Battlefield 6 contributed to most of the net bookings, though Apex Legends and EA Sports FC also saw some growth. The latter saw “increased high single digits year-over-year in Q3, excluding the benefit of deluxe edition content timing, driven by strength in Ultimate Team and FC Mobile.” Meanwhile, Respawn’s long-running battle royale shooter was “up double-digits year-over-year driven by innovative new features and events.”

Of course, Battlefield 6 is the star. Not only did it emerge as the best-selling shooter of last year – if selling more than seven million units within three days didn’t tip you off – but it also elevated the franchise to new engagement heights.

Following the announcement of its acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake, Electronic Arts won’t host a quarterly conference call to discuss its earnings. The publisher’s board approved the $55 billion deal, which will close sometime between April and June. However, US Congress members recently requested the Federal Trade Commission investigate the same, which could lead to impediments. Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.

While there might be dips in the company’s revenue, it has also noted that EA Sports Madden NFL 26 and EA Sports FC 26 both saw growth in sales, with the latter seeing “mid-single-digits” year-on-year growth when compared with EA Sports FC 25. Apex Legends has also seemingly grown in bookings, with the growth described by the company as being in the double digits. Along with this, EA also celebrated the launches of Skate and Battlefield 6.

“Across our broad portfolio — from EA Sports to Battlefield, The Sims, and skate. — our teams continue to create high-quality experiences that connect and inspire players around the world,” said EA CEO Andrew Wilson in the earnings report. “The creativity, passion, and innovation of our teams are at the heart of everything we do.”

Interestingly, EA has also noted that it will no longer be hosting its usual earnings calls that typically involve the company’s leadership and analysts. This decision was likely made as the company makes its preparations to go private after being bought by an investor consortium that consists of Saudi Arabia’s PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. As the company had announced last month, this deal involves EA’s stockholders being paid a premium of 25 percent over the company’s share price as of September 25, 2025.

The deal, which is expected to be completed by Q1 FY2027, will turn EA into a completely privately-owned company. As part of the deal, PIF, which previously had a 9.9 percent stake in EA, will end up with 100 percent of the company’s ownership.

“Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans, built some of the world’s most iconic IP, and created significant value for our business. This moment is a powerful recognition of their remarkable work,” said EA CEO and chairman Andrew Wilson in a statement.

While the long-term effects of this acquisition going through are yet to be seen, reports have already emerged of EA’s leadership having asked its employees to use AI-based tools for just about all aspects of their work. This ranges from generating code while programming, to generating concept art, and even middle-managers using LLM tools for advice on discussing sensitive subjects with workers under them.

Analysts have predicted that the acquisition, since it was a leveraged buyout of EA that has put the company into considerable debt, will end up with “an even stronger focus on evergreen IPs, blockbuster (fewer but potentially bigger games) and live services – at the expense of riskier projects, new ideas and innovation.” This means that EA will double down on its annual sports titles and other major franchises.

The Switch 2 release will feature all of the combat from the other versions of Apex Legends, including its core battle royale mode, as well as the Mixtape mode. The Mixtape mode will feature a series of rotating game modes that players can take on, ranging from team deathmatch, to other, more objective-oriented game modes.

Apex Legends is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 on August 5, and much like the other versions of the title, will be free-to-play. For more details about the future of Apex Legends, check out our coverage of how EA and Respawn are planning on eventually making an Apex Legends 2.0.

“We delivered a strong start to FY26, outperforming expectations ahead of what will be the most exciting launch slate in EA’s history,” said CEO Andrew Wilson in a letter to EA’s shareholders (via Variety). “From deepening player engagement in EA Sports to gearing up for Battlefield 6 and skate., we’re scaling our global communities and continuing to shape the future of interactive entertainment.”

The letter also included words from CFO Stuart Canfield, who spoke about the company having exceeded its previous forecasts about how well EA would perform in this first quarter. Canfield also spoke about having a “robust pipeline” in place that will lead to strong performance from the company in future quarters as well, thanks to upcoming releases like Battlefield 6.

“We exceeded the high end of our guidance in Q1 highlighting the resilience of our live services and the breadth of our portfolio,” said Canfield. “With strong fundamentals and a robust pipeline ahead, we remain confident in our full-year guidance and long-term margin framework.”

Net revenue reported by EA for Q1 sits at $1.6 billion. With operating expenses of $1.1 billion and a $279 million cost of revenue, the company has reported a net income of $201 million. The company is also expecting a strong FY 2026, projecting net revenues of between $7.1 billion to $7.5 billion. For the next quarter, EA is forecasting net revenues of between $1.75 billion and $1.85 billion.

During the earnings call, Wilson had stated that the company doesn’t currently have plans to change its pricing strategies for the upcoming Battlefield 6. The statement came in response to a question about the game’s price which was likely fueled by rumours indicating that it would be priced at $80.

