EA Destroys yet another studio (AKA where we going papa EA?)

Lex

Administrator
DMXLEs2W4AAfdkO.jpg:large


Another EA studio bites the dust, and it's a biggie. This studio (Visceral) was developing the next big Star Wars game (that isn't a shootybang) which was being written by Amy Hennig (of Naughty Dog; Uncharted).

Official statement:

Our industry is evolving faster and more dramatically than ever before. The games we want to play and spend time with, the experiences we want to have in those games, and the way we play…all those things are continually changing. So is the way games are made. In this fast-moving space, we are always focused on creating experiences that our players want to play…and today, that means we’re making a significant change with one of our upcoming titles.

Our Visceral studio has been developing an action-adventure title set in the Star Wars universe. In its current form, it was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game. Throughout the development process, we have been testing the game concept with players, listening to the feedback about what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace. It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design. We will maintain the stunning visuals, authenticity in the Star Wars universe, and focus on bringing a Star Wars story to life. Importantly, we are shifting the game to be a broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency, leaning into the capabilities of our Frostbite engine and reimagining central elements of the game to give players a Star Wars adventure of greater depth and breadth to explore.

This move leads to a few other changes:

A development team from across EA Worldwide Studios will take over development of this game, led by a team from EA Vancouver that has already been working on the project. Our Visceral studio will be ramping down and closing, and we’re in the midst of shifting as many of the team as possible to other projects and teams at EA.

Lastly, while we had originally expected this game to launch late in our fiscal year 2019, we’re now looking at a new timeframe that we will announce in the future.

Bringing new Star Wars games to life for every passionate fan out there is what drives us as creators. It’s what has inspired us to deliver the massive new Star Wars Battlefront II experience launching in just a few weeks. It fuels our live service in Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. Making games in the extraordinary Star Wars universe is truly a dream for so many of us at EA, and we have so many more experiences to come for players on every platform. We want to take the time to get each game right, to make it unique, to make it amazing.

We look forward to answering more of your questions, and sharing more on our plans and timeline for this new Star Wars experience, in the months to come.

Link

EA has done a lot to try and salvage its customer image in recent years, but it still continues down this insane path of corporate douchebaggery it started a long time ago. This year alone we've seen the near complete destruction of the Mass Effect franchise which is at least in-part if not wholly due to their influence, and that was thought near impossible.

EA is the "Hollywood machine" of the gaming world. It wants whatever the gaming equivalent of a Hollywood Ken and Barbie popstar is, it wants it to be marketable and it doesn't give a shit if it can actually sing. $$$$$$

The corporation should do the world a favour and piss off back to BoringSport#9trillion 2kWhateverthefuck

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ForceStealer

Double Growth
I can't get over how blatantly that press release states that they've focus-tested the shit out of this game and decided to make it an open-world lootbox fest.
 

Strangelove

AI Researcher
AKA
hitoshura
I remember reading something about how when asked a group of people said they wanted a rich dark roast coffee, and then they came to actually getting coffee they pick mild milky ones instead and the point is no one knows what they want

By which I mean fuck you focus groups

Give me another dead space in the vein of the first game you licence obsessed fucks
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
I've detested EA for a long time and this obviously doesn't change that. But that "Victims of EA" graphic is really shit.
 

Geostigma

Pro Adventurer
AKA
gabe
@flintlock ,Agreed.

Meh. Idk Dead Space 1 was great but if you look at Viscerals track record they have been really shit over all. You sit there and call it corporate douche baggery, but how many times are you willing to hand over 100 million dollars to someone and have them produce another under selling/Poorly received game?


Hardline? Army of 2? DS3? Dantes Inferno? Is it reaaaaally that douchey? At least they got a ton of pro-consumer shit going on with Origin and Xbox, you guys say fuck EA but they are honestly not that bad. They are certainly no Ubisoft , Konami , Activision etc.

I mean for fucks sakes Activision literally has in game mechanics in Match Making to incentivize the purchase of cash shop items. They literally match you against p2w players so you feel like you need to buy the guns they have, and then literally match you up against bad players right after you buy cash shop items so you don't feel buyers remorse. It's even patented!

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/9789406

Just because they managed to not make 1 bad game doesn't exactly absolve them from getting the axe one day. Yeah EA has a track record with killing studios, but that doesn't mean some aren't justified. Making games is extremely expensive and if you keep making flops well...tough shit.
 
