Electronic Arts Confirms Danger Close Closure

[MysticSlayer]

This doesn't surprise me at all. Danger Close, as it existed, was not that talented or dedicated of a development team. The last unarguably good Medal of Honor game was Allied Assault (back in 2002!), and that was developed by 2015, of which many members left to form Infinity Ward of Call of Duty fame. The franchise has been declining ever since, with practically no games even worth getting after Pacific Assault, and it's a miracle that the franchise and its studio have managed to stick around at all, especially since EA already has Battlefield, a franchise with much higher quality and more successful games, with development team infinitely more dedicated to giving us a polished product and supporting their product after launch. Basically, it is hard to view this as EA just killing off another studio, but more them not willing to provide any more life support to it.

On the other hand, many of these people still have a job. The opening of DICE EA will give them a job and a chance to work for the much more acclaimed studio, so it might be a blessing in disguise for some people. I also can't imagine that it's impossible for these people to find jobs in other places at EA, given how large the company is. Sucks for anyone who is without a job because of this, but I doubt the situation is anywhere near as bad as the EA haters are imagining it to be.

 

[thehorror2]

I forgot that EA published both Battlefield AND Medal of Honor. Why the hell did they bother with both? They only split their own market.

 

[Krantos]

There were exceptionally few actual job losses from this "closure".

Danger Close simply moved down the street a bit, and the title on the placards there is DICE instead of Danger Close. Put the pitchforks away, mouthbreathers.

1. Not any pitchforks being raised. Just "Another one bite the dust" jokes.
2. EA's statement says the team was split up "There are people who left LA, people who work with DICE LA, and there are some who work in other parts of EA, as always when something gets dismantled."

This wasn't a simple renaming. The studio closed, but an undisclosed number of employees were shifted a different internal dev studio rather than being let go. If it was a simple renaming, EA would have said that, like they did when they renamed it from EA LA.

The prevalent attitude in this thread is not anger, more of grim amusement at the high mortality rate of EA's studios.

 

[shrekfan246]

This is them trying to mask the fact that DICE LA is basically formed out of Danger Close. (Or respond to that accusation). I bet you we're talking a very high percentage of staff crossing over here.

I tried to look for sources of Wikipedia, but Danger Close is still redirecting to DICE LA at the moment (as it's done for the past couple of months)

I mean we were basically informed Danger Close was closed in May, this isn't new news unless they're trying to respond to those specific allegations. People were reporting Danger Close as being 'renamed' and 'restructured' as DICE LA well before this announcement
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/05/15/ea-renames-danger-close-as-dice-la-and-gives-it-some-star-wars/
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/16/dice-la-from-the-ashes-of-medal-of-honor

With Medal of Honor on indefinite hiatus, numerous senior members of developer Danger Close have migrated over to Electronic Arts? other Los Angeles studio, the newly announced DICE LA. ?Most others,? the publisher tells IGN, ?have moved on from EA.?

I mean it's not like EA didn't rename all their RPG studios 'Bioware' last year.

That won't stop everyone from claiming that EA is the devil and out to ruin every developer in the industry.

And it's not like Danger Close was all that good, anyway. They fairly reliably pumped out absolute mediocrity in every game they made that wasn't an RTS.

 

[Xan Krieger]

They had to know they were committing studio suicide with Warfighter, besides weren't there warnings that when Warfighter failed that Danger Close would be closed?

 

[BrotherRool]

That won't stop everyone from claiming that EA is the devil and out to ruin every developer in the industry.

And it's not like Danger Close was all that good, anyway. They fairly reliably pumped out absolute mediocrity in every game they made that wasn't an RTS.

In honesty, whilst I've defended EA on certain issues and certain games, I didn't mean my comment as well-intentioned towards them. I think their habit of creating brands out of developers names is a little bit scummy and whilst my first thought that Danger Close was still exactly the same studio and EA were trying to dodge the bad reputation that they'd built up by associating them with people who make much better shooters, isn't completely correct because it seems like they've done some slashing and burning at least, it's still true that DICE LA's senior management contains a lot of people who ran the studio that had a reputation for making poor games. So I do think there's an element of PR trickery here.

