EA Exec: On-Disc DLC Complaints Are "Nonsense"

[FalloutJack]

Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the divider between the game and the rest of its content. Could you pay me some money to listen to you?

 

[Beetlebum]

EA sure keeps on trying to be a player-first company, right?
Prepare for a boatload of on disk DLC for Star Wars Battlefront.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

I'm consistently surprised that a corporate entity this massive doesn't have a bit of dosh lying around to pay for some competent PR management.

It just speaks to their complete lack of give-a-fuck about their customers.

At the very least, they could hire someone to stand behind Moore and whack him upside the head every time he started saying something anti-consumer or filled to the brim with bullshit.

 

[Poetic Nova]

EA never fails to dissapoint, stuff like this is why I don't buy any of their games anymore.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

It just speaks to their complete lack of give-a-fuck about their customers.

Why should they give a fuck? They know their consumers are going to buy their shit anyway. I've seen how many people are frothing at the mouth over Star Wars: Battlefront and have likely pre-ordered it. Moore can say whatever he wants because he likely knows that consumers will still flock to them like a starving man at a buffet.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

You know, if you really went from 70 games per year to barely 12 (I can't even name 4, good job EA), isn't that a clear indicator of your incompetence of budget management?
I know this sounds like pure madness, but instead of making the 6 games with a Hollywood blockbuster budget, maybe, just maybe you should remove one or two of these zeros, reduce the team size by half and start making good games with a proper budget? Games that aren't aimed to take over CoD's player base?

Madness, right? But maybe, just maybe it could work like it did 8 years ago.

Also I'm pretty sure this is a pre-emptive damage managment when they announce Star Wards, Battlefield and Mass Deffect 4 are announced with a shitload of on disk and release date DLC.

"Gais, it's totest not bads! Now buy ME4. Only $200 with all the cut extra content."

 

[The Great JT]

Oh really? The content isn't already there? It's not just blocked off by an arbitrary paywall? I think I found a piece of DLC that disagrees...

Considering how integral Javik was to the core story of ME3, I'm quite certain he was always meant to be in the game.

Throw Shale from Dragon Age: Origins in there too as far as relevant characters who got arbitrarily made into DLC go. Seriously, I never go after Paragon Branka without my smash-happy golem.

EA's utterly out of touch. In other news, grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and the Scout hurts people.

 

[EndlessSporadic]

Agree completely with the headline.

I've never fully understood why people are upset with on disc DLC. Many of us here know enough about game development to understand that the process of creating DLC starts WELL BEFORE THE GAME IS RELEASED. Putting DLC on disk rather than forcing people to download it is a courtesy.

You weren't going to get that planned DLC for free regardless because that was never part of the plans set in motion. Working on DLC concurrently with the game doesn't mean the game itself is going to suffer either. These are both planned projects operating independently of one another. Meaning the devs aren't cutting out 10 hours of an RPG to launch their games with on disk DLC. You'd have gotten the same base product regardless of whether the DLC come out on disk, Day 1, or 15 months after launch.

If a company does screw the player base with it's base game content was something planned as well. The delivery method and timing of it'd DLC doesn't matter. For example: Evolve wouldn't have been a meatier experience had the DLC come out 6 months after launch. They deliberately intended to release the game bare bones. A decision that ultimately burned them along with all the DLC available making things come across as even worse.

It wouldn't be so much of an issue if EA games weren't totally bug-laden. We are more pissed that they put resources into selling us extra (often buggy) content instead of fixing the core game to a good place. These executives may tell you that there are two different sources and that the DLC and core experience are made by two different people, but having worked in the industry I can tell you that is completely bullshit spouted to make you think their attention is focused in the right places. Both the core experience and DLC are made by the same people. Once the core experience is "finished" it is handed off to QA while they start working on the DLC. More often than not any bugs that QA finds are put on the backburner because the core team is forced to work on crappy DLC. You are then delivered a shitty product with shitty on-disk DLC.

 

[Kargathia]

EA, just...stop trying to communicate with gamers until you can arrange for your PR department to word your points in a way that can't be misunderstood by the listener. Even when you make a decent point, you word it so badly that you are called out of touch or even the worst company in America. Until you steal or borrow some of Valve 's OR, do not let any executives speak.

If EA's PR department are still the same people that brought us "Why your mom hates Dead Space" (among other gems), I'm not sure it'd help much.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

It just speaks to their complete lack of give-a-fuck about their customers.

Why should they give a fuck? They know their consumers are going to buy their shit anyway. I've seen how many people are frothing at the mouth over Star Wars: Battlefront and have likely pre-ordered it. Moore can say whatever he wants because he likely knows that consumers will still flock to them like a starving man at a buffet.

Ya know?

I can't really argue the point. It's disheartening to see that sort of behavior from my peers, but, eh.

 

[MonsterCrit]

Trump... you have competition in the..."Out of touch with reality" contest.

Granted On Disc DLC isn't inherently bad. It isn't. But it does cross a certain line. When you buy a disc, you have purchased the rights to consumer everything on the disc. I'm surprised no one's taken publishers to court on this.. This is like buying a movie DVD and not having access to the bonus clips because you need to pay more?

 

[zerragonoss]

Why should they give a fuck? They know their consumers are going to buy their shit anyway. I've seen how many people are frothing at the mouth over Star Wars: Battlefront and have likely pre-ordered it. Moore can say whatever he wants because he likely knows that consumers will still flock to them like a starving man at a buffet.

Ya know?

I can't really argue the point. It's disheartening to see that sort of behavior from my peers, but, eh.

While there are a lot of dlc, mircotransactions, and other things that can be rightly be called bullshit. Ultimately though they are all just completely insignificant compared to playing a game that you find fun. I for one am perfectly happy more people don?t, not buy things they would enjoy on principle that maybe they could enjoy it a little more.