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ForceStealer

Double Growth
EA clearly ruined DS3, no way Visceral put that microtransaction crafting system shit in themselves. And then stuck them on some BAttlefield game that was obviously not in their wheelhouse and not something they would have chosen for themselves. There's no telling whether Visceral would have survived on their own merits, but EA's track record for buying devs of good series and filling the sequels with bullshit and closing the dev is clearly not a fluke.

And you seriously don't see any reason people would be unhappy EA with taking a story driven Star Wars adventure game written/directed by Amy Hennig and using focus testing nonsense to turn it into a game-as-a-service generic loot box crap?

Defending EA by pointing at Activision is pretty lulzy, though.
 

Geostigma

Pro Adventurer
AKA
gabe
EA clearly ruined DS3, no way Visceral put that microtransaction crafting system shit in themselves. And then stuck them on some BAttlefield game that was obviously not in their wheelhouse and not something they would have chosen for themselves.

I mean can we prove that they wouldn't haven naturally chose to make Hardline of their own accord? That's just conjecture we don't know what exactly went down with them getting to be the Hardline Dev.

What I do know is it's not very random considering they made Battlefield 3 : Endgame right before that and were involved in the creation of other BF3 DLC so it's not exactly out of no where and "not in their wheel house".

but EA's track record for buying devs of good series and filling the sequels with bullshit and closing the dev is clearly not a fluke.

Yall act like this shit is exclusive to EA though, the other big names do this all the time as well. Want to ask Blizzard North how they feel about getting the Axe and having Diablo 3 become a thing? Want to ask Human Head how Arkane somehow was allowed to make a Sequel/Remaster to Prey? :). The list goes on, this isn't some EA exclusive move at all It's literally how the game industry operates.

Heres a great interview with Lorne Lanning talking about his involvement with EA, yes I understand and know on the surface this seems like I'm making your point for you when you finish reading it, the thing is it isn't just EA doing this and it paints a terrible picture for the industry as a whole

http://metro.co.uk/2014/07/08/oddwo...interview-weve-become-triple-a-indie-4790351/

Well, we’d had enough of the terms. We’d had enough of what was happening. And what was happening was quite simply if you wanted to build big expensive games, and you were getting them funded by a publisher, you were basically giving up your company. I mean that’s it, that’s the nutshell of how the industry changed. As games got more expensive for development they did not get more expensive at retail, right? The $50 game has been going on since the NES days, or $60.

But the games started costing millions and millions more [to make]. When I started making games people were on average building games for $500,000, maybe a $1 million, on the Sega Mega Drive and SNES. We come in on the PlayStation era and it’s like, oh, it’s going to go to multi-million dollars. And there were a lot of concerns about how teams would grow and all that stuff.

We got in and you had to start selling a lot more units, but you could sell a million units and the developer would still not see one royalty cheque. And that only started getting worse. As the money got higher the terms for the developer got worse. So you’re doing a lot more work for a lot less reward and, what I also didn’t see coming, was that for the most part the big publishers didn’t want to have anything to do with you if they couldn’t own your IP. Or if they didn’t see a path to acquisition.

Now, when we created the company we didn’t create the company to sell the company, right? But you would basically have these deals where if you wanted to sign a $15 million development deal you were simultaneously signing an acquisition deal – if you had success they would be able to buy you at… and they would leverage the power of that money. And I looked at that and I said, ‘That’s not why I started building these games’. I don’t care for some of these relationships, I think they’re very unfair. And I don’t think they’re good for the industry, the development community, or the customer. And if that’s how it’s gonna be I’d rather not play, period.

Just an excerpt from the interview but the whole thing is a great read and he delves deeper, but on the whole I can think of several games and devs that have been picked up and you think it's gonna be a great thing. Then their big game gets 0 advertising and it sells nothing, or is released in a really odd time. And you ask yourself... why did that happen? Are they idiots? Why didn't they advertise the game? WHY DID THEY RELEASE TITAN FALL 2 IN BETWEEN BF1 AND THE NEW COD.

And the answer is in that interview, the answer is in why Visceral got shut down .It's in how the machine operates and blasting EA for being a cog in that machine and acting like it's unique is pretty lame.

And you seriously don't see any reason people would be unhappy EA with taking a story driven Star Wars adventure game written/directed by Amy Hennig and using focus testing nonsense to turn it into a game-as-a-service generic loot box crap?

