Electronic Arts (EA, $97.18) new video game release receives mixed reviews

Last Friday, video gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) released a highly anticipated new game called the ‘Anthem,’ created by the Company’s partner developer BioWare. The game allows players to team with up to three others to explore vast ruins, battle deadly enemies, and claim outlandish artifacts while wearing powered exoskeletons known as “javelins.”

Unlike the enthusiastic reviews of its last viral hit ‘Apex Legends’, the PC version of this new game performed poorly with an average critic score of 61 out of 100 on reviews aggregation site Metacritic.

Yet video game consultants do not see any immediate cause of concern for investors. Rather, they are advised to tailor their expectations according to each new game. Further, investors should also bear in mind that many of EA’s revenues are generated by extremely popular yearly iterations such as its sports titles.

However, this feedback is not unanimous among all analysts. Some believe that the poor reviews of Anthem are consistent with the Company’s poor performance all year. They expect $4.75 billion in revenue now, much lower than the 9 months ago guidance of $5.55 billion. Also, the time of Anthem’s release coincides with a miserable February month, which saw the stock plummet to an intra-month low of $80.21 per share. This was somewhat recuperated by the success of Apex Legends that helped the stock bounce back to $106.84 per share later that month.

Analysts also believe that EA made a mistake by allowing reviews of the PC version of Anthem to surface early. It is expected that the game should achieve its full import on video game consoles.