EA discussion thread

[Iwata]

I don't have a problem with EA. At all.

They picked up Tim Schaefer from obscurity when Activision was about to drop him and Brutal Legend. Hell, they took a gamble, got sued by Activision, financed Double Fine and put Schaefer back in the spotlight, where he's stayed to this day. That alone gives them a lot of + points from me.

Likewise, what they publish, if I like it, I buy it, if not, I don't, same as with any publisher.

Furthermore, I've had a far better customer contact with hated EA than beloved Valve, who fucked up so bad with me that they drove me off PC gaming for good, and yet everyone loves them.

It's really all a matter of perspective.

 

[Skratt]

• A business opens its doors to customers
  
  Sells a shit ton of entertainment products
  
  People keep coming back for more and record sales are smashed year after year
  
  Labeled worst company ever
  

_

• A child labor warehouse is hired to make clothes
  
  Everyone around the world buys their crap from the local megastore
  
  Becomes the "in" clothes to wear
  
  No one thinks about it

Oh internet, you are so cute.

Wow, you mean there are still people that care about something other than things that directly affect themselves?

captcha: good work

and how!

 

[ThriKreen]

I don't have a problem with EA. At all.

They picked up Tim Schaefer from obscurity when Activision was about to drop him and Brutal Legend. Hell, they took a gamble, got sued by Activision, financed Double Fine and put Schaefer back in the spotlight, where he's stayed to this day. That alone gives them a lot of + points from me.

Same goes for the former Infinity Ward (CoD) guys for Respawn Entertainment. Yet no one makes any "I hate Activision!" threads.

It's really all a matter of perspective.

That's something I've been trying to enlighten on this forum for ages. People's myopic view that it is all EA's fault is misguided, no one tries to look at the larger picture.

Maybe they've been just telling the studio "Here's your budget, here's your deadline, go" and all the design decisions that people seem to attribute to EA, have been from the studio itself? And sadly the decisions weren't that popular, so the game suffers. Then EA says "Hey, what's up? You're doing badly? If this trend continues, we'd have to shut you down." Since it makes sense the owner would shut an under-performing studio down to prevent loss (salaries are expensive!).

Or maybe the studio itself was about to go under, hence why they "sold out" and got bought by EA? So it's an issue of, darling studio makes a couple of great games, which everyone remembers, then a series of bad ones (which people seem to forget). They end up on a decline and get bought out by a publisher. But the bad games trend continues after being bought out, but now people attribute the bad games as EA's fault. Yet they would have gotten shut down anyway, vs. getting bought out and surviving for another 5 years.

On the topic of Valve, they make mad profits due to Steam. But how would things be different if the tables were flipped, say Bioware had Steam and Valve had to deal with publisher demands and deadlines?

 

[FilipJPhry]

God, do they have to use voice-rec technology?

 

[The Wooster]

While I'm not keen on EA's track record of buying up promising little developers and sucking them dry, and the various stories you hear from ex EA employees are horrifying, I don't think EA can hold a candle to Capcom in terms of sheer anti-consumer, money-grubbing bullshit.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

• A business opens its doors to customers
  
  Sells a shit ton of entertainment products
  
  People keep coming back for more and record sales are smashed year after year
  
  Labeled worst company ever
  

_

• A child labor warehouse is hired to make clothes
  
  Everyone around the world buys their crap from the local megastore
  
  Becomes the "in" clothes to wear
  
  No one thinks about it

Oh internet, you are so cute.

Not to take a side in this discussion whatsoever, but I'd be mighty interested to know where you got your knowledge on the ethicality of EA's business practices.

In a similar vein, the first half of your post could be perfectly reworded to suit your second example:

• A business opens its doors to customers.
  
  Sells a shit ton of clothing products.
  
  People keep coming back for more clothes and record sales are smashed year after year.
  
  Grey labels them a terrible company.
  

Aside from that healthy dose of nit-picking, it would be hypocritical of me to slam EA seeing as if their games interest me, I buy them.

I may not agree with everything they do, but, to restate the vastly overused phrase that seems to pervade every discussion on this forum in relation to boycotts and the like, it's the vote you make with your wallet that counts.

 

[gigastar]

While I'm not keen on EA's track record of buying up promising little developers and sucking them dry, and the various stories you hear from ex EA employees are horrifying, I don't think EA can hold a candle to Capcom in terms of sheer anti-consumer, money-grubbing bullshit.

So, the on-disc DLC fiasco automatically makes Capcom worse than EA? Or am i missing something?

 

[triggrhappy94]

Didn't this used to say "E3 discussion thread" or was that just me. Sorry if I miss read.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

hahahaha oh my goodness..I am highly enjoying reading this thread to death.

OT: I think EA is pretty awful and go about things in alot of wrong ways, especially advertising and the reasons for why they do things, and I've gotten to the point where I'm not buying their games anymore until I see some change to that.

Shame it had to end with a suspension. That just means that we have to wait a week before the next war breaks out.

EA is a touchy subject for me. I think they're run by morons and money pinchers, and I've stopped buying their games until they try to change.

But I can still enjoy their older games back from the glory days of 2004. Burnout 3 Takedown is still my favorite racing game ever.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

While I'm not keen on EA's track record of buying up promising little developers and sucking them dry, and the various stories you hear from ex EA employees are horrifying, I don't think EA can hold a candle to Capcom in terms of sheer anti-consumer, money-grubbing bullshit.

Give credit where it's due, at least EA can put out a game with a functional control scheme that doesn't require you to be born with a second set of thumbs. Capcom on the other hand, I'm wondering if their playtesters were mutants or something.