Amy is an insanely exceptional writer it should go without saying, but that doesn't mean the game would have been good. There are countless examples of pristine source material churning out crap in it's final translation in multiple mediums. I'm not going to act like they slaughtered a unicorn over game I haven't played, just because Amy was the writer.

Furthermore you guys cry foul that they are changing it due to focus testing but when you look at Viscerals track record and hear that these groups didn't like the game should it really be that big of a surprise. They weren't a great dev studio. Sorry.


Defending EA by pointing at Activision is pretty lulzy, though.

Want to actually elaborate on that or just settle for say it's Lul? With how EA operates towards the consumer in comparison to the likes of Ubisoft, Activision etc. I think it's a pretty fair comparison.

They straight up regularly give free games several of which aren't that old through EA on the House on Origin. Often give lengthy free trials of new games on Origin as well ( I played TF2 like a month after it came out for free, same for BF4 and TF1).

Their return policy is ridiculously good

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/returns-and-cancellations/

It even predates Steams current good return policy, people would often jokingly say "Valves return policy is so bad even EA's is better".

Some of their games feature completely free DLC, so no splintered ecosystem.

Their "EA Access" on Xbox is legitimately unprecedented in the game space and is an incredible value, only reason it isn't on PS4 is because Sony was afraid it would compete with PSNow( or live? idk what its called).

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/entertainment/xbox-one/live-apps/ea-access

So nah I don't agree that it's just lulzy. I see EA atleast trying several different pro consumer things for like the last 5 years, and the only things you guys can claim foul on are conjecture at best or things other companies do as well. Umm Ok
 
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Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
Yall act like this shit is exclusive to EA though

Literally no one does that. It's news about EA, people gonna shit on EA because it's relevant to the topic at hand.
"Other companies do it too!" Yes, everyone's aware of that. So now what? Does that make EA less shit? The others more? Is this supposed to make people less upset? More upset?
I'm not sure what point you're arguing here.
 

Geostigma

Pro Adventurer
AKA
gabe
I'm making a water is wet argument. Ok cool, EA does something that happens all the time in the game industry. Why is there need to say shit like

I fucking hate EA

This is getting out of hand.

but it still continues down this insane path of corporate douchebaggery

So on and so on. I understand I'm basically doing a whataboutism, but I think it's worth bringing up that this isn't a unique or rare occurrence in the game industry at all.

Just comes off as bit of a circlejerk. Oh man EA did that thing everyone does, what a bunch of douche bags.

I think things and people should be judged on the merits of all their actions instead of select ones in a vacuum. Especially in comparison to their peers.

Yes EA picks up devs and axes them to get their IP's, so does everyone else.
Yes EA has loot boxes , and season passes and MTX's and all that new age money gouging. So does everyone else.
Yes EA has made bland af games. Everyone else has as well.

How many other companies regularly give you free games, let you return them with pretty neat return policies , lets you access a ton of their games for like 5$ a month, and lets you trial their new games for free pretty often?
 
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Claymore

3x3 Eyes
Regardless of any feelings on their 'track record', I personally feel that this is a shitty move, as the last thing I want is another boring soul-less open-world, multi-playered, season pass, locked content, and loot boxed game, Star Wars or otherwise.

I was surprised by a comment on Eurogamer as I found myself reluctantly agreeing with it. If this really is the future of gaming, a lot like the more action-orientated direction of Final Fantasy, then I could see myself completely giving up on this hobby in the future.
 

ForceStealer

Double Growth
Yall act like this shit is exclusive to EA though, the other big names do this all the time as well.

Tets' post says it all. No, we don't. This thread isn't about the other publishers, why would we mention them?

Want to ask Blizzard North how they feel about getting the Axe and having Diablo 3 become a thing?

I refuse to buy Diablo III precisely for the shit they pulled with that game. Thankfully Torchlight II exists.

Would it offend your sensibilities less if we said fuck Activision and Ubisoft too? Fine. Fuck Activision and Ubisoft too.

this isn't some EA exclusive move at all It's literally how the game industry operates.

"SO HOW DARE YOU BE UPSET ABOUT IT"

the thing is it isn't just EA doing this and it paints a terrible picture for the industry as a whole

"SO HOW DARE YOU BE UPSET ABOUT ANY SPECIFIC INSTANCE"

And yeah, it paints a terrible picture for the industry as a whole specifically because of big publishers like EA and the others. So we're not allowed to call that out because....water is wet?

It's in how the machine operates and blasting EA for being a cog in that machine and acting like it's unique is pretty lame.

Tetsujin said:
Literally no one does that.

