The Last Jedi DLC Comes Today + Poor Sales Cut Profit Estimates Sharply

Today is a big day for Star Wars: Battlefront II with the arrival of the free DLC, The Last Jedi Season. The new content is perfectly timed to coincide with this week's cinema release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The DLC will continue the story of the protagonist, Iden Versio, though as a much older character remembering events of the past. In addition, Finn and Phasma join up as unlockable characters.

Players have chosen a side and will work to edge their faction closer to victory in order to earn additional rewards. In addition, the following will be added:

• Crait Galactic Assault map
• D'Qar Starfighter Assault map
• the Tallie's RZ-A2 A-Wing starfighter
• Star Wars: Battlefront II Resurrection story content
• Daily challenges
• Weekly faction challenge
• Weekend challenge
• the Galactic Assault Sunday event
• the Starfighter Assault Sunday event
• Holiday playlist

You can read the details on the Star Wars: Battlefront II site.

In other Star Wars: Battlefront II news, Bank of America - Merrill Lynch has reduced the price target and profit estimate for EA due to poor sales of SWBF2. The decision was partially based on the ongoing controversy over loot boxes and the closure of Visceral Studios. 

Battlefront II was originally projected to sell 14M copies, though it appears that that number is closer to 12.5M, crucial given the November sales figures up to and including "Black Friday". This reduces its 2018 earnings per share estimate by about six cents per share. 2019 per share forecasts are also down from $5.14 to $5.02 per share.

According to CNBC:

"EA has had a challenging C4Q, beginning with the shutdown of Visceral Games and now Battlefront 2 (BF2) controversy," analyst Justin Post wrote in a note to clients Monday entitled "Lowering ests for BF2; Stock weakness sets up for a better 2018." "As controversy subsides post-holidays, we expect investor interest to pick up ahead of a stronger FY19 title slate, renewed digital optimism, and operating leverage potential. Battlefront MTX relaunch and FIFA World Cup content launch are key 1H events."

Despite this end of the year slip up, EA's stock is up 34% to date, significantly higher than the S&P 500 gain of only 18%.