Whatever the case, most of DICE LA were recruited in LA, so the naming has caused everyone to say 'at least DICE knows how to make good multiplayer' etc and none of that is true, because this is a new studio with completely different staff than the DICE people are making that assumption off.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

I initially read the title as something along the lines of "Electronic Arts Confirms They're Dangerously Close To Closure" - which, needless to say, momentarily made my heart leap. Alas, it's just another small step in that direction. Let's hope that hallowed day arrives before too many more such casualties happen.

If only the title had been written in pigeon English, indeed. EA dangerous close closure. Piss on customers many.

 

[RipRoaringWaterfowl]

Somewhere, some EA board member is adding another notch to his belt...

By now, his belt would look like beef jerky the way it's torn up.

So, when these guys do go down, do we give them a viking funeral or a New Orleans funeral?

Well, a New Orleans one involves celebration, but it usually involves celebrating the life of the deceased, not the death... but we can always have a twist!

This is exactly how it went down.

EA: DC, maek CoD klon
DC: But boss, people already have more than enough modern military shooters. It won't sell. The market is over-saturated.
EA: Dooooo iiiiiit!
DC: Yes, boss. We'll need a few years though.
EA: Do iiiit nauuuu!
DC: We'll try boss.
[ONE MONTH LATER]
EA: Aaa, whas dis? Peoples don likz iiit. Peoples don baj iiit.
DC: That's what we've been trying to tell you. People have had enough.
EA: I hzd enuf! Youz firddd!

That was so funny! Realistic, too!

OT: Very sad, but not as destructive considering all the reshuffling of the deck chairs on the E.A.C. Titanic.

 

[1337mokro]

BLOOD FOR THE EXECUTIVES!!!

To be honest though I believe these guys were capable of MUCH MUCH more, whatever you say about MOH it was a well programmed game with few bugs. Sure it was essentially a rail shooter but that has to do with EA mandate. "Create a COD clone that makes us money" not much they could do about that.

 

[empirialtank]

By now, his belt would look like beef jerky the way it's torn up.

So, when these guys do go down, do we give them a viking funeral or a New Orleans funeral?

New Orleans i think, with a New HongKong Wake that EA itself will come to with any luck.

and a link for anyone who wants to get that reference:

http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20090203

 

[Dark Knifer]

Well they didn't make anything good. Dunno if that's their fault or EA's but whatever, shit happens.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Well they didn't make anything good. Dunno if that's their fault or EA's but whatever, shit happens.

You forgot the cardinal rule of game development. If it's bad, it's the fault of the publisher. If it is good, it is thanks to the developer.

 

[Dark Knifer]

Well they didn't make anything good. Dunno if that's their fault or EA's but whatever, shit happens.

You forgot the cardinal rule of game development. If it's bad, it's the fault of the publisher. If it is good, it is thanks to the developer.

Oh my mistake.

EA CAN SUCK A DICK FUCKING SCUMBAGS KILLING INNOCENT DEVELOPERS AND MAKING THEM MAKE SHITTY GAMES!1!!!!!

Did I do good?

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Not like it produced anything of worth, but the people will still be around in other places. Let's hope it was EA forcing them to make a shitty generic game and not the devs having no concept of what a good game is.

 

[4Aces]

So, when these guys do go down, do we give them a viking funeral or a New Orleans funeral?

Viking all the way, but lets assume they are all in the EA HQ during a investor conference call so the screams are being recorded across the planet.

 

[LordMonty]

Shame, good name/logo good that they won't make any more medel of honor games though.

 

[Frostbite3789]

The "closure" of Danger Close is little more than a marketing ploy. EA has used up the "goodwill" generated by the studio's name and it was of no further benefit to the company. As you said, the actual employees were probably just moved over to the DICE moniker.

What goodwill? As Danger Close they made two very bad Medal of Honor Games. As EA LA they made pretty damn good ones.

C&C Generals: Zero Hour.
LotR Battle for Middle Earth.
LotR Battle for Middle Earth 2 and it's xpack
C&C 3: Tiberium wars and it's xpack

And a few not bad Medal of Honor titles. There was jack all good will in the name Danger Close.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Hopefully EA wont make any more stupid decisions trying to clone CoD.