Also I'm not sure the 6th biggest publisher in the world counts as a "cog."

I'm not going to act like they slaughtered a unicorn over game I haven't played, just because Amy was the writer.

Tetsujin said:
Literally no one does that.

I asked if you "seriously don't see any reason people would be unhappy," where are you getting this slaughtered a unicorn stuff?

Furthermore you guys cry foul that they are changing it due to focus testing but when you look at Viscerals track record and hear that these groups didn't like the game should it really be that big of a surprise.

Focus testing has a worse track record. See hito's earlier post about coffee. Or perhaps New Coke?

Want to actually elaborate on that or just settle for say it's Lul?

You just said your argument is that "water is wet," so no, I see no reason to elaborate.

They straight up regularly give free games several of which aren't that old through EA on the House on Origin. Often give lengthy free trials of new games on Origin as well ( I played TF2 like a month after it came out for free, same for BF4 and TF1).

Their return policy is ridiculously good

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/returns-and-cancellations/

It even predates Steams current good return policy, people would often jokingly say "Valves return policy is so bad even EA's is better".

Some of their games feature completely free DLC, so no splintered ecosystem.

Their "EA Access" on Xbox is legitimately unprecedented in the game space and is an incredible value, only reason it isn't on PS4 is because Sony was afraid it would compete with PSNow( or live? idk what its called).

I hear BP gives to charity.

Strangelove said:
If I only care about dead space can I still complain

As long as you're sure to mention that the other big publishers do the same thing, so Gabe doesn't see you being unfair to poor EA.

If we were responsible for EA 'winning' that "Worst Company in America" thing, Gabe, I would agree with you. As it is, you're simply chastising people for being upset about something because other companies that people also hate do the same thing.

Cool-Starry-Bra.jpg
 
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The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
I think things and people should be judged on the merits of all their actions instead of select ones in a vacuum. Especially in comparison to their peers.

I found merit in half of what your previous posts on the topic said, but this bit, for me, is a bit too much like the arguments last year that went "You should vote for Hillary because even though she's a snake in the grass, other politicians are too," and ... no.

If people vote with their wallet, then they can absolutely choose not to vote if their options come down to the video game equivalents of Hillary and Trump.
 

Kermitu Kleric Katie

KULT OF KERMITU
Tbh, I pretty much only buy indie games these days because all the big name publishers are greedy cunts, and indie developers need my money way more than multimillion dollar corporations do.

That said, if I really want to play a "AAA" game but don't want to support its publisher, I have my own methods of doing so, ifyeknowwhatimean. :arr:
 

Lex

Administrator
Gabe, everybody knows this happens in the game industry, but there is at least a perception - if it's not fact - that EA is the worst. Activision is perhaps as bad and Square Enix is definitely heading down the path of horror (Deus Ex Mankind Divided Praxis Kits I'm looking at you), but EA has legitimately ate then destroyed at this point a shitload of studios with pretty blockbuster franchises. They have a reputation for doing this. Is there another publisher who's done this on such a scale? I can't think of one but I am admittedly too lazy to do the research.

People are reacting this way for a reason. I don't just blame EA for Andromeda being a mess since Bioware developed it, but I absolutely believe that if Bioware had remained independent they'd have gone in a completely different direction.

In this case I'm not even opposed to the idea that this new Star Wars by visceral - whatever it was - was a terrible terrible game. The fact is that EA openly state they decided against a linear action adventure in favour of - well, whatever the fuck it's going to become. Shootybang clone 400,000,000. Or more likely, open world clone 400,000,000. It'll look good. It'll sell. It might even be a great game. That doesn't change the fact that they're crushing a studio for daring to make a linear game in an age where they want to encourage players to buy lootboxes. I don't give a fuck if the whole industry is doing it, it doesn't make it right.

The only positive I can give them is that shit where they were voted the worst company to work for a thousand times in a row and managed to turn it around slightly some years ago, or something. They've put a lot of work into changing their brand image. What they haven't done is given us as consumers any reason to believe they're good for the kind of games that we like.

Activision is also trash but I play none of their games. The only Activision game I've touched in recent memory is the Crash remaster.
 

Geostigma

Pro Adventurer
AKA
gabe
"SO HOW DARE YOU BE UPSET ABOUT ANY SPECIFIC INSTANCE"

And yeah, it paints a terrible picture for the industry as a whole specifically because of big publishers like EA and the others. So we're not allowed to call that out because....water is wet?

