E.A. is destroying the gaming business?

[Assassin Xaero]

What is ruining the gaming industry is all these babies that complain a game sucks if the graphics aren't from 2032. So then companies spend their time on making it look nice, rather than the game it self, so we get this 3 hours half-assed campaigns with a tacked-on multiplayer mode that is dead in a month.

 

[Strazdas]

- The forced use of Origin (a broken system)
Unlike the forced use of Steam?
Origin is not without its merits, and while it doesn't suppass the current lvl steam has gotten to by being the first to really strike it big it by far surpasses what steam used to be. If you want to hold this against EA then keep your complaining consistent.

- Whenever sometimes goes wrong at EA, instead of admitting they screwed up, they are blaming it on other things (like they did with Warfighter)
Yes we have never seen anything about EA admitting fault. I mean its not like a thread jumped out about how a beta tester got banned from Simcity for posting in a thread turned out to be nothing but jumping the gun, and as soon as it was cleared up then it is like it never happened. Like as if people were actively looking for fuck ups to rage about, but wont even admit fault when they jump the gun....

Steam is not forced. most steam sold games you can easily pick up at other services. Origin however gives you no such option. i get by fine perfectly by not using steam either, thank you very much. (yes i dont use steam).
also, saying that "yes we got that rule but we are not enforcing it (yet)" is far from apology.

 

[Thoric485]

No, they're just bad at it. I'm not a fan of Activision-Blizzard, but you have to admit they know how to best monetize their small core of brands and keep them in leading positions for years on end (to EA's incredible envy). EA meanwhile makes its cash from sports shovelware and The Sims, and then spends it on frivolous acquisitions of companies they frankly don't have the management skill to utilize properly.

5 years ago Riccitiello said what happened to Origin, Westwood and Bullfrog was a mistake, yet 18 months afterwards Pandemic was unceremoniously closed before its titles even hit shelves. Today we're looking at the rapid dissolution of the BioWare brand, its biggest franchise already having been taken away from the Edmonton HQ to an internal EA studio. You think DA3's 2 million sales are going to keep 400 people at the original BioWare home employed?

EA is a graveyard, and limbo, and hell for excellent studios and franchises with decade old histories. Thankfully gamers are starting to notice the stink of rot and sulfur. Matter of time before investors do too.

 

[TheSapphireKnight]

No they are not. They would have to actually know how to run their business to do that. EA management is just filled with idiots.

Activision is more 'dangerous' in that regard simply because they do some awful shit too but continue to make a profit.

But I am not worried about the 'destruction' of the industry at this point.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Is EA destroying the gaming business? Hell no, what planet are you living on? EA is the best thing to happen to the gaming business ever. In the past see games were made by people who liked gaming, they made them because they enjoyed gaming them selves and wanted to share there passion with the world and maybe make a bit of money too, yeah that would be sweet. But then people like this don't make very good business men.

To be a good business man you have to be an bit of a dick, you must think of profit and only profit, you must always be thinking about ways to maximise the income of your company or someone else will screw you over and take your slice of all the monez. This is how EA works, if you cant make a better product than the competitor, force him out of the market and then buy up all of his assets. Or make a deal to buy the company. That's just how the corporate world works. EA is very good at this game.

No, the people that a ruining gaming are us, the gamers. We accept the practices that companies like EA push on us like insane DRM, Day one DLC, Multiplayer access passes, etc... What we need to do is stop buying from a company who's business practices we disagree with. That's the only way to sort out the problems. Nothing will change until the bottom line profits go down. Only then will the business man sit up an take note, because really it's them who are in control of the industry not the gamers and money is what motivates them not making good games.

 

[Dryk]

Wow get off your high horse. Unless you have been involved in the production of a game please stop going on about the importance of the "fans". Fans are just people who liked what you made. You dont ow them anything. And this inflated issue of self importance needs to be kicked out of here.

If nobody likes what you've made, you go out of business. Game development studios owe EVERYTHING to their fans.

 

[ThriKreen]

yet 18 months afterwards Pandemic was unceremoniously closed before its titles even hit shelves.

So let's ignore the ~70% and under reviews their past 4 games, buggy mess for Merc 2, the Dark Knight game fiasco (resulting in a shutdown of the Pandemic Brisbane studio), and chances are that they were bleeding money and more than they were making back.

And you have to question why they were shut down?

Admittedly, The Saboteur was fantastic, but sad to see there's no future for that one.

Today we're looking at the rapid dissolution of the BioWare brand, its biggest franchise already having been taken away from the Edmonton HQ to an internal EA studio. You think DA3's 2 million sales are going to keep 400 people at the original BioWare home employed?

Source? The only thing I've heard was the next game in the Mass Effect series is going to Bioware Montreal. Who, funny enough, is made up of a lot of Edmonton people. I'd imagine the Edmonton ME team is tired and wants to move to something else after working on it for almost a decade.

 

[Strazdas]

Oh not forced you say.

I am guessing you played portal 2 without it on PC. Or any of the other products that Valve developed. Mention a single one developed by Valve that you dont need steam to use. Ill wait.

But hey like I am saying. it says right there in the quote "keep complaining consistent". If you are not suing steam for the same reason you are not using origin, then you dont have a double standard.

