EA is going to die - and that will improve gaming

BloatedGuppy

New member
Feb 3, 2010
9,572
0
0
Ishal said:
And people complained that NCsoft would screw with Arenanet and their microtransactions store. There was a lot of hate on the GW2 forums largely due to AION imo. It seemed everyone either hated that or loved it. A common theme in MMO's.
Nexon does own a sizable portion of NCSoft (15%). And Arena Net did hire Crystin Cox from Nexon and put her in charge of monetization. And the cash store DID become mildly more sinister after that. Really though, GW2 has remained relatively benign with its cash store, to the point where you almost wonder if they couldn't have been a little more greedy just to drive profits. I have no idea who the hell is meant to want to buy half that stuff. Boxing Gloves? Come on.
 

Bat Vader

New member
Mar 11, 2009
4,996
0
0
If EA does go out of business I would hope that the developers that they owned are able to stay open and keep developing games or get picked up by other publishers like 2K. I would like to see CD Projekt Red purchase Bioware and hire back all the old staff that left or were let go. A game developed by both Bioware and CD Projekt Red would be pretty good I think.
 

Genocidicles

New member
Sep 13, 2012
1,747
0
0
As much as I would like EA to crash and burn, I don't see it happening any time soon.

Their games just sell too well, even when said game is a turd in a box that can only be flushed with a toilet connected to the internet.
 

Avalanche91

New member
Jan 8, 2009
604
0
0
While I would certainly love to see EA get what is comming from them, they will not die.

FIFA and Madden respectivly are two of the hottest selling IP's around and they sell every year. While they might shrink if situations grow dire I am not gullable enough to think they'll die out.

Shit, it's more likely they actually change their business tactics then die out.....now that's a scary thought.
 

Thoric485

New member
Aug 17, 2008
632
0
0
Even if EA go belly up tomorrow they won't just disappear into a black hole, another company will eat them up. Sure it'll be fun to watch, but it won't eliminate that part of the industry. I doubt anything will.

All I hope for is more independent studios that can hold their ground. Not small indie teams, but full-fledged companies like CDPR, Valve, Obsidian, InXile, Double Fine etc. Studios that manage their own IPs and financing, and don't let themselves be sucked into the destructive vortex of EA and its ilk.
 

BloatedGuppy

New member
Feb 3, 2010
9,572
0
0
Bat Vader said:
If EA does go out of business I would hope that the developers that they owned are able to stay open and keep developing games or get picked up by other publishers like 2K. I would like to see CD Projekt Red purchase Bioware and hire back all the old staff that left or were let go. A game developed by both Bioware and CD Projekt Red would be pretty good I think.
I'm not sure CDPR could afford Bioware. That'd be a pretty costly pickup, I'd think.
 

Happiness Assassin

New member
Oct 11, 2012
773
0
0
Actually looking at stock prices, they seem to have been doing better for the last 6 months. Anyway, it is my firm belief that they are a bunch of money grubbing assholes, there are plenty of companies that would gladly take their place as the shorthand for manipulative greedy publishers. There will still be money to be made and the death of one company will not change the attitudes of executives overnight.
 

Twilight_guy

Sight, Sound, and Mind
Nov 24, 2008
7,131
0
0
Yes because having one of the biggest publishers go under and thousands of people lose their jobs is going to be boon for the industry. I think you need to study economics some more.

I don't think a crash is going to happen. The factors aren't right for it and the market is nowhere near what it was when it crashed the first time. I'm also not going to glorify the crash as something good for the industry or having anything to do with customers throwing up their arms at anything. EA might have some crappy business practices but there aren't making Pac-man quality games.
 

aguspal

New member
Aug 19, 2012
743
0
0
Archangel357 said:
Sgt. Sykes said:
Improve my ass. If EA actually dies, Activision will become the de facto monopoly publisher for big-scale games and when is that good?
THIS.

