EA: Dungeon Keeper Failed by "Innovating Too Much"

[Canadamus Prime]

At this point, it's likely best if EA just stops talking about Dungeon Keeper all together and moves on.

I think it'd be best if EA just stops talking PERIOD.

Business talk aside, sometimes, I like to think they say such monumentally stupid things on purpose in lieu of silence because something compels them.

Like the last tiny shrivel of humanity they have left has just enough pull to make them open their mouth and say ANYTHING, no matter how arrogant or stupid, just to let the rest of humanity know what goes on inside the soulless hollow shell it's trapped in.

Action through desperation.

Yeah, but I prefer the axium "better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it." ...or in this case, a soulless monster.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Yeah, but I prefer the axium "better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it." ...or in this case, a soulless monster.

Well, it took Activision what? Two years of ridicule before they just stopped letting Kotick address the public.

Though EA has always been a bit more pigheaded than Activision, and their reputation was falling before the end of the PS2 era; at this point if they're still making money they probably feel as though they have nothing to lose.

Considering the source of the article and interview, I have the feeling his comments were directed towards other suits and investors, not the people actually buying the games.

 

[JCAll]

We have to admit, they innovated in the field of scamming players for 5-Star reviews.

 

[rvbnut]

I never knew having to sit through a 24 hour lockout in order to do anything was considered innovative. Plainly we have been looking at this the wrong way the whole time.

Spoiler: What i actually think.

And the subject of next weeks Jimqusition is...

Ah it fits rather well with this week's subject on the Jimquisition huh?

 

[Signa]

I do, and it's just as you said. EA is trying to shape consumers to be barfing wallets, and we just aren't ready for that yet. What it innovated was the ways a game can monetize its customers, and in that respect, it was too innovative.

I shudder to think that they might be right in thinking that way, because people are buying their shit, or they would have been bankrupt years ago.

Touché, though I really hope you're wrong.

So do I. I've been watching this stuff too closely for the last decade and, unfortunately, I don't think I am.

 

[Strazdas]

Well hes right about one thing. we werent ready for it. after all, it has made profit. if we were ready, not a single copy would have been downloaded.

I can't wait for EA to try it's hand at innovating the MOBA fad by introducing PAY-TO-CLICK options on a full $60 game. I wonder if we'll be ready?

anouncement: League of EA is coming out. only 5 dollars per 100 clicks!

...

You know how gamers reacted to the xeroxed ending of ME3 by sending cupcakes, can we send dictionaries to EA with the word 'innovation' highlighted?

but that would mean that there is enough people who actually like EA games so much that they are willing to put actual effort in it. By now the only people that are so invested with EA games are people who dont put the effort to read EA statements to begin with.

 

[gamegod25]

At this point, it's likely best if EA just stops talking about Dungeon Keeper all together and moves on.

I think it'd be best if EA just stops talking PERIOD.

Or even better if they just went bankrupt and were branded as outcasts to society.

 

[Callate]

"I think we might have innovated too much or tried some different things that people just weren't ready for... I don't think we did a particularly good job marketing it or talking to fans about their expectations for what Dungeon Keeper was going to be or ultimately should be."

Why does that sound an awful lot like "Their spirits weren't sufficiently broken to accept the cruel reality of the new paradigm of so-called 'free-to-play' games, but they will be, oh yes, they will be... "

As one of my bigger issues with the current incarnation of Electronic Arts has to do with their assumption that it was up to them to dictate what their customers wanted and the customers' role merely to accept what they were given without query or complaint, this seems like an unfortunate return to form.

 

[Geisterkarle]

Actually this responds is quite familiar. Just look at politics!
All those discussions about ACTA, TTIP, ... every time the politicians just tell "us normal people", that we just don't understand it why it is good for us and be happy and ... other sh**!
So let EA have this too! Politics don't have a monopoly for that ... sadly!?

 

[Naeras]

"I don't think we did a particularly good job marketing it or talking to fans about their expectations for what Dungeon Keeper was going to be or ultimately should be."

Although Gibeau didn't mean to, he neatly summarized the problems of having salesmen running video game companies in this sentence.

 

[masticina]

Hahaha oh they keep digging this is good this is to good

Yeah keep on digging I am sure you hit gold one day. Or diamond as they do in the minecraft community. Really keep on digging.

