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EA: "I struggle with the perception that we're just a bunch of bad guys"
- Thread starter Lant_War
- Start date
I would call endless mandatory crunch, layoffs, and self-sabotaging directives from management (like "only use Frostbite") a pretty raw deal. Particularly when the employees in question are highly-skilled and qualified to be working other tech industry jobs that treat them far better.
Surprise mechanics? Studio serial killer? Unchecked greed? The Devil seems to be having an existential crisis.
The NFL thing is also weird. Like, the league has to accept the money of their own accord. EA can't make them do anything. It's a business.
EA Sports purchased the exclusive rights to the NFL because Take-Two was in the process of purchasing the MLBPA rights, effectively blocking EA from continuing its industry leading MVP Baseball franchise.
Plus, let's not put this on EA Sports. The NFL is the one who put their exclusive rights up for auction as the NFL wanted to sign an exclusive contract. Take-Two, ESPN Video Games, SEGA (Visual Concepts), EA Sports, and potentially Disney were all placing bids for the exclusive opportunity.
After Take-Two lost the bid for the NFL license, they purchased Visual Concepts from SEGA and put them on development of the MLB 2K franchise, which was a complete disaster and they were bleeding money from that exclusive deal from the start -- terrible business decision on their part.
Plus, let's not put this on EA Sports. The NFL is the one who put their exclusive rights up for auction as the NFL wanted to sign an exclusive contract. Take-Two, ESPN Video Games, SEGA (Visual Concepts), EA Sports, and potentially Disney were all placing bids for the exclusive opportunity.
After Take-Two lost the bid for the NFL license, they purchased Visual Concepts from SEGA and put them on development of the MLB 2K franchise, which was a complete disaster and they were bleeding money from that exclusive deal from the start -- terrible business decision on their part.
Doesn't help that your CEO looks like a literal villain.
Or that Dice used his likeness for the villain of Mirrors Edge Catalyst until they were forced to change it
Hmmm
I love the fact that he assumes (or well, he knows why and wants to change perception) that they're big and thats when, if they have a big release, get a lot of flack.
Honestly, it's been one big complaint after the other for the last couple of years with their big releases and those choices have been very bad. You can make a pouty face... but FIFA gets pushed more and more into the FUT mechanic; I know Madden exists, but thats about it. Battlefield faced some bad choices, Battlefront II was a complete trainwreck, Anthem is a disappointment... list goes on.
Sorry EA, if you still don't understand why, then nobody can help you honestly.
Also you guys suck for what you did to Dead Space.
I love the fact that he assumes (or well, he knows why and wants to change perception) that they're big and thats when, if they have a big release, get a lot of flack.
Honestly, it's been one big complaint after the other for the last couple of years with their big releases and those choices have been very bad. You can make a pouty face... but FIFA gets pushed more and more into the FUT mechanic; I know Madden exists, but thats about it. Battlefield faced some bad choices, Battlefront II was a complete trainwreck, Anthem is a disappointment... list goes on.
Sorry EA, if you still don't understand why, then nobody can help you honestly.
Also you guys suck for what you did to Dead Space.
No it's that EAs management is blatantly bias/lazy/uninspired. When a last gen port like Burnout Paradise isn't released on Switch it's just 100% EA not being bothered
Cant really expect gamers to think highly of you as a publisher when you refuse to give developers the resources needed to launch a game thats even remotely close to being finished. Youd be hard pressed to find a publisher that cares less about the quality of its products
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I remember when I loved EA games, they made/published a lot of great RPGs, strategy games and action games. Now they just make creatively bankrupt shit stuffed with the worst monetization schemes on the planet. The way they mismanaged and killed their great IP and studios is basis enough to hate them, then add all the greedy shit on top and it'll take an EA suit not to see why many look at EA as a shit company - a bunch of bad guys.
They ruined Mass Effect.
Stopped making Burnout games.
Can't remember last decent single player game from them.
Butchered Star Wars battlefront with loot boxes.
Fifa is a crime against humanity. The amount of fixing and bullshit in that game is unbelievable. It is also gambling and should be banned in all countries.
Stopped making Burnout games.
Can't remember last decent single player game from them.
Butchered Star Wars battlefront with loot boxes.