Hope you don't mind me not replying to every single line etc. I cba quoting everything but just assume the previous stuff is lumped in.

Idk I just think it's a bit disingenuous to hand wave my entire posts and be like "DUH Gabe its an EA thread of course were gonna talk about EA only!" when in the past talking about industries or whatever as a whole being especially shit there's always that distinction of like "this case is especially shitty, but the whole thing it lives in is still pretty shit over all" going on.

I asked if you "seriously don't see any reason people would be unhappy," where are you getting this slaughtered a unicorn stuff?

Not when no one here has played it and the only good thing going for it is it's writer and premise. Plenty of movies and games have had excellent writers and shit directors etc.that have turned out horribly.

I'm not going to get bent out of shape (water is wet argument!) over something that happens regularly in the games industry. Games change focus, cut content or completely change entirely in the development process that's just normal. I mean Devil May Cry was going to be RE:4 lol

Focus testing has a worse track record. See hito's earlier post about coffee. Or perhaps New Coke?


Um. I think it speaks volumes that everything new that makes it to market is generally focus tested and you guys brought up like... 2 examples? Out of probably millions of instances where focus testing hit?

You just said your argument is that "water is wet," so no, I see no reason to elaborate.

That's pretty unfortunate I've been replying to everyone here in good faith and you keep replying to me with 1 sentence retorts and memes. Feels bad just wanted some discussion, not a "Oh god Gabe why is your throat wrapped around EA's cock" thread going. Fuck it balls deep it goes.

I hear BP gives to charity.

Cool. So we can just ignore all context when making replies now?

If we were responsible for EA 'winning' that "Worst Company in America" thing, Gabe, I would agree with you. As it is, you're simply chastising people for being upset about something because other companies that people also hate do the same thing.

>Doesn't grab the dick to my right in the circlejerk
>Chastising.

I fap with my left hand anyway.

Sorry for offering links, sources and an argument that isn't just the exact same post as the one everyone else is making in a conversation. Didn't realize trying to have a discussion is chastising and replying in memes and ignoring half the shit I say isn't. (Strawman argument!)


I found merit in half of what your previous posts on the topic said, but this bit, for me, is a bit too much like the arguments last year that went "You should vote for Hillary because even though she's a snake in the grass, other politicians are too," and ... no.

If people vote with their wallet, then they can absolutely choose not to vote if their options come down to the video game equivalents of Hillary and Trump.

But a lot of people did effectively vote with their wallet this election cycle... and well Trump is president, Lobbyists etc. still have their arms up their politicians puppet holes and our horrible system is still effectively the same lol.

I get what your saying though, I'm just being an ass at this point lol.


Gabe, everybody knows this happens in the game industry, but there is at least a perception - if it's not fact - that EA is the worst. Activision is perhaps as bad and Square Enix is definitely heading down the path of horror (Deus Ex Mankind Divided Praxis Kits I'm looking at you), but EA has legitimately ate then destroyed at this point a shitload of studios with pretty blockbuster franchises. They have a reputation for doing this. Is there another publisher who's done this on such a scale? I can't think of one but I am admittedly too lazy to do the research.

Only because it's honestly low hanging fruit for journalists to get a headline saying "EA does it again!". Think back to Video games becoming mainstream again till now , how many independent dev studios were there back then? Tons right? What happened to them? Where do those people work now?

A Large majority of them were in the same situation as Lorne Lanning and Oddworld Inhabitants in that they were "independent" but still striking up deals with publishers for some backing to release games. Eventually Publishers wanted more than just the IP's and wanted bigger teams under them. So when you say which other companies did this to the same scale as EA, the simple answer is that the death of the independent development studio is basically on the hands every Publisher. If I had to guess who the next biggest offender it is I'd have to say either Zenimax or Activision , Zenimax if only because their tactics were especially bad (intentionally bankrupting devs who owed them money). Fundamentally though the answer to your question is honestly all of them.

Seriously read the interview with Lorne I posted up earlier. The stuff that was going down between the PS1 to like the beginning of the PS3 era was the scummiest shit ever.

People are reacting this way for a reason. I don't just blame EA for Andromeda being a mess since Bioware developed it, but I absolutely believe that if Bioware had remained independent they'd have gone in a completely different direction.

I was under the impression their smaller sister team Bioware Montreal made Andromeda and in like less than 2 years at that , while the actual Bioware guys made Anthem?


