Opinions on EA?

[Dupeo]

I live in Burnaby, BC, Canada which has the biggest game developing studio in the world. The three skyscrapers are owned and run by EA. EA has received a lot of flak because of their immoral business plan which is basically: "Hey, we have all the money in this industry. Let's spend tens of millions of dollars on our development thus forcing smaller, poorer developers to do the same thing." This has forced developers to go to publishers for money who demand that they keep the rights to the intellectual property and it makes a huge mess that is ailing our industry. Do you folks blame EA?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kAFfhfGjzU&feature=feedrec_grec_index

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

We let them do it ultimately then it's our fault and it's worth noting we don't even have the excuse of not knowing what would happen if we gave them that control, look a Nintendo of the 16 bit era.

 

[Chrisbes32]

I love EA, they publish some fantastic games and take far too much flak.

 

[s0p0g]

i'm actually not that mad at EA - they try to make money, as does every other publisher, and if i don't like a certain product i don't have to buy it
...
......
BUT
you would guess that a company of their size and resources could afford COMPETENT support staff, eh?
damnit...


also, their multimillion-$ projects further indie-projects (because small developers have to come up with something new to compete, and not just make another game x hoping to get a nice margin at the end)

 

[Stammer]

I love EA, they publish some fantastic games and take far too much flak.

I agree. Just because EA does screw a couple of things up here and there doesn't mean they aren't giving us some awesome contributions. A lot of people just don't like that EA tries new things every once in a while. They buy out a company and suddenly that company's games start changing. And even though those changes make the game 100x better, people are pissed off that it's not like every other game that they've played recently.

 

[floppylobster]

I used to really hate them (I was in a company that was negatively affected by their early business practices).
Then I grew to quite like them. (They released a number of good quality titles).
Then they released Command & Conquer 4. So now we're back to square one (i.e. I hate them).

 

[sinny777]

I have always had a bit of hatred for EA, but honestly, they seem to be getting better. Still could use some much better customer support.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Would be nice if the Battlefield and Medal of Honor series weren't exactly the same with both getting shiny new paint jobs to cover the other, like right now with BF3. Otherwise I am okay with EA.

 

[Chrisbes32]

Would be nice if the Battlefield and Medal of Honor series weren't exactly the same with both getting shiny new paint jobs to cover the other, like right now with BF3. Otherwise I am okay with EA.

lolwut. Have you played Bad Company 2 and Medal of Honour?

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

Would be nice if the Battlefield and Medal of Honor series weren't exactly the same with both getting shiny new paint jobs to cover the other, like right now with BF3. Otherwise I am okay with EA.

To be fair that's not really EA's fault they've long since shown that they are willing to allow developers a fairly large amount of developmental freedom one they show that they have a strong handle of being able to make successful marketable games. So really if MoH and BF are the same then isn't that a problem with the development groups in charge of those series?

 

[mighty_wambat]

i have nothing aginst them, if you buy the game new, you get all you bargin for. they make the dlc after the game launched so there was no way it could have been on the disk, i get more mass effect they get another 20 bucks, fair deal

 

[Katana314]

What? Half of the OP's post was WRONG.

Games are perhaps the one field where you simply do NOT need enormous budgets and huge teams of people to make something amazing. In fact, I've made two game projects during my time at school. The first was in a team of ten people, most of them fairly talented. The second project was in a team of four, which was reduced to three when one of them didn't contribute. Guess which made for a better game? The second.

Having a more concentrated team filled with ideas and commitment can actually get you FURTHER ahead of a company for which the "ideas guy" has to cater to 50 other team members, a supervising production team, and all that sort of thing. AAA developers like EA can make amazing things, but there are certain indie titles put out that would never have made it WITH the support of a company like EA.

Nobody is being starved out. Last year was GREAT for indie games like Super Meat Boy and Minecraft.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

EA is still trying to buck the Evil Empire ways it had for the last decade and a half, but Activision is really helping it out, by trying to take that seat.

Just look at the lawsuits surrounding the release of Brütal Legend, and you can definitely see that EA is being pretty awesome at times. They're not completely awesome yet, but in the last year or two they've made a lot of steps in the right direction.