EA Aims to "Broaden" Dead Space Audience

[Lord_Gremlin]

You know how some game starts to sell 5 millions or more? It does something good. And then each sequel keeps getting better and better at it. The CoD series is a good example of casual shooter which kept evolving as a casual shooter (although now it's getting worse). Bethesda Elder Scrolls - open world RPGs that evolved and got better at being open-world fantasy sandbox. GTA, modern open-world game about criminal in a big city that got more and more robust and complex with each iteration.
Now, what EA doing is ruining Dead Space sales. Well, if it evolved as a survival horror until it became most well known and truly polished survival horror on the market - I could see it selling 5 million copies someday. As it stands now, DS3 will fail because casual shooter fans buy CoD and existing DS fans will abandon it to a degree. So it won't come close to DS2 sales.
The problem with EA and videogame industry is that executives don't know jack about stuff they sell and think that videogames are like shoes. They are not.

It goes like this - some guy in charge of making decisions remembers that he used to work on shooter XXX and it sold a lot - so if they make DS a shooter it will sell a lot. This logic works if you sell shoes, or cars, or even smartphones. This logic eventually makes you bankrupt in videogame industry.

 

[Vault101]

-Much MUCH easier
-Talking and personable protagonist as opposed to a hidden, non-talking one
-Variety. People like variety, even if it spoils the atmosphere
-Take away the map and turn the game into a giant linear pathway

1. I don't know abotu the difficulty thing, on one hand you have people sayings its hard, on the other people are saying its easy...hard to judge...I found it easy enough when I knew what I was doing but then I died plenty of times

2. a talking protagonist has nothing to do with dumbing down..this wasn't an RPG and I gues some peopel don't find a silent guy with a bucket on his head all that relatable...thats pure personal taste

3. and people complained about repetitiveness/back tracking in the last one didn;t they? linear is not bad in of itself....

 

[The Great JT]

Well I'm going to go ahead and transfix the "Stamp of Death" on Dead Space 3 now. To EA, 'broaden the audience' is just technical jargon for 'dumb down in order to reap the maximum amount of money.' It happened to Mass Effect, it's going to happen to Dead Space. Not a single fuck was, is, or will be given by EA, they just want more money.

 

[samaugsch]

TRANSLATION: "We're gonna sit on dead space's head and take a shitty shit shit!"

WHY do people keep giving them money and defend these big publishers (and publisher owned devs)??

These decisions aren't about making a good game, it's about meeting quotas and pleasing shareholders. This is why people lucky enough to be around during the golden age of gaming get so mad; people who make most of these games are no longer calling the shots on development, instead being ordered around by a corporate suit to meet sales quotas and then we have to hear the kiddies today keep repeating "entitled" when pointing out how bad the situation or product is.

I'd think not buying enough of their product would have more of a negative effect on them than any criticism anyone can make about the publisher.

 

[Mistah Poole III]

*sigh*

Chalk up another series that EA has ruined.

 

[samaugsch]

If there's one thing you can say about EA, it's that they never stop trying, even if it doesn't work.

W
T
F

Please tell me this is fake.



Also, captcha is "time lord" Ha!

Nope! This crap is real.

Suddenly, I'm not so sure about the Indoctrination Theory anymore (I watched a video supporting it and it made some pretty good points. Now it just seems like EA likes to piss people off). :/

 

[samaugsch]

This is why I'm glad I took Yahtzees mindset and stopped being a "fan" of any particular game series.

After all the time Squeenix spent slapping me across the face for being a fan of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy it wasn't a hard transition, since then I've noticed just how often fans get exploited and worse completely betrayed in favour of money from different audiences.. it's a true shame

As for Dead Space, I won't lie it never really grabbed me (Mostly cause I'm a big girl who doesn't like paying to be scared, even if the game is apparently terrible at it) but it's still an incredible shame that they've gone the "mass appeal" route with it... I truly hope we can get past this so we can get back to having games made for people to have fun or a challenge.. like in the good ol' days!

*Shakes old man cane while wearing rose tinted glasses*

"A big girl"? Why does your profile say that you're male?

 

[thethird0611]

So let me see.

5 Million units = 300 million dollars at $60 dollars a game.
2 Million units = 120 million dollars.

So your telling me 120 million dollars cant cover the creation and distribution of a game, with a tidy profit? This isnt including the DLC we know is going to be in Dead Space 3. I... I mean CMON! No. This is "We can only keep an IP like this going if we make oooodles off of it."

EDITED

 

[thethird0611]

So let me see.

5 Million units = 300 Billion dollars at $60 dollars a game.
2 Million units = 120 Billion dollars.

So your telling me 120 billion dollars cant cover the creation and distribution of a game, with a tidy profit? This isnt including the DLC we know is going to be in Dead Space 3. I... I mean CMON! No. This is "We can only keep an IP like this going if we make oooodles off of it."

your math is off by a few zeros

5 million units by 60 dollars each is 300 million

Just caught that. Thats what a 30 hour work weekend will do to ya Thanks man.

 

[natster43]

Thanks EA for killing an interesting franchise. Stay classy.

 

[Evil Smurf]

is it a fun game?

 

[Slayer_2]

I actually didn't mind Dead Space 2, it wasn't as scary, sure, but it was still okay, if not as interesting as the first. EA is just greedy and retarded, though. Math time, I suck at this, but it's pretty simple:

5,000,000 x 60 = 300,000,000. So they need 300 million to cover costs? Even saying they want to make 150 million to waste on other exploits (like making Origin even shittier). That's 150 million. I haven't developed any AAA titles lately, but I highly doubt that a 9-figure sum is really necessary to cover expenses. It's likely they'll use the same engine, perhaps with a few graphical tweaks, as well as a lot of the same assets. Then maybe salaries for two years for maybe 100 people. So the only explanation I can come up with is that they want a 400% profit margin or something.

