Vapourware LOL ELECTRONIC ARTS: The EA Thread

[RK47]

CITIZEN, LOGIN TO ORIGIN OR THERE WILL BE... TROUBLE!

JR, YOU'RE FIRED.

 

[Zewp]

WHY CAN I NOT BROFIST?

 

[Kattze]

Please cancel Dragon Age 3

No, all the biodrones would be flocking to kickstarter games to demand the inclusion of their perversions.

 

[Capitalism]

No, all the biodrones would be flocking to kickstarter games to demand the inclusion of their perversions.

That's the plan: take all their jewgold -> some of them start looking for jobs, some die -> with the power of actually talking with people biodrones become humans.
But we need the same plan for codex first.

 

[Kitako]

In before Riccitello kickstarter

 

[Jashiin]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/18/ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-has-stepped-down/

rats leaving the ship

 

[Angthoron]

In before Riccitello kickstarter

A Rickstarter?

 

[Jick Magger]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/18/ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-has-stepped-down/

rats leaving the ship

Welcome to ten hours ago.

But still

 

[Keshik]

Please cancel Dragon Age 3

No, all the biodrones would be flocking to kickstarter games to demand the inclusion of their perversions.

Bioware Kickstarter...man imagine the money that would get.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Ugh, don't fucking remind me.

 

[Dexter]

4chan's take on Riccitello's resignation:

I believe they had a Megathread: http://archive.foolz.us/v/thread/181540189

 

[Hamziz]

It sure is some mess. Making a new Sim City game should have been as effortless as using an Easy Bake Oven. What really has me scratching my head is that this isn't EA's first experience with totally fucking up a good thing. You would figure after Spore they would have learned a thing or two, but nope. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in those meetings where they discuss -- with positive tones and excitement -- how they're going to unwittingly create a colossal goatfuck out of what should be a slamdunk. I'm kinda wondering if maybe these idiots should start thinking about getting gaming "consultants" who aren't 40-year old market analysts that know zilch about the hobby.

 

[Spectacle]

I think the real cause behind the simulation problems that plague Sim City 5 is the decision to let the player follow individual sims. This sounds like a managament decision "Players love The Sims, so let's have the next Sim City focus on the people who live in the city!"
Only once they were too far along to change this did it become apparent that the simulation couldn't actually handle the AI calculations for so many entities, so they had to cut down and simplify everything at the last minute, so that the game would at least appear to work.

 

[sea]

Sympathy for the devil:

Remember that it was Riccitiello who, for the briefest of moments around 2007, felt that the answer for the business to succeed was (paraphrasing) "to make better quality games". A noble ambition to be sure, but sadly he lacked the testicular fortitude to hold that course after low initial sales of new IPs. We all know the results - suspended franchises, more DLC and ironically enough, watered-down sequels that while may have pre-sold better than their predecessors based on market exposure and positive word of mouth, ended up infuriating their customers and causing backlash after backlash. In other words, the standard EA business cycle that to us has become as predictable as the fucking tide.

My point isn't that if John had been more confident in his convictions EA would be in a better place or their games would be less shit, because he's one fucking guy in a multinational corporation, and improving quality and reputation require an adjustment period wherein consumer confidence is restored at the expense of profit margins. Investors had no such patience, and the strategy was abandoned almost immediately after the first iterations of new franchises didn't meet sales forecasts.

My point is EA is shit because it's EA, regardless of who's spouting the forward looking third quarter guidance. Their business model is fucked, as their metrics and incentives and motivations are all short term. Incompetent governance doesn't help, and that is surely on JR's shoulders, but if whoever the executive search committee picks to replace him is any better, I'll shove a server up my ass and you can all call me Lucy.

Totally agreed. I actually don't think that John was too bad a guy. His initial decision to focus more on original IPs than movie tie-ins and sports games showed promise, but as you said he lacked the will to see it through and probably couldn't convince the investors that it was worth it in the long run. Therefore you got this awkward situation where now they had big franchises but tried to transform them into as many massive-selling titles as possible - requiring far more money and bigger teams, and also leading to watered down, mediocre, rushed games.

Additionally, once that initial wave of "original" titles did not do as well as hoped, the decision was made to basically just copy whatever else was popular at the time - hence Mass Effect being transformed into EA's Gears of War, Battlefield progressively turned into a Call of Duty clone, games like Dante's Inferno being made to compete with God of War, etc. It was impossible to shake the feeling that EA was just capitalizing on others' success and hawking their own inferior off-brand products.

I can respect what he did at first; I can't respect the DLC-milking, shit-quality sequels, and dissolution of what were some talented and creative developers into yet more slave mills.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

I think the real cause behind the simulation problems that plague Sim City 5 is the decision to let the player follow individual sims. This sounds like a managament decision "Players love The Sims, so let's have the next Sim City focus on the people who live in the city!"
Only once they were too far along to change this did it become apparent that the simulation couldn't actually handle the AI calculations for so many entities, so they had to cut down and simplify everything at the last minute, so that the game would at least appear to work.

still it's false advertising, and as far as i know false advertising is a crime.

