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EA: The Big Engine that couldn't
Jason2444
Member Posts: 372
I've been wanting to make this rant for a long time
EA. We know them. We hate them. We want them to die in a firey lake... Well some of us.
But in reality, friends, I believe EA gives us a valuable lesson. A lesson that you can't buy your way to the top. Now, granted, EA is a VERY large corporation who has a considerable amount of wealth (Not so much any more since they've been losing millions each quarter for five years) however, it's becoming more and more obvious that EA will never be the leader in.. Well, ANYTHING.
EA will always sorta be... Second best. What do I mean? Well lets see what EA has tried to introduce in the past 5 years, starting with their newest flag ship campaign, the MMO.
SWTOR, which will always be second to WoW (If they're lucky)
Origin, which will always be second to Steam
Battlefield Heroes, which will always be second to Team Fortress 2
Mass Effect, which will always be second to Gears of War
Dragon Age which will always be second to Elder Scrolls
Rock Band which will always be second to Guitar Hero
Battlefield will always be second to Call of Duty
Command and Conquer which will always be second to... Well everything since they've ruined it completely
But I'm sure you've noticed a pattern, and it isn't coincedence. EA's business stratagy has been to look at the top and copy the king. But unlike that one's who ARE at the top, EA lacks anything really "special"
Nothing is really special about SWTOR, or Origin, or Command and Conquer. Nothing about EA is very spectaculer aside from their ability to overhype... Well, fuckin EVERYTHING.
EA are coat tail riders, ladies and gentlemen. They can't innovate, they can't create anything really special, they're simply a bland, boring company who tries to square off with companies like Activision and end up getting embarresed, like when your big brother grabs your head as you try to swing at them.
That's what EA is... The little brother of everything successful.
I feel better
MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB
Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP
Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts
Comments
Props that was one of the funniest threads ive read today... oh wait you were serious.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Sorry, is what I'm saying NOT true?
MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB
Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP
Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts
For some of those you compared apples to oranges, as to others that is sheerly opinion. honestly i prefer rock band for a better song selection, Call of duty hasnt changed since MW2, EA has games on Steam, origin was put into place just like every other developer has created their own version. Gears of War is the only game Epic makes anymore and even then its mediocre at best.
Shall i continue. im curious how you paired acouple of these. oh! those 2 both have elves, its a copy.
oh got another one, Both those have Guns its a copy.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Battlefield sold 10 million copies. Call of Duty sold 20 million
Rock Band hasn't come close to outselling Guitar Hero
And lets be honest, EA wants to get Gears of Wars audience with ME3, unless you think "Story, combat, and RPG mode" is just a coincedence
MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB
Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP
Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts
no i really dont think that at all. if anything is to be a copy of its resistance not ME3. or are you going with a sentient race of beings threaten the earth cause honestly i can bring up plenty of games who did that before Gears. the gameplay is standard in shooters now aswell so thats not even worth mentioning.
also for rock band, their third game was released at about the same time the genre from that was starting to fall. so they had 2 games against Guitar heroes 5 or 6 depending on what you include.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
i guess this is the time where i explain how EA is actually doing the best thing for MMORPG genre at the moment. as it stands going to any company like blizzard and giving them a original idea would get you laughed out of the building. however EA is there for any company who wants to make a game. some flock to make a cookie cutter, others go to it to be innovative. EA doesnt care if your idea is good or not, they will make the game and reap the profit. thus you can make what ever you really want through them. if your idea doesnt work, you fail, if your idea works you can push the genre forward. of course EA cares about none of this they just want money.
Now this model makes alot of bad games and afew good ones. think about it as throwing a handful of rocks at a target, some will hit dead on while others miss. see why this is good. MMORPG is currently in its infant years, we need a producer willing to just make whatever is thought of. this we can find out what works and what doesnt.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
That's assuming EA gives you the time you need.
Remeber, EA wanted SWTOR to launch 12 MONTHS ago... Can you even imagine?...