A thousand times this. With all the hatred towards EA, is nobody caring about the company which churns out the same billion-selling, formulaic FPS every year, which drove Guitar Hero into the ground, which keeps millions in its thrall through WoW etc... if EA dies, Kotick's unholy legions have the market pretty much to themselves. And if the only reason not to wish for EA's death is "at least they're not Activision", then that's enough for me. Seriously, how the hell Activision gets a free pass when they are every bit as greedy and corrupt as EA is bloody beyond me.

Oh, and another thing: even if one does not agree with a given company's practices - and God knows that EA is on some shady crap more often than not - wishing for a corporation which employs tens of thousands of people to fail (and thus for many of those to lose their livelihoods) is beyond the bloody pale.

Unless we're talking about Monsanto. Those guys can go right to hell.

Activision is about as good as EA is.

That is, they are pretty good! WHY do people complain about them so much... Well I actually can kind of see why, but still...


If Activision Dies, Call of Duty dies too. And while that might be the dream of some people, I really love COD so I do not aprove of this.

If EA dies, well, I am not quite sure what happens, I liked some of their games too and they are funny as hell so no I dont think they should die.
 

theultimateend

New member
Nov 1, 2007
3,621
0
0
BloatedGuppy said:
Eh, he's right. It's getting old. We don't need a fresh jeremiad every 24 seconds about how EA is evil, etc, etc. I think it's widely accepted that EA is evil.
I went to the EA HQ today to visit a friend and I gotta say I was super impressed.

They might treat their customer's like shit but the atmosphere for employees is >amazing<.

I was super jealous haha.

They had wall decals, enclosures showcasing old games and projects they've done. A super cheap store that even as a visitor I was allowed to use. Nice cafeteria, a field to play during your off time, and so on.

Even a cool room with a giant sim diamond and mood lighting o.o...

and game room with pool tables and shit.

Anywho I'm rambling. They make terrible game decisions but their campus is one of the coolest places I've been in a while.
 

Sonic Doctor

Time Lord / Whack-A-Newbie!
Jan 9, 2010
3,042
0
0
I highly doubt that EA will go under anytime soon, and when the time comes, they won't flat out die. They will enter a very slow slump period over time, and then get bought buy some other company.

Sansha said:
Last I would like to add that "history" video is a load of crap. Okay, the history about 80's crash is fine, but the guy's comparisons are lunacy. The miniscule amount of out-criers against EA for the end of ME3 is not an equal comparison to the 80's crash and the bad games released at the time.

The reason the 80's crash happened is because the games that were being quickly "made" and shipped out were unplayable from technical standpoint. Consumers were angry because games literally couldn't be played in the sense of, start game, play, beat, or get high score.

ME3 is pretty much perfect from a technical standpoint, it can be played from start to finish and be beaten. With ME3, the complaints on the opinionated level. I saw many complaints that the bad ending ruined the whole game for some people, that that made the game unplayable. The thing is, that is a personal opinion, not fact. Yeah, the ending wasn't great, but for people like me, a bad ending doesn't negate how good or great the first 99% of the game is. That is of course an opinion as well, but what isn't an opinion is the ME3 works from start to finish and on a technical level, it is playable, that is a fact.

I wouldn't call that guy Clever Noob. Noob yeah, but cross out Clever and put uneducated or just misinformed, because the guy clearly hasn't been properly taught how to make an argument and present facts and make proper comparisons. His comparisons are like, "This firecracker going off destroying that army man's face is just like those loads of strategically placed dynamite taking down that office building."

The industry maybe in a little slump, but with how many companies there are out there and still making quality games(EA still being one of them), far more than in the 80's, it would take a true depression, where absolutely nobody has the money to buy games, for the game industry to crash again.
 

Aeonknight

New member
Apr 8, 2011
751
0
0
Archangel357 said:
Twilight_guy said:
Yes because having one of the biggest publishers go under and thousands of people lose their jobs is going to be boon for the industry. I think you need to study economics some more.
Like anybody who cries about how EA is teh most evilz evar thinks that far. Also, empathy? Here? Please.

