Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson says the publisher is seeing ‘softness’ in Europe when it comes to video games spend.
Speaking to investors during the firm’s financial call, Wilson says he is seeing overall growth for the market and that games with ‘deep engagement’ continue to perform strongly. However, trends differ geographically, and singled out Europe as a market that’s performing below expectations.
“As we look at the market today and we look across our portfolio, it probably is pretty consistent with what we see across the industry, which is the big games where there is deep engagement and deep social connection continue to benefit across our portfolio,” he said.
“But we do see different kind of spend patterns on a geo basis. There are some markets that are showing a little more softness than others relative to some of the growth that we’re seeing across the world. We’ve heard others speak to some of the softness in market in Europe. We’ve certainly seen some of that across our portfolio. But in aggregate, on a global basis, we’re seeing growth.”
According to GSD market data seen by GamesIndustry.biz, 125.5 million PC and console games have been sold across Europe year-to-date, a slight rise of 3.2% over last year. All major markets are currently posting year-on-year growth, with the exception of Germany, where game sales are down 4.2%.
It’s worth noting that 2023 has been a particularly big year for major game launches, and the PS5 is also now in full supply, so it’s possible publishers had expected a stronger performance from Europe this year.
Looking ahead, Wilson agrees with the general view that video games are a more resiliant business in the face of a potential recession.
“When we think about recessionary predictions and the industry broadly, typically as an industry we have… I don’t want to say, be recession-proof, but we have been more resilient than many industries have been. That’s really because of two key things: One, entertainment is a fundamental human need. It’s very important to us as a species. And two, the form of entertainment that we offer to our communities represents incredible value even where there is constrained spending.”
EA reported strong financial results last night on the back of a successful launch for EA Sports FC 24.