That doesn't change the fact that they're crushing a studio for daring to make a linear game in an age where they want to encourage players to buy lootboxes. I don't give a fuck if the whole industry is doing it, it doesn't make it right.

But did they? This is kind of the conjecture stuff I was posting about yesterday. We simply don't know that they killed Visceral because "they dared to be different". Isn't it just as reasonable to say they may have killed the team/shifted the game, because it was a team known for underselling and the game they were making was already not testing well with focus groups?

Like I asked earlier how many times are you willing to give someone 100 million$? How many times are you willing to do that when they have undersold games in the past? How many times are you willing to do that when it's starting to look like the writing is on the wall?

What they haven't done is given us as consumers any reason to believe they're good for the kind of games that we like.

On the fence here, especially lately as they have been transitioning away from their "we are doing original games lately!" phase and going back into movie tie ins and sequels phase.

But there was a time not all that long ago when they released Dead Space 1, Dragon Age, Mirrors Edge, brought a Battlefield game to Console. Like sure they made yet another Shootybang, but how many of you guys actually played their Shootybangs back then?

Cause it was a whole heck of a lot different then everything else. 1 BF3 map could have every single map for like 2 CoD games in it, had jets, tanks, helicopters, jeeps, jeeps with guns, cannon tank 6 wheel things, anti air turret gun things on treadmill things. Heck Bad Company 2 had Red Faction levels of map terraforming. You could literally make a big ass hole to hide your tanks in, on PC on like a 1000 ticket server there wasn't a map anymore, it was just a open field with holes everywhere by the end of it lol.

Idk man. I think they at least used to try to make pretty unique games a few years back. Idk if thats the point you were trying to make or if you were alluding to microtransactions or something, if it's the latter am I allowed to do the water is wet thing again? Cause they aren't really the worst at that nor the grand daddy of it either (thank Valve for what were in now). I


tl;dr idk I've seen in the past threads where something shit would happen and we were able to easily say "Yeah it was shit but the whole situation that lead to is even worse!" , so it feels kind of shitty to try and point out the same things going on here and just be at best have my posts laughed at and dismissed with one liners and memes.

Liked that picture of a bra though it was nice. (Victim card argument!)

edit: also from some guy at Kotaku but

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/920709214993035265

I feel like I should clarify that despite today's Hot Takes, Visceral's game was not canned b/c it was single-player (from what I've heard)

*follow up tweet*

Because investors don't like hearing "the project was a mess"
 
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ForceStealer

Double Growth
Idk I just think it's a bit disingenuous to hand wave my entire posts and be like "DUH Gabe its an EA thread of course were gonna talk about EA only!" when in the past talking about industries or whatever as a whole being especially shit there's always that distinction of like "this case is especially shitty, but the whole thing it lives in is still pretty shit over all" going on.

No, it is not disingenuous when the distinction you're asking for is something everybody here knows. This wasn't posted in the debate forum, Lex posted some news for people to see, and people observed that it sucked. It's video games, what's with the moral relativism?

Not when no one here has played it and the only good thing going for it is it's writer and premise. Plenty of movies and games have had excellent writers and shit directors etc.that have turned out horribly.

So you've never been excited by the prospect of anything, I can assume. Because, hey, other promising things have turned out shit, right? Why be excited about anything, or disappointed when the very thing that had you excited about it gets changed?

I'm not going to get bent out of shape (water is wet argument!) over something that happens regularly in the games industry. Games change focus, cut content or completely change entirely in the development process that's just normal. I mean Devil May Cry was going to be RE:4 lol

And you are always 100% down with any and all changes and not the least disappointed, got it.

I don't even really care about this particular instance. I didn't play Dead Space myself (watched it) and I'm not really a huge Star Wars fan. But I can absolutely see why someone would be bummed that a Star wars game in the vein of gameplay and storytelling of Uncharted could be disappointed at this news. Especially when the press release was such blatant corporate speak for every generic game all of the major publishers are feeding us in this particular point in the game industry's history. But, no, no, Gabe says don't fret anything that might happen as part of the "machine," after all, it could be the next Devil May Cry!

Um. I think it speaks volumes that everything new that makes it to market is generally focus tested and you guys brought up like... 2 examples? Out of probably millions of instances where focus testing hit?

lol, yes, you got us. We didn't have the time or the will to a do a pan-industry study on the effectiveness of focus-testing for a meaningless discussion, and so clearly this is telling. Furthermore, what hito referenced was not just an example, it was a freaking analysis into the effectiveness of focus testing! Here, have a ted talk on it.

