Wall Street taking notice of Battlefield 4 issues as EA stock falls

[UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, an EA corporate communications representative reached out to GameSpot with a new statement that indicates work on future projects continues unabated.

"The work being done to stabilize Battlefield 4 does not impact our release schedule for future titles," the representative said.

The original story is below.

One day after Electronic Arts put all DICE projects on hold--including new Mirror's Edge and Star Wars: Battlefront games--the publisher's share value fell more than 6.5 percent today. Shares are currently trading at $20.81 after closing yesterday at $22.34.

Development on those DICE projects and future Battlefield 4 expansions will remain on hold until EA and DICE can fix the numerous technical issues that are plaguing Battlefield 4's online multiplayer mode.

In a note to investors today, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia said the longer the server issues persist, the more financial pain EA is likely to endure. According to Bhatia, Battlefield 4 sell-through so far is down substantially compared to Battlefield 3 last year.

"The server issues further exacerbate this and create risk to full-year estimates," he said.

EA today released patches for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, while a general stability game update is currently in the works for a release sometime later. Addressing the game's issues, EA said yesterday, "We know many of our players are frustrated, and we feel your pain. We will not stop until this is right."