In the face of a looming economic recession in the US, the CEO ofElectronic Artshas made remarks to shareholders and the press about how the industry giant might be affected. Hard economic times often force consumers to reduce their spending on nonessentials like video games, putting developers and publishers alike at risk of major losses, evenhuge and recognizable studios like EA.
Electronic Artsis one of the largest game publishers in the world, and over the years they’ve released many beloved classics of the gaming industry, including theDead Space, Mass Effect,andDragon Ageseries. While the company has been mired in scandal repeatedly over most of the past decade, that hasn’t stopped EA from raking in record profits year after year.
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In the company’s most recent earnings call, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson took some time to address the possible effects of the looming recession in the US. He assured listeners that engagement with EA’s products, especially its biggest franchises likeFIFAandThe Sims,has so far remained unaffected by the state of the economy. “As it stands right now, we haven’t seen meaningful shifts in behavior,” he said, before going on to state that he expectedEA to continue to grow in the future.
Wilson stressed that the company would be proceeding with caution in the coming months, however, warning that “if it gets really bad, I don’t think anybody is immune.” The rest of Wilson’s statement was spent attempting to reassure listeners in spite of these troubling prospects: he called Electronic Arts “unbelievably resilient,” reiterating the consistentlyhigh engagement with EA’s major titles, and insisting that he and the rest of EA’s executives “feel really good about the future.”
Certainly, all publicly available information seems to support Wilson’s optimism: the company’s revenue and profits continued to increase last quarter, andEA made over $1 billion from microtransactionsin the past three months alone. There is some room for doubt though, considering how emphatically Wilson seemed to insist that there was nothing to worry about. That being said, for the time being there is no evidence suggesting the CEO’s confidence is at all unfounded, and any suggestions of trouble on the horizon are mere speculation. Even as economic crises rock the US, Europe, and beyond, all signs suggest Electronic Arts is more than capable of riding out the storm.
