You piss off a big amount of fans by shoving SJW politics into their face. Tell them they are uneducated for not liking it. Tell them that if they don't like it, they don't have to buy it. And you think that has little to do with it? The things people tell themselves to keep the illusion alive that SJWs and their supporters are the majority, and the rest of us are just uncultured swine. That's just like Disney and SW fanboys trying to tell themselves that the insertion of SJW politics, and attacking the fans who disagree, isn't what lead to TLJ greatly underperforming and Solo flopping.

@ OP

Get woke, go broke. 

Not really that surprising, and it's not really got that much to do with a loud minority of kids on the Internet being upset at women in a WW2 videogame.

Just simply look at the history between both franchises, as well as what's releasing during that period.

Battlefield 1 launched next to arguably the worst *ever* Call of Duty game in terms of fan reception, Infinite Warfare, and still managed to get handily outsold.

The Black Ops series has always been the biggest sub-series for Call of Duty. Battlefield V is sitting in a WW2 setting a year after Call of Duty sold it to well over 20 Million people and 2 years after they were praised for originality with WW1. On top of that, they're releasing it at a completely fucking idiotic time. One week after Black Ops 4 and one week before Red Dead Redemption 2. It's gonna get eaten alive. September has Spiderman and FIFA. October has Black Ops 4 and Red Dead. November has Fallout 76. That's a lot of competition for a bland shooter doing nothing new.

1. Having women in WWII is not SJW.

2. Neither SJW's or the anti-SJW's are a majority

3. TLJ performed amazingly and Solo was badly timed.

On the front lines? Why else do you think they are there? Now obviously women did play a part in WW2, but they were not on the front lines of battle.

The lower than expected pre-orders of BFV is caused by a multitude of factors:

• Release date sandwiched between Black Ops 4 (direct competitor) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (not as direct, but still a juggernaut).
• The reveal trailer being very negatively received for being extremely un-immersive . I don't recall there was such a thing as a female soldier with a prosthetic arm wielding a nailed cricket bat in WW2. Do you?
• Patrick Söderlund giving consumers the middle finger, calling those who criticized BFV's reveal trailer to be 'uneducated' (which eventually led to some pretty funny trolling). I wonder what went through the PR team's mind that made them think that it was a good idea to let him say that.
• Piss poor marketing.

In the Soviet Union, this was the case. Not in vast quantities mind you, but it did happen. On the other hand, the trailer shown was over the top, poorly choreographed (especially the overblown action and janky camera movements). The trailer was generally ofputting, don't think the inclusion of a woman is a big factor in most people's minds (even though something can be said about her prosthetics).

Having women in a game is per definition not SJW no matter what game. Telling your fanbase who legitimately pointed out that the role of woman on the front especially among the allied forces was rather limited that they are u uneducated, however is.

In both Britain and Germany, women crewed anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, radar stations and barrage balloons to defend against enemy air attack - this was the closest they came to combat. British and American women also acted as ferry pilots, flying newly-built aircraft from the factories to the airfields

Obviously woman played an integral part in WW2 in controling the amount of casualties. The US alone enlisted 350.000 women in non combat positions. And while Russia had enlisted 800.000 women they also moved 29.5 million troops in total. The allied did enlist women especially the British but pretty much exclusively for support roles.

The ideology of the time was that women should engage in 'war work' - such as working in factories or farms - to free up the male workers to join the armed force. So where the Soviets the pilar of progesionism you might ask yourself in the 40's not really.

The Soviet Union was desperate for manpower after the great defeats of summer 1941, so they turned to womanpower instead. Women were employed as tank crew, snipers, and bomber pilots, among other roles. Sometimes they were posted to normal units alongside the men, sometimes they fought in special all-female units.

But even then there numbers where very low compared to male soldiers at the front. So now to conclude it. Gamers who complainted about historical accurucy did have a valid point. EA was right about women playing an integral part in Ww2, just not at the front but ensuring there was a country left to fight for and ensure the front could keep on fighting.

As for Star Wars for me TLJ was the final nail in the coffin, but we should await Star Wars IX is performance before we can judge the impact of TLJ and not a spin off. 

Females did serve in WW2, whether as resistance fighters in France or in some special forces. Rarely on front lines. This would be in the former categories. Many might have served in the Special Operatives Executive. The trailer is an exaggeration of the facts. I mean enemies come from all sides which is odd.

The fact that there is a female in the game isn't a problem. It's the fact that it's a female fighting on the front lines, having a prosthetic arm, and wielding a katana all at the same time. And instead of EA saying "this is our unique take and is not historically accurate of course", they go with "you guys are uneducated and sexists, accept it or don't buy the game".

Call of Duty is also tracking below expectations so that makes the "tracking 80% lower" statement even worse.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/venturebeat-non-rdr2-all-have-low-pre-orders-this-fall-bf5-below-ea-forecast-but-above-tf2-more.63418/