I would argue that, yes, focus testing has done more harm than good, given that it leads to the boring homogenization of all media, which is detrimental to the medium. But no, I'm not going to research it for this. So, IMO.

You just said your argument is that "water is wet," so no, I see no reason to elaborate.
That's pretty unfortunate I've been replying to everyone here in good faith and you keep replying to me with 1 sentence retorts and memes. Feels bad just wanted some discussion, not a "Oh god Gabe why is your throat wrapped around EA's cock" thread going. Fuck it balls deep it goes.

Oh come off it. It's not unfortunate, you said your argument is that water is wet. What the hell is there to discuss? No one disagrees with that.

Secondly, you're the only one talking about circlejerking and sucking cock, so quit accusing us/me of being dismissive or in poor faith.

Cool. So we can just ignore all context when making replies now?

If you don't feel like inferring, that's on you. The point is that the fact that EA finally turned their online storefront into something decent has nothing to do with people's ability to express "Fuck EA." We're not weighing their good deeds against the bad, or EA's soul against the feather of Ma'at. People are displeased at what EA has done to the Westwoods, the Maxises, Pandemics, or Biowares of the past and are perfectly justified at being upset to see it happen again.

>Doesn't grab the dick to my right in the circlejerk
>Chastising.

You were clearly taking issue with people bitching about EA, so call it something other than chastising if you want, but it had nothing to do with "grabbing the dick to your right in the circle jerk." (I can feel the good faith discussion from here.)

Sorry for offering links, sources and an argument that isn't just the exact same post as the one everyone else is making in a conversation. Didn't realize trying to have a discussion is chastising and replying in memes and ignoring half the shit I say isn't. (Strawman argument!)

My goodness how did you get that horse through the doorway.

So when you say which other companies did this to the same scale as EA, the simple answer is that the death of the independent development studio is basically on the hands every Publisher. If I had to guess who the next biggest offender it is I'd have to say either Zenimax or Activision , Zenimax if only because their tactics were especially bad (intentionally bankrupting devs who owed them money). Fundamentally though the answer to your question is honestly all of them.

So, therefore, any fan of a studio that gets shut down by EA is perfectly justified in saying "Fuck EA." Just as they would be if Zenimax did. Or Activision. Or Square Enix. Or Sega.

This good faith argument of yours is responding to a phantom premise that people have said "Fuck EA to the exclusion of the shady practices of other large publishers." Which no one has said.

I was under the impression their smaller sister team Bioware Montreal made Andromeda and in like less than 2 years at that , while the actual Bioware guys made Anthem?

Here's the Andromeda story.

But did they? This is kind of the conjecture stuff I was posting about yesterday. We simply don't know that they killed Visceral because "they dared to be different". Isn't it just as reasonable to say they may have killed the team/shifted the game, because it was a team known for underselling and the game they were making was already not testing well with focus groups?

Like I asked earlier how many times are you willing to give someone 100 million$? How many times are you willing to do that when they have undersold games in the past? How many times are you willing to do that when it's starting to look like the writing is on the wall?

You're seriously saying that the game they're describing in that press release sounds like a good thing? Not better than what was there, not "the same as everyone else is doing," but a good game?

On the fence here, especially lately as they have been transitioning away from their "we are doing original games lately!" phase and going back into movie tie ins and sequels phase.

But there was a time not all that long ago when they released Dead Space 1, Dragon Age, Mirrors Edge, brought a Battlefield game to Console.

For which I remember EA getting a plenty of positive PR at the time. Exactly how long does that pretty good stretch grant them immunity from anyone's ire?

Idk man. I think they at least used to try to make pretty unique games a few years back. Idk if thats the point you were trying to make or if you were alluding to microtransactions or something, if it's the latter am I allowed to do the water is wet thing again? Cause they aren't really the worst at that nor the grand daddy of it either (thank Valve for what were in now).

This water of wet argument still doesn't make any damn sense to me. So because they aren't the worst at it, nor the grandaddy, people can't call them out when they do it?

tl;dr idk I've seen in the past threads where something shit would happen and we were able to easily say "Yeah it was shit but the whole situation that lead to is even worse!" , so it feels kind of shitty to try and point out the same things going on here and just be at best have my posts laughed at and dismissed with one liners and memes.

Oh please. In what way were your posts laughed at? People offered no disputes that other publishers were just as bad if not worse, and so didn't understand what your goal was.

