Without wanting to derail things I misread the OP's intention in that thread (The OP was poorly written) but after seeing the better written posts changed my stance, everyone makes mistakes, and I'm certainly not perfect
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"EA has killed, pledges to kill again"
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Without wanting to derail things I misread the OP's intention in that thread (The OP was poorly written) but after seeing the better written posts changed my stance, everyone makes mistakes, and I'm certainly not perfect
That was right after the 2008 recession, EA wasn't really in a good position if I remember correctly? It wasn't normal business anyway and there were a lot of businesses not just in the games industry having to go through similar things if not outright going under. I wouldn't say that situation in particular is systemic to the industry but in general the Industry has tried to move away from having so many projects to a few a year (at least the AAA publisher industry has)
The reason people feel this way about EA is because people love the developers and the series they've produced, not what EA end up doing to them.
They laid off 1000 employees 9 years ago, are you seriously bringing this as an argument to attack DICE? lmao
If that was the reason most people were unhappy, then I'd be fine with it. The actual undercurrent to most of the EA bashing is "I want a new Command and Conquer".
I'm also not in anyway sure that EA is anymore volatile or mismanaged than any other large producer.
It still happens today though. Arguably that situation should never, ever happen. I doubt the CEO took a pay cut during that time, for example. It shows the lack of value companies in the industry have for their labor.
Project cancellations are an inevitability in this industry, I understand that. EA can also be particularly ruthless when it comes to this subject, especially considering how big and profitable they are. They aren't a mid-size or small publisher on the brink of closure, or an independent studio living project to project.
I mean they are known for treating their employees well as some of the best in the industry so that title didn't make much sense for even just the game industry, never mind America.
I would disagree, considering how long they've had the Star Wars license and how little they have to show for it, how much of their revenue is tied to exploitative practices in a single yearly franchise with little evolution between entries outside of that exploitative game mode, and some of their recent releases/studio closures.
Both Activision and Ubisoft seem far better managed, imo.
Their money, their decision. That's business. It's easy to sit by and judge when you aren't risking anything.
Anyone who voted for EA is a stupid fuck loser. Much worse corporations in the world but muh fucking games.
EA has shut down and closed no less than 10 studios within the past 5 years. This includes almost their entire presence in Canada, the most influential development team of 90's, Maxis Software(Sims developers), and of course Visceral Studios and BioWare Montreal.
In what way have I ever attacked DICE when I am actually advocating for EA to actually keep their loyal staff and studios, and for the company to quit putting anti consumer prerogatives in all of their games, along with unreasonable expectations for their staff?
In fact, I think advocating for this would help DICE, so that they don't have to develop their games in unreasonable amounts of time(compared to their scope), and so they aren't next on the chopping block when their games inevitably don't do well because of poor management.
This thread topic is ridiculous, we have no way of knowing if those games would be good so what are we even mourning? Also everytime a dev losses his/her job is not a tragedy. Sometimes that's the way business goes.
People need to grow out of this "school age" analysis of the video game industry where everytime something bad happens someone is being done wrong, or it's unfair, or a company is cartoonishly evil.
People need to grow out of this "school age" analysis of the video game industry where everytime something bad happens someone is being done wrong, or it's unfair, or a company is cartoonishly evil.
Even if this is true, this is a really weirdly aggressive post that adds nothing to the discussion
You can express this kind of view without coming across as aggressive and antagonistic
This again, completely false.
In the last 5 years, 2013-2018, EA closed 6 Studios, not 10, their Canada presence is still big with two EA Motive studios, EA Canada/Sports, BioWare Edmonton, EA Vancouver, EA Montreal, Redcrow studios and your claim is completely false, also BioWare Montreal was merged with EA Motive, also this https://www.pcgamesn.com/ea-invest-500-million-500-new-jobs-in-quebec. You need to use google and search for info before typing, because your statement is completely false.
Also the Sims Studios is still alive and has devs that have worked on the Sims since the beginning (they also now have branded it back to Maxis after having had a few years were they changed it from Maxis to the Sims Studios)
There's literally a person in this thread that threatened a dev from DICE they should be worrying about losing their job and this is the post you thinks over the line?
Some (Dawngate, C&C F2P) of those games were in the open-beta, cancelled precisely because they were of low-quality or low-interest. Same goes for the perpetual sports games (NBA, PGA). Very hypocritical to "mourn" the cancellation of specific PGA or NBA Live releases.
Half of the games on that list were going to be failures. The other half were no-show games like the Dark Knight or Bourne, which we can only speculate.
Considering their track record over the last couple years, EA seems to want to release less games with more monetization. From a business point of view I can understand this, but they're going about it in the worst ways. Apparently Fifa ultimate team prints money, but I wonder what the projected hit they took from. Battlefront.
Either way I'm sure we'll hear more about game cancelations and their "innovation" in monetizing GAAS.