Fifa is a crime against humanity. The amount of fixing and bullshit in that game is unbelievable. It is also gambling and should be banned in all countries.
Every AAA GAAS game seems to come with endless crunch, since the product is never 'done'; and they're all EA makes anymore.
For a recent example, Anthem's development cycle was by all accounts a nonstop stress-filled mess for Bioware – from years of directionless management and restarts from square one, to a mad final year crunch to get the game out the door, to a post-launch crunch to try and save the sinking ship before EA finally gave up and pulled the plug on the roadmap.
My reaction to any EA VP's sob story. Yes, it sucks to be branded evil.
I was driving to Guildford yesterday to see some peeps and I drove past a sign that said Chertsey, a town I know nothing about but the name was familiar and then I remembered EA had bought and closed a studio there. Of course, that town's dev scene had what they did with Criterion or Ghost Games or whatever it's called today. I had friends who were at Pandemic and were so excited when EA bought them just after the merger with Bioware. They were getting paid US level salaries outside of the US. Then they got shut down. The other day in the Pirate game thread, I posed about a game called Pirates Legend of Black Kat, made by Westwood for PS2/Xbox and then realised they were basically bought, stripped of IP and then shut down.
There's dozens of stories of EA staffing up or buying somewhere, then shutting it down. That's evil. Putting gambling mechanics ina full price game, that's evil. Defending that behaviour, even if it's your job, is evil.
I was driving to Guildford yesterday to see some peeps and I drove past a sign that said Chertsey, a town I know nothing about but the name was familiar and then I remembered EA had bought and closed a studio there. Of course, that town's dev scene had what they did with Criterion or Ghost Games or whatever it's called today. I had friends who were at Pandemic and were so excited when EA bought them just after the merger with Bioware. They were getting paid US level salaries outside of the US. Then they got shut down. The other day in the Pirate game thread, I posed about a game called Pirates Legend of Black Kat, made by Westwood for PS2/Xbox and then realised they were basically bought, stripped of IP and then shut down.
There's dozens of stories of EA staffing up or buying somewhere, then shutting it down. That's evil. Putting gambling mechanics ina full price game, that's evil. Defending that behaviour, even if it's your job, is evil.
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I don't think that individuals working at EA are bad people, but as a corporate entity within the gaming industry EA has some pretty bad policies.
How can a company be so out of touch and so ignorant. And i refuse to believe EA funds those company out of the good of their heart. Must be some tax reduction or other accounting trick . And on the other hand people seem to forget EA is a company, they are in the business of making money. They do not give a sheit about the consumer. Developers on the other hand are people who love what they do and put their passion in a project for us to enjoy. That why it is so painful to see what EA does to all these franchises.
I know some folks at EA who are genuinely decent people. In general EA takes care of its own too, as far as American game companies go at least.
But an EVP of strategic growth can fuck right off. If he genuinely doesn't understand and is surprise mechaniced why they're hated the problem with EA is even worse than I thought.
In any case, we don't hate EA, we just want to give them a greater sense of pride and accomplishment when they final decide to make a decent living.
But an EVP of strategic growth can fuck right off. If he genuinely doesn't understand and is surprise mechaniced why they're hated the problem with EA is even worse than I thought.
In any case, we don't hate EA, we just want to give them a greater sense of pride and accomplishment when they final decide to make a decent living.
I'm gonna stop you right there: Dead Space 2, a 2011 game, was fantastic.
I was just saying, that the nature of AAA GaaS seems to inevitably result in endless crunch (as in the specific case of Anthem, by EA Bioware).
You are obviously in a far more informed position on this subject than myself though; I'd love to hear about your own experience (in general and not project-specific, of course) if you are able and willing to share.
Cause it was a trashy open world game and nowhere close to the philosophy of the first.
Then I agree 100%. Dead Space 2 was the last EA game I bought, and I see no reason to buy anoything from them. I will never support this company again.
Weird how that article quotes 'EA' as if they're a person - kinda shitty and baity journalism. Propagates the idea that EA is a singular evil person and isn't made up of lots of different people with different opinions on the matter.
Are you saying this from experience/insider knowledge, or are you extrapolating from some interest pieces you've read with only a marginal idea of what you're talking about? Just curious. Because you're making some extreme and absolute statements I'd expect from either someone with lots of insider knowledge or who has lived it themselves.
