Where EA Went Wrong
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
excellent article. i hope that your simplification of the problems by relating them to less esoteric examples in the world serves to open eyes both within the company and the community. i know outside of it's walls there are plenty of EA haters, but i still see many defenders as well, and that's a little mind-boggling. i usually get the impression that people who defend EA are just being cool. it's popular to hate EA, so they have to be on the other side of that.
i have one counter-point to this article though. i have had nothing but good experiences with Origin. that's not to say that i'm denying the issues it may have, just that i havent personally been affected by them. in fact, to be fair, i'll share the story. it's short, don't worry.
i had purchased spore and all expansions, as well as sims 3 all around launch, before origin existed. i registered the games, as i usually do. well, years later i had lost the discs, but when origin came out, i decided to contact EA about receiving digital access to games i had physically purchased and registered. after a few minutes of record checking, they granted me the access and i was able to download the games. they didnt have to do this. but they did, and that really sat well with me.
when all is said and done, i don't think my hatred of EA comes entirely from how awful they usually are, but also because i see their wasted potential and think about how much good they COULD do for our industry and culture, and they squander it in the pursuit of a slightly beefier bottom line. but what they are failing to realize is that by alienating us to increase profits, they are losing sales and our respect.
i have one counter-point to this article though. i have had nothing but good experiences with Origin. that's not to say that i'm denying the issues it may have, just that i havent personally been affected by them. in fact, to be fair, i'll share the story. it's short, don't worry.
i had purchased spore and all expansions, as well as sims 3 all around launch, before origin existed. i registered the games, as i usually do. well, years later i had lost the discs, but when origin came out, i decided to contact EA about receiving digital access to games i had physically purchased and registered. after a few minutes of record checking, they granted me the access and i was able to download the games. they didnt have to do this. but they did, and that really sat well with me.
when all is said and done, i don't think my hatred of EA comes entirely from how awful they usually are, but also because i see their wasted potential and think about how much good they COULD do for our industry and culture, and they squander it in the pursuit of a slightly beefier bottom line. but what they are failing to realize is that by alienating us to increase profits, they are losing sales and our respect.
FFP2 said:
That would be the best thing to happen, and I hope it does.sammysoso said:
But I can't help but wonder what will happen if EA doesn't start doing better.
What will it mean exactly for the industry as a whole?
Depending on how things go in the future, I may just find out.
Great article Shamus!
Can't wait to see the next one, but I guess I'll have too.
It may be something that will be covered in next week's article, but it bears note that the things that have made EA "the world's most hated company" (acknowledging the amount of hyperbole that surrounds such a title) are starting to make not buying EA products into something resembling a moral calling. Yes, you can still find people who will buy Battlefield or Madden, just like you can find people who look forward to the reliable comfort of their favorite fast food chain. But many others look at the companies and franchises that are absorbed and see the quality of their work deteriorate. They see hit-makers like George Fan laid off, and the guiding stars of people like the founders of Bioware quietly decide to leave. They see, over and over again, a public-relations mentality based on manipulation and trying to dictate the market's desires rather than listening to customer feedback and trusting the quality of products to carry them through.
When all is said and done, I've stopped buying games from EA because I don't want the medium or the market to look like EA seems to envision them.
When all is said and done, I've stopped buying games from EA because I don't want the medium or the market to look like EA seems to envision them.
Excellent article, and it really says a lot of things that need to be said to EA once all the swearing and hatred has run its course.
The fact remains that EA has control over a lot of great IPs and studios, and if they were to go under then a whole bunch of great studios and talented people are suddenly cast adrift. What we should really hope for is that EA can figure out how to reverse course and focus on taking the time to bring the quality back to their formerly respected franchises before it all comes crashing down.
On a side note, it's nice to see a reminder that, "Companies exist to make money," doesn't justify the awful acts undertaken by that company when those acts are hardly keeping EA afloat let alone making them rich.
