Is anyone defending EA at this point?
- Thread starter IPunchWithMyFists
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Well after the current debarkle that percentage going to increase and not just core gamers washing their hands of EA.lapan said:
While ME3 was a big seller, it was mainly focused at the so-called 'hardcore' crowd and most of the ire was from them. SimCity however had a more widespread focus with more casual consumers.
First of all, i'd like to point out that I don't actually hate them for SimCity, considering I don't care for it, but I hate them for their overall business practices, including the DRM.
EA are just playing a winning game. They release a bad product or a product that has been subjected to all their practices, and it just pull really big numbers. Why change what works? what we may type on an internet forum won't make them change anything, it's when they reach out to their pockets to find it less than full....
That's what changes things.
EA are just playing a winning game. They release a bad product or a product that has been subjected to all their practices, and it just pull really big numbers. Why change what works? what we may type on an internet forum won't make them change anything, it's when they reach out to their pockets to find it less than full....
That's what changes things.
I defended the micro-transactions for Dead Space 3 the other day. Probably the nicest thing I've ever said about EA in a long-ass time.
I don't really defend them, but I sometimes tell people to lay off the hate because it often gets annoying and way too overly dramatic. It's really nothing to get so worked up over, not because it's okay for EA to pull this shit, but because everyone already agrees with you. There are some things that EA does that people rage over that I'm okay with, though, like the day-one DLC for Mass Effect. I'm not going to bother going into why, just go watch Extra Credits' episode on it or something.
I don't think EA needs defending. It's got a slew of lawyers to do that.
If anything EA is still, like any company, deserving of some perspective. Shamus Young said it best: EA isn't greedy, it's just clueless. Considering the size of the thing and the fact that it's a publicly traded company, I'm not surprised.
EA's innermost whims aren't dictated with people with a deep-seated love of the medium driving them; they're dictated by non-gamers who have chunks of the company in their retirement fund, by investment firms who only care about growing the stock so they'll sell it at a profit, or by people who bought a piece of it for the very same reason. The Board of Directors doesn't give two shits about player experience; it wants to see smiles on the shareholders' faces. Everything else is utterly trivial.
With that in mind, let's take a look at what makes Little Baby Potential Investor cry...
- reduced profits
- profitable franchises slowing down significantly
- bad PR
- ineffectual PR
- lack of sales altogether
SimCity was designed to curb reduced sales by way of DRM and always-online features. Every single copy sold is a copy legitimately bought, which means sixty dollars more divvied up between EA and Maxis. Everybody's happy. Then there's the fact that SimCity as a franchise had been silent for years. They probably observed a decline in sales outside of the new "core" franchises the publisher keeps doting over (Battlefield/Dead Space) and figured it was time to reverse the trend by pulling out an old and beloved franchise out of the mothballs. Discussing it brought up the unavoidable issue of piracy and, well - full circle.
The intent was to turn SimCity into a new cash cow à la The Sims 3. That much is obvious. Bad and utterly ineffectual PR, however, would botch this up, along with poor planning on their part. You can be sure Bradshaw's had her ear chewed off over the last few days.
Even so, the game wasn't a complete wash for EA. It sold, despite the horrible Metacritic and Amazon reviews.
So what do they take away from all this?
Probably that angering an old fanbase is fine and dandy, provided you've got enough tech savvy and money to weather the initial storm. Failing that, they just might shutter Maxis or at least sack Bradshaw - which would be a shame.
So honestly? EA isn't evil. It isn't a Snidely Whiplash character who's out to empty your pockets while cackling with evil relish. It isn't an Orange Lantern in the making, looking at your wallets and mindlessly lusting for your cash. Does that excuse what they've been doing? Of course not.
All this tells me is that Corporate is no longer able to reason like your average gamer. If EA's original founders are still onboard, something intrinsic to the company's initial intent is now gone. The electronic artistry that's suggested in a title like "Electronic Arts" has been replaced with cold and impersonal fiscal predictions.
On the other hand, can you really blame EA? Can you really blame any of the Big Three? Budgets are bloated, the average consumer's demand for cutting-edge graphics and mechanics is superseding story design to the point that we end up with Mass Effect 3-esque debacles; budgets are getting so fricking huge that we're about to see 70$ price tags for games become the norm even though inflation hasn't quite caught on -
Honestly, it isn't EA that's deserving of hatred. It's the entire industry's general outlook.
If anything EA is still, like any company, deserving of some perspective. Shamus Young said it best: EA isn't greedy, it's just clueless. Considering the size of the thing and the fact that it's a publicly traded company, I'm not surprised.
EA's innermost whims aren't dictated with people with a deep-seated love of the medium driving them; they're dictated by non-gamers who have chunks of the company in their retirement fund, by investment firms who only care about growing the stock so they'll sell it at a profit, or by people who bought a piece of it for the very same reason. The Board of Directors doesn't give two shits about player experience; it wants to see smiles on the shareholders' faces. Everything else is utterly trivial.
With that in mind, let's take a look at what makes Little Baby Potential Investor cry...
- reduced profits
- profitable franchises slowing down significantly
- bad PR
- ineffectual PR
- lack of sales altogether
SimCity was designed to curb reduced sales by way of DRM and always-online features. Every single copy sold is a copy legitimately bought, which means sixty dollars more divvied up between EA and Maxis. Everybody's happy. Then there's the fact that SimCity as a franchise had been silent for years. They probably observed a decline in sales outside of the new "core" franchises the publisher keeps doting over (Battlefield/Dead Space) and figured it was time to reverse the trend by pulling out an old and beloved franchise out of the mothballs. Discussing it brought up the unavoidable issue of piracy and, well - full circle.
The intent was to turn SimCity into a new cash cow à la The Sims 3. That much is obvious. Bad and utterly ineffectual PR, however, would botch this up, along with poor planning on their part. You can be sure Bradshaw's had her ear chewed off over the last few days.
Even so, the game wasn't a complete wash for EA. It sold, despite the horrible Metacritic and Amazon reviews.
So what do they take away from all this?
Probably that angering an old fanbase is fine and dandy, provided you've got enough tech savvy and money to weather the initial storm. Failing that, they just might shutter Maxis or at least sack Bradshaw - which would be a shame.
So honestly? EA isn't evil. It isn't a Snidely Whiplash character who's out to empty your pockets while cackling with evil relish. It isn't an Orange Lantern in the making, looking at your wallets and mindlessly lusting for your cash. Does that excuse what they've been doing? Of course not.
All this tells me is that Corporate is no longer able to reason like your average gamer. If EA's original founders are still onboard, something intrinsic to the company's initial intent is now gone. The electronic artistry that's suggested in a title like "Electronic Arts" has been replaced with cold and impersonal fiscal predictions.
On the other hand, can you really blame EA? Can you really blame any of the Big Three? Budgets are bloated, the average consumer's demand for cutting-edge graphics and mechanics is superseding story design to the point that we end up with Mass Effect 3-esque debacles; budgets are getting so fricking huge that we're about to see 70$ price tags for games become the norm even though inflation hasn't quite caught on -
Honestly, it isn't EA that's deserving of hatred. It's the entire industry's general outlook.
Oh, there's always someone.
Just not me.
Realizing that they're hemorrhaging money helped me put some of their actions in a different light, but that wasn't enough to justify them. As long as they keep spreading the gospel of bad decisions as "industry standard" and what the audience wants being up to the company providing it to define, they don't deserve defenders.
Or perhaps, they deserve the kind of defenders they've mostly gotten.
Just not me.
Realizing that they're hemorrhaging money helped me put some of their actions in a different light, but that wasn't enough to justify them. As long as they keep spreading the gospel of bad decisions as "industry standard" and what the audience wants being up to the company providing it to define, they don't deserve defenders.
Or perhaps, they deserve the kind of defenders they've mostly gotten.
I honestly don't see any reason to defend EA at this point. A company that justifies putting microtransactions in full-priced games, makes mediocre game after mediocre game, and even blames the consumers for the failure of the games that THEY made deserves all the hate from gamers.
Until they get their act together, I refuse to support EA and I will not buy any of their future titles, just like I refuse to support Final Fantasy games (because the latest ones are crap), COD games (you all should know why), and Capcom (I refer you to last year).
Until they get their act together, I refuse to support EA and I will not buy any of their future titles, just like I refuse to support Final Fantasy games (because the latest ones are crap), COD games (you all should know why), and Capcom (I refer you to last year).