Vapourware LOL ELECTRONIC ARTS: The EA Thread

[Average Manatee]

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).

Translation: Dead Space-ville.

 

[DalekFlay]

They have historically released so many games I loved, yet I still hate them with a passion.

That takes talent.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

because those games now literally belong to history.
you're not going to keep loving your girlfriend who just burned your house.

 

[RK47]

because those games now literally belong to history.
you're not going to keep loving your girlfriend who just burned your house.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

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.

 

[Angthoron]

Bros we totally misunderstood, EA's model isn't going to be following the Dead Space 3 "WE SELL YOU RESOURCES" model after all, that was totally not what the guy meant! He only meant mobile games, because duh! Mobile.

Selling resources is actually part of the main game.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...sactions_in_all_future_games.php#.UThH2lev7Kn

Electronic Arts CFO Blake J. Jorgensen has backtracked on comments he made last week, stating that all future EA games will in fact not always include microtransactions.

As part of a talk at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media & Telecom Conference, Jorgensen previously stated, "We're building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way."

However, at the 2013 Wedbush Transformational Technology Conference this week, Jorgensen further explained this statement.

"I made a statement in the conference along the lines of 'We'll have microtransactions in our games,' and the community read that to be 'all games,' and that's really not true," he said.

Jorgensen noted that it will, in fact, be every future mobile game from EA that includes microtransactions. "All of our mobile games will have microtransactions in them, because almost all of our mobile games are going to a world where its play-for-free," he added.

"We were discussing back-office capabilities inside the company, and how we've built a platform to really be able to bring in-house our ability to do credit card processing, digital downloads, and manage a world in which there are more and more microtransactions as part of what we offer," he said.

When it comes to console and PC games, Jorgensen explained that he doesn't see EA's offerings as microtransactions -- rather, he says they are extensions of the main game.

"You're going to see extensions off of products like Battlefield Premium which are simply not microtransactions," he said.

"They are premium services, or additional add-on products or download that we're doing... it is essentially an extension of the gameplay that allows someone to take a game that they might have played for a thousand hours, and play it for two thousand hours. We want to ensure that consumers are getting value."

He finished, "The real core microtransaction component of our business is in the mobile part of the business, which is the free-to-play business."

 

[RK47]

allows someone to take a game that they might have paid $50, played for 20 hours, and pay another $15 to play it for two hours

 

[Spectacle]

"Microtransactions are fine for small stuff like mobile games, but our main console and PC games will have macrotransactions"

 

[Dexter]

"Microtransactions are fine for small stuff like mobile games, but our main console and PC games will have macrotransactions"

They've done this for Dragon Age 2: http://gamerant.com/bioware-dragon-age-2-sex-preference-dom-75525/
They've done it for TORTanic: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/stor...w-old-republic-blasted-by-conservative-groups
They did it for the Mass Effect 3 Launch (this was accepted truth at first, till it got too big): http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...-option-leads-to-user-backlash-on-metacritic/
They've done this after being voted "Worst Company in America" by The Consumerist and even got called out on it: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...ge-control-mode-points-to-anti-gay-hate-mail/
In one of their previous PR campaigns they even admitted to hiring fake "religious protesters" to get PR for their games: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/06...ers-slam-ea-staging-fake-religious-protest-e3

 

[Zewp]

EA shifting the blame again.

“I made a statement in the conference along the lines of, ‘We’ll have microtransactions in our games,’ and the community read that to be ‘all games,’ and that’s really not true,” he explains.

"Oh, no. Even though we totally said it will be in all games, you misunderstood because that's not what it meant."

Original statement;

“We’re building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be.”

EA retracts claims about microtransactions.

 

[Dexter]

Fresh coming from their newest PR shitstorm involving Sim City and predictable like clockwork, EA has apparently yet again found the answer to their PR woes:


Gotta love the YouTube comments though.

 

[sea]

Notice how 2/3 of those games are BioWare titles and the 3rd is a life simulation title targeted heavily towards women.

 

[deuxhero]

And that excluding the outlier from 2004, they are only from the past 3 years.

 

[Broseph]

God, they're clueless.

This attempt at deflecting the SimCity rage could not be more transparent. EA is not a learning animal corporation.

 

[Emily]

Fresh coming from their newest PR shitstorm involving Sim City and predictable like clockwork, EA has apparently yet again found the answer to their PR woes:


Gotta love the YouTube comments though.

Hate is Not a Game. Electronic Arts highlights the various LGBT characters and scenes throughout their games.

W T F
who fucking cares about LGBT your games SUCKKK, and can't be even played

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Oh god I'm choking

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Oh god I'm choking

You better be choking on cock or you're a bigot!

 

[Cassidy]

Are their PR department dysfunctional, is this desperation or do they really believe in limitless human idiocy?

Not that I don't believe in the capability of the idiot preordering EA shit beating his own idiocy records, but...

 

[RK47]

 

[RK47]

Decline of Sweden & Australia.

 

[Angthoron]

I bet they're so happy they pushed out those ass-kissing reviews pre-launch, now.

Also, didn't Polygon drop their grade to 40 now? Is that going to reflect in the metascore?

 

[ohWOW]

Those had to be pretty goodlooking checks.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Your games are shit, and your business practices even more so. Fuck you, EA! You didn't need to wait in a queue to get my money!

Hey, check out this guy over here, he's so full of hate. I bet he also hates fags. What a bigot, huh? It's such a shame so many people are so full of hate these days. You know, at my company, we aren't like that at all. Here's a list of super un-hating games we made in the past few years. You guys wouldn't hate us right, because that's the same as hating someone for their sexual orientation, and that's just wrong, man.

Shitstorm averted.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I bet they're so happy they pushed out those ass-kissing reviews pre-launch, now.

Also, didn't Polygon drop their grade to 40 now? Is that going to reflect in the metascore?

IIRC during previous cases like this Metacritic doesn't adjust their score. For example Gamespot put a retard (Even by game journo standards) on reviewing Natural Selection 2 and gave it a 6 and listed a bunch of inaccurate bullshit in the review. They later yanked the review and had someone more on the ball review it, but Metacritic still lists the shit score.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/natural-selection-2/critic-reviews Scroll to the bottom for Gamespot score.
http://www.gamespot.com/natural-selection-2/reviews/natural-selection-2-review-6399998/ New review which gives it an 8

 

[Minttunator]

What can I say - EA's gonna EA.

While I'm happy to see EA get shit on - the current incarnation certainly deserves it - I'm not bothered by their shenanigans overmuch. I haven't bought an EA game in years and I don't see anything coming up in the near future that could change that. I'm just going to continue playing indie games and hope that at least some of the recent Kickstarter projects turn out well. EA, ActiBlizz and Ubisoft can go die in a fire for all I care.