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"EA has killed, pledges to kill again"

oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
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Oct 25, 2017
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Source

10 years ago this month, EA added to that already extensive list by killing Command & Conquer: Tiberium after roughly three years of work, including two years of pre-production. One analyst said this cancellation damaged the credibility of EA's new management, an apparent shot at CEO John Riccitiello, who had taken over about a year and a half earlier.

In what might have been a morbid attempt to rebuild his credibility, Riccitiello promised his game killing spree had only begun.

"When something's not meeting expectations... you can course correct by giving it more time, more money, changing the concept or killing the game," he said in an interview. "If you're committed to quality, you take one of those paths. If you preclude any one of those paths, quality will suffer.

"EA will kill a game or two a year. Forever."

Forever is a very long time, but Riccitiello spent the remaining five years of his tenure at EA following through on that promise. Even after he left in 2013, EA has kept up the grim tradition. Only EA knows where all the bodies are buried, but here's a rundown of some of the victims we know about, not counting things like the Zach Snyder three-game deal that was announced but never produced anything, or a Miss Universe game that supposedly existed at one point but I'm tempted to write off as an internet fever dream.

2008: Command & Conquer: Tiberium and The Dark Knight

2009: A DOZEN PROJECTS in a bloodbath that cost 1,500 EA employees their jobs

2010: Starbeeze's Jason Bourne game, Steven Spielberg's LMNO, and NBA Elite 11

2011: An original title at Visceral Melbourne

2012: NBA Live 13

2013: Dead Space 4, a free-to-play Command & Conquer, PGA Tour 14, the FIFA Manager series, the NCAA Football series and every Playfish game

2014: Dawngate

2015: Shadow Realms

2016: Criterion's "Beyond Cars" extreme sports game

2017: Titanfall Mobile, Visceral Games' Star Wars

2018: It's been quiet... too quiet.

Unless I've missed something (entirely possible), we're three quarters of the way through the year and Electronic Arts has not publicly killed a project. But don't let your guard down, EA developers. Things change quickly.
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R.I.P to the fallen games

F
 
Servbot24

Servbot24

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
43,248
Video game companies exist for the purpose of making money. They're doing what they gotta do.
 
Ant_17

Ant_17

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,946
Greece
Battlefield 5 is the only thing coming out now....
giphy.gif
 

Harlequin

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,614
To be fair, most games get cancelled without ever being announced so there's a chance that EA has cancelled a bunch of stuff in 2018 without anyone outside of EA ever finding out about it.
 
Unclebenny

Unclebenny

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,770
Fuck sake, I've spent the last few hours reading a thread about the over use of emotive language in gaming and the damage it causes. Then we get this.

EA cancelling projects before their released isn't some inherently evil thing. If the project isn't going well it makes sense to end it rather than let it consume resources, it may have even led to the improvement of other games. Who knows?!

Videogame producers are companies doing company things, can we recognise the actual problems, such as crunch and underpayment rather than this nonsense.
 
OP
OP
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,061
UK
Fantastapotamus said:
And sometimes they release a bad game and gamers are like "They should have cancelled that game!!!"
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Of that list it's only really the C&C game, the Star Wars game and Dead Space 4 that might have been good, most of the others are licensed stuff that would likely be average to solid, but probably not spectacular
 
Ant_17

Ant_17

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,946
Greece
II JumPeR I said:
Its really kinda shocking how EA has fallen. They are sitting on so many IPs and most Studios behind these are either gone or now a Support Studio...

Where is my Crysis, Army of Two, Bad Company etc..

Miss some of these :/
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We all know where those are...
graveyard-with-trees-in-mist-in-autumn-geesteren-achterhoek-picture-id621577116

And i would like an Army Of TWO game. Have yet to play the last one, but heard that it has some problems with the theme of the game
 
Mobu

Mobu

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
5,932
The romanticization of cancelled games is so weird :/. Most cancelled games get cancelled because theyre really bad and theres no improvement in sight.
 
TailorDKS

TailorDKS

Member
Apr 18, 2018
402
Well, EA killed Battlefront 2 to some extend with their microtransactions...

But I wonder why ea killed some series like Dead Space, Star Wars Games, Burnout, Dantes Inferno (and probably Titanfall 3).
Of course they dont print money like other games, but they have loyal fans which would buy them whatever they turn out. Not every game can make money like FIFA/Ultimate Team... but they should sell enough to be more then just profitable if they put at least some effort into it.
 
Derrick01

Derrick01

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,289
They've been killing for like 25 years now. They have arguably the biggest body count in the entire industry, if not by sheer numbers then definitely the most notable list.

Thankfully there's nothing left they could kill that would have any impact on me. They only make the safest and most generic games possible now.
 
