Specialist
Former Director at Electronic Arts Inc
Agenda
- Gaming trends affecting EA Sports and competitors
- Strategic differences between mobile, console and other gaming platforms
- Shift towards free-to-play games, and how mobile games are impacting console games
- Video game streaming – outlook and trends
- Sports' monetisation strategy across platforms – pay-to-play, subscription, micro-transactions and others
Questions
1.
What key trends are you following across the video game industry, especially on the mobile side?
2.
Could you elaborate on why you expect the incumbents could potentially lose as the model shifts?
3.
In which genres or categories do you think the economics of free-to-play don’t work? Where might the upselling and add-ons of downloadable content or microtransactions fail?
4.
How do you think EA compares to other companies on its user monetisation and strategy? How would you differentiate EA against Take-Two, Bungie, or more niche players such as Codemasters in the UK?
5.
What impact do you think a potential Apex Legends mobile release could have, and what might be the hurdles to adoption?
6.
Have you observed any recent evolutions in EA’s live services strategy and microtransactions? How much more revenue generation do you think could come from optimising this?
7.
You mentioned that EA’s mobile design and slate have been fairly weak in the past. What is your take on upcoming titles on the mobile and console side, such as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order? What is your confidence that this could be a big Q4 into next year?
8.
What is your view on Galaxy of Heroes’ ability to sustain revenue? What rate of decline, updates and the impact?
9.
How would you assess regional difference between APAC, US and Europe in mobile preferences and the ability to monetise? How would you rate EA’s ability to perform across geographies?
10.
How do you expect gross margins to react as in-game content grows and boosts profitability, but there are simultaneously more proven updates and more R&D throughout the lifecycle of a game? What would you say are the challenges around boosting margin?
11.
How successfully do you think EA has responded to the explosion of e-sports? How would you rate its operational strategy around driving and leveraging that?
12.
There was some pushback and negative brand equity that came with the Battlefront 2 launch in 2017 around loot boxes and microtransactions. What were the lessons learned from that, and are there any broader risks to long-term sustainability and satisfaction of gamers on the EA platform?
13.
What key questions would you ask EA management, especially on the mobile strategy?
14.
You mentioned prior acquisitions have been poorly integrated. What have been the issues and can you share any anecdotes?
15.
Are there any lingering independent mobile studios that you think would be good targets at this point?
16.
Do you think EA can be successful long term without a strong mobile presence, or is that critical as we move cross-platform? How should we think about the importance of that?
17.
Is there anything else you would like to mention or other key metrics you would watch out for?