The fact remains that EA has control over a lot of great IPs and studios, and if they were to go under then a whole bunch of great studios and talented people are suddenly cast adrift. What we should really hope for is that EA can figure out how to reverse course and focus on taking the time to bring the quality back to their formerly respected franchises before it all comes crashing down.
On a side note, it's nice to see a reminder that, "Companies exist to make money," doesn't justify the awful acts undertaken by that company when those acts are hardly keeping EA afloat let alone making them rich.
I agree in general with Shamus' points but there are some comparisons in his piece and this quote that are completely "apples to oranges".j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
The general picture is not "the industry is growing but EA is having trouble", all major publishers that rely on triple-A games are having trouble, with the notable exception of ActiBlizzard. THQ went down not long ago.
Valve is a completely different story, they make money off Steam, they have much freedom because of it. And they don't seem to be much interested in single player games anymore, with DOTA2 being the only major release coming out that we know about, and nothing about Half-Life to be seen anywhere in the future.
Nintendo is also not a simple publisher or dev, they're hardware makers. They always had dominance over the portable gaming market to compensate for when their other divisions were failing. And they were smart with the Wii to not sell consoles at a loss, from day one, which built them some reserves. Even then, Nintendo is feeling increasing pressure on the portable side from smart phones and tablets, and things may change in the near future.
Overall, it's the current development model for AAA games that seems to be in trouble, and EA compounds that with their own failures to better understand the market.
Good article Shamus, it really highlights how badly EA have been wasting their potential. I will never fathom why EA are so fixated on having all their games appeal to the widest audience possible. Variety helps appeal to wider audiences better and your better placed to set your own new trends instead of playing catch up all the time. I mean if you owned a restaurant that only sold steak and someone else's restaurant does better steak than you, why would anyone come to your restaurant?
Maybe devs/publishers won't be so quick to make games that have "wide" appeal once they see that it ain't working so well for EA...Imp Emissary said:
The industry will be fine regardless of if EA is still a part of it or not. They don't have the "pull" that they used to.
Excellent article and pretty much summed up what I thought of the way EA was/is heading.
I found myself half way through the article subsituting the word for EA to Microsoft and was finding that nearly every arguement you made more or less is applicable to the way they are operating at the moment. Give or take a few years but both companies are roughly similar in age (i'm sure someone will look it up)and the movement from a small start up to huge comglomerate have definate parallels. From what I've read about it and what I'm seeing crawl out of Microsoft at the moment is more or less a company trying to catch the back end of a wave (Apple) and try and prove it's relevance in a world that has moved on from a company wallowing in a tar pit of it's own making.
I found myself half way through the article subsituting the word for EA to Microsoft and was finding that nearly every arguement you made more or less is applicable to the way they are operating at the moment. Give or take a few years but both companies are roughly similar in age (i'm sure someone will look it up)and the movement from a small start up to huge comglomerate have definate parallels. From what I've read about it and what I'm seeing crawl out of Microsoft at the moment is more or less a company trying to catch the back end of a wave (Apple) and try and prove it's relevance in a world that has moved on from a company wallowing in a tar pit of it's own making.
EA is just shortsighted. I think both this article and last week's are pretty close to spot on, but I can't convince myself that EA is not greedy, or not any less greedy than other huge corporate entities. Their biggest problem though, is that their greed has blinded them to the way the market actually works.
It is just baffling to me that they fail to understand the difference in markets. It is the first issue brought up in this article, and I think it is their biggest. They see CoD selling the most games, so they assume that is what EVERYONE wants to buy and they homogenize their other titles to fit that mold. But it is just one mold out of a hundred that can work just fine. The only conclusion I can reach to explain this incredible oversight is that their leaders are very simple-minded, one-track thinkers. They see only the biggest, best, shiniest thing in the room and say "Oh, we need that! That's the way we have to go!"
