Why neither the new Battlefront nor the Star Wars game license fit into Electronic Arts' strategy

Observing the massive surge of interest in Star Wars: Battlefront II is fascinating, even outside its context. For us, it presents an opportunity to discuss Electronic Arts' long-term strategy, understand the company's business priorities, and examine what games it aims to include in its portfolio.

Star Wars: Battlefront II

When on May 4th, the online count for Star Wars: Battlefront II on Steam exceeded 5,500 concurrent users (CCU), many didn't take much notice. Similar minor peaks in popularity can be seen with many games and other Lucasfilm-licensed products annually, as this time coincides with Star Wars Day celebrations.

For example, in May of last year, the peak daily statistics for Battlefront II also briefly surpassed 5,000 CCU. However, this time, user interest did not fade over time but continued to grow.

Over the past couple of weeks, the Steam version of the game repeatedly broke its previous records and on May 26th reached a peak of 18,635 CCU. This is approximately 1.7 times higher than the previous peak of 10.4 thousand CCU, which was achieved in January 2021.

Diagram of peak online numbers for Star Wars: Battlefront II on Steam

It's worth noting that the figures above are not particularly indicative. The original release of Battlefront II took place on November 17, 2017, but it only reached Steam in June 2020 — almost two months after the end of content support for the game. This delay was due to Electronic Arts' efforts since 2011 to actively develop their own service, EA Origin (now called EA Play). In the fall of 2019, however, the company returned to Steam with the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and, within several months, added its older titles to Valve's store, including Battlefront II.

By that time, all interested players had long since played the shooter either on consoles or on PC through the EA Origin service, which was also required for launching the Steam version. So, what caused the sharp increase in player interest right now?

Apart from the celebration of Star Wars Day and the substantial 80% discount, there are three main reasons: