Poll: The likelihood of EA improving.

[The Jovian]

I must admit I'm a bit apprehensive to make this forum thread mainly because my last EA-related poll was received about as well as you'd expect someone would react to me saying that EA will definitely make it's own overpriced OS to follow in Valve's footsteps, and make all of its PC games exclusive to it. At the time I was a bit bitter at EA (surprising I know) for things that in hindsight were rather insignificant. So instead for debating the likelihood of an Origin OS let's instead debate the likelihood of EA to stop sucking.

After all they did get rid of the online pass which is good, and they did delay Battlefield 4 to allow DICE enough time to polish it (though I still don't care about it), and they did announce that they are working on 8 new IPs. These all sound like positive changes to me given how much EA loved to dish out online passes and to rush out titles and how much they hated new IPs.

The cynic in me would say that this is all temporarily and that soon EA would bring back the online pass, continue to rush games out the door and that all of its new IPs would be homogenized generic crap. But the optimist in me is hoping that these are the first of many changes for the better. EA can be a massive force for good in this industry, it has the means to bring back forgotten franchises and genres, it can and should push the envelope of games as art, it just doesn't have the will.

EDIT: The cynic in me was thoroughly silenced today by EA announcing that they are cancelling C&C game after the alpha received negative response, EA was even quoted as saying "[We're] already begun looking at a number of alternatives to get the game back on track" and that "ultimately it's about getting you the game you expect and deserve." So yeah, EA wants to make a good RTS now, they definitely are improving, let's hope they keep on improving.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I've never bought that EA was as evil as people claimed they were. Yes, not all of their business practices were laudable and some were just downright anti-consumer and/or deceptive. They embraced pretty much everything that gamers dislike, and their games seem to be getting of lower quality every year. Their inability to really do much outside of rip off other popular titles is also concerning, but doesn't mean much if they make good rip-offs. I also hate their advertising strategy of building themselves up by tearing down the opposition.

Still, I don't think they are anywhere near as evil as people paint them. At most, they've made certain business decisions that some people don't like, and other decisions just don't work in the gaming industry (i.e. they are excellent in other places, but in an industry centered around entertainment they aren't very good). Now, obviously they still had room to improve, as I outlined above, and in that regard, I think they are taking steps in the right direction. They ditched the online pass, and I don't see it coming back anytime soon. Their PR speak shows that they at least have a basic understanding of what gamers want, which is a far cry from their blatantly ignorant ramblings of a couple years ago. Whether or not we see any actual improvement to their business practices or an improved quality in their games is yet to be seen, but hopefully they can find ways to be more consumer friendly and also find ways to bring more innovation and better games to the market.

 

[squid5580]

There is some improvements on the EA front and the way things are going they are gonna end up being gold the way other companies are getting greedier/stupider. R* and WB allowing people to buy advantages in competitive MP (unless Batman Origins dropped the MT idea since beta). Ubisoft withholding hours of content off certain platforms but still charging the same price for all. Most likely to sell it to us at a later date. Acti/Blizzard with the Diablo 3 AH fiasco as well as MTs in their sub based game. Meanwhile EA has dropped online passes (and given them away for free), dropped the idea of Sims 4 being online only and may 1 day fix Sim City to be offline.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

No. It may appear to some that they're improving, but they're only making the right choices because they don't have any other choice. As soon as they have a taste of the money from their next projects, they'll turn into the money grabbing abomination that they truly are. That's what they do. They don't learn from their mistakes. Not in the long run anyway. They make a good game and then they milk it. If they don't completely kill the franchise, they will attempt to fix the next one in the series so that they can continue milking it.
They're not evil. They're just shortsighted, greedy and incompetent.

 

[squid5580]

No. It may appear to some that they're improving, but they're only making the right choices because they don't have any other choice. As soon as they have a taste of the money from their next projects, they'll turn into the money grabbing abomination that they truly are. That's what they do. They don't learn from their mistakes. Not in the long run anyway. They make a good game and then they milk it. If they don't completely kill the franchise, they will attempt to fix the next one in the series so that they can continue milking it.
They're not evil. They're just shortsighted, greedy and incompetent.

Is there any big ones that aren't greedy ect. anymore? Sure we had to beat EA into submission and while we were doing so it seems like everyone else picked up the ball and kept running.

 

[Raikas]

I think they'll follow the money, so if people's spending encourages them to behave differently in the future, I see them pursuing that.

For what it's worth, I never understood all the "evil" talk - a poor business decision is a poor business decision, not a moral offense, y'know?

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

No. It may appear to some that they're improving, but they're only making the right choices because they don't have any other choice. As soon as they have a taste of the money from their next projects, they'll turn into the money grabbing abomination that they truly are. That's what they do. They don't learn from their mistakes. Not in the long run anyway. They make a good game and then they milk it. If they don't completely kill the franchise, they will attempt to fix the next one in the series so that they can continue milking it.
They're not evil. They're just shortsighted, greedy and incompetent.

this, plus every time you hear something come out of EA's mouth, it is usually someone really high up or was a lead on the team/design, and 90% of the time i'm either facepalming what they said or can't believe a business would openly claim what they had just said, it's fucking ridiculous sometimes. This is partially why I don't think EA is really improving, they are just hiding behind some tip toe decisions to try to get consumers to forget about some of the shit they have been pulling for years now.

that's not to say i don't reward decent decisions and good games,and i don't hate everyone at EA (their customer service is supposedly pretty good all around?) but I definitely don't give them any breaks, EA has proven time and time again they love taking short cuts and love milking more than the biggest dairy farm in the world.