And I believe I posted precisely one meme, Mr. Certainly-Has-Never-Stooped-To-Using-A-Meme-In-A-Forum-Discussion-Before.
 
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Geostigma

Pro Adventurer
AKA
gabe
So you've never been excited by the prospect of anything, I can assume. Because, hey, other promising things have turned out shit, right? Why be excited about anything, or disappointed when the very thing that had you excited about it gets changed?

That's a stretch but ok. I see 1 good writer and a dev studio with a bad track record. Why should I assume they were making a good game? A game that's been in development for 3 years and has 0 screen shots, trailers, demos or anything worth presenting. Why should I act like that's something worth getting excited over. Because the studio pitched a premise?

If I saw that Paramount dropped a GDT script that was being directed by Uwe Bolle or whatever my first thought might not exactly be fuck paramount lol.

And you are always 100% down with any and all changes and not the least disappointed, got it.

I don't even really care about this particular instance. I didn't play Dead Space and I'm not really a huge Star Wars fan. But I can absolutely see why someone would be bummed that a Star wars game in the vein of gameplay and storytelling of Uncharted could be disappointed at this news. Especially when the press release was such blatant corporate speak for every generic game all of the major publishers are feeding us in this particular point in the game industry's history. But, no, no, Gabe says don't fret anything that might happen as part of the "machine," after all, it could be the next Devil May Cry!

I don't understand why it's apparently offensive for me to think the game would not have been Uncharted caliber. Look at my first post I legit just say it doesn't seem like that bad of a business move to axe this game.

And yes ignore the context of my DmC name drop, i totally totally implied that this game will be that good since it shifted focus. I totally didn't just name drop it to show how radically some games can change in development.


Here's the Andromeda story.

Still reading :monster:

You're seriously saying that the game they're describing in that press release sounds like a good thing? Not better than what was there, not "the same as everyone else is doing," but a good game?

Didn't say that. Honestly the description just reads like a bunch of buzz words that you can infer in many ways, you could describe Total War : Warhammer with those buzzwords, and I don't think anyone who actually plays that game would agree that it's necessarily a bad thing. Honestly as the tweet I linked implies, saying nothing with a bunch of words like that beats saying "The game was mismanaged" in a press release to the ire of your investors.


For which I remember EA getting a plenty of positive PR at the time. Exactly how long does that pretty good stretch grant them immunity from anyone's ire?

Again not what I'm saying. I didn't say nor imply it absolves them of shenanigans. It's literally a counter point to how I read Lex's line

What they haven't done is given us as consumers any reason to believe they're good for the kind of games that we like.

I.E. they had shown us they are capable of being good for the kind of games we like. Again assuming I read that correctly. Obviously if he means MTX's or something else my reply was irrelevant.

This water of wet argument still doesn't make any damn sense to me. So because they aren't the worst at it, nor the grandaddy, people can't call them out when they do it?

I don't see what the problem with it is. I've seen everyone else make a water is wet argument over the years here. Why am I suddenly the ass for doing it to?
If the whole situation is shitty why am I the ass for pointing out, hey these guys you say are shitty aren't as shitty as you may think, and perhaps not as shitty as everyone else. Yes Yes , "IT's a EA thread!" , ignoring all the countless conversations over the years where we've been able to talk about industries as a whole even if the headline is about a specific organization etc.


I believe I posted precisely one meme, Mr. Certainly-Has-Never-Used-Memes-Before.

Your replies to me here have been antagonistic, close ended replies that don't serve to actually maintain discussion but just to come off as an ass. Hence my go fuck yourself tone in my replies to you. Yeah you posted 1 meme but your posts haven't at all been in good faith ( ;) ). Your cherry picking the shit out of my replies and ignoring the context of some of them just to serve what ever the point of your retort was.

My goodness how did you get that horse through the doorway.

Don't be a dick rule my ass.
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Both of you could do with calming down.

For what it's worth, though, in my own opinion, things got antagonistic the moment "Just comes off as a bit of a circlejerk" was uttered.
 

Lex

Administrator
I'm not getting involved with the discussion occurring but I'm going to respond to the Andromeda thing: it was basically developed by Bioware's "C" team in Austin. The studio has now been closed. It was a poor decision to outsource the next entry in their blockbuster franchise to a team that literally only had experience developing DLC for the third game, but I have no idea if that decision was solely a Bioware decision or not. The only reason I've mentioned Bioware is because EA have demonstrably fucked with them since they bought them over, notably with DAII.
 
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