How do they not understand that even if CoD:Blops II sold ten million copies, THERE ARE A HUNDRED MILLION GAMERS IN AMERICA. That leaves ninety percent of the market out of their reach!* It can only be shortsighted tunnel vision, combined with their traditional, and perhaps unremarkable, capitalist greed, that can lead them to where they are now.
*Obviously, I'm making that figure up. But the point is valid and easily recognizable.
It is just baffling to me that they fail to understand the difference in markets. It is the first issue brought up in this article, and I think it is their biggest. They see CoD selling the most games, so they assume that is what EVERYONE wants to buy and they homogenize their other titles to fit that mold. But it is just one mold out of a hundred that can work just fine. The only conclusion I can reach to explain this incredible oversight is that their leaders are very simple-minded, one-track thinkers. They see only the biggest, best, shiniest thing in the room and say "Oh, we need that! That's the way we have to go!"
How do they not understand that even if CoD:Blops II sold ten million copies, THERE ARE A HUNDRED MILLION GAMERS IN AMERICA. That leaves ninety percent of the market out of their reach!* It can only be shortsighted tunnel vision, combined with their traditional, and perhaps unremarkable, capitalist greed, that can lead them to where they are now.
*Obviously, I'm making that figure up. But the point is valid and easily recognizable.
EA is trying to make every game FIFA.
Suddenly, everything makes sense. I'm actually kinda disappointed in myself for not making the connection earlier. :/
You know, it's funny to think that I used to know of Shamus for his light-hearted comics and his goofy MMO Let's Plays. Now I pretty much exclusively look to him for commentary on story structure and the state of the gaming industry as a whole. Oh how things change in three years.
[sub]*cough*Immaleavethishere*cough*[/sub]
Suddenly, everything makes sense. I'm actually kinda disappointed in myself for not making the connection earlier. :/
You know, it's funny to think that I used to know of Shamus for his light-hearted comics and his goofy MMO Let's Plays. Now I pretty much exclusively look to him for commentary on story structure and the state of the gaming industry as a whole. Oh how things change in three years.
[sub]*cough*Immaleavethishere*cough*[/sub]
I honestly don't have an issue with EA.
To me, EA is just a production company that produces some of my favourite games and is a logo on the box.
Origin is not a bad client in design. It has two flaws and they are:
1. Not enough games
Besides The Sims, Sim City, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Battlefield, Plants vs Zombies etc. what exactly is on Origin? Nothing. Browsering their catalogue can be done in under five minutes. Seriously, looking for an episode of the X-Files to watch is more time consuming. There's not enough there to make you want to buy from it. You can get anything on Steam (minus EA games xD) which makes it appeal to more people.
2. Price
Origin discount sales are still very expensive!
If you compare the discount sales to Steam you wonder why you're even wasting your time. Steam can sell a franchise at Christmas for under £15. Origin will want £15 for the base game and that will be discounted.
To me, EA is just a production company that produces some of my favourite games and is a logo on the box.
Origin is not a bad client in design. It has two flaws and they are:
1. Not enough games
Besides The Sims, Sim City, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Battlefield, Plants vs Zombies etc. what exactly is on Origin? Nothing. Browsering their catalogue can be done in under five minutes. Seriously, looking for an episode of the X-Files to watch is more time consuming. There's not enough there to make you want to buy from it. You can get anything on Steam (minus EA games xD) which makes it appeal to more people.
2. Price
Origin discount sales are still very expensive!
If you compare the discount sales to Steam you wonder why you're even wasting your time. Steam can sell a franchise at Christmas for under £15. Origin will want £15 for the base game and that will be discounted.
I always thought EA was more or less doing the corporation sized version of 'living paycheck to paycheck'. It's not that they think that all games can be pumped out yearly, it's that they realize that pumping out an unfinished or shoddy product and cashing in, is faster and quicker money than putting more time and effort into a release. With their stock value in the toilet, all they can do is keep releasing games faster and faster trying to stay above water. I'm not even sure if they could spare the time to put more effort into their releases.