 

[Smooth Operator]

They are improving their public image yes, mostly learning it's best to shut your trap if all you got to say is dumb things, much like Activision has learned a couple years ago when they were the alpha beelzebub of the bunch, and since then they do the exact same horrid things as always but don't put it on public display.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I've always kinda liked EA, but even I can see they're improving by removing the online passes and stuff. I think they're being recieved better for it, previously any EA game was attacked by everyone for whatever reason and it was blamed on EA. Now, lots of EA games are getting a pass if they look good (Titanfall for example, no-one is mentioning that EA is publishing it conveniently).

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

They attempted to improve waaay back in 2007/2008, with Riccitiello apologising for killing Bullfrog, Origin, and Westwood, different games and IP's coming out like Dead Space and Mirrors Edge as well as Bioware having rather free reign to do what they wanted.

Fast forward to today and:

Dragon Age 2 being rushed out and suffering for it.
The Medal of Honor series dying due to EA running after the CoD market.
Devs are still being shut down.
Bioware talent leaving in droves.
Dead Space 3 needing 5 million copies to continue as well as having micro-transactions and co-op.
And lets not get started on that steaming pile of giblets that was once the dead horse of Mass Effect 3.

At the moment the only bright point for them is Titanfall, and I expect that is in part due to Respawns clout cowing the EA board of directors.

Oh you don't like how we missed the next gen console launch window? Humm, I wonder if Ubisoft would like their own CoD killer? It would be a real shame if we were forced to jumped ship again, wouldn't it?

So no, I don't believe EA will improve and stay that way.

EDIT: I forgot about SimCity!

 

[Elijin]

EA make a lot of top shelf games. Fun games, popular games and good games.

Yes, they misstep fairly often. Lots of stupid small things, some terrible big things. But overall EA arent even remotely as 'evil', incompetent or failing as people on some forums like to make out.

 

[Baron Tanks]

What worries me most, is that we've seen this kind of behaviour on the behalf of EA before and they were slowly getting into people's good (better?) books at least. Then DA2, ME3, Sim City and what not happened and we're back at the EA vile and hate from 3-4 years ago. So if there are signs of progress, they'll find a way to dick it up again. I guess it's better to just judge them on a game to game basis and enjoy the games you like and stop worrying about the corporate entity as a whole.

But hey, they had it coming right?

!Edit: Ed130 more or less made my point how this is all cyclical behaviour to begin with:

They attempted to improve waaay back in 2007/2008, with Riccitiello apologising for killing Bullfrog, Origin, and Westwood, different games and IP's coming out like Dead Space and Mirrors Edge as well as Bioware having rather free reign to do what they wanted.

Fast forward to today and:

Dragon Age 2 being rushed out and suffering for it.
The Medal of Honor series dying due to EA running after the CoD market.
Devs are still being shut down.
Bioware talent leaving in droves.
Dead Space 3 needing 5 million copies to continue as well as having micro-transactions and co-op.
And lets not get started on that steaming pile of giblets that was once the dead horse of Mass Effect 3.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

But if the choices they make now (seen as the better choices) lead to greater successes, then why would they revert to the highly unpopular and arguably unsuccessful old ways?

Like I said, they're shortsighted. They just want to cash in on the success of the previous title. So they cut the development time and focus more on marketing. And they hope that everything will turn out OK. One of the things that allows them to do this is the pre-order culture. So consumers are a part of the problem as well. If people didn't pre-order games, developers and publishers would have to prove that their game is better or on par with it's predecessor. As it is now, they don't have to do that.

 

[Battenberg]

Regardless of their reasons for doing so they definitely are making some changes (all it took was being voted America's worst company a few times) and I think they are finally realising that customers aren't quite as happy to just chuck money at anything they make or any old dlc just for the sake of having it which is going to make them a better company in the long run. No doubt it will take them years to do enough good that they're no longer at the butt of a lot of gamers' jokes, even longer if they aim to actually be liked, but hopefully over time they will start setting a better example to other companies and it will have a positive impact on the industry as a whole.

 

[Thr33X]

I see EA improving because they for the first time are letting their dev houses take control of their own projects now instead of dictating what and when to do what. The two biggest examples right now are DICE and Criterion. DICE obviously had the reigns of Battlefied even before being bought by EA, but Criterion is the X-Factor here. They've been allowed to pretty much take complete control of the Need For Speed franchise as opposed to have several different devs house working on games. That in my opinion is how a publisher should do business, be more hands off aside from quality control, and let the developers do what they're paid to do.

Captcha Code: Great Mileage. Yes, I do hope that the next NFS Game gets plenty of great mileage.