Sales for PS2 and Xbox games has fallen during 2005 compared to 2004, mostly due to the hardware manufacturers’ new consoles being launched at the end of 2005 and during 2006.
Digital Illusions’ game Battlefield 2 Modern Combat for Xbox and PS2 has sold approximately 1 million copies to retailers until December 31 2005.
- Sell-in of Battlefield 2 Modern Combat to stores went according to plan, but the game hasn’t sold through like we had hoped for, said Patrick Söderlund, CEO at Digital Illusions.
- Battlefield 2 Modern Combat has to sell-in in more than 4 million copies to retailers before Digital Illusions gets any royalty. The high royalty barrier is due to the big development budget and the shared development between the Company and EA.
- Because of the high royalty barrier we haven’t calculated with any considerable revenues from Battlefield 2 Modern Combat, besides what we already received for the actual development. This means the financial variables for the Company is not affected to any major extent, said Patrick Söderlund, CEO at Digital Illusions.
In the middle of October 2005 Digital Illusions signed an agreement to license the rights to Electronic Arts' studio in the UK to develop the Playstation Portable, Xbox and PS2 versions of its untitled game with release in 2006/ 2007. Due to falling sales for games to Xbox and PS2 EA and Digital Illusions have decided to cancel the development of the product for Xbox and PS2.
The Playstation Portable version of the game will continue to be developed by EA UK and the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions by Digital Illusions’ Stockholm studio. The launch of the untitled game is now set to 2007.
Digital Illusions’ expansion pack Battlefield 2 Special Forces was launched in late November 2005. It was the Company’s first product sold directly via EA’s homepage to end-consumers, as well as through retailers. Until December 31 2005 approximately 50.000 copies pf the product were sold online.