 

[feeqmatic]

Hate to be frat boy, but I love football they're the only game in town, and now that they have added realtime physics to madden (finnaly) they will once again get my money. I wont (and havent) buy anything else, but madden is a day one purchase for me even the bad ones.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

hahahaha oh my goodness..I am highly enjoying reading this thread to death.

OT: I think EA is pretty awful and go about things in alot of wrong ways, especially advertising and the reasons for why they do things, and I've gotten to the point where I'm not buying their games anymore until I see some change to that.

Shame it had to end with a suspension. That just means that we have to wait a week before the next war breaks out.

EA is a touchy subject for me. I think they're run by morons and money pinchers, and I've stopped buying their games until they try to change.

But I can still enjoy their older games back from the glory days of 2004. Burnout 3 Takedown is still my favorite racing game ever.

time to go to the store and fill up snacks for my bomb shelter, (Being my lazy ass self, I was surprised in this) I went back and re-read the thread...laughed again, probably even harder than before.

Agreed on your opinion btw, I still greatly enjoy some of their old games and would never talk someone out of getting some of them.

 

[triggrhappy94]

l'd recommend all to see this video to see where I'm coming from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LE0ycgkBQ

I feel like I should congradulate you on a thread well done. Everyone did a great job of staying on topic. /sarcasim
I'm a little bitter because I wanted to post this thread, but you beat me to it.

I just wanted to point out that your video (as far as I've seen of it) failed to mention EA's absolutely awful policy on used games. That's the biggest reason for me, because I buy so many used games and I hating being swindled just for full content.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I think what Edmund Mcmillan said puts it best:

Q: Do you think EA and Activison are evil companies?
A: Anything where money is the number 1 goal is usually evil.

Sure companies have to make a profit, but trampling over creativity and demanding more purchases is unnecessary.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Ok. let's get this straight. I hate EA.?

they'r making all their crappy games.

would I think EA should be burned at the metaphorical stake.

Ok so you say all that...then say this:

I have created this post to have a nice, orderly discussion. Not a flame war.

Do you not see how horribly hypocritical this is? Like, you've shoved your hand into a tank of sharks and said, "Boy, these sharks better not bite me!"

Also EA doesn't make games by the way. They publish them. Meaning they give studios the funding to make the game. Employees generally don't work for fairy dust and promises.

 

[Frostbite3789]

l'd recommend all to see this video to see where I'm coming from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LE0ycgkBQ

I feel like I should congradulate you on a thread well done. Everyone did a great job of staying on topic. /sarcasim
I'm a little bitter because I wanted to post this thread, but you beat me to it.

I just wanted to point out that your video (as far as I've seen of it) failed to mention EA's absolutely awful policy on used games. That's the biggest reason for me, because I buy so many used games and I hating being swindled just for full content.

Do you hate Valve then? Or any other PC game developer? I sure hope so! Wouldn't want to look like a hypocrite!

 

[Danne]

Ok. let's get this straight. I hate EA.?

they'r making all their crappy games.

would I think EA should be burned at the metaphorical stake.

Ok so you say all that...then say this:

I have created this post to have a nice, orderly discussion. Not a flame war.

Do you not see how horribly hypocritical this is? Like, you've shoved your hand into a tank of sharks and said, "Boy, these sharks better not bite me!"

Also EA doesn't make games by the way. They publish them. Meaning they give studios the funding to make the game. Employees generally don't work for fairy dust and promises.

Good sir, you mistake my intentions. I meant no flaming between members. I never said we couldn't all get flamethrowers and pay EA a visit. And me saying they make crappy games. They overwork the people they give money too, forcing them to crapify their games to meat deadlines. So, EA is a crappy publisher.

 

[Danne]

l'd recommend all to see this video to see where I'm coming from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LE0ycgkBQ

I feel like I should congradulate you on a thread well done. Everyone did a great job of staying on topic. /sarcasim
I'm a little bitter because I wanted to post this thread, but you beat me to it.

I just wanted to point out that your video (as far as I've seen of it) failed to mention EA's absolutely awful policy on used games. That's the biggest reason for me, because I buy so many used games and I hating being swindled just for full content.

Do you hate Valve then? Or any other PC game developer? I sure hope so! Wouldn't want to look like a hypocrite!

Digitally distributed games tend to be cheaper. Also, Steam is great when it comes to deals.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Digitally distributed games tend to be cheaper. Also, Steam is great when it comes to deals.

Digital distribution actually is generally the same price outside of sales. Which brick and mortar stores have those as well. Don't get me wrong, I love Steam, but you can't hate one company for fighting used game sales, when another company, the very platform it develops for doesn't allow them. Even when it controls the distribution method.

All EA and other console devs/publishers have done is added a CD key to games. And not even a full CD key, a CD key for bonus content, or some content, not the whole damn game like it is for PC games.

Every time someone complains about Project $10, I kind of want to bang my head against my desk in frustration.

 

[gigastar]

While I'm not keen on EA's track record of buying up promising little developers and sucking them dry, and the various stories you hear from ex EA employees are horrifying, I don't think EA can hold a candle to Capcom in terms of sheer anti-consumer, money-grubbing bullshit.

So, the on-disc DLC fiasco automatically makes Capcom worse than EA? Or am i missing something?

EA at least waits a year between their series releases. Capcom waited, what, 6 months after Marvel vs Capcom 3 to release Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3? Plus, they refused to bring over Ace Investigations 2, and outright cancelled Megaman Legends 3.

Bringing out UMvC3 was chalked up to Disney wanting to push the Marvel brand before the Avengers movie came out. Hardly anti-consumer because both the game and the movie are great.

And not localising a game and not making a game isnt anti-consumer either, thats anti-fandom and is an entirely different argument.