Of course EA is not filled with bad people intentionally trying to do bad things. Generally speaking. 99% of the people at a company as big as EA are just going to be people trying to make a great product and deliver on a vision. Sometimes there are competing (business) priorities that cannot be helped, especially in the case of a public company. The idea that EA, or mostly any other studio is filled with evil people is just nuts.
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Lmao just for that guy above complaining about people not actually reading the article I actually went in to read the whole article...
And it's a massive fluff piece on EA originals and how great and benevolent daddy EA is for providing the bestest of best contracts to these indie developers. Meanwhile it's obvious to any casual onlooker that they're just desperately trying to snap up content for the coming streaming and subscription platform wars. Furthermore they deftly sidestep any and all legitimate criticism levied in their direction, even the scathing first paragraph, and at no point do they adress the surprise mechanics kerfuffle, the increased reliance on ultimate team, their inability to produce fan favorite continuously requested games like skate4, the shuttering of many studios, the firing of hundreds of employees and more.
EA is fucking evil, a lot of the people in charge of making decisions for EA are evil, and that whole article reeks of paid marketing fluff trying to undemonize a bunch of demons. Here's the bottom line for EA since they refuse to accept it: If you're winning at capitalism by exploiting people in any way shape or form you're fucking evil, amoral, and you should nut the fuck up and deal with that perception because it's accurate.
And it's a massive fluff piece on EA originals and how great and benevolent daddy EA is for providing the bestest of best contracts to these indie developers. Meanwhile it's obvious to any casual onlooker that they're just desperately trying to snap up content for the coming streaming and subscription platform wars. Furthermore they deftly sidestep any and all legitimate criticism levied in their direction, even the scathing first paragraph, and at no point do they adress the surprise mechanics kerfuffle, the increased reliance on ultimate team, their inability to produce fan favorite continuously requested games like skate4, the shuttering of many studios, the firing of hundreds of employees and more.
EA is fucking evil, a lot of the people in charge of making decisions for EA are evil, and that whole article reeks of paid marketing fluff trying to undemonize a bunch of demons. Here's the bottom line for EA since they refuse to accept it: If you're winning at capitalism by exploiting people in any way shape or form you're fucking evil, amoral, and you should nut the fuck up and deal with that perception because it's accurate.
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EA is not full of evil people, I believe there are a lot of passionate people that have a positive mindset.
But you're REALLY out of touch if you don't know why EA is perceived the way is it.
Lootboxes, greedy mtx and game designs, Battlefront 2, surprise mechanics, studio closures, their bad messaging etc.
No idea why a lot of people don't like EA.
But you're REALLY out of touch if you don't know why EA is perceived the way is it.
Lootboxes, greedy mtx and game designs, Battlefront 2, surprise mechanics, studio closures, their bad messaging etc.
No idea why a lot of people don't like EA.
Okay EA, real talk: there's no growth without struggle and no learning without discomfort.
Don't whine about it... use it.
Don't whine about it... use it.
It probably wouldn't be any good though.
Their non-Respawn output has been pretty dire in recent years.
EA is the nearest thing to what I dislike the most about this medium, greedy monetization, edgy hardkor gamerz bullshit, "you know, we don't make games for children" stupidity, etc.
I've been playing games since around 1989, I have never bought any EA game, and that's not because of a stupid boycott or anything. It's just that I don't find their offering interesting.
I've been playing games since around 1989, I have never bought any EA game, and that's not because of a stupid boycott or anything. It's just that I don't find their offering interesting.
As I said above, it is the latter.
Of course I am not implying that EA is "filled with mostly evil people". But when certain situations are so bad that they leak even to the outside world I will not tone down my criticism of management. Business priorities matter fuck all when you are abusing your employees.
Crunch is abusive to developers; predatory MTX and other nasty post-purchase monetization methods of GaaS are abusive to consumers (though even then, it's hard to put lootboxes on the level of forcing people to work 80 hour weeks). All I meant to point out is that EA is guilty of both. I can cite evidence unconvered by people like Jason Schreier to back up these assertions, but that is all secondhand. I am no expert.
