DICE: EA Gets "Too Much Crap for Not Being Innovative"

[Krantos]

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't have a problem with EA's sequels. I don't play the sports, so it really doesn't affect me at all.

Now their other practices....

I can't really disagree here. EVERY developer/publisher is overdoing the sequels these days. EA is hardly the worst in regards to that.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Lack of innovation is something basically everyone is guilty of nowadays. It's like Jim Sterling pointed out. EA isn't the only one doing bad business practices, it the fact that they just do it so blatantly and gleefully.

 

[Immsys]

Yeah, yeah, I know, they're a business, and businesses exist to make money. I don't think EA are supervillains or anything, and I understand that most companies would love to be in the position I described as well; what I was trying to express is that isn't a good thing, and we shouldn't give companies brownie points for being what they are, and given what EA seems to be, they'd probably have the sheer tenacity to try.

We shouldn't like or accept what EA is. EA is a company run by people that don't care about games, don't really understand the fanbase, and will never attempt to push any kind of bar or give the customer any concession without a pricetag, not unless they're dragged into it first. Again, they're not unique in that aspect, but they seem to embody it better then any other game company. I don't hate EA, and I definitely don't think they're the worst company in America, but what they are is something to be fought, and I'm sure as hell not going to give them a pat on the back for not giving a shit about me or my favorite hobby.

That is all true. Reading my post back, it sounds horribly bitter and unnecessarily confrontational, sorry about that. You have a point, bugbears are tolerable but nothing to celebrate, I suppose the grey area is how much you can change the situation by disagreeing with it. Still worthy of debate though

 

[tmande2nd]

Well I smell bullshit.

EA sport games are the same year after year after year, with only better graphics separating them.
Every time they buy a new IP they destroy it and turn it into a bland piece of crap no one likes.

EA keeps thinking if they can get the overlap in a Venn Diagram, then they can get both circles. IT DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT.

What is worse is that they never accept blame for what happens, and destroy the company.
I knew Bioware was dead the moment EA got its meat hooks in.

Dragon Age and Mass Effect went from great RPGs to bland action games that meant nothing.
If I ever ran a game company I would tell EA to go sodomize themselves with a flag pole if they tried asking to buy out my company.

Damn. I am down to Bethesda for my WRPG fix now.

 

[electric method]

Lol. This is unreal. Defending a publisher that is notorious for "broadening the appeal" of almost all it's games and saying they are innovative. Also that they allow studios to try "new and different" things. Oh the irony.

Perhaps someone should tell this DICE exec that "innovation" isn't remaking/spinning off/sequeling Battlefield 12 times. And, perhaps that, "trying new things" isn't making Battlefield 3 almost a carbon copy clone of the CoD franchise, then point him in the direction of EA Sports. Right after that, send him over to BioWare Austin. Yanno, the folks that made the most expensive WoW clone?

What is it with people that work for EA? Do they forget that there is a ton of information out there that is in direct conflict with their "defense" of EA?

 

[thethird0611]

So their whole argument is side stepping the accusation?

Look, I have no problem with yearly sports games or bi-yearly battlefield games. I love me some battlefield and ive got a friend who buys each Madden day 1. If people like it, people like it. Its a good thing.

But no, he is stating innovation to essentially mean upgrading games. Yes, it is innovation, but its no the innovation we are calling you out on. Armored Kill for battlefield, freaking innovation for the battlefield team, not for the industry.

So yes, in essence, he is right. In the real argument, he is dead wrong.

 

[Kurenaino]

Wait, that's what EA's getting crap about? Because I could have sworn that it was being an evil umbrella organization that uses draconian methods to punish and control paying customers and for adding tacked on, extraneous multiplayers in order to suck more money out of people.

Phew, good thing it's not THAT!

 

[Mortuorum]

Then where's Mirror's Edge 2? DICE were working on it, but instead we're seeing countless add-ons to Battlefield 3 and announcements for Battlefield 4 already.

They haven't figured out a way to tack a crappy, unnecessary multiplayer mode [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119449-EA-Turns-Its-Back-on-Single-Player-Games] onto it yet.

 

[Frostbite3789]

lull
'It's not really new, but it's innovative for people who play this series!'
That's... not really the definition of innovative guys

As someone who buys the yearly NHL games...yes it is. I hear "LOL SPORTS GAMES JUST ROSTER UPDATES!!! PEOPLE WHO BUY THEM DUM IDITS WHO HATE GAMS!" I'm sure someone who never played an NHL game before could pick up this years game and scream in my face about how it's a roster update, but from playing the demo, they completely overhauled the skating mechanics, and made that completely physics based. It feels like a completely different game from 12.

They redid goaltending. they added an entirely new 30 man online GM mode. They changed up EA Ultimate Team. But yeah, it's just a roster update. No innovation.

Also this is how it's gone ever year since 07 with the NHL series.

 

[grigjd3]

I don't care so much about innovation as I care about a game being fun to play. That's the problem I really see with EA. They buy up all these franchises that I enjoy and destroy them.

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

EA IS very innovative: they keep thinking up new and exciting ways to rip us off.

I wish I could agree with that much, but even the methods that they rip us off always seem to be copied from other companies.

 

[Broken Blade]

The lack of proper innovation is pretty low on the list of gripes I have with EA. My biggest thing might be how they chew up other good companies and slowly turn them into crap.

 

[Kargathia]

Granted, it's a valid point, but with how everyone talks and criticizes EA, "not being innovative" is usually the last thing I hear.

They tend to run out of breath long before they get to that, but it certainly is on the list.

 

[CortexReaver]

Come on, stop talking and give us Mirror's Edge 2 already.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Epic denial. The only innovations EA has brought to the table is how to be the evilest conglomerate of parasites in the history of ever.

Do you guys even know how many companies they've devoured?

 

[Tiamat666]

DICE general manager, Karl-Magnus Troedsson, thinks EA's reputation for churning out sequels is ill deserved.

Since 2002, DICE has released twelve Battlefield titles if you include the various F2P spin-offs.

Hilarity ensues.

 

[snave]

Also, new IP =/= innovation.

Not necessarily, but a new IP does at least hold the possibility of innovating in narrative as well as mechanics. Within a single genre, I'd pick a new IP over an established one I have previously disliked any day.

 

[lacktheknack]

Then where's Mirror's Edge 2? DICE were working on it, but instead we're seeing countless add-ons to Battlefield 3 and announcements for Battlefield 4 already.

They haven't figured out a way to tack a crappy, unnecessary multiplayer mode [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119449-EA-Turns-Its-Back-on-Single-Player-Games] onto it yet.

To be fair, Mirror's Edge could have a truly amazing multiplayer if they don't overload it with features, but just focus on giving it lots of maps.

If... if...

 

[rayen020]

Yes they do innovate, but only very slightly. Also EA occasionally buys an IP and resells it minus the innovation that made it so good in the first place. *cough*Mass Effect*cough*

 

[Terramax]

Not my first complaint about EA, but whatever.

My artistic problems with EA aren't so much that it's "not innovative", more that it's creatively bankrupt. Retooling a franchise from one genre to make it more like your biggest sellers in the hopes of dragging along the IP's fans and bringing in the fans of the homogeneous pap you already release is a nakedly cynical cash grab with no respect for buyers, and has less artistic merit than the blood spatter pattern at a murder scene.

"Not innovative" is painting multiple paintings that are similar. EA is running around the art gallery and painting over everyone else's stuff.

Sorry, I'm not quite certain what you mean, can you give an example? Do you mean kinda like how Nintendo drag all their franchises into a kart racer or 2D beat em up?