Honestly, how fucking greedy can you get? Here's a genius money-saving idea EA: stop using shitty marketing tactics, you'd stand to save tens of millions and a lot of face.

For comparison, Battlefield 3 has sold 18 million units before March 31, 2012, and the giant Modern Warfare 3 moved over 15 million in the first two weeks. These are two of the largest shooters out there, and they expect a more niche game with a far smaller fanbase to pull in a third of industry-dominating shooter games... End rant.

 

[nexus]

They're going to tank the Dead Space franchise by using the same strategy they used for Dragon Age 2. At least Dead Space tanks at a "trilogy" which is a respectable finish.

Honestly, Dead Space really grow on me the past few years. Dead Space 1 wasn't spectacular, but it was original.. and scary. Dead Space 2 wasn't as scary, but the presentation was incredible. Really, the franchise has some of the best horror atmosphere ever. So you could overlook the encroaching "action" and just soak in the atmosphere.

Now it looks like Dead Space 3 will be "all action" and will be just another shitty shooter. It will really take you out of the atmosphere, no matter how spectacular it tries to be.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Dead Space 3 will continue to "open up the accessibility" of the game, according to EA Labels President Frank Gibeau, who told CVG that it will remain a horror game but attempt to broaden its audience through the addition of new elements like co-op gameplay.

"In general we're thinking about how we make this a more broadly appealing franchise, because ultimately you need to get to audience sizes of around five million to really continue to invest in an IP like Dead Space," he said. "Anything less than that and it becomes quite difficult financially given how expensive it is to make games and market them."

It's as though the shareholders are determined to run EA into the ground by ruining every single game/franchise they own the IP for. "Broadened Appeal" = CoD and some form of multiplayer, coop or vs (possibly with some levelling/unlock crap). EA shareholders ruined ME3 and now Dead Space is on the chopping block. And five million copies? Dude, seriously, learn to make a cheaper game! Outsource it to India/China if you have to, but that's insane.

The best games of 2011 were Deus Ex: HR and Skyrim. Neither had any multiplayer or even tried to appeal to a "broader audience". Make the best, most focused games and then we'll talk about forgiving you for ruining BioWare's games and reputation. Each time you turn something we enjoyed into a broader title, you ruin it. It's really that simple.

 

[MrBaskerville]

"I always prefer a good audience. I'd rather feed 100 percent of 10 people. Hollywood would rather feed 1 percent of 1 million people. Commercially speaking, my way is not better." - Jean Luc Godard

Hate that everything has to be for everyone, i wish they´d just lower the production costs and start making some niche games, they could probably make some great horror games and gain a lot of fans in the proces. Instead they try to please the Gears of War crowd and the horror crowd at the same time, that´s not gonna please anybody as much as if they´d just done the one or the other.

 

[Brendan Stepladder]

Well, at least EA seems to be getting crushed under the weight of its own greed. Hopefully this sends a message to other publishers who consider EA's business model.

 

[PrototypeC]

Is that a threat, EA? Well fuck you then. Better another company tries horror than give money to you!

What IS it with companies these days trying to make more "accessible" horror? I posit that there is no such thing. I posit that horror has to be a personal experience because with friends you feel a stronger chance of survival and lack of loneliness. (actually, as long as they're in the room watching you play instead of participating it can actually be still scary and fun, but I digress)

Loneliness is one of the prime core experiences you are supposed to feel with horror. It's what seperates it from other genres where people are there by default. I can't imagine a romantic comedy or a crime thriller or a sci-fi action movie without other people in it. I find it very easy to imagine a horror story with only two people or even just one person in it. The only exception to this rule I can think of is anything by Team ICO, and even then there are at least some other characters.

Loneliness can and often should include locations, and even people. Walking around a huge hall that you know at one time was full of light and activity is one way, or being far away from society, like in the arctic or deep under the earth. For people it could be finding out your one ally might be a little crazy or getting seperated from them.

Back to the main point, if companies have a survival horror series on the side, then just let it stay on the niche table. It will sell, trust me, but don't try to blow it up into something it's not. Just use your big-time marketing and distribution dollars on your multiplayer shooter that is an already popular genre if money is all you're looking for. "If you build it, they will come", you know.

 

[lapan]

Publishers fail to realize that while they try "broadening" their audience they also lose a part of their original fanbase. Not to mention that selling over 5 million is astronomic.

They already have a history of fucking their francises up like that though.

Mass Effect: Was liked for it's fusion of RPG and shooter. EA solution: remove RPG elements, make it more like a genreric shooter!
Dragon Age: Was liked for it's classical approach to RPGs. EA solution: Turn it into an Action-RPG!

and now

Dead Space: Was liked for it's horro elements and unique enemies. EA solution: Remove horror elements, make it a co-op game and have more human enemies!

 

[verdugo136]

Adding co-op to a horror game just seems retarded it's the same as Fear 3 it's not going to be scary with a friend there and mindful of the fact Dead Space isn't scary to begin with or much of a survival horror I would call this the last nail in Dead Space's coffin.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

"5 MILLION units to keep the franchise alive."

Goodbye Dead Space, It's been fun.

"Widen Audience" = "Make it a shooter"

I hate EA soooooo muhuhuhuch.