Sept 17 (Reuters) - Videogame publisher Electronic Arts ( EA )

said it expects to achieve the high end of its annual

bookings forecast and unveiled the next installment of its

multi-player shooter game "Battlefield" at its investor day

conference on Tuesday.

The new title will mark a return to the modern-day setting,

after three consecutive games set in different time periods,

competing with Activision Blizzard's best-selling "Call of Duty"

franchise.

EA's bet on the more-than-two-decades-old franchise comes as

consumers have cut back on discretionary spending in the past

year, choosing instead to stick with popular games as stubborn

inflation weighed on budgets.

In July, EA announced it expects fiscal 2025 bookings

between $7.30 billion and $7.70 billion.

The company also announced an "EA Sports" app to capitalize

on the loyal audiences of its sports titles such as "EA FC",

"Madden NFL" and the newly released "College Football". The app

will act as a social platform that combines sports content,

messaging and gaming, all centered on global football, it said.

Additionally, EA announced it is partnering with Amazon's ( AMZN )

MGM Studios to produce a film based on its simulation

role-playing game, "The Sims", adding that it expects to double

its annual bookings for the game in the next five years.

The global success of Sony's ( SONY ) "The Last of Us"

television series last year has spurred Hollywood studios and

gaming publishers to green-light film and TV adaptations of

popular videogame intellectual properties.

The success of these adaptations is not always guaranteed,

as evidenced by the recent box office disappointment of the film

based on Take-Two Interactive's "Borderlands", which

released to poor critical reviews last month.

The film grossed over $32 million in worldwide box office

revenue against its estimated budget of around $115 million,

according to data from film website IMDb.