Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall has been pretty well in terms of sales and reviews since its release on the Xbox One and PC. One interesting little development after the launch of the next gen versions was that the Xbox 360 port, developed by Bluepoint Entertainment, had been further delayed until April 8th/11th in North America/Europe. The reasons given were to allow for further polish.
However, in an article on Barron’s titled “EA’s Calculated Titanfall Slip”, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, along with Nick McKay and Nick Citrin, believed that “the Titanfall delays reflect revenue management and an effort to maximize next-generation console sales, as opposed to any quality issues. We view the game as the first must-have for the Xbox One, and believe that it is in the best interests of Microsoft and Electronic Arts (near- and long-term) to maximize next-gen console sales, particularly with the industry’s current-gen sales below expectations recently.”
Pachter also believed this mean less risk for EA’s fiscal year. “The shift of Titanfall on the Xbox 360 gives us great confidence in Electronic Arts’ ability to deliver upside to first-quarter results, and limits execution risk in fiscal 2015. We believe the delay means that Electronic Arts will deliver significant upside to our current estimates, which are Street-high for the first quarter; we also believe that first-quarter EPS upside to consensus estimates is likely, and will cause many investors to view execution risk as minimal.”
What are your thoughts on the same? Do you think Titanfall was delayed simply to allow for higher revenues on the Xbox One and PC? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.