Too many games, too little attention. Electronic Arts descent from the dance floor is a good decision
EA makes an important decision at which Earning on games is getting more and more difficult. The market suffers not because the games are weak, but because there are too many of them in relation to the attention of the recipients. Only 18,000 appeared on the Steam platform in 2024. 623 new titles – by 93 percent more than in 2020. The effect? Even great premieres disappear in the crowds. September 2025 is a model example: between 4 and 25 September, including “Hollow Knight: Silksong” and the full version of “Hades II”, both titles with excellent reception of players and reviewers – and yet competing with the same piece of attention.
Contemporary “Economics of Notes” rewards live services and games-services (subscriptions), which have been occupying lists of the most-played productions for years. In practice, this means that News are fighting not only among themselves, but above all with the time that the recipients already devote to Counter-Strike, reach 2 or PUBG-titles constantly present at the top of the activity rankings. The quality of the debut is not enough if it is not accompanied by her ability to break through the noise and keep the player in a series of regular returns.
In addition, there is a brutal mathematics of the cost of acquiring the user. They have been growing on mobile since the introduction of ATT (App Tracking Transparency – a mechanism that requires the application of a clear consent of the user to track him in other applications and sites) by Apple and changes in the privacy of Google Sandbox, which hinders targeting and conquers advertising rates.
On PC and consoles, Wishlists, influencers and dozens of micro-kampania became the currency, which are easy They absorb the budget larger than the very development of the game. Subscriptions, convenient for players, are for the creators of a double -edged sword: the voices of former managers and developers are increasingly heard that adoption in Game Pass can cannibalize premium sales, unless the game has very good monetization after the premiere.
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Hundreds of millions of dollars for games
At the same time, budget risks escalate. AAA budgets exceeding $ 100 million They have become the norm, and the statements of industry leaders indicate that $ 200 million. And it is not surprising more with the titles on the Hollywood scale. Each trip hurts like never before, which the market has been painfully tested on loud, expensive projects that did not bring out the expected traction. It is not surprising that recent years is a wave of restructuring and reduction of full -time jobs – this also applies to EA, which in 2024 slowed about 5 percent. crew.
This does not mean that the industry goes out. In global terms, Newzoo estimates this year's game revenues at around $ 189 billion. (+3-4 percent y/y), and the increase today focuses around consoles and large premieres supported by the hardware cycle. The problem is that the growth is aggregated with leaders and evergreen, and the “average class” of production is pushed out of the catalogs and portfolio of players. Therefore, in practice Today, more studies compete for the same percentage of time and money. In this reality, the descent from the stock exchange has several pros for EA.
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Why the descent from the stock exchange makes sense to EA
First, the coercion disappears to take the quarter, which He often prompted public companies to premature premieres, discounts and too fast phrases in the strategy. The games had to be more richer in the content (growing requirements of players), but they failed to refine them enough to be free from mistakes on the day of the premiere. At the same time, the premieres could not be moved, because it later reflected in the reactions of stock market investors.
A private owner can afford longer production cycles, more thoughtful roadmaps and has time for innovation without fear of immediate market response, if it does not provide a “good” quarter. Secondly, the private structure facilitates the monetization of IP in the media model – from movies to series – which can be seen in examples, when the adaptations of The Last of Us or Fallout caused jumps in the sale of games and the number of players.
However, there is no rose without spikes. A record takeover means a significant level of debt and pressure on efficiencyand the experience of recent years suggests that the lack of immediate changes are usually a short distance declaration – after closing the transaction, cleaning, changes in investment and priorities come. However, if you choose a moment to leave the radar of public markets, then now: when The hypertension of the content rubs with limited attentionthe cost of reaching the player is growing, and success requires patience and consequences that are not rewarded by the stock exchange.
EA's decision is not an escape from problems, but a change in the rules of the game in which the company can play its advantages with a longer horizon. There is a chance that this will translate into innovative solutions in the upcoming titles, because the company will gain more time to test and refine new mechanisms. However, it should be emphasized: this is a chance, not a guarantee.
Author: Grzegorz Kubera, Business Insider Polska journalist
