EA confirms that Dragon Age: The Veilguard missed commercial targets

The publisher and developer Electronic Arts (EA) revised its outlook for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2025, correcting its earnings forecast downwards. Instead of the initially “anticipated mid-single-digit growth in live services net bookings” the gaming company is now expecting “a mid-single-digit decline.”

EA will reveal the full results of the third fiscal quarter, which ended on December 31, 2024, this February, but already detailed some of the reasons for the disappointing turn of events.

According to the company, EA Sports FC 25 has been performing worse than expected over the holidays – a rare occurrence for the soccer game juggernaut.

In its preliminary statement, EA also confirmed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard did not fulfill the commercial expectations laid upon it. EA stated that BioWare’s RPG “engaged approximately 1.5 million players during the quarter.” It’s noteworthy that EA didn’t mark this as a sales number, suggesting that it includes players accessing the game through EA Play. The company added that this number missed its expectations by nearly 50%.

As a result, EA “now expects net bookings of approximately $2.215 billion [USD] for the third fiscal quarter and an updated range of $7.000 billion to $7.150 billion for fiscal year 2025.”

“During Q3, we continued to deliver high-quality games and experiences across our portfolio; however, Dragon Age and EA Sports FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectations,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA. “This month, our teams delivered a comprehensive gameplay refresh in addition to our annual Team of the Year update in FC 25; positive player feedback and early results are encouraging. We remain confident in our long-term strategy and expect a return to growth in FY26, as we execute against our pipeline.”

“We continue to balance investment for future growth with operational discipline, and remain committed to EA’s long-term financial framework,” added Stuart Canfield, CFO of EA. “As we look to FY26, we expect to grow as we launch more of our iconic franchises.”