Totally agreed. I actually don't think that John was too bad a guy. His initial decision to focus more on original IPs than movie tie-ins and sports games showed promise, but as you said he lacked the will to see it through and probably couldn't convince the investors that it was worth it in the long run. Therefore you got this awkward situation where now they had big franchises but tried to transform them into as many massive-selling titles as possible - requiring far more money and bigger teams, and also leading to watered down, mediocre, rushed games. I can respect what he did at first; I can't respect the DLC-milking, shit-quality sequels, and dissolution of what were some talented and creative developers into yet more slave mills.

"the road to hell is paved with good intentions".

 

[Angthoron]

Fun to watch: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:EA

Floating at -4%/ -5% off their yesterday value, behold the stock value collapse. So far, in 24 hours, EA lost a dollar off its stock value.

 

[Capitalism]

I think the real cause behind the simulation problems that plague Sim City 5 is the decision to let the player follow individual sims. This sounds like a managament decision "Players love The Sims, so let's have the next Sim City focus on the people who live in the city!"
Only once they were too far along to change this did it become apparent that the simulation couldn't actually handle the AI calculations for so many entities, so they had to cut down and simplify everything at the last minute, so that the game would at least appear to work.

No, the problem here is not with the simulation. The problem is with EA or Maxis changing their minds during the developement process on single player part.
It is crystal clear that this clusterfuck was not programmed as always online game from the start. Because if it did it would take one day to patch sim city to be able to play it offline. You know, adding server side to client and allow localhosts. The only problem could be bad architecture of SimCity code that was written by some retarded dumbfucks.

 

[Spectacle]

Capitalism, notice I'm specifically talking about the problems with the simulation, those are separate from the always-online bullshit and would ruin the game even if it was 100% offline single player.

 

[sea]

Fun to watch: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:EA

Floating at -4%/ -5% off their yesterday value, behold the stock value collapse. So far, in 24 hours, EA lost a dollar off its stock value.

Even funnier if you switch to 5 year view.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

The biggest recent problem for EA was the KOTOR fiasco, won't you say? If riticello was to blame for that, I suppose it's reasonable to kick him. I mean getting bioware to design an MMO was a pretty darn retarded move, they had never made one before and there was 0 reason to believe they had any particular competence at MMOs. Yet they pumped millions into the game.

 

[Infinitron]

The biggest recent problem for EA was the KOTOR fiasco, won't you say? If riticello was to blame for that, I suppose it's reasonable to kick him. I mean getting bioware to design an MMO was a pretty darn retarded move, they had never made one before and there was 0 reason to believe they had any particular competence at it. Yet they pumped millions into the game.

In retrospect, the entire idea of a publicly traded AAA publisher owning its own story-driven CRPG developer was ridiculous.

Activision doesn't make RPGs. (Diablo doesn't count)
Take Two doesn't make RPGs.
Ubisoft doesn't make RPGs. (well, at least until we see what this M&MX is)

EA was really the odd man out here and it was only a matter of time before the situation imploded.

Serious CRPGs will always be the domain of independent developers.

 

[Angthoron]

Fun to watch: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:EA

Floating at -4%/ -5% off their yesterday value, behold the stock value collapse. So far, in 24 hours, EA lost a dollar off its stock value.

Even funnier if you switch to 5 year view.

Yeah, or ten. Though I have to say that EA staying afloat and strong as long as it has so far with its general quality and game lineup has always baffled me.

 

[hiver]

Fun to watch: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:EA

Floating at -4%/ -5% off their yesterday value, behold the stock value collapse. So far, in 24 hours, EA lost a dollar off its stock value.

Even funnier if you switch to 5 year view.

How many billions lost can that be stretched into exactly?

 

[Spectacle]

The biggest recent problem for EA was the KOTOR fiasco, won't you say? If riticello was to blame for that, I suppose it's reasonable to kick him. I mean getting bioware to design an MMO was a pretty darn retarded move, they had never made one before and there was 0 reason to believe they had any particular competence at MMOs. Yet they pumped millions into the game.

That's exactly the kind of decision an executive that only understands business and not games would make. He'll think "Bioware has a lot of fans, so if we have Bioware make an MMORPG we can get all those fans to pay us money every month", ignoring the fact that having fully voiced dialogue and romanceable companions isn't going to make someone who prefers single player to suddenly start enjoying a standard grindy MMORPG.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

^ Yeah, my own pet theory with no supporting evidence is that someone in EA went "hm, an MMORPG is an RPG. So if we get these guys who are the best at making RPGs into making our MMORPG, that's gonna be great!".