beta date in a pretty precarious spot. If it retains the pattern of being two days after early access opens, this means that there will only be five days for the open beta phase of Battlefield 2042. Even if the so-called open beta is a glorified server stress test, it does feel like five days is too tight a window for anything to be done if anything does go south.

Freeman says that an exact date for the open beta will be shared later this month, which leaves things up in the air. But as it is, it does seem like the 19 November release of the game itself is quite set in stone.

EA Delists Five Older Need For Speed Titles; Servers Shutting Down In September

Electronic Arts is pulling five older Need for Speed titles from digital storefronts. And it’s doing so very abruptly too. If you love some of these titles but never got around to getting them, it may already be too late.

The quiet announcement came via a Reddit post. In it, an EA community manager says that the publisher will be pulling Need for Speed Carbon, Undercover, Shift, Shift 2: Unleashed and The Run. The online servers of these games will also be closed in three months. And this is done so that the publisher can focus on working on the new games in the series, the upcoming one already being delayed. But doing so means moving resources from maintaining the older ones.

As mentioned, the announcement came very abruptly. At the time of writing, the Reddit post is stated as being up 10 hours ago. But the announcement itself says the delisting of these older Need for Speed games will happen starting 31 May 2021. Even with time zone differences, this would mean that at best there’s a couple of hours left before they are gone.

If you already own these games though, you’ll still be able to play them normally. Online functionality will remain until 1 September, when EA shuts down their servers. Beyond that, offline is the only way you’ll be able to play these Need for Speed games.

EA Confirms Development Of A Standalone Battlefield Game For Smartphones And Tablets

Fans of the multiplayer shooter genre on mobile devices will be expecting another high profiled franchise to arrive in the near future, namely the Battlefield series by Electronic Arts (EA). The publisher has recently announced that a standalone version of the game is currently in development and will be hitting the mobile platform sometime in 2022.

The game is being worked on by Industrial Toys in close collaboration with current Battlefield developer DICE, wrote the latter’s general manager Oskar Gabrielson on EA’s official blog. He noted that this version of the game will be specifically designed, and is promised to feature a “fully-fledged, skill-based experience” for players on smartphones and tablets.

Gabrielson also announced in the same blog post that a new major Battlefield game for PC and consoles will be revealed soon and eventually released in 2021. The game is jointly-developed by DICE, DICE LA, Criterion Games and EA Gothenburg, he added.

Ever since their debuts, multiplayer shooters such as Fortnite, PUBG and Call of Duty: Mobile have seen tremendous success and an increased player base on the mobile platform, especially on smartphones. In addition, these games -despite being marketed as free to play titles, have earned their respective developers and publishers millions of dollars in revenue, thanks to the availability of in-game purchases such as booster packs and player customisation items.

According to data gathered by Sensor Tower, PUBG Mobile has reportedly accumulated a total of US$2.7 billion in 2020 alone, with a recorded player spending average of US$7.4 million per day. In terms of player base and downloads, Tencent (via BusinessofApps) claims that the game had garnered a reported 30 million active users in Q3 2020, and recently claimed that it has achieved a whopping 1 billion downloads as of March 2021. With staggering numbers such as these, it’s no surprise that EA would also want a piece of this mobile-flavoured pie, albeit arriving later than other publishers.

In related news, the publisher also confirmed recently that its popular free-to-play battle royale shooter Apex Legends have begun testing on mobile platforms. Regional betas for the game are currently limited to countries such as India and the Philippines, with more regions planned to be added later in the year. Just in case you’re wondering, Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier revealed in a separate EA blog post that the mobile version will not feature cross-platform play.

EA Suspends Content Granting Indefinitely Following EA Gate

Electronic Arts has been hit over the second half of last week with what the community is calling EA Gate. Basically, it’s a scandal where a suspected employee of the publisher was selling FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) cards for ludicrous prices on the black market. these prices range from EUR750 (~RM3688) to EUR1000 (~RM4918), with a set of three Prime Icon Moments (PIM) cards selling for EUR1700 (~RM8360).

Over the weekend, the publisher has responded to the situation over on the EA Sports website. In essence, the company says it will take action against any employee involved. Players who bought FUT cards this way will also face a permanent ban. As a temporary measure, it is also suspending indefinitely what it calls content granting.

The term basically means the ability for the company to give out stuff to players. This is usually very rare, and it’s only done to replace lost content, or specially issued to EA partners and employees, or even actual athletes. And it’s likely this mechanic that the reported employee used to sell FUT cards.

Electronic Arts has always maintained that the Ultimate Teams mode, and lootboxes in general, are not gambling. The argument is that that these cards have no inherent value, and thus cannot be cashed out. But as this EA Gate episode shows, there is obviously a whole lot of value in the valuable cards with high stats. And it’s enough for some countries to deem the game mode illegal.

EA Delays New Need For Speed; Shifts Focus Towards Development Of Next Battlefield Title

EA has reportedly put a halt on the development of its Need For Speed series temporarily and reallocated the franchise’s developers, Criterion Games, over to EA DICE, in order to assist in the development of its next Battlefield title.

The next Battlefield title, which is called Battlefield 6 (BF6) for now, was confirmed to be landing this year by Andrew Wilson, EA’s CEO. Not much is known about the franchise’s next instalment, save for what Wilson revealed during an earnings calls last year. Specifically, the game will see a return to a modern setting, along with bigger multiplayer maps capable of supporting up to 128 players in a single game.

Despite Criterion’s new support role at DICE, EA has promised to release at least one racing title this year thanks on no small part to its recent acquisition of Codemasters. As for when the next Need For Speed will arrive, the publisher says that that franchise should return to form next year.

EA has been on something of a losing streak since 2017 when it launched Mass Effect Andromeda. Reception for the game was relatively mixed, with the majority of reviews leaning towards the negative. Then came Anthem in 2019, a game that suffered from multiple, critical flaws that led to the game being panned by critics. Then, despite promises of an overhaul of the game’s system, it abruptly announced that it had ceased all development for the game.

EA Gives Up On Dragon Age 4 Multiplayer After Anthem Flop

Looks like the burying of Anthem, among other things, has sent shockwaves rippling within Electronic Arts. The publisher now wants Dragon Age 4, as the next game in the series as it is colloquially known, to drop all of its multiplayer components.

Sources to Bloomberg say that EA is moving Dragon Age 4 back to a singleplayer model. Having first entered development in 2015, that was the way the game was planned in the first place. But in 2017, the publisher and Bioware, the studio responsible for the series, switched things up “to push for long-term monetisation”.

The most recent U-turn for Dragon Age 4 can be attributed to the performance of two different games under EA. One is the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order made by Respawn Entertainment. The other is, as mentioned earlier, the flop of Anthem. These two have proven to the publisher that singleplayer games can still be lucrative. That, and Bioware is probably better off returning to its roots of making such games in the first place.

It’s an interesting change in direction for EA, to say the least. The company released nearly no strictly singleplayer game save for Fallen Order for a time. Though its decision may be a little misguiding, it’s probably for the benefit of fans of the Dragon Age series. It’s probably also something to look forward to with the next Mass Effect game.

EA Completes Acquisition Of Codemasters In US$1.2 Billion Deal

Codemasters, the video game studio behind popular racing IPs like DiRT and Project CARS, is now part of the Electronic Arts (EA) family. The video game publisher officially obtained the studio after both companies agreed to a payment of US$1.2 billion (~RM4.86 billion).

EA’s offer also outbid initial offers from Take-Two, the parent company of two other major studios, Rockstar and 2K Games. As to why EA is so eager to welcome Codemasters under its fold, it’s pretty clear that the publisher intends to make use of its newcomer’s expertise in racing titles and perhaps meet its goal of putting out racing games on a year-on-year basis.

It should be pointed out that racing sims aren’t the only games under Codemasters’ belt. The company is also the owner of the third-person adventure title, Overlord, but suffice to say, its bread and butter has always been the development and sales of titles like GRID.

EA Acquires Celebrity Mobile Game Maker Glu Mobile

Electronic Arts has just made a major acquisition, which gives it a larger presence in the mobile market. The publisher will be acquiring mobile game maker Glu Mobile, for US$2.1 billion (~RM8.53 billion) “in enterprise value”.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson says that the acquisition of Glu Mobile doubles its own the size of its mobile business. Which is a pretty huge deal, since the company claims it currently has over 100 monthly active players in the mobile space.

If the name Glu Mobile is unfamiliar to you, you may be familiar instead with the games that it makes. Among them are the likes of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, Restaurant Dash with Gordon Ramsay and MLB Tap Sports Baseball, among others.

Overall, this acquisition of Glu Mobile by EA is about as big a deal as when Activision Blizzard acquired King back in 2015. Though it is surprising that the annual sports game publisher is only now making a similar move. You’d think it would have done so sooner, considering the business model of its many sports games.

That being said, it’s also the kind of work that Glu Mobile will be given post EA acquisition. Though it remains to be seen when the mobile game maker will make its first new title under the EA umbrella.

EA Confirms Battlefield 6 Launch This Year; Promises Return To “All-Out Warfare”

EA has confirmed that the next instalment of its Battlefield franchise, the tentatively named Battlefield 6 (BF6), is definitely landing this year. Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, confirmed the game’s launch date during a recent earnings call to investors.

Wilson also said that the upcoming title will also feature maps on an “unprecedented scale”, along with support for more players. We already know from initial rumours that EA plans on making BF6 maps bigger, with the ability to accommodate up to 128 players in a single map; double the current 64 player cap that all current Battlefields are able to support.

As to when exactly BF6 will be launching, Wilson simply told investors that his company plans on launching the game sometime during the holiday season of 2021. It all sounds like he’s full of anticipation, having also said that the next Battlefield game is already ahead of its internal schedule and that there should be no delays.

The only thing we don’t quite know about the BF6 is whether it will see a return to a more modern setting and something entirely different. As to which platform BF6 should be available on, it goes without saying that we can expect it to arrive on the PC and next-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S.