Morrowbie

Morrowbie

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,144
EA will do what makes business sense to them I suppose. I have no interest in the types of games they make anymore; luckily other companies have got my tastes covered. Wish someone else had the Star Wars license, though.
 
Sherlocked

Sherlocked

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
562
It's like it is only EAs fault when games get cancelled. Spoiler: it's not.

But it always sucks when people lose their Jobs.
 
OP
OP
oni-link

oni-link

tag reference no one gets
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,061
UK
Unclebenny said:
Fuck sake, I've spent the last few hours reading a thread about the over use of emotive language in gaming and the damage it causes. Then we get this.

EA cancelling projects before their released isn't some inherently evil thing. If the project isn't going well it makes sense to end it rather than let it consume resources, it may have even led to the improvement of other games. Who knows?!

Videogame producers are companies doing company things, can we recognise the actual problems, such as crunch and underpayment rather than this nonsense.
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It's meant to be a lighthearted Halloween inspired article, the tone might be easier to get if you read the entire thing
 
Mama Robotnik

Mama Robotnik

Gaming Scholar
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Oct 27, 2017
672
I think EA has cancelled more Command and Conquers than Square Enix have cancelled Legacy of Kains.
 
Qikz

Qikz

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,522
II JumPeR I said:
Its really kinda shocking how EA has fallen. They are sitting on so many IPs and most Studios behind these are either gone or now a Support Studio...

Where is my Crysis, Army of Two, Bad Company etc..

Miss some of these :/
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More importantly where's Future Cop LAPD and all the Bullfrog Franchises.
 

Deleted member 5864

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Unclebenny said:
Videogame producers are companies doing company things, can we recognise the actual problems, such as crunch and underpayment rather than this nonsense.
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When the mismanagement and continuous cancellation of these games leads to developers being moved around (with all that implies for their families) at best, and losing their jobs at worst, would you call that just "companies doing company things"?

I'm just asking because whenever that inevitable round of layoffs hits the industry, and posters here trip over themselves to see who can put out the quickest "land on their feet" post, I have to wonder if then it would be OK to talk about the damage EA is doing to this industry and previously great studios (made up by real people), or if it is just business as usual and their whole model is just the way the world works...
 
Inugami

Inugami

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Oct 25, 2017
14,995
All the big publishers kill games. Nintendo does it, Sony does it, Activision does it, Capcom does it, etc etc. Singling out EA for a thread is kind of silly.

At least make it about buying studios just to ax them, that's something EA is especially good at.
 
spam musubi

spam musubi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,383
The rate at which EA kills IPs seems to be lower than the rate at which they create long term IPs. This is unsustainable, especially for the ambitious growth goals they seem to have.
 
Rodjer

Rodjer

Self-requested ban.
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Jan 28, 2018
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It's like others publishers don't kill and cancel titles or close studios, sure EA is the one doing the most and but who knows how many titles have been cancelled from various publishers.

And tbh, Visceral lived way too much, EA gave them a lot of space and time, they kept delivering underperforming games in the last 5 years, killing them was the only possible choice.
Also, EA is one of the fewest publishers that still opens studios and hires people despite closing studios.

NCAA and Titanfall mobile has nothing to do with EA.
 
II JumPeR I

II JumPeR I

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Oct 26, 2017
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Qikz said:
More importantly where's Future Cop LAPD and all the Bullfrog Franchises.
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Damn yeah i remember that game. Ive played the Demo of that game a lot on PS1


But yeah the most recent issue for me about EA games is that they launch so unfinished nowadays but scream about a Live Service™ with "free dlc11!!" which is basicly a cop out to finish the game...

Best example Battlefield 5.
 
Hassel

Hassel

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Oct 25, 2017
1,363
What's the point of this? To reminisce over bad games that would have pissed you off anyway?

Gamers are odd (me included)
 
number8888

number8888

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Oct 27, 2017
1,015
2018: It's been quiet... too quiet.
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That's because they have nothing left.

It's not really the game killing that's bad (some games needed to be cancelled after all). I think what's far worse is shutting down studios, thus eliminating the chance of creating something good, especially those that had a good track record.
 
Sou Da

Sou Da

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Oct 25, 2017
16,738
Shadow Realms wasn't killed by EA, didn't BW just lose interest in it or something?
 
Nall

Nall

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Oct 25, 2017
376
Wow, it's been almost a year since Visceral shut down!? Feels like it was only a few months ago.
 
Scuffed

Scuffed

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Oct 28, 2017
10,982
Now that they have taken out their smaller games and franchises they are in the process of killing their biggest franchises. Soon they will just off themselves as a company entirely and we can celebrate.
 
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