EA's Stock Values Drop Three Billion Dollars

The EA mess has been a headache for everyone involved: a headache for gamers who have to deal with another company being over-ambitious to the point of blinding greed. A headache for other game developers who have to work with loot boxes now that they’re officially the most hated thing in the industry. And of course, a headache for EA, who’s been struggling to steady themselves following fan outrage.

Now, earlier, I questioned how impactful the outrage against EA ultimately was, given that it seemed as if Disney had a bigger hand in shutting down the game’s loot boxes more than anything else. But as it turns out, I really underestimated how big this actually was: because it was recently revealed in a CNBC report (Via PC Gamer) that EA’s stock value has dropped 3 billion dollars in the wake of the outcry.

That’s a share price reduction of 8.5% since the beginning of November. And it’s huge. Maybe not as huge as the 39% rise the company enjoyed since the start of the year, but there are investors who are going to be pissed AF at this price drop, and if EA doesn’t answer to fans, they sure as heck have to answer to shareholders.

In light of all this, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen, speaking at the Credit Suisse Annual Technology, Media and Telecom Conference tried to defend the company’s use of loot boxes as a way to stay true to the Star Wars canon. And I’ll just shut up and let him dig his own grave from here.

"The one thing we're very focused on and they are extremely focused on is not violating the canon of Star Wars. It's an amazing brand that’s been built over many, many years, and so if you did a bunch of cosmetic things, you might start to violate the canon, right? Darth Vader in white probably doesn't make sense, versus in black. Not to mention you probably don't want Darth Vader in pink. No offense to pink, but I don't think that's right in the canon."

Yeah. Okay, you’re right. Cosmetic items would be harder to sell in a Star Wars game than any other type of game. But here’s a novel, crazy idea, and I’m just gonna throw this out here: maybe don’t have random loot drops at all, then? Maybe just make a nice game that people like and want to play, and charge 60 dollars for it, like we used to do? Have we forgotten that’s a thing?

Ugh. Either way, he continued to say that despite all this, EA hasn't given up on micro-transactions in Battlefront 2, because of course they haven't. So I hope you enjoy boycotting their games, because we'll be needing to do it for a lot longer still.