Well i dont ahve a double standart, since im not using steam either.
I really dont see whats the big deal about valve products anyway ( i played HL, HL2 and Portal 2 at cousins house, didnt see them magical).

Also, Origin is not the same as steam really. Their EULA is messed up, their attempts to scan your computer (which failed only because we got a scandal), their inability to play games in offline mode, them baning you from ALL your purchased games for a post on forums they didnt like. theres more to it than just a DRM.

So let's ignore the ~70% and under reviews their past 4 games

70% reviews (which is good-to-great) puts companies out of business? sense where are thou?

 

[Maeshone]

Wow get off your high horse. Unless you have been involved in the production of a game please stop going on about the importance of the "fans". Fans are just people who liked what you made. You dont ow them anything. And this inflated issue of self importance needs to be kicked out of here.

If nobody likes what you've made, you go out of business. Game development studios owe EVERYTHING to their fans.

They don't owe their fans anything because they already provided something. They provided a product, the fans bought said product. That's the extent of the relationship. It really couldn't be simpler.

 

[Qitz]

No but Gamers who just bend over and do what ever companies tell them to are.

You what to know why companies keep pouring BS into their games? People keep buying them.

Course, it doesn't help that gamers freak out over the littlest bullshit. OH GOD, THEY CHANGED DANTE IN A REBOOT! FLAME FLAME FLAME FLAME FLAME! WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE! ***** ***** ***** ***** *****.

Frankly, I'm glad the new DMC has the white hair joke, because you assholes deserved it after the epic "Cart Before the Horse" move you pulled.

 

[ThriKreen]

If nobody likes what you've made, you go out of business. Game development studios owe EVERYTHING to their fans.

If a studio, game designer made a game that no one likes, I'd blame the game maker.

If they made something that a lot of people like, I'd praise the game maker for making something fun and entertaining.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Maybe they destroy. But they also have a lot of money and clout to allow other games to be released that would otherwise die. If EA went under a lot of good games would die with them as who else has the money to release them?

 

[Legion]

My question is two-fold:
- Do you believe EA is harming the gaming business?
- Do you still buy games from EA?

First question:

I would only say it is harming the business in that people are still buying their products despite their questionable practices, which shows other developers that in many ways it can be successful to do so. That said, EA have been making heavy losses recently so perhaps those developers and publishers will notice that they are not particularly great ideas.

So no, they are not directly destroying it at all.

Second question:

I was going to buy Dead Space 3 as I like the series. I then saw they were adding micro-transactions and thought I'd get the game anyway and just ignore them. Then the developer behind the game claimed that those micro-transactions were not about money and EA doesn't have any say in how they develop the game and I decided to put my money where my mouth is.

So no, I will not be buying games any more that EA have any part in.

They don't owe their fans anything because they already provided something. They provided a product, the fans bought said product. That's the extent of the relationship. It really couldn't be simpler.

I agree with you on principle, but developers rarely act like that is the case. If a game fails the first thing they tend to do is either blame the recession or the fans for not "getting" what they were trying to do with the game.

They rarely admit any fault in the product if it doesn't meet fan expectation. While they certainly do not "owe" fans anything, if the fans don't like it, then it is their fault for not making a product that meets what consumers want. Not fans for not changing their personal tastes to fit the developers idea for a game.

So yes, fans need to stop acting like developers owe them anything. Developers need to own up to when they drop the ball and end up getting criticised for their development decisions. Or accept that fans do not owe them either. If they want people to buy their games, then it's their job to make their games worth buying.

 

[Strazdas]

Secondly Please point me to the the source that second quote is. I have no idea why you are bring it up. I am not even talking reviews.

That wasnt your quote, i just copypasted for faster quoting without putting up a name.

 

[ThriKreen]

70% reviews (which is good-to-great) puts companies out of business? sense where are thou?

Thanks for missing the point and only paying attention to one aspect, when I made it clear it's not just one game, but a whole string of bad things.

Correction: Oops, make that less than 75% on average.

Games released since the VG/EA buyout:

Destroy All Humans 2 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroy_All_Humans!_2]: 76% metacritic, "The game sold over 340,000 copies and had a generated revenue of $13,000,000 in North America alone."

Merc 3 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenaries_2:_World_in_Flames]: 72%, about 1m [http://www.vgchartz.com/game/21595/mercenaries-2-world-in-flames/] according to VGChartz

LOTR:Conquest [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_Conquest]: 55%, 0.8m [http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=The+lord+of+the+rings%3A+conquest&publisher=&platform=&genre=&minSales=0&results=200]

The Saboteur [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saboteur], 72%, 0.42m [http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=The+Saboteur].

And then there's The Dark Knight video game [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_%28video_game%29], where it seems dev problems resulted in it missing the movie's launch, so there's bound to be penalties as part of the license agreement and tons of missed profit.

I can't comment on how up to date and accurate the sales numbers are though, but still, I'd imagine EA was expecting higher numbers. And like I said, put into perspective, if the incoming was lower than the outgoing funds, coupled with the original purchase, sometimes it's better to cut your losses and shut the studio down.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

I'd say that I'm afraid of some of its business practices becoming more widespread. It's nothing that can't be fixed if they pull their heads out of their asses, or destroy themselves, whichever comes first. I still buy games because I like to support developers.