Electronic Arts to Feel Battlefront II Pain?

Not too surprisingly, and despite EA's positive spin to the contrary, Wall Street firm Cowen is lowering its earnings estimates for EA in FY18 due to problems with Battlefront II. CNBC reports that Cowen sent a note to its clients today advising:

We are lowering our FY18 estimates to below management's guidance as we believe that Star Wars Battlefront 2's performance (lower units + the indefinite delay of MTX) has been disappointing enough to more than offset any strength elsewhere in the model Cutting numbers on problematic 'SWBF2' performance.

and

The negative player reaction to the mishandled loot box economy has clearly impacted SWBF2 sales … we think this is evidence that the industry's core gamer constituency is getting increasingly unhappy about the degree to which MTX is being shoehorned into core gameplay loops.

As such, Cowen is lowering their estimates for FY18 returns on EA stock to $4.08 from $4.24 (versus the company's $4.20 guidance.)

Cowen also lowered their 2018 estimates for unit sales of the game from 14 million to 11 million.

If EA is significantly hurt by the BFII backlash, it could have some long term effects on the future of MTX in mainstream games.

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