Former Visceral Head Says EA Treated Him Like "Sh*t"

[Trivun]

Schofield left EA to become the head of Activision studio Sledgehammer Games, which is currently working on a new FPS in the Call of Duty series.

The guy must be a glutton for punishment. He left EA, who reportedly treated him like shit, to join Activision, who had the whole Infinity Ward debacle and has Bobby Kotick as CEO? The guy who wants to take the fun out of making videogames? Believe me, Kotick is never going to live that quote down, it'll become the Godwin's Law of videogames. But yeah, Schofield has pretty much been screwed both ways here. Talk about out of the frying pan...

As daft as it sounds though, he honestly doesn't deserve that. He made a great game, Dead Space, among others, and yet he claims he was treated like crap. Sometimes you just have to look at the industry bigwigs and wish them all the joys of the Ten Plagues. Albeit in videogame form, and with American McGee and Clive Barker adding creative input...

 

[phoenix352]

Iam sorry he claims that he made dead space for EA yeah what about the rest of the 100 or more people who worked on it. i can see why he was "treated badly" he sounds like a douche to me.

 

[William Dickbringer]

He made Dead Space 4? Then where the hell is our second?!

I dunno, I rarely follow these things... just seems like another slapfight to me. Did he leave voluntarily or was he forced to?

not just the second where's the third game as well

why must there be drama in the game industry can't they just ignore it and make games

 

[Aesir23]

Why does it seem that EA and Activision will soon own the whole video game industry in 2 big-ass evil empires? Their names appear everywhere.

Because they are two big-ass evil empires?

 

[acosn]

EA has a history of treating games like a business and opperating on the idea that if you add 1 and 1 you must always get 2 where as the gaming industry's monolithic successes tend to go by the formula that 1 and 1 will equal 3 or 4 if given enough time.


This isn't really anything new.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Well with any luck, all the real talent with shift towards companies like Valve, leaving EA and Activision to rework Madden and Tony Hawk once a year and have nothing else to release, while Valve have enough staff to release a dozen grade A games a year with tons of support for free updates and patches without any dumb DRM cos Steam does that.

We could hope anyway.

 

[Cabisco]

It's alright EA, I forgive you. You seem to be on the mend and starting to make great game after great game. Just don't make this a habit okay

 

[Pingieking]

Hopefully Schofield won't get treated as badly at Activision. I hear nobody has ever had a problem over there. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98761-Rumor-Security-Locks-Down-Infinity-Ward-Ousts-Studio-Head-UPDATE]

Now THAT's sarcasm. Jolly good show.

Indeed. It seems like he just went from the frying pan to the fire.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

At least there's no type of Omerta...

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

EA or Activision... decisions decisions...

 

[lijenstina]

Finally freedom.

Maybe he got to fetch only two soy lattes and a box of 12x70 buckshot per hour for his boss, and finally, the broom closet is now emptied for his office, so he can leave the baby seals meat refrigerator room.

A little slice of heaven right there beneath tax avoidance office documents and suspect employees incinerator. Should be nice and warm in the winter.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Dead Space 4? Oh fuck, that cannot be good at all...

 

[mjc0961]

I'm really just surprised that there are this many stupid people who put something up on Twitter and then are surprised when it gets all over the news.

 

[Compatriot Block]

Dead Space 4? Oh fuck, that cannot be good at all...

"Dead Space 4"? One sequel at a time, buddy.

Terrible humour aside, I have to agree that you hear about major companies treating the working artisans like shit all the time. Maybe if EA, Microsoft, Activision and the like treated their developers with respect we might have some higher quality games out today.

He made Dead Space 4? Then where the hell is our second?!

I dunno, I rarely follow these things... just seems like another slapfight to me. Did he leave voluntarily or was he forced to?

Re-read it, he just was using 4 instead of "for", judging by the lack of italics on "4".

 

[archvile93]

Anyone else thinking, "out of the frying pan, into the fire?"

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

i was wondering why Glenn left. I liked him a lot my favorite thing about him was that he didnt even look like a game desinger. But now he is with activison. So long Glenn.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

EA treat him like shit, so he leaves them to give Activision a chance to treat him like shit instead! Genius!

 

[Mr. Grey]

Dead Space 4? Oh fuck, that cannot be good at all...

"Dead Space 4"? One sequel at a time, buddy.

Terrible humour aside, I have to agree that you hear about major companies treating the working artisans like shit all the time. Maybe if EA, Microsoft, Activision and the like treated their developers with respect we might have some higher quality games out today.

He made Dead Space 4? Then where the hell is our second?!

I dunno, I rarely follow these things... just seems like another slapfight to me. Did he leave voluntarily or was he forced to?

Re-read it, he just was using 4 instead of "for", judging by the lack of italics on "4".

Hence the jokes.

I can't speak for the others, but I was taking a potshot at Twitter's ridiculous character limit and the fact people have to resort to using substitutions or end up making two paragraphs for one itty-bitty statement.

It's like the Morse Code *stop* only somehow less useful *stop* save for gossip *stop* or whether or not *stop* your friend's cat is *stop* sleeping in her lap *stop* or am I wrong? *stop* Considering *stop* how often I have to stop *stop*.

 

[Terramax]

Give it a year when he's not been paid bonuses for the next CoD, he'll be moving back to EA like the rest of em