 

[babinro]

EA, just...stop trying to communicate with gamers until you can arrange for your PR department to word your points in a way that can't be misunderstood by the listener. Even when you make a decent point, you word it so badly that you are called out of touch or even the worst company in America. Until you steal or borrow some of Valve 's OR, do not let any executives speak.

If EA's PR department are still the same people that brought us "Why your mom hates Dead Space" (among other gems), I'm not sure it'd help much.

I still wouldn't specifically blame DLC for this issue. The situation as you describe it is one of mismanagement. Whoever ultimately gave the company such poor deadlines while also giving the okay the deliberately release a game that's not really launch ready to work on post release content is to blame here.

If people choose to associate on disk DLC with bug ridden incomplete games than that's a perfectly fine. Jim Sterling's Squirty plays have certainly taught me that 99% of the time the word 'Early Access' really means "ignore completely". This doesn't mean that timely DLC release or Early Access is inherently bad though.

The fact it's EA saying these things doesn't exactly fill people with confidence that on disk DLC will be handled appropriately, lol.

 

[Seracen]

BWAHAHAHAHA! Why is he beating a overly dead horse? Who does he think he's fooling? Ah well...I'll just leave this here, b/c Jim Effin' Sterling Son states it more eloquently than I ever could...

[youtube]jmNjpd6IvWY[/youtube]

In case I suck at formatting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmNjpd6IvWY

 

[Legion]

Is he actually telling the truth? I haven't followed much when it comes to on-disc DLC but all of the replies here are simply ignoring his statement that there is actually no content but just a framework that allows DLC to be added. Can anyone here either prove/disprove this?

The first time I saw this happen was Prince of Persia 2008. The download size of the epilogue was less than 1MB of data and took a second to download. So clearly said Epilogue was on the disc already as there was nothing to actually download than what was essentially a key to play the content.

That is what most people have issue with and he seems to be acting as though such DLC doesn't exist.

That said, there are also cases where they have simply included some stuff (maybe dialogue, maybe artwork) which people have found in the games data and people have then overreacted and acted as though it's already on the disc.

So he is partially right, but still overall missing the point and deliberately so.

 

[Scow2]

"A lot of that resistance comes from the erroneous belief that somehow companies will ship a game incomplete, and then try to sell you stuff they have already made and held back..."

OK, so you're going to disprove the fact that you're selling incomplete games?
Lets hear your defense...

"Nonsense. You come and stand where I am, next to Visceral's studio, and you see the work that is being done right now. And it's not just DLC, this is free updates and ongoing balance changes."

...Well that's dandy except we can't see what your studios are doing behind closed doors. Nor do balance updates have anything to do with the sale of content. So at best, that's dodging the issue ("trust me, because").

What's really going on is simple: EA is is selling game content. This is nothing new. By selling DLC on day 1, they are OBJECTIVELY selling the core game as "incomplete" (because it doesn't include everything developed for the game at that time; and if it isn't developed how is it on the disc? Magic?)

The bloody obvious explanation, Mr. Moore: You are, in fact, holding back content and selling it at a premium.
To be clear: That isn't a moral indictment or complaint, it's just stating how the process works.

Though it is one reason (among many) why I stopped buying games from your company, and others like it.

Would you rather they hold back the content and just leave it on the cutting room floor like every company used to?

There's no such thing as a 'complete game' - merely one that the developers said is 'good enough to ship'.

Frankly, I can understand why developers go for content-adding DLC separate from the main game - Costs of developing games have gone up, while the price of games have plummeted. The easiest way to save on development costs is to cut non-critical content development. DLC is a way to get more return on investment for more content. You can call game developers greedy all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that you're now getting far more (In terms of economic value in the game - Man-hours, skill/education, art, etc) for far, far less.

 

[RealRT]

Oh really? The content isn't already there? It's not just blocked off by an arbitrary paywall? I think I found a piece of DLC that disagrees...

Considering how integral Javik was to the core story of ME3, I'm quite certain he was always meant to be in the game.

Here's a funny thing: when Shepard gives his/her last speech in London to all the party members, when I played the first two times I was wondering "Who the heck is that lone soldier guy who just stands there, never saw him before". And then I realized he was a stand-in for Javik. They wouldn't have to use a stand-in if he wasn't a part of the game from the start now would they?

 

[RJ 17]

Oh really? The content isn't already there? It's not just blocked off by an arbitrary paywall? I think I found a piece of DLC that disagrees...

Considering how integral Javik was to the core story of ME3, I'm quite certain he was always meant to be in the game.

Here's a funny thing: when Shepard gives his/her last speech in London to all the party members, when I played the first two times I was wondering "Who the heck is that lone soldier guy who just stands there, never saw him before". And then I realized he was a stand-in for Javik. They wouldn't have to use a stand-in if he wasn't a part of the game from the start now would they?

I had actually never heard (or even thought) of that, but thanks to google images I just saw a screenshot with the soldier standing in the back as though he's been part of the team all along.

Yeah, I'd say that stands as proof-positive.

 

[MCerberus]

EA, we understand that DLC is planned before the game is released. We understand that there are scenarios where the DLC is completed ahead of schedule, so it can be included in the Gold.

But not from you.
EA has been caught hand-in-cookie-jar too often for us to believe you aren't chopping up the core product. We also have longer memories than you think. You were the first to go all-in on preorder DLC and chopping up what can only be considered the core game in order to make Gamestop, the one force in the industry more evil than yourselves, happy. So, you know, fuck you.

 

[Oly J]

Phew, don't scare me like that, Peter Moore. I was about to think that you were starting to think rationally.

it has been a while since EA came out with something stupid like this hasn't it? Thank God for that I was almost starting to think they might have a clue