Either way I'm sure we'll hear more about game cancelations and their "innovation" in monetizing GAAS.
1. Playfish
2. Black Box Games
3. Dream Works Interactive
4. EA Phenomic
5. Victory Games
6. Mythic/BioWare Mythic
7. Maxis Software
8. EA Salt Lake
9. BioWare Montreal
10. Visceral
I did my research.
Your disgusting avatar is so weird, seriously why.
Fable 3 was one of those canceled games that many actually got to play and they liked it so idk, don't think that is the case every time. Last Gaurdian and FF15 despite problems I'm happy they finished development too
Most of that isn't bad management, it's just doing things you don't like.
Also, they have taken FIFA into a position of absolute dominance in the sport games space. Even before ultimate team took off.
Ubisoft, seem like a decent company but Activision? Who rely on, what. two games at this point? This includes Destiny, that is constantly in the news about how poorly it has been badly organised headache for all those involved.
Then Call of Duty that has multiple developers working on it that used to have their own IPs.
I'm not trying to advertise for EA here, but they are not just some single evil monolithic entity, who can only do wrong. If we could get away from that image, it would make discussion about actual good and bad practices much more straightforward.
BioWare Montreal was merged with EA Motive
Maxis Software is still up and running.
Less than 10
The Maxis studio that made Spore and SimCity was closed, just not all of the Maxis Studios - EA Salt Lake City also made Sims 3 expansions if I remember correctly.
If you were in his position, you'd know more about the true state of BFV than a random internet commenter.
Even if studios were merged, hardworking employees still get lost in the shuffle. Maxis Software also merged with EA Mobile.
This either causes people to get lost and laid off, or having to relocate all of their families. Which is something that is not good.
Semantics aside, it is appalling that you say "less than 10" as if it is proving a point that EA are really the good guys.
"Hey guys, EA shut down less than 10 studios in the past 5 years! They are really doing really well".
Even something like losing 5 studios is a huge red flag for any company. And this has been in the extremely short time span of 5 years.
The current CEO started as a designer for EA Australia. The current, albeit leaving soon, VP in charge of games is Patrick Soderlund, one of the founders of DICE. Compared to 2008, they've gotten better if by "suits" you mean people in upper management who don't have a lot of domain experience with games.
BioWare Montreal was literally in the same building as EA Motive - and the only employee I know that got laid off was Manveer Heir and there were other controversies surrounding that guy.
Cancelling a game that isn't coming along or is just a bad game isn't a bad thing.
What EA actually does wrong is molding successful franchises into some sort of monsters created by Dr. Transactionstein and then whipping the life out of them by setting unrealistic deadlines vs actual scope. And THEN cancelling those games / axing the studios that made those games.
What EA actually does wrong is molding successful franchises into some sort of monsters created by Dr. Transactionstein and then whipping the life out of them by setting unrealistic deadlines vs actual scope. And THEN cancelling those games / axing the studios that made those games.
Every large game publisher cancels several projects every year. We likely don't hear about the majority of them.
For no good reason? I would certainly hope not.
R.I.P Respawn and Titanfall.
I'm sure this is the norm in the AAA industry nowadays. Make the same 2-3 games that are super low risk. Thankfully we have platform holders' first party like Sony (who have cancelled games also in the recent years) and Nintendo.
I'm sure this is the norm in the AAA industry nowadays. Make the same 2-3 games that are super low risk. Thankfully we have platform holders' first party like Sony (who have cancelled games also in the recent years) and Nintendo.
No, I think it's bad management. The heavy reliance on FIFA Ultimate Team is biting them in the ass now that regulations are starting to catch up to business practices, and unlike other major companies affected by those regulations, they are acting as if they are above the law in certain countries. Clearly the reason why they reacted that way and other major publishers affected by the same regulations didn't is because they are so reliant on that one game and one business model...which is not a good thing. If regulations start taking effect across the board in more and more countries, they are gonna take a far more significant hit to their bottom line than most other big publishers. Putting all your eggs in one basket is a bad idea.
The way they've wasted the Star Wars license is also a symptom of bad management. It's insane that they've only released two games since getting the license over half a decade ago, and both games had a great deal of controversy which affected their market performance, due in part to business decisions and monetization strategies from EA. I don't think EA is some 'monolithic evil' company, I think they are making mistakes.
Wrt to what you are saying about Activision, I don't agree. Destiny has definitely had issues but those seem more attributable to development issues at Bungie as opposed to interference by Activision. As for multiple studios working on Call of Duty...at least those studios still exist and are working. Would I rather see Raven work on another Singularity? Sure, but I'd rather the studio exist and work on COD than not exist at all.
Ehh...you can complain about whatever you want I guess.
Just don't be mad when vapid, teen-angst, "Yeah! Down with The Man!!!" hot takes are met with eye-rolls.
The death of NCAA Football still hurts me....wasn't EA willing to pay the players for the games and that the NCAA threw their usual ignorant hissy fit?