It's usually frowned upon for a publisher to release two games targeted at the same demographic within the same release window. This year, EA doesn't seem to mind.
EA's first party studios Respawn Entertainment and EA DICE are currently finishing up work for Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1. In the case of the former, a Fall release date is confirmed. In the case of the latter, a locked October 21st release date has been set. These two FPS juggernauts will likely release within two months of one-another, each with massive marketing campaigns, and the expectation that millions of copies will be sold.
However, when speaking in a recent investor call, EA's Andrew Wilson expressed confidence in the sales of each product. He said:
While it's true that Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 have very different settings, their IPs have shown a history of selling to a similar audience. What plays into EA's favor is that the audience is massive in size; millions of consumers, in-fact. What his statement doesn't account for is Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, a title that is forecast to sell more than 10 million copies.
Put simply, this Fall season is highly saturated with AAA shooters, and not just your typical shooters, either. These are games that require massive sales figures to be profitable, and heavily push DLC and deluxe packages. Recent trends have shown that gamers are weary about investing in more than one shooter during the Fall season, and that could end up being a very significant hurdle for EA and Activision.
