EA Wants "To Be 90 Plus Metacritic at Everything"

The Wooster

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Jul 15, 2008
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EA Wants "To Be 90 Plus Metacritic at Everything"


EA wants Origin to be the Facebook to Steam's MySpace.

Despite being the brainchild of one of the biggest publishers in the business, EA's Origin service is still playing catch up with the established market leader, Steam. Valve's Gabe Newell recently said that Origin has yet to do anything "super-well," but EA's senior VP of global eCommerce, David DeMartini, claims the fact that Newell is even talking about Origin is a good sign.

"Gabe was quick to point out in the first time he ever spoke about Origin publicly that he didn't think we'd achieved that yet," he told MCV. "I would agree with that - we're on a path of constant improvement. I didn't expect to be able to out-feature Steam within the first 12 months. But I'm quite optimistic we will differentiate ourselves as a service. We've built the foundation and now we are starting to add value to the service off of that foundation."

DeMartini accepts that Origin isn't doing anything particularly new, but argues that it's a worthwhile product nonetheless.

"If MySpace had stayed the one answer in social networking and no one switched to Facebook, then we'd all be stuck on MySpace right now and we wouldn't have had the Facebook phenomenon," he said.

"There are better mousetraps that ultimately get built out of this innovation," he continued, "and the only way you get to the innovation is to have other people try and do a better version of what someone has previously done. And that's what we're attempting to do on Origin."

He went on to list a few hard numbers about the Origin service; Over 12 million have downloaded it so far, it's picked up 50 partners in the space of a year and it made an impressive $140 million last year, a 400% increase of the year before.

"EA is in a really interesting place," he added. "We have this bar that is set so high, so that whether it is any of our games or services, we want to be 90 plus Metacritic at everything.

"Origin is moving in that direction. We are not there yet. We understand that. But we are going to get there soon."

Source: MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ea-origin-our-aim-is-to-be-a-better-version-of-steam/]

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Gearhead mk2

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Aug 1, 2011
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I don't know wether to laugh at them for their stupidy, rage at them for their arrogance, or just go "meh" and watch as their company blows up from the inside out.
 

Jack and Calumon

Digimon are cool.
Dec 29, 2008
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Oh this looks familiar. EA bad mouthing other people's products without actually making their own better. Steam is superior in a lot of ways EA, and unless you offer better things than them, in prices, in offers, in service and in better EULA terms, you haven't got anything close to Steam.

Also, 90+ everything on Metacritic? Maybe if you stop working your devs off the face of the earth, I could say "Yeah, that's possible", but since we're getting another generic FPS this year that looks no different to last years (Seriously, Medal of Honour looks too much like Battlefield, but more confusing, somehow), removing the horror from Dead Space for action and generally rushing your developers, that's not possible.

Calumon: If being nice is everything, why are they so rich? : (
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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And it's that attitude that (in part) makes people hate them.

Simply put: they won't be better than Valve. They can't be. They're not a private company, and so they have far, far less maneuverability. The best thing they can do is learn to market themselves correctly, and "we won't do big sales because they cheapen IPs" and "we want to be 90+ Metacritic on everything" is not the way to do it.
 

Ragsnstitches

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Dec 2, 2009
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"over 12 million downloaded it"

Yeah, because you essentially stuffed it down their throats with the major releases of Battlefield and TOR Mass Effect 3. I wonder if your sources can tell you how many deleted the application and vowed never to use it ever again.

Unlike Valve, which offers matchmaking (not amazing, but alright), Community (good for messaging and organising events) and great customer support, all Origin offers is another platform for buying expensive games.

The Social platform analogy is retarded, because they are Free to anyone. The best way to appeal to larger audiences in the game industry is by being price competitive and having a user friendly service. But no, EA will enforce exclusivity and feels that fire sales "cheapen IP". It will also assume its potential customers are too stupid to formulate a coherent opinion, and will therefore tell us why we dislike them.

In fact, GoG, with their good faith business, will likely outperform Origin in the long run, simply by being nice.
 
Dec 14, 2009
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Wow.

I can't actually believe this.

It's like EA have no idea how much people hate them :D

They're the Cartman of the gaming world.
 

Furioso

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Jun 16, 2009
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Daystar Clarion said:
Wow.

I can't actually believe this.

It's like EA have no idea how much people hate them :D

They're the Cartman of the gaming world.
They are similar to Cartman aren't they... hmm. They should make a South Park episode where Cartman teams up with the head of EA to cause all sorts of asshole-ish shenanigans
 

AJax_21

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May 6, 2011
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Using metacritic scores as the standard your company should strive for is incredibly sad.
 

Dryk

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Dec 4, 2011
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So you've decided to publish with EA
You have a year to get your game out and if you don't break 90 on Metacritic you're fired. Have fun

Redingold said:
And don't forget, you've gotta sell 5 million units or you won't get to make a sequel!
That's the kicker isn't it. Wanting everyone to get them critical acclaim AND sales.
 

uncanny474

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Jan 20, 2011
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Jack and Calumon said:
removing the horror from Dead Space for action
Wait, Dead Space is a HORROR game?

No, I call bullshit. There's no way that someone could fail that bad at making a horror game. It's quite clearly an action game, albiet one with an interesting ammo-management system that does seem to be taken from the horror genre.

Any game where the primary weapon severs limbs cannot be a horror game. Hell, if you have a weapon at ALL, you're drifting from that spot.

Not to be another of Yahtzee's gherkin-polishers, but horror, whether it's in a movie, a video game, or a book, is about pacing and suspense. Slasher flicks are not horror movies, Halo is not a horror franchise, and saying that Dead Space was horror is an insult to the genre. Hell, speaking of Halo, even THAT'S better-paced than Dead Space.

Oh, and a bit on EA and Origin itself just to make sure I don't get a warning for "off-topic"

This is right on the tails of them refusing to change their ways at E3, and being called the "Worst Company in America" at a time when corporate greed is at an all-time high.

*thump* *thump* *thump*

Just... stop trying, EA. Nobody is falling for it.
 

gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
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Comparing social networking to digital distribution...

I doubt im the only one who thinks that theres something fundamentally wrong with that.

itsthesheppy said:
Metacritic is maybe the worst thing going on in the video game world today.
No, thats Games for Windows Live.
 

Shoggoth2588

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Aug 31, 2009
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...hey EA...is it wise to refer to your service as a mousetrap? Also as many people have pointed out, Metacritic isn't really the best place to go for scores considering how often those scores get thrown out of whack from legions of angry people.

Also...even if nobody had switched from myspace to facebook, they would have likely switched over from myspace to twitter. Just thinking out loud with that one though.
 

Redingold

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Mar 28, 2009
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Dryk said:
So you've decided to publish with EA
You have a year to get your game out and if you don't break 90 on Metacritic you're fired. Have fun
And don't forget, you've gotta sell 5 million units or you won't get to make a sequel!
 

FEichinger

Senior Member
Aug 7, 2011
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Shoggoth2588 said:
...hey EA...is it wise to refer to your service as a mousetrap? Also as many people have pointed out, Metacritic isn't really the best place to go for scores considering how often those scores get thrown out of whack from legions of angry people.

Also...even if nobody had switched from myspace to facebook, they would have likely switched over from myspace to twitter. Just thinking out loud with that one though.
That was my first thought when I read it over on GI. Why on Earth a goddamn "mousetrap" analogy?

I'm betting EA will have a massive Metacritic-Bombing on their way within the next 48 hours. "You want 90+? Take 10-!"