Analysts from leading financial services company, Cowen Group, have ended up lowering their rating of Electronic Arts’ shares, stating that they believe Titanfall 2‘s sales will be “substantially disappointing.” In a note to clients, Cowen analyst Doug Creutz wrote that the game’s below-expectation sales will be “enough to offset upside from Battlefield 1.”
The company predicts Titanfall 2 to sell somewhere between 5-6 million units as opposed to the original estimate of 9 million. Important to note that Cowen doesn’t associate its low expectations from the game to its quality. Indeed, Titanfall 2 has been well-received by critics. However, as the company rightfully points out, Respawn Entertainment’s shooter got sandwiched in between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare‘s launch – a move that Cowen believe is the equivalent of EA “shooting its own foot off.”
We suspect EA believed that by launching two shooters next to Call of Duty it could put a large dent in its biggest competitor, but instead EA appears to have wound up shooting its own foot off.
Titanfall 2 released just yesterday. It remains to be seen how well it performs. In the meantime, Cowen has boosted its sales expectations for Battlefield 1 from 14 million units to 16.5 million.
