Seems that Battlefield 4 didn't sell as well as EA had hoped it would. What then is the cause of this? According to the publisher it's the next-gen transition that is the cause of the below-estimated sales, not the problems and bugs the game has had.
Of all the things related to Battlefield 4, the problems the game has had since release are some of the most talked about. November saw DICE having to compensate players who hadn't been able to play the game even several weeks after release because of server issues and crashes that stopped them joining games in progress and December saw most of the month dedicated to dealing with on-going problems. There was even talk of lawsuits being brought against EA for the game's unpredictable levels of playability. Yet this apparently had nothing to do with why the game didn't sell as well as predicted.
"Shortly after Battlefield 4 went live, we began hearing from some players in the community who were experiencing issues with the game. The Battlefield team acted swiftly to address the issues through game updates, and they continue to make refinements as part of our live service to ensure a great game experience for all Battlefield 4 players." CEO Andrew Wilson said.
They point to other big-name EA titles such as FIFA 14 and Need for Speed Rivals which also undersold to support their reasoning in pinning the blame solely upon the next-gen console release as the cause.
PC sales were also up, with a 157% increase on last year's total, which EA attributes to Battlefield 4's release onto PC; and with around 1.6 Premium Memberships sold despite the problems, it does seem that EA have still had some success from the game.