EA Turns Its Back on Single-Player Games

[Vulpis]

Heh. Keep in mind folks, that a) This doesn't mean no SP games at all, it means no SP-*only* games, and b) they're using the much broader definition of 'multiplayer' that means *any* interaction with other players, not just the 'team with/against while actually playing the game' meaning we generally associate with 'multiplayer'.

I mean, there's plenty of reasons to bash EA as a steaming crap hole as it is, make sure you've got the right ones. ;-)

As far as the original statement--that guy needs to stop going to Ballmer's speech coach. That line is right up there with "I haven't beaten my wife lately!"

 

[Vulpis]

Didn't Valve say pretty much the same thing a couple of months ago?

Indeed--but keep in mind that that refers only to Valve's *own* games--this is why they have a service that sells a couple of thousand other games, many of them single-player.

 

[cryofpaine]

EA absolutely destroyed my favorite franchise, and I curse them to the deepest fiery pits of Hell for all eternity. Everything they do is sheer naked greed, pure and simple. EA needs to die, everyone involved in making these asinine decisions needs to be fired (out of a cannon preferably) and they need to be taken over by someone who has a brain, and who will respect the players and honestly want to make great, quality games.

 

[DJjaffacake]

Do EA lack a research department or something? Arkham City was the highest reviewed game of 2011, topped the UK sales charts and was second on the US's when it came out, and was rented more than MW3. And it had zero multiplayer components. Or, you know, Skyrim.

Perhaps they also lack a memory, since Mass Effect 1 and 2 did just fine without multiplayer.

Someone needs to tell them, the key to making money is not multiplayer, it is selling things people want to buy. That's business at an incredibly basic level, and they are supposed to be businesspeople.

 

[Broken Blade]

Well, you've just alienated me, EA. I don't play Multiplayer components. I've almost NEVER played multiplayer components. Until the ending, the multiplayer part of ME3 was my biggest complaint. Thank you for helping me decide to almost certainly never buy one of your games again. It really saves me from having to spend my money.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

And I haven't bought an EA game in a decade. I wonder why.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Um, question!

How's that going to work for Dragon Age 3? Because that could be really cool, or really, REALLY bad.

EA really needs a PR person to help these business people say things that won't alienate the very people they're trying to sell products to.

 

[antipunt]

you know what this sounds like to me?

>_>

"single player games get pirated; multiplayer sells. Look at Blizzard!!!!"

<_<

sigh...

 

[weatherfn]

Gah! They better not screw up the new Sim City at least... Though that may be the last game I buy from them, now that Mass Effect's over.

 

[Judgment90]

as a person who does not play multiplayer at all, this downright infuriates me.

this just proves that all higher-ups in EA are either so incredibly stupid it's funny, or so incredibly c**ty that all they are good for is provoking gamers to revolt against them.

 

[themilo504]

I don?t quite know how to feel about this I also noticed they don?t quite grasp what multiplayer is the fifa example they used is not multiplayer nor is the dragon age facebook game.
Overlooking the cancerous growth known as tacked on multiplayer what they seem to mean is that all their games will be in some way connected to the internet and maybe I?m wrong here but don?t all games basically do that already especially when achievements where invented.
I don?t mind if I can play some flash game for 5 minutes to get the ring of deadliness or if I own a certain game I get the armor of immersion breaking but knowing ea it means that the games are going to be full of pointless micro transaction who may prevent me from using certain weapons and spells already in the game and games that need to be always online what worries me even more is if they start removing entire parts of the game to give away with other video games imagine if like extra credits said in mass effect 2 the only way to use legion is if you bough Dante inferno or in dragon age 3 you can?t go to the mountains of certain death unless you buy battlefield 4 or fifa 2014.

 

[joshuaayt]

I like to think of EA as an awful parent- she boasts about this new amazing toy she's buying for her children, and onlookers are ambivalent at best. But then she presses a button, and knives pop out of the toy, and she starts beating them with it, and she explains to the horrified crowd that the knives are available for $3.50 on the EA store or something.

And then we fucking buy the knives anyway, because wow they're only $3.50.
Not really sure what exactly that means, but it does make one visualise EA beating people, so I guess you probably get a point, at least.

EDIT: Really, though, it is a little scary that this is one of the industry giants. "We can say WHATEVER the fuck we want, doesn't even matter if we piss off half of our consumer base, as long as our investors like what they hear."

 

[MURPHYCHACHO]

Ok, this next song is for EA. It's called "We Hate You, Please Die."

 

[Cheeseman Muncher]

It's as if EA seems to be staffed entirely by monkeys with typewriters...

 

[Royas]

He actually thinks this is something to boast about? Thor's blood, this guy is a dunderhead.

 

[Turbowombat]

So what, the fact that in 2011 companies were printing money to the likes of Skyrim, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman Arkham City and Witcher 2 and that recently the makers of Spec Ops: The Line called the inclusion of multiplayer in their game a "cancerous growth" means nothing to EA?

 

[Reaper69lol]

So, how about them good business decisions?

Seriously, I don't think EA understand what their customers want at all. Hell, at this rate I wonder if they will even have any customers left.

 

[cerebus23]

Hmmm..

The name EA in the title? Check.
People basically not even reading the article and jumping to hate filled conclusions? Check.
Me not being surprised? Check.

I really have no issue with this as long as the connected content is thoughtful and well done. While I don't feel that the changes made to Dead Space are good, the always connected nature of a sports title or FPS is great, the multiplayer in ME3 was very fun (though tied into single player in a bizarre way), and having a facebook connected experience to supplement DA1/2 was kind of cool.

You and I have similar opinions on the matter. The title of the article is blatantly nerdbaiting. This is more like something I would see on Kotaku rather than The Escapist.

The market is heading in this direction, whether people like it or not, most games are going to be launching with at least SOME form of multiplayer. This isn't a bad thing. The Mass Effect 3 multiplayer was actually pretty good, and I look forward to seeing how it's implemented in Dragon Age 3 (I hope it's a co-op, like in BG).

It is a bad thing when good games could have been better if they dd not have to divert resources to an online component. Especially in light that many games do not fit well with multiplayer, especially deathmatch modes everywhere you look capture the flag clones.

Online platy is so dilluted now with endless clones, yearly games releases for the big cash cows shooters etc, guarantees that no game has any last about it.

I would take the early unreal and quake days to any of the game out today shooter wise, the sdks allowed people to make the game they wanted it, an endless choice of levels made by users, models for your character, full game conversions.

Where are those games today? now we get this years call of duty same as the old call of duty but different, sports games suffer the same fate of most years it just being 50 dollars for a roster update.

When we had those great shooters and the tools to make whatever we wanted, it kept those games going for years, even when quake 3 came out more of us stuck with quake 2 because it was a batter game, better dm experience period.

Now we will have more games with some online component shoehorned in weither the developers had any intention of doing so or not, how is that good for games at all?

Nevermind the spyware that origin is and all these games will require that as well.