EA now expects 13m Star Wars Battlefront sales by March 2016

Electronic Arts expects to sell 13 million units of Star Wars Battlefront by the time the fiscal year ends in March 2016.

This is markedly higher than the 10 million units the company has previously offered, and the change will have delighted investors listening in to the call with EA's executive team yesterday. CEO Andrew Wilson stated that those 13 million units are sell-in rather than sell-through, but it nevertheless displays great confidence in the product.

That confidence is as a direct result of the Battlefront beta, which attracted 9.5 million players in total.

"What we have seen is that Star Wars is bringing in two groups that are very important groups to us," Wilson said. "One are gamers that have lapsed, traditionally who have been big gamers in the past and maybe haven't played for a while, and it's certainly been a catalyst for those people to come back into the gaming universe as it relates to console. And two, onboarding a new younger age demographic."

EA COO Peter Moore also highlighted the role that the new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens played in raising awareness of the Battlefront beta. Given that the film will hit cinemas within a month of the game's launch, EA may well be expecting a similarly beneficial aftershock.

"Now if Han Solo was here, we'd say great but, 'Don't get cocky, kid.' Our ability to be able to deliver against this is solid and the preorders are excellent, so you've heard from both Blake {Jorgensen, CFO] and Andrew. We feel very good about 13 million units."