Oh, and before anybody gives me some crap about how skilled programmers can find jobs anywhere - right. Because those are the only people EA employs. There are no drivers, janitors, secretaries, etc who, in this economy, would sink into bloody despondency without the steady paycheck they are getting from EA.
Developers don't walk away unscathed when it's publisher, being the main source of funding/adverstisement for said developer, tanks. Some may close doors (whether it be from running out of funds to create games or rival publishers/developers using the opportunity to systematically dismantle competition), some may struggle to find a new publisher, and even if they walk away from the blast, it's still going to impede game development for at least a few years. At the very least.

Publishers going down = less games in circulation. How is this good for the industry again? Oh well, at least the short sighted drones got what they asked for.
 

Sonic Doctor

Time Lord / Whack-A-Newbie!
Jan 9, 2010
3,042
0
0
theultimateend said:
I went to the EA HQ today to visit a friend and I gotta say I was super impressed.

They might treat their customer's like shit but the atmosphere for employees is >amazing<.

I was super jealous haha.

They had wall decals, enclosures showcasing old games and projects they've done. A super cheap store that even as a visitor I was allowed to use. Nice cafeteria, a field to play during your off time, and so on.

Even a cool room with a giant sim diamond and mood lighting o.o...

and game room with pool tables and shit.

Anywho I'm rambling. They make terrible game decisions but their campus is one of the coolest places I've been in a while.
Even though I don't consider EA evil, I can't resist saying:

Rich Evil-doers tend to have swanky digs.
 

Mid Boss

Senior Member
Aug 20, 2012
274
12
23
Unfortunately the problem isn't just with EA. It's with our generation as a whole. People use to believe in things. We use to march. We use to boycott. When this country started only white men who owned land could vote. We owned slaves. Women were treated as barely more than property.

We changed that! All of human history is filled with stories of people changing things. We've come a hell of a long way so when someone tells you "Well nothing ever changes herpa derp" you have to wonder what they think the world was like 50 years ago.

But now we're in a generation of self loathing where any mention of doing anything proactive is met with scorn and contempt. People defend corporate bull shit as "Well they're in this is make money!" as if that's some sort of excuse. It's as if people believe we don't deserve better than companies that flip us off with one hand while taking our money with another. I own a home business. I can tell you from personal experience, it's pretty damn easy to make a profit without treating your customers like an inconvenient obstacle between you and their money.
 

Atmos Duality

New member
Mar 3, 2010
8,473
0
0
BloatedGuppy said:
And before you start in with "But people are still buying the games herp" the games are not universally bad, and people are gonna do what they're gonna do. The solution is not to turn on the hyperbole valve full blast. I'm gonna go full hipster here for a moment...I HATED EA BEFORE IT WAS COOL. And these threads are almost turning me into an EA sympathizer, because they're so extraordinarily emo. I miss the days when we could just have a chuckle about how crappy EA was and go on with our day. Not have these "WE MUST TAKE A STAND" and "NEVER FORGET" circle jerks on internet forums.

Maybe I'm just cynical. But I think it makes the participants look like clowns.
I also hated EA before it was cool, but for rather different reasons.

It was when EA was sued by their own employees (some of whom I knew at the time) and who weren't allowed to talk about the ridiculous work conditions, inhuman hours and deadlines pending court. There were two lawsuits, and two settlements.

My distrust of EA today is only reinforced by their constant boneheaded (and often dishonest) agenda, and it's why I continue to not do any business with them.

Sonic Doctor said:
I highly doubt that EA will go under anytime soon, and when the time comes, they won't flat out die. They will enter a very slow slump period over time, and then get bought buy some other company.

The reason the 80's crash happened is because the games that were being quickly "made" and shipped out were unplayable from technical standpoint. Consumers were angry because games literally couldn't be played in the sense of, start game, play, beat, or get high score.
Er, not quite.
That is, the crash wasn't just technical.
Even those games without broken programming were still thoroughly unfun and many were only made for exploitation of a license.

Even E.T. for the Atari 2600, posterchild of the crash, is a technically functional game (I've played and..."beaten" it myself).

The market proved right there and then that shovelware alone is not acceptable.