Vapourware LOL ELECTRONIC ARTS: The EA Thread

[Dexter]

Every other day EA announces or does something extremely stupid, like saying that all their future games will have Microtransactions, or when it came out that both Dead Space 3 and Sim City will apparently have those as largely SinglePlayer games.
Or they are forced to do something because their business strategies didn't exactly work out like cancel Medal of Honor or when they had to shut down Visceral Montreal just a week or so ago in the wake of less than the expected sales of Dead Space 3.

But making a new thread for every egregious thing they do or when every shit-sandwhich they've bitten off of delivers its sweet aftertaste seems like a waste of good thread place so I finally decided to open this, with the newest happenings for and from EA.

In todays issue:
The emerging shitstorm in wake of Sim City's release: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/05/gamers-line-up-to-play-simcity/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUl_Cj2_KWU

EA having to scrub Dead Space from their annual release schedules, because what comes as a surprise to absolutely everyone it didn't manage to sell 5 million units: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...s-following-poor-sales-of-dead-space-3-report

And finally, they closed "BioWare San Francisco": http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/05/ea-shuts-down-bioware-san-francisco/
The last external studio holding the "BioWare" brand, after "Bioware Victory" went back to being Victory Games, "BioWare Mythic" back to Mythic and "BioWare Ireland" was repurposed to a general EA support center. Only the main studios remain for “redundancies” now: Edmonton, Montreal and a severely weakened Austin that already had major cuts of over 200+ people after all that The Old Republic deal.

 

[Kz3r0]

 

[sea]

EA having to scrub Dead Space from their annual release schedules, because what comes as a surprise to absolutely everyone it didn't manage to sell 5 million units: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...s-following-poor-sales-of-dead-space-3-report.

1. New original game franchise is developed and launched.
2. Game is successful and makes profit by catering to a devoted fanbase who are starved for content in a particular genre.
3. EA authorizes higher budget, bigger team and bigger marketing, but says game has to double sales to continue.
4. Game is pushed more outside of the genre its original supporters and fans wanted, in order to attract mainstream audiences.
5. Game releases and succeeds at the set goal, but only barely.
6. EA authorizes higher budget, bigger team and bigger marketing, but says game has to double sales to continue.
7. Game is pushed even more outside the genre of the original until it barely resembles it in anything more than superficial aesthetic qualities.
8. Game is rushed out the door, leading to large portions of poor quality and inferior gameplay in addition to above-mentioned design changes.
9. Game comes out and does not succeed with original or new fans due to both changed direction and lower quality.
10. EA cans franchise and lays off hundreds of employees; executives responsible for ruining the franchise, which was successful not due to executives but due to hard-working and creative developers, collect Christmas bonus in July.

 

[Infinitron]

It's sort of like the Peter Principle, but for products instead of employees.

 

[Spectacle]

I wonder if the executives at EA have any clue why this keeps happening?

 

[Dexter]

Well, that's a much more concise and to the point title. xD

 

[Kem0sabe]

Every other day EA announces or does something extremely stupid, like saying that all their future games will have Microtransactions, or when it came out that both Dead Space and Sim City will apparently have those.
Or they are forced to do something because their business strategies didn't exactly work out like cancel Medal of Honor or when they had to shut down Visceral Montreal just a week or so ago in the wake of less than the expected sales of Dead Space 3.

But making a new thread for every egregious thing they do or when every shit-sandwhich they've bitten off of delivers its sweet aftertaste seems like a waste of good thread place so I finally decided to open this, with the newest happenings for and from EA.

In todays issue:
The emerging shitstorm in wake of Sim City's release: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/05/gamers-line-up-to-play-simcity/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUl_Cj2_KWU

EA having to scrub Dead Space from their annual release schedules, because what comes as a surprise to absolutely everyone it didn't manage to sell 5 million units: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...s-following-poor-sales-of-dead-space-3-report

And finally, they closed "BioWare San Francisco": http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/05/ea-shuts-down-bioware-san-francisco/
The last external studio holding the "BioWare" brand, after "Bioware Victory" went back to being Victory Games, "BioWare Mythic" back to Mythic and "BioWare Ireland" was repurposed to a general EA support center. Only the main studios remain for “redundancies” now: Edmonton, Montreal and a severely weakened Austin that already had major cuts of over 200+ people after all that The Old Republic deal.

Do we need a new thread hating on EA? They are shat on basically every other thread on General Gaming.