If SWTOR wasn't EA's biggest investment in history, they would have kicked it out without a second thought... Hell they practically did
MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB
Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP
Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts
your wrong on that, SWTOR was in development way before then. its development started about 2-3 years ago. TSW has been in development for even longer. double check your numbers.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Well there is some stuff I can agree about in those games, I don't really see connection between Gears of War and Mass Effect, well maybe a little, but none the less technically you are incorrect about buying your way to the top *cough* Microsoft *cough* but of course Microsoft is also better at improving what they have bought off of others, but like the times are going, EA is just going along with the flow of corporate consumerism, buy what they think is interesting buff it up and throw it out on the market as fast as possible, and for some this works, if its good enough to be improved in short time, but due to alot of bad decisions on EA's part, and excessive company buyouts, they have done nothing to improve on their image and have hurt not only EA as a publisher but also the industry.
Where does the gears of wars and ME combination come from? They are nearly nothing alike. Only way they are similar is in the cover system but wow let's see how many games now have a cover system just like that? Uncharted, Infamous did, and just about any third person shooter that comes out now. So, by your logic, all those games are Gears of War clones and should probably sell nothing.
Dragon age and Elder Scrolls? Really? Dragon age is a guided RPG with medieval fantasy setting, it's basically ME but with swords. If anything Dragon Age is a Mass Effect clone. Elder Scrolls is a Sandbox RPG, a completely different game.
Rock Band was never a copy of Guitar Hero. If you followed the news around it, what happened is the guys who made Guitar Hero wanted to add new instruments in the 3rd one. Activision said no, that won't sell at all. So they quit, founded Harmonix and made Rock Band which sold very well, same with Rock Band 2, EA published the game for them. By this time, Guitart Hero was hitting #6, people were burnt out of the plastic instrument genre. Not too mention, the only way to make money in the genre was to sell those plastic instuments which by then everyone had if they wanted it.
Battlefield heroes of course will never trump Team fortress and EA was never aiming for that audience anyway. Only way the games are alike is the cartoony graphics. And I'm sure that was more of a technical limitation of browser based gaming at the time. Battlefield heroes was for battlefield fans.
You might hate EA, but none of the games you have mentioned have done bad. They are all successes. Sure, battlefield has not sold as much as CoD, but neither has WoW, or any other game for that matter. Most games are lucky to make it to a million copies. Don't just throw out hate information because you don't like a company. If you don't like them, don't buy from them and if other people do, so be it.
we have to see the reality here. Call of duty is more popular than Battlefield because most people dont like realistic warfare, just play run and gun on small maps with no sense of strategy / tactics. That said, Battlefield is actually a better game when it comes to real shooting action / warfare (i personaly prefer CoD campaign, but multiplayer goes for BF in every sense of the word).
Regarding ME and Gears, all i can say is i would not give up on Gears for ME.
I'm not saying it was being developed for 12 months, I'm saying that's when they wanted it to be released
MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB
Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP
Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts
You know what I don't get? How on EARTH were they targeting a Spring 2011 release?
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bioware-confirms-swtor-for-spring-2011
How could EAware have actually believed that they were on track for such a release date, when they had to delay the game almost a full year and STILL put out one of the most generic, bland, short-lasting, MMOs in the last 5 years?
There is really only three possibilities:
1. They knew they had to delay but chose to string fans along anyway.
2. Something went horribly, horribly wrong between Jan 2010 and Spring 2011.
3. They were behind schedule all along but were too incompetent to accurately predict their own development cycle.
Anyway, I don't know if you can say EA doesn't do anything right, but they certainly fail at producing MMO's. Warhammer, APB and SWTOR can attest to that.
you cant even say they fail at producing MMO's they made money off all those. if they make a profit its not a failure is it. i explained this earlier in the chat i really dont want to go over it again.
Anyways SWTOR was released early because they knew they couldn't compete with the up and comers. thus they released early so they could try to get solid ground and maybe survive the storm. releaseing SWTOR in the middle of TERA, TSW, GW2, Archage and Planetside 2 is practicly suicide, specially for a game that is Very Mildly innovative at best.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
cause your coders didnt kow wtf they was doing
Mass Effect will always be second to Gears Of War.... what????
Dragon Age will always be second to Elder Scrolls..again what?
It is like saying bannana will always be second to pineapple. They are two different kind of fruits.
1. I imagine this came along later.
2. The "something" was likely BW saying "Alright, we will be finished buildign the game by October, 2012". But then EA was like "LOL NOPE! Your budget goes as far as Spring 2011, kthxbai." Why? Because that's what greedy corporations do. BW couldn't meet that goal, and they ended up with a clearly rushed product.
3. As I indicated above, I believe that it's more an issue of pressure from the publisher than a failure by BW to understand their needs.
Get your facts straight. APB was not a product of EA. EA had nothing to do with developing the game, they were just handling the publishing and distribution.
EA Partners Program
The EA Partners co-publishing arm is dedicated to publishing and distributing games developed by third-party developers. Notable publishing/distribution agreements include:
APB – Realtime Worlds
Bulletstorm – Epic Games
Crysis series – Crytek
DeathSpank – Hothead Games
Hellgate: London – Flagship Studios
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – 38 Studios, Big Huge Games
Left 4 Dead series, The Orange Box, Portal 2 (retail release) – Valve
Overstrike – Insomniac Games – the long-term third party developer for Sony is working on a multiplatform game to be published by EA.
Rock Band series – Harmonix and MTV Games
The Secret World – Funcom
Shadows of the Damned – Grasshopper Manufacture
Shank – Klei Entertainment
Warp – Trapdoor
Unconfirmed project – Respawn Entertainment – founded in April 2010, formed a partnership with ex Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella.
No need to add insult to injury here.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Rock band swecond to guitar hero? Someones smoking something really good.
Anyways, the thing is EA recieves so much hate because people see just how greedy they are. Unfortunately greed has pretty much corrupted them into such a money grubbing company I wouldn't be so suprised if they back stabbed their own wives in order to make a bigger buck, which they can use to buy a 'better' wife. Yeah, quite a messed up thing to say but thats literally how corrupt I feel they are with greed. They are so blinded by greed they don't even realize just how despised they are and how much they are burrying themselves.
just wish a game company would fight to stay on its own feat. Its tough developing games but you can't let monsters like EA swallow you up. If you starve the giant it will eventually die off and we might be rid of such an abomination. When the ceos are living off the streets begging for money, perhaps then they will realize where they had lost their humanity. Perhaps then they will realize how they are destroying games with their blind ambitions of mass profits milked from the consumer and really learn that the only reputation they will keep is the hatred of everyone, something that will die with time. You don't want to be remembered for that, you want to be remembered for making a game so grand that people generations later will talk about it. A form of art that people can hold great respect for.
Thats what I really want to see. I wouldn't care how much money my game makes, as a programmer and game enthusiast, what I want to see is for my creation I worked together with a team on so hard might come to light as something that truely left an impression on people for years to come, even if it would never bring me a single penny.
Simple as that. As for the rest, gamers hating SOE, gamers hating Activision, gamers hating EA, man... if it was bankers, oil companies, or pharmaceutical companies semi-legallay conducting experimental medicine tests in Africa or bleeding people dry for medical fees then I could understand, but this, christ >.<
Shallow people are shallow.
Why the hell are Mass Effect and Gears of War being compared on this thread when they're not even remotely similar?
No, they haven't. They've lost their butts on all those. APB has been a Day 1 failure and sold something like 40,000 copies before it went F2P. Which it is currently failing at.... Warhammer was a failure and still hasn't come close to break-even.
SWTOR cost $250 million. For EA to break even in its first year, they need to sell at least 4.5 million full-price copies AND have at least a million subscribers for at least a year. That's just to cover direct development costs, patching and other current-status-of-game issues.
I doubt they have a million subscribers at this point. I doubt they ever sell 4.5 million copies. I doubt this game breaks even in five years since they're going to have to keep developing, bug-fixing and totaly revamp the engine.
Making money is one thing. It's called 'gross receipts.' Making a PROFIT is something else...
And compete in the same market niche -- tropical fruits.