“When you think about everything from free-to-play through to our premium products and our Deluxe editions, our orientation is always to capture the full spectrum of pricing so that we can serve players in the best way possible and offer them the greatest value,” he explained. “We’ll continue to look at opportunities to deliver great value to our players through various pricing schemes over the course of time, but no dramatic changes planned yet.”

EA is currently getting ready for a host of new releases. Along with Battlefield 6, the company also has major sports releases on the way, including EA Sports FC 26, as well as Madden NFL 26. EA has also been getting ready to finally release Skate this year after having spent quite a bit of time on playtesting it over the last year.

In the meantime, Battlefield 6 recently received an official reveal trailer, which you can check out in our coverage. Its multiplayer will be revealed on July 31st, so stay tuned for more details.

In a statement, an EA spokesperson referred to the layoffs as being made to “align teams and allocate resources in service of driving future growth.” The move is meant to continue the company’s focus on “long-term strategic priorities.”

“We are treating our people with care and respect throughout this process, working to minimize impacts by helping affected employees explore new opportunities within the company when possible and providing support during the transition,” continued the statement.

Respawn had confirmed that some of its employees across the development teams for Apex Legends and the Star Wars Jedi franchise were being moved around. In its statement, Respawn also mentioned that it had cancelled two of its “early-stage” incubation projects. While not too many details about these cancelled titles have been confirmed so far, one of them was rumoured to be a multiplayer extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe. The game was codenamed R7 during its development.

The statement was followed by reports, courtesy of Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, that between 300 and 400 employees at EA were being laid off. Of these, around 100 are said to be employees at Respawn Entertainment.

A former employee of Respawn had revealed back in March that another incubation project at the studio had been cancelled. While not too many details were revealed at the time, the employee – former executive assistant and production coordinator at the studio, Emilee Evans – had said that it was a multiplayer shooter.

In the meantime, EA and Respawn are currently working on a major update to Apex Legends, referred to as a version 2.0 of the game. During EA’s quarterly earnings call back in February, EA CEO Andrew Wilson spoke about the trajectory of Apex Legends, and how future development will be focused on improving things for the game across three “core vectors”: community support, gameplay improvements, and a more comprehensive upgrade down the line.

“Sometime on a longer-term time horizon, there will be an even bigger, more meaningful update to that broader game experience,” Wilson said. “An Apex 2.0, if you will. This will not be the final incarnation of Apex.

Over the longer term, Wilson said that the company wants to continue supporting Apex Legends by making sure to hang on to the game’s core community while also forming new communities that might want to try out the game.

“And then longer-term, our expectation is that we’ll continue to expand what this franchise is and how we support a core community of highly competitive players and new communities that want to come and experience all the greatness that Apex has to offer,” he said.

Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale game available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.

According to sources speaking to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Electronic Arts has laid off 300 to 400 positions. About 100 are from Respawn Entertainment – how many will receive “new opportunities within EA” is unknown.

One of the cancelled projects was allegedly an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe, codenamed R7 (which was “not close to being released”). The other project saw cancellation earlier this year, likely referring to the reported multiplayer project cancelled last month. Layoffs also seemingly occurred for the latter, with former executive assistant and production coordinator Emilee Evans seeking a new role.

Aside from Star Wars Jedi 3 and Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment is working on Bit Reactor’s Star Wars Zero Company, an XCOM-like tactical strategy game coming in 2026. It’s also involved in the next Battlefield, which is undergoing extensive testing as part of Battlefield Labs.

Speaking during EA’s recent quarterly earnings call (via VGC), CEO Andrew Wilson acknowledged the massive success of Apex Legends while admitting that its recent trajectory has been below expectations.

“Apex is probably one of the great new launches in our industry over the last decade and has been loved by that core cohort,” he said. “We’ve had over 200 million people play the game. However, the trajectory of the business of that franchise has not been headed in the direction that we have wanted for some time.

Wilson went on to explain that in the short to medium term, the plan is to keep supporting Apex Legends and developing new content. This will also apparently include “a more meaningful update of Apex as a broad game experience”, but this won’t become a priority until the next Battlefield’s release (which will happen sometime before April 2026).

“We have been trying, tuning and testing many things in the context of the ongoing support of the community,” he said. “As we think about Apex today, I really think about the development happening across three core vectors.

“The first is how do we continue to support this incredible community that plays the game day in and day out, which numbers tens of millions of people. And that’s both quality of life, anti-cheat, and all of the things that make the core experience great, as well as the creation of new content for that community.

“The second phase, and I think I’ve talked about this before, is we do believe there will be a time where we need to do a more meaningful update of Apex as a broad game experience, and the team is diligently working on that. You should imagine we probably wouldn’t drop that on top of a Battlefield launch. So from a timing standpoint, our thinking right now is that that would exist post-Battlefield.”

