EA's Moore Blasts VideoGamer Dead Space Story

[Karloff]

EA's Moore Blasts VideoGamer Dead Space Story

Peter Moore describes Dead Space rumor as "standard, shoddy website journalism recipe."

Not that long ago VideoGamer.com posted a story about the possible cancellation of the Dead Space franchise [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122502-Update-Rumor-Poor-Sales-May-Have-Killed-Dead-Space], citing the say-so of an unnamed informant; "a source familiar with the unannounced project," was how VideoGamer phrased it. A later update indicated that the story was false, and EA's Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore has since taken to the GamesIndustry.biz forums to vent his displeasure.

Singling out VideoGamer.com by name, Moore described the article as "standard, shoddy website journalism recipe, born out of a desperate need to increase click-thru rates to support advertising revenue." He accused VideoGamer.com of deliberately inciting vitriol to increase revenue, and went on to say that it was part of a cynical "rinse and repeat" ongoing strategy.

"My issue is not the rejection of community feedback (we get that in bucketloads all day long and we learn from it in real time)," says Moore, "rather it was the fabrication of a story in order to generate controversy and ultimately readership."

Sales targets [http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/05/report-dead-space-4-canceled-after-poor-dead-space-3-sales/] are at the root of the Dead Space problem. EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said when the targets were announced that "ultimately you need to get to audience sizes of around five million to really continue to invest in an IP like Dead Space," adding that "anything less that that, and it becomes quite difficult financially given how expensive it is to make games and market them." Without a sales number announcement, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that the five million target was, or will be, hit.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-03-05-dead-space-4-cancelled-as-series-sales-decline-report#comment-62914]


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[Legion]

I read the title as "EA's Moore Blasts Video Games Dead Space Story" and was prepared to comment on how he was probably not going to be EA's Moore for much longer.

I can see his irritation to be honest. Although EA didn't help by telling everybody that they need 5 million games sold to justify continuing it, game journalists need more integrity than spreading lazy, tabloid journalism than that.

 

[IronMit]

http://www.videogamer.com/reviews/dead_space_3_review.html
They gave it 5/10

lol

Maybe another reason Moore singled them out?

 

[MetalMagpie]

Well - let's be fair here - ad-funded websites are motivated to do pretty much anything to improve their click-through rates!

I can see how frustrating lazy journalism must be for big brands, but calling out an individual site seems a bit like stamping on a cockroach. Satisfying, but ultimately pointless. There's plenty more of them.

 

[ASnogarD]

A lot of hypocrisy in this article ... EA complaining about someone doing unpopular things to increase revenue.

... its not like EA would ever stoop so low as to put money above ethics is it.
They dont have controversial adverts to rile up the public, or take petty pokes at the competition (then blatantly copy what they poked the competition for doing (map packs split communities eh? EA ? Sales hurt the industry eh ? EA ?)).

Bah, its like some low life criminal complaining when they get robbed, its true that being robbed is not nice but when it happens to a robber you cant help but smirk in a nasty manner.

 

[Dryk]

Didn't they say that they approached EA for comment before running the story and they declined? IF that's true then EA blasting them for it now is dumb

 

[CriticalMiss]

A lot of hypocrisy in this article ... EA complaining about someone doing unpopular things to increase revenue.

... its not like EA would ever stoop so low as to put money above ethics is it.
They dont have controversial adverts to rile up the public, or take petty pokes at the competition (then blatantly copy what they poked the competition for doing (map packs split communities eh? EA ? Sales hurt the industry eh ? EA ?)).

Bah, its like some low life criminal complaining when they get robbed, its true that being robbed is not nice but when it happens to a robber you cant help but smirk in a nasty manner.

My thoughts exactly. It's the pot calling the kettle black, but instead of black it is the bilious hue of greed.

You used to be cool Peter Moore!

 

[VanQ]

I wasn't willing to take that article as fact since it did come from an anonymous source, I'll believe it if Dead Space never gets another game. I find it ragingly hilarious that EA is talking down at them for using unpopular methods to increase income. Because it's not like EA have had their hand in every crevice of that barrel already.

 

[Fasckira]

Totally agree with Moore. Hate it when sites generate bullshit or start twisting rumours into a frenzy.

 

[Erttheking]

So when EA says that they're going to kill the game if it doesn't sell 5 million copies and it doesn't even sell 1, someone saying that the company is probably going to get the ax is wrong somehow?

 

[Lightknight]

I don't see anywhere that he specifically said the rumor was false. This could just be PR while the game is still selling. Bad news like this can significantly hurt revenue and this could just be damage control. He seemed to indicate that the story was fabricated, but keep in mind that this doesn't make things false.

What's funny is that EA doesn't understand ROI. You invest a certain amount of money in a project based on the expected return on investment. If a game absolutely costs more money than you expect to get in return then this is a bad investment. This doesn't mean you don't make Dead Space 3. This just means that you budget the game appropriately. You don't spend super-duper AAA money if you can't get that much back. They did this without even thinking, assuming that throwing money at it would change things and that's not always the case. There is no reason why they had to spend so much on this title that it'd take 5 million sales to justify investing. It's all about the return on the dollar. If you double your money on a smaller investment vs. getting 1/3rd return on a larger investment, the smaller investment is still a better deal per dollar. But EA is huge and can make both investments, so it's not like they were choosing between things.

*sigh*

 

[Eppy (Bored)]

Hey, you know how it goes: When you royally mess up one of your properties, give it unattainable goals and sink an entire franchise because of sheer greed, blame the press! It's a time-honored tradition. Politicians have been doing it for years!

 

[R.Nevermore]

Naturally this all turned to EA hate despite them doing nothing wrong here. Cheap gaming journalism like that NEEDS to be called out and attacked, it's insulting to the games industry, insulting to the publishers, developers and most insulting to the customers and readers.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Unethical gaming journalism vs Electronic Arts. This is like watching a knife fight between Stalin and Hitler and trying to figure out who to root for.

 

[Slash2x]

Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah... except everyone knows they're not going to make another one.
Basically...

Everybody knows this is going to end up being true, they've said so before the game even came out [http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Says-Dead-Space-3-Has-Sell-5-Million-Survive-43629.html], they've recently closed Visceral Montreal [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/02/21/report-army-of-two-developer-suffers-layoffs.aspx], who were likely working on or at least involved in the title following Dead Space 3's release. And them not boasting about their sales numbers is also a telltale sign of what's about to happen. According to this: http://www.vgchartz.com/game/50254/dead-space-3/ they've even sold under 1 Million units Retail in total.

Just because EA isn't "ready to announce" something, since they still have DLC to sell and don't want it to negatively impact that, doesn't mean it isn't true.

And it's EAs fault that this happened mainly, they took an interesting franchise and made it worse almost all around by adding the unneeded CoOp Mode and generally putting more focus on Multiplayer and making it even more like the last Mass Effect or Gears of War than it already was instead of sticking to the original formula, in the hopes that it will get "mass market appeal".
Top that off with Day-1 DLC and Microtransactions in a SinglePlayer game for the first time and here we are.

...What he said.
Also:
rather it was the fabrication of a story in order to generate controversy and ultimately readership.
*cough* Mass Effect 3 *cough*

^^ All this and I almost feel like he is trying to draw attention away [http://www.gamechup.com/ea-refuses-to-refund-user-for-simcity-threatens-account-ban/ ] from something else that people are mad about..... I mean we all know that a good argument and calling people names will make everyone forget about another issue right? Right?