EA To Make New Racing Game Every Year Following Codemasters Acquisition

Back in December, EA announced that it will be acquiring racing game maker Codemasters. Now that the deal is officially closed, the former says it wants to make a new racing game every year.

On its own, EA has one notable racing series that’s still alive in Need for Speed. It also has the Burnout series, but the last notable game in this was Burnout Paradise, which was released all the way back in 2008. With the acquisition of Codemasters, it adds the F1, WRC, Dirt, Grid and Project Cars series to its own library.

In its financial report, the company tells investors that the Codemasters acquisition will help the company become a “global leader in racing entertainment”. It also claims that the latter’s games were a “natural fit” with “clear opportunities” for EA Sports. Which may not necessarily be a good thing. As Eurogamer points out, this opens up the possibility of an F1 Ultimate Team.

The possibility for that happening is very real, and may explain why EA is so interested in acquiring Codemasters. Back in November, racing game maker was in talks with Take-Two instead for the latter to acquire the company. EA stepped in with a bigger offer a month later, and the rest is history.

EA Reportedly Developing Own Facial Animation Technology For Future Titles

Earlier in the month Electronic Arts (EA) filed a patent with USPTO for something called a “universal facial expression translation and character rendering system”. The patent details the video game studio cum publisher’s aim at producing more technologically advanced and sophisticated facial animations and expressions for 3D models in-game.

The patent filing is an indication that the company is looking to explore and delve into the development of more complex facial animations, in an effort to push for further realism in all of its future game titles. It’s not a surprising move by EA, considering the studio has previously invested heavily in other technologies like lighting effects and hair rendering. The latter as evidenced in FIFA 21 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

The patent also speaks of how facial shapes would be paired with something called a “facial shape identifier” that indicates a type of adjustment of facial characteristics” that could store said facial shapes within a database. And then proceed to link them to a specific character. Judging from this description, this sound nearly identical to the JALI, the facial recognition technology used by CD Projekt Red in its most recent title, Cyberpunk 2077.

As to when we’ll begin seeing this new “facial expression translation” technology is anybody’s guess, but suffice to say, it’s highly likely the feature will be more enjoyable on next-gen consoles such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S. While PC gamers may not have to do anything more than, say, upgrade their graphics card if and when necessary.

EA To Make Larger Offer Than Take-Two For Codemasters Acquisition

UPDATE (4:31 PM): The deal between EA and Codemasters has closed, with cash and shares valued at US$1.2 billion (~RM4.9 billion). It’s a bigger sum than what Take-Two was initially offering, but not by much considering the scale. The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021.

ORIGINAL STORY (12:02 PM):

In early November, Take-Two Interactive was in acquisition talks with racing game maker Codemasters. It looks like Electronic Arts has stepped in, expressing interest in taking over the UK-based company as well.

Sky News reports that EA is making an offer that is larger than what Take-Two offered Codemasters last month. While it is unknown what the exact figure is, Take-Two’s offer was reportedly at GBP725 million (~RM3.9 billion). The news outlet cites sources that also say that EA was working with bankers at UBS for its offer.

As it is, both companies stand to benefit from acquiring Codemasters. Take-Two has its Rockstar-published Midnight Club series, while EA has Need for Speed. The latter is also arguably the better known of the two franchises. With the NFS series also having had its racing sim phase with the Shift mini series, one could argue that it has more to gain from this potential acquisition.

That being said, it still depends on Codemasters wanting to take the deal. The report also says that Take-Two has yet to make a counteroffer. And finally, the report also makes an interesting note in that EA is roughly twice the size of Take-Two in terms of market capitalisation.

EA May Block FIFA Ultimate Team In Certain Regions With Strict Gambling Laws

 

Electronic Arts (EA) has been getting plenty of heat due to its insistence of including loot box mechanics to its games, especially in the Ultimate Team mode in its yearly FIFA releases. This resulted in legal battles between the company and local gambling authorities as well as lawmakers in regions such as Europe, Canada and others. Based on recent reports, it appears that the game publisher may consider blocking the mode altogether in certain countries with strict gambling laws in order to comply with the concerns.

FIFA Ultimate Team fansite FUT Watch took to Twitter to share a code that was discovered in the game’s latest patch, which contained the line “FIFA ULTIMATE TEAM is currently not accessible due to a demand from the authorities of your region.” This basically implies that EA has implemented a measure that will allow it to disable the loot box driven game mode in FIFA 21 from certain regions if things are to get ugly. For instance, losing the aforementioned legal battles.

The game mode itself has gained notoriety which saw several cases involving users spending a tremendous amount of real life money to purchase in-game FUT Packs in order to obtain a desired football player for their team. As with every loot box or “gacha” based reward system, the prizes received upon opening these packs are randomised, with chances of acquiring a valuable player such as Lionel Messi to be as low as 1.1% in every try.

Electronic Arts has not revealed any plans to actually block the mode in any regions just yet. As reported last year, the publisher had also introduced alternative approaches in order to allow players in countries such as Belgium to continue enjoying Ultimate Team by removing in-game purchases entirely. The game’s FIFA Points in-game currency, which is required to purchase FUT Packs, are earned through playing the game instead.