Beyond that, meanwhile, Wilson says EA and Respawn Entertainment are also planning a yet more comprehensive upgrade – something along the lines of an Apex Legends 2.0.

“Sometime on a longer-term time horizon, there will be an even bigger, more meaningful update to that broader game experience,” Wilson said. “An Apex 2.0, if you will. This will not be the final incarnation of Apex.

“The team remains incredibly committed. We continue to invest behind the core community which continues to play in the tens of millions of players. But we do believe that there should be a more major update. That will probably happen after the Battlefield launch, just in terms of timing. And the team is diligently working through what that would be.

“And then longer-term, our expectation is that we’ll continue to expand what this franchise is and how we support a core community of highly competitive players and new communities that want to come and experience all the greatness that Apex has to offer.”

“In our efforts to combat cheating in Apex, we’ve identified Linux OS as being a path for a variety of impactful exploits and cheats,” EA writes. “As a result, we’ve decided to block Linux OS access to the game. While this will impact a small number of Apex players, we believe the decision will meaningfully reduce instances of cheating in our game.

“Linux is used by default on the Steam Deck. There is currently no reliable way for us to differentiate a legitimate Steam Deck from a malicious cheat claiming to be a Steam Deck (via Linux).”

EA explains that with Linux cheats being harder to detect, though the decision to drop support for the OS – and by extension, the Steam Deck – was not an easy one, it was one that was necessary for the game’s health.

“The openness of the Linux operating systems makes it an attractive one for cheaters and cheat developers,” EA explains. “Linux cheats are indeed harder to detect and the data shows that they are growing at a rate that requires an outsized level of focus and attention from the team for a relatively small platform. There are also cases in which cheats for the Windows OS get emulated as if it’s on Linux in order to increase the difficulty of detection and prevention.

“We had to weigh the decision on the number of players who were legitimately playing on Linux/the Steam Deck versus the greater health of the population of players for Apex. While the population of Linux users is small, their impact infected a fair amount of players’ games. This ultimately brought us to our decision today.”

Of course, as EA reminds as well, if you’ve got Windows installed on your Steam Deck, you can still use the device to play Apex Legends– though Linux users are unfortunately out of luck.

“To eliminate this cheat vector, we have made the decision to prevent access to the game for Linux users,” the company says. “This means that Apex Legends will be unplayable immediately for those running this operating system. Playing on handhelds, such as the Steam Deck, is still possible if the user opts to install Windows.”

Apex Legends is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Previously, it was announced that starting with the upcoming Season 22, Apex Legends would begin offering two battle passes per season, with each offering 60 tiers of rewards, rather than offering just one with 110 tiers. In addition, however, it was also announced that players would no longer be able to purchase battle passes using the in-game currency known as Apex Coins, which, in effect, meant that the only way to gain access to a premium battle pass would be to purchase it. 

That in particular was met with widespread backlash, which publisher EA and developer Respawn have responded to by walking back on the planned change.

“You’ve spoken, and we’ve listened,” a statement published on Twitter reads. “With the release of Season 22 we will restore the ability to get the Premium Battle Pass for 950 Apex Coins. We recognize that we could have handled the Battle Pass changes better- that’s on us.”

When Season 22 kicks off on August 6, players will have the chance to earn the first battle pass for the season by “completing a series of simple in-game challenges”. Meanwhile, when the second battle pass goes live on September 17, players will also be able to purchase it using 950 Apex Coins, and will be able to earn enough Apex Coins through it to be able to afford future battle passes. 

Respawn also reassures players that going forward, it will place greater focus on clearer and more consistent communication, with the health and stability of the game being its top priorities. 

“Moving forward, we recognize that we need to be more timeline, transparent, and consistent in our communications with you,” the developer says. “Your priorities are our priorities: cheaters, game stability, and quality of life updates are top of mind. We need to get better and it’s why we’re acknowledging them here.”

Details on several fixes related to the aforementioned issues will arrive when Season 22 goes live on August 6, with patch notes arriving with details on the same the preceding day. 

Apex Legends is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. 

Alter’s Tactical ability, Void Passage, involves creating a portal to breach through ceilings, walls and other surfaces, and she can also view death boxes through walls and take an item from them. Her Ultimate, Void Nexus, deploys a translocator, which her team can teleport to at any point (which applies even if they’ve been downed).

The Nexus Relay left from her Ultimate is usable by anyone, which also applies to the Void Passage portal, so beware. Other new content this season includes the return of Solos as a six-week takeover, complete with respawn tokens and pre-upgraded weapons.

As for Broken Moon, it’s changed significantly due to Olympus crashing into it, removing the Promenade while adding new zip rails and Ferrofluid. Head here for more details as Apex Legends: Upheaval goes live for all players soon.