 

[Kz3r0]

Do we need a new thread hating on EA? They are shat on basically every other thread on General Gaming.

The spice hate must flow to keep the Codex alive.

 

[DeepOcean]

The shitstorm on Sim City is sweet. How could EA thought that have to wait on a queue for 30 min to play a single-player game was a good idea? There are people still waiting to activate the game and there are reports of absurdly small maps, the max size of a city now is 200k - 300k (with alot of calculations happening on the server side, I imagine this is another consequence of always online) if you are very efficient on space management, the amount of bugs . Why people still buy this shitty always on games, they aren't aware of the fact that EA can simply shut down servers later to force them to buy sim city 6? Expect consumer respect from EA is an absurd notion (if those server are going to be alive in two years, it would be a miracle). Imagine if all EA titles are going to be always online, imagine the huge infrastructure that that would require (it would mean that pc gaming would be even more fucked because games have to sell more to pay the costs of the servers) and you have issues with lag, queues and EA simply deciding that the game wasn't a success enough to maintain the servers working. There is nothing on EA EULA that force them to maintain the servers for a specific amount of time.

People have Stockholm syndrome or what? There are alot of retards that think that always online isn't a issue. This is ridiculous, EA and Blizztard are simply selling games for full price but actually you are only renting them because you can only play when they want. Want to play the game 2 years after release? Good luck finding servers that are alive if the game wasn't a massive success. Want to play now? Sorry you have to wait 30 min. Tired of consoles limiting pcs, how about consoles limiting pcs and on top of that always online limiting even more?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

EA never fails to fail.

 

[Ulminati]

The shitstorm on Sim City is sweet. How could EA thought that have to wait on a queue for 30 min to play a single-player game was a good idea?

It worked for Blizzard. Just ask gaudaost

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

It seems Dead Space isn't dead yet... though it would probably be a mercy killing at this point as they continue in this direction.

 

[octavius]

EA is just taking advantage of the fact that most gamers are consumer drones with too much money, no critical sense, and the attention span of a lobotomized fruit fly.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Judging from TV watching habits around here, the average person is a tasteless idiot. We need a new ice age.

 

[Bulba]

EA is just taking advantage of the fact that most gamers are consumer drones with too much money, no critical sense, and the attention span of a lobotomized fruit fly.

they wanted to... but as it turns out drones are not droney enough.

 

[evdk]

EA is just taking advantage of the fact that most gamers are consumer drones with too much money, no critical sense, and the attention span of a lobotomized fruit fly.

they wanted to... but as it turns out drones are not droney enough.

That only means that EA are visionaries with ground breaking ideas that they just implement too soon. They are trying to exploit the drones of 2016 when the rest of the industry barely started on monetizing the drones of 2013.

 

[aris]

The shitstorm on Sim City is sweet. How could EA thought that have to wait on a queue for 30 min to play a single-player game was a good idea?

It worked for Blizzard. Just ask gaudaost

And then you have PoE that gets praised (deservedly I might add) left and right by every hivedrone, despite the fact that it has the exact same thing. Why? Because it free2play! Another business model that has been highly praised on the codex.

 

[Kem0sabe]

We like our free shit.

 

[sea]

It seems Dead Space isn't dead yet... though it would probably be a mercy killing at this point as they continue in this direction.

I don't believe it. Their refutation is very vague and "please stand by" suggests the guy doesn't actually know the real story and is trying to get confirmation. If it really was not true EA would have denied it immediately and wouldn't be waiting hours to respond, either.

My guess is the franchise and brand will remain, but Dead Space 4 was canceled, and layoffs/studio closures or downsizings will happen (or already have happened).

EA has bent the truth to the point of breaking enough times in the past for me to trust any of it until I really see it happen (or not, as the case may be).

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

EA is just taking advantage of the fact that most gamers are consumer drones with too much money, no critical sense, and the attention span of a lobotomized fruit fly.

 

[RPGMaster]

Of course they deny it. They're not going to say "We fucked the franchise and it's dead now" while there are still (some) sales to be made.

 

[aris]

EA is just taking advantage of the fact that most gamers are consumer drones with too much money, no critical sense, and the attention span of a lobotomized fruit fly.

You mean like the people you jizzed furiously and threw 100+ dollars on Wasteland 2 before they knew anything about the game, except for the name and a vague marketing video?

 

[CSM]

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Blaine]

I'd forgotten about that video... good stuff.

Also, for posterity: