EA Talks Risks

[Logan Westbrook]

EA Talks Risks

EA UK boss Keith Ramsdale talks about risks and industry growth.

Keith Ramsdale, head of EA' s UK branch, has spoken about the importance of taking a chance on new IPs to enable the industry to grow.

"I think there is an inherent risk in new IP. There always has been. But there's risk in iterating and not innovating ... Economically it may be harder for smaller developers to do so without the backing of a large publisher, maybe. But no, I think in a creative industry new IP and risk taking is a fundamental part of the industry growing."

I imagine that some of you, ok, most of you, are scoffing at the idea of EA being innovators, but let us not forget that they released two new high-profile IPs last year, suggesting a change in EA's corporate culture. When asked about the performance of Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, Ramsdale looked at the big picture:

"We give ourselves high expectations. So when you don't hit those high expectations of course there's an element of disappointment. But when you step back and look at actual sell through, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space performed well. They definitely set themselves up as franchises we think we can iterate on. If we felt there wasn't another game we wouldn't be doing them."

Not that much of a change then.

Source: VideoGamer [http://www.videogamer.com/news/risks_are_required_for_industry_to_grow_says_ea.html]


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[Cpt_Oblivious]

So they're saying they'll innovate just so they can iterate and put off innovation for a while.
From now on, EA really suck. If I was Mr. Ramsdale I'd want to get out at least one good, new IP per year.

More of what's good is ok, but something new and good is a lot more fun.

 

[Merteg]

Neither of those games were very good, in my opinion at least.

 

[Death-Sheep]

Oh my... I havent played a good EA games since the first Battlefeild, or The Sims. Ugh! How the heck can they screw up that mutch?

 

[cleverlymadeup]

i think both games were pretty good and they should try new things more often. it might get more games sold cause frankly depending on the type of game, sequels suck

 

[Sir-Tdb]

Dead space was a decent game,
mirrors edge was more for the person that liked that sort of thing.

 

[bodyklok]

So basically, EA say that releasing new IPs is risky. But essential to industry growth? I don't agree entirely, but I do see where they are coming from.

 

[Therumancer]

I thought Dead Space was pretty good, but needed some work. They definatly put some work into that with "No Known Survivors" and the animated movie (which suffered from not being well coordinated with the game itself).

If they could find a way to make Dead Space less linear, and remove the glaring "fourth wall" breaches it would be the best attempt at space action-horror ever done. When I speak of "foruth wall" breaches I am talking about things like the collection of money which you use to purchuse weapons and upgrades. At the very beginning finding the plasma cutter was kind of atmospheric, but from that point onwards when your buying stuff, including military ordinance and upgraded exoskeletons, from bloody "shop replicator/dispensers" you have to wonder why someone in charge didn't just turn them all free from the bridge and produce whatever the heck they needed.

Add to this the fact that despite the proliferation of trained soldiers and perfectly effective (at least for you) weapons at one point the crisis continues makes you go "huh"?

Basically it suffered from some horrendous writing, despite all attempts by fanboys to justify it.

Dead Space, like Prototype, is a perfect example of a decent game that could have been turned into a superb game if they had bothered to invest money in the writing and
development of the concepts as opposed to just the artwork and game mechanics.

As far as "Mirror's Edge" goes, that is a game series that needs to be shot in the head. I give them kudos for wanting to experiment, but at some points you need to just admit that something is simply a retarded idea.

I pretty much imagine that some idiot in marketing caught on to the over-use of the term "Parkour" and realized that "those kids today think it's cool". Since Parkour is basically running, jumping, and using friction/isometrics to carry yourself accross relatively flat non-horizontal surfaces in "defiance" of gravity, it pretty much consists of what video games, comic books, and guys in kung-fu movies (like Jackie Chan) had been doing for decades.

Throw out the word "Parkour", create a non-white heroine to be gritty, "urban", and hopefully draw in minority players, and then toss out some lame poorly conceived thing about running around to "resist authority" (what those dang kids are always about), and a "success" was guaranteed. I mean heck, what could go wrong with this logic?

(Please not I don't agree with it, this is simply what I believe they were thinking).

As a result we got this first person jumping trainwreck based on a "plot" that has us taking for granted that the bad guys are bad (for whatever reason... I guess clean streets are evil), and enough epic fail to fill twenty games (if EA is actually planning a sequel to this all I can say is... wow... ).

Between this game and the use/referance of the term "Parkour" in Prototype, I'm pretty much of the opinion that anyone even using the term in the international corperate game design culture should be pre-emptitvely lynched for great justice.

Every single time something starts to come into mainstream "youth" culture like that it seems people are lined up to exploit it for a quick buck, and destroy any appeal it had.

Skating only seemed to survive for all these years by basically redefining itself to where selling out was not only cool, but became part of the whole point of the games and such based on it (how shamelessly you can promote yourself being worth more than actually being a good skater for the most part..... it's kind of funny if you think about it in comparison to 80s skater culture... like 30 years ago now).

 

[thenumberthirteen]

"They definitely set themselves up as franchises we think we can iterate on."

Way to miss the point there

 

[Leftnt Sharpe]

Dead Space is one of those games that I really liked, but yet forgot about really quickly. That pretty much summed up that game: enjoyable buy forgettable. Still, it beats the hell out of a lot of games these days which are neither enjoyable nor memorable.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

"They definitely set themselves up as franchises we think we can iterate on."

Way to miss the point there

There are few things more valuable than a successful video game franchise. Creating an IP that can be built upon is just good business sense.

 

[Pandalisk]

Well i for one hope they try more risky ventures, maybe with their capital and manpower they can create something truly magnificent and will shut up all critics, myself included permanent, until they roll out the sequel to it for the 24th time.

 

[nova18]

I like EA more and more recently.
They seem to have handed their reputation for being evil over to Activision and actually started caring about the industry and consumers.

Neither of those games were very good, in my opinion at least.

Agreed, but the point still stands that EA took a chance on them instead of rejecting them for sequels to established franchises. Which, by looking at the surge of Guitar Hero expansions, seems to be the opposite of what Activision is trying to acheive.

 

[dochmbi]

Mirrors Edge was absolutely fantastic, Dead Space was mediocre, imo.

 

[TheCameraman]

What is it with all the hate towards Mirrors Edge? I liked the gameplay and I loved the art-style. It was a nice relief from all the generic first-person shooters we have nowadays.

 

[Nazrel]

Why do they call them IPs? Why not just call them games?

 

[T'Generalissimo]

It speaks a lot about EA and what they've been doing that they feel the need to point this out. Do you think they've only just figured it out and are now benevolently revealing the secret of game making to the rest of the industry? I'm glad to hear they think new IPs are important, but they should probably just shut up about it and get on with making them.

 

[messy]

Dead Space was a culmination of "borrowing" from other games but they did it bloody well and would quite like another one. One of the few games in recent game that actually scared.

Mirrors edge was a genius concept purely executed in my opinion. Really hope to see another one that's a bit more polished and the combat a little more precise (always found my self having to use that bullet time thing to survive)

So I'd like to see EA continuing in this direction