"We stand up for the cause, because I think those people who don’t understand it, well, you have two choices: either accept it or don’t buy the game," he said. "I’m fine with either or." Söderlund went on to say that the development team itself pushed for women in "Battlefield V". In September, after the game was delayed by a month, DICE revealed they are planning on "dialing back" the character customization to attempt to "give more authenticity to the game", saying "We want players to be excited about customizing their characters with authentic gear. We dialed it back a bit. It was pretty crazy, we wanted to offer some authenticity, and that’s important to us, that’s important to our players.” In August, the Cowen Group, gaming industry analysts, reported that pre-order sales of "Battlefield V" were "weak," being 85% behind those of "". According to review aggregator Metacritic, "Battlefield V" received "generally favorable" reviews for the PC and Xbox One versions and "mixed or average" reviews for the PlayStation 4 version. In "Game Informer"s 8/10 review, they wrote, "Ultimately, "Battlefield V" will be defined by the success or failure of the pending Combined Arms cooperative mode, Firestorm battle royale mode, and whether or not DICE can continually provide new and engaging content." "GamesRadar+" gave the game 3.5/5 stars, praising the gameplay but criticizing the online multiplayer, writing: "Not as drastic a change up as its WW1 predecessor, nor as wild or wondrous, "Battlefield 5"s deliberative design sidelines its strengths as a simulative sandbox." In November, it was reported that "Battlefield V" sold fewer than half the physical copies that "Battlefield 1" did upon its launch during the same period of time. The game sold 7.3 million copies by the end of 2018. On February 5, 2019, EA's CEO Andrew Wilson announced that the game ultimately failed to meet sales expectations, blaming the game's marketing as well as their focus on developing a single-player campaign instead of a battle royale mode, a genre which had gained recent widespread popularity. Wilson also highlighted "Battlefield V"s long development cycle, and release in a month of strong competition. EA's stock prices also faced its worst drop in more than a decade during its third quarter of the fiscal year, declining by around 18 percent, which EA attributed in part to the poor sales of the game.