Geesh dungeon keeper IOS yes was an abysmall failure and such an outright cash grab that it gave EA yet another good thumbs up for a golden poo. Go ahead.. really go on.

Backtrack what you want EA you done it, you fucked up. And seemingly you are not learning anything from it. Ah so 2014 another golden poo? And in 2015 another golden poo? What IP are you going to squander next, mmm an IOS game of Command and Conquer, oh I can feel that already. Remember to put 24 hour timers in the game and make sure that the in game coinage is so hard to get or so worthless that they have to buy "crystals"

Good good...now then defend the game for another 6 months before finally saying after one year "Eh we might have gone to far this time" Yup.

Go ahead EA go crash and fail..how earlier your body is rotten and being picked out by scavengers how better.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

So shameless greedy money-grabbing through disgustingly excessive micro-transactions to such a degree that said micro-transactions are the entire core of this horrendous thing you're charitably trying to call a "game" is just too much innovation for us gamers to handle, EA?

I said I wasn't going to join in with the gifs, but...

 

[karma9308]

Guh? I thought EA had hired a PR team a couple of months ago? I guess they thought it was too expensive and decided to fire them since...good lord. I mean, where do you even start with a whopper like that? Failed by innovating... That's why you had false marketing allegations (which were upheld) brought against you. That's why people are hating you EA, because you're just an innovator...and I'm sure next week people will hate you because they're entitled, or homophobic, or manchildren.

I need a drink.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I don't know about you guys, but they EA innovates all the times. All those new ways of killing studios, franchises and pissing off customers... innovation in the purest sense of the word.

 

[Evonisia]

Was it also integral and immersive, EA?

At least it's not a half hearted apology.

 

[Balimaar]

And in BF5 they will charge you $5 to reload your gun and $1 to record a kill to your stats. EA innovation ftw!

 

[FalloutJack]

WAIT!

Wait wait wait wait wait...

I got it.

They don't mean they were 'innovating' too much. They meant they were enervating too much!


But seriously folks, you've been a beautiful audience. Remember to tip your waiters with the money you're not giving EA.

 

[LosButcher]

That message wasn't for the gamers. It was for their shareholders, that know nothing about games. They know about money and Dungeon Keeper is somewhat "innovative" in that regard

 

[Living Contradiction]

This was the disturbing thing about what Moore said too; never once did he mention game mechanics, story, or any kind of game related aspect. All he talked about was MARKETING. So, to EA, the actual content of a game in incidental. The metrics by which they judge innovation are actually just "Different business approach". That is something very far removed from "Game innovation". Ultimately the merits of a game don't matter to them, they are seemingly lost the ability to know what actually makes a 'good game' and not just a 'beneficial business model for them'.

If you replace the word "Innovation" with "Changed the business model" and see if these comments make more sense. In freemium games the business model invades the game, it defines the game. Everything becomes about money. To EA the game is incidental; it is merely a barrier between them and your money.

Bravo. You are the first person who caught this and for that, you deserve a cookie.

Folks, Frank Gibeau is the head of the mobile gaming division of EA and the head of Origin. Think about that for a minute. He got those posts [a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/9/24/4766418/ea-executives-sports-games-labels-patrick-soderlund-frank-gibeau]last year after running the show for PC and console labels for EA[/a]. This isn't a talking head or a suit with a smile from PR; this is a guy who was at the top of the food chain for every single solitary studio (kinda puts what EA has been doing to its acquisitions in perspective, doesn't it?) and he has said, right up front, that the day of the premium game is over. For all platforms.

There will be no more paying up front and enjoying yourself with a piece of content; you'll be expected to pay as you go, with every new aspect of your content costing a fee. Why did this fail so spectacularly with Dungeon Keeper? Because it was sold wrong. Not because it was greedy, not because of broken mechanics, not because it wasn't a game. This program did exactly what it was intended to do and the only drawback, according to Gibeau, is that they took too many liberties with the brand.

EA is actually convinced that if it had packaged the game the right way, if it had used the right catchphrase or the correct media tactic, this game would have been a commercial success.

This is what the future holds for us from Electronic Arts from their perspective. Make of that what you will.

For me? From this point on, if I see "EA" stamped on a game and I am convinced that it isn't complete and utter crap, I'll wait until that game hits a resale vendor because this corporation isn't seeing one more dime of my money.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

I love how the most creatively bankrupt bunch of people in the industry keep accusing gamers of not being able to handle their awesome levels of innovation.