During yesterday's Q4 2018 earnings call, Electronic Arts indirectly confirmed that Anthem, Bioware's highly anticipated new IP, will release in March 2019. We knew it would launch in early 2019, but now Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen revealed the month, too.
In the case of Anthem, the real issue is, the game will be shipped in the last quarter of the year and in the last month of that quarter, meaning we'll probably have limited restocking of the title, even if it's extremely successful. Since it is new IP, we're being conservative in how we're thinking about it. We're very excited about the game. It's extremely unique, and I think players are going to really enjoy playing it, but we're careful not to put too large of a forecast in there. And clearly, it will impact this year as well as next year as we not only continue to sell more into the next year but start rolling out the live services associated with that game.
Earlier in the call, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wilson had talked a bit more about the game. He even seemed to suggest some sort of early access release, though it's an admittedly vague statement.
Later in the fiscal year, we will launch our stunning and ambitious new IP, Anthem. Every dimension of this game will offer something entirely new for a wide audience of players. From a new universe with unique stories that BioWare is creating to the cooperative gameplay to the epic and beautiful environment that constantly evolves around players, Anthem is a fundamentally social experience and will open new ways for fans to join the community and play early, enabling us to shape and refine the game with their input and feedback. We're deeply excited to launch this brand new franchise and equally excited to work with our players to make Anthem a game they can't wait to play and share with their friends for years to come.
Anthem should feature prominently in EA Play, the E3 showcase event which is set to air on June 9th at 11 AM Pacific Time.
Credits for the earnings call transcript go to Seeking Alpha.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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