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Vapourware LOL ELECTRONIC ARTS: The EA Thread

DragoFireheart

all caps, rainbow colors, SOMETHING.
Joined
Jun 16, 2007
Messages
23,731
EA is the reason I simply avoid games that are heavily reliant on online servers to function.

Someday those servers will die and some asshole will prevent you from making your own server to restore functionality.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...us-subscriptions-equals-uncapped-monetisation

EA: Live services plus subscriptions equals "uncapped" monetisation
CFO Blake Jorgensen discusses how publisher is becoming less dependent on new titles, growing a more stable business

"If you have a live service component to [games on EA Access and Origins Access], you can have a subscription that's uncapped," he said. "Give people a way to spend money on things they want to do and that they enjoy doing vs simply capping them at $9 or $10 per month and that's all they can ever spend.

"We find people play twice as many games, they spend twice as long on them, and they spend twice as much money, because you've reduced the cost of trial to close to zero."

He offered the example of a customer who wants to try Madden, but considers the standard $60 price tag too much of a risk to warrant investing in it.

"Maybe they went into the subscription to play Star Wars, they try Madden, they find out they like the game, like playing Madden Ultimate Team, and then may spend money on Ultimate Team. It's a great consumer offering, but it's also for us a much more stable business, an easier business for us to run long-term and doesn't have the same limited cap that most subscriptions would have."

By comparison, subscription services like Netflix or Spotify are 'capped', charging a flat monthly fee and unable to further monetise their users without altering that price.

"Battlefield 4 is often the fourth, fifth or sixth most played game in any given day," he said, referring to his regular look at how EA's multiplayer servers are being utilised. "Oftentimes, it's consistently in the Top Ten - and it's a game that's four years old.

"If we had a live service on that, and we could keep people engaged, give them even more to play them, we would also be able to try and monetise them over time. That's a huge opportunity, to continue to build the live-service piece of our business."

 

Gerrard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
11,927
Remember that new NFS that looked like absolute trash?

k17PUE4.png


Color me surprised.
 

DragoFireheart

all caps, rainbow colors, SOMETHING.
Joined
Jun 16, 2007
Messages
23,731
The only way to get people as a whole to boycott EA is to start openly ostracizing them.

Make fun of people that buy EA games.

If they complain about EA screwing them, tell them it's their fault for buying EA.

Make buying EA games a negative social action. Make people feel even worse for doing it.
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,086
Location
Bulgaria
I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the EU decides to do this. If anything,they do believe that retarded sjw shit.
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
Edmund McMillen tells the story of his buddy George Fan creating Plants vs. Zombies for PopCap, being bought by EA, forced to turn it into a P2W Mobile App, him saying that doesn't really fit the franchise and getting fired:
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
Are you people mentally deficient? "Muh cartoon avatars" ain't the story here: http://www.gamerevolution.com/news/...fired-ea-protesting-pay-win-microtransactions
Plants vs. Zombies Creator Was Reportedly Fired by EA for Protesting Pay-to-Win and Microtransactions
Plants vs. Zombies

Plants-vs-Zombies-Creator-Fired-by-EA.jpg

In a recent roundtable podcast, Super Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen shared a story concerning Plants Vs. Zombies creator George Fan. George is an indie developer now, but he got his start in the industry when his game Insaniquarium exploded in popularity and was acquired by PopCap Games. George went to work for PopCap, as well.

After joining PopCap Games, George Fan began work on what would become Plants Vs. Zombies with a team of two other developers. Plants vs. Zombies was an instant hit on its release in 2009. It's tower defense-lite style of gameplay made it instantly accessible to almost anyone, and is a significant influence on the creation of the "casual gaming" market.

Of course, work was soon started on a sequel, and George was again at the helm of a small team. In mid-2011 Electronic Arts acquired PopCap Games for $650 million, and that's where the trouble started. According to McMillen, EA approached George and wanted Plants vs. Zombies 2 to contain microtransactions and pay-to-win systems. When George said he didn't want to do that with his game, he was one of 50 employees laid-off by PopCap Games in North America as they shifted to mobile and free-to-play games only.

Plants vs. Zombies 2 released in 2013 and of course was free-to-play and contained microtransactions and timers and all that great stuff. After leaving EA/PopCap George went back into indie game design and is slated to release the game Octogeddon at some point. Octogeddon was slated for an early-2017 release, but it's still MIA.

Of course, George's story is likely just a drop in the bucket when it comes to horror stories concerning EA's business practices. EA has a long history of closing studios for minor failures and shoehorning any revenue stream they can into their products. The latest debacle involving the company, concerning the microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront 2, might be the straw that broke the camels back though. Gamers are heavily protesting this latest shady move, and in response, EA has removed microtransactions altogether, with the stipulation the game would be balanced before they're reinserted.
 

Lahey

Laheyist
Patron
Joined
Jun 10, 2017
Messages
1,467
Grab the Codex by the pussy
Mentally deficient for not listening to a 2 hour podcast? Thanks for the article. This is quite a different story than the one given at the time. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119212-PopCap-Lays-Off-Plants-vs-Zombies-Creator
Any layoffs are regrettable, but cutting Fan from the lineup is particularly inexplicable. As Susan Arendt noted in a 2009 interview, Plants vs. Zombies was his baby from start to finish. And he was hardly a one-hit wonder, having also designed the 2002 PopCap hit Insaniquarium, which actually helped inspire Plants vs. Zombies.

The timing is ugly, coming on the heels of the Plants vs. Zombies 2 announcement as it does, and the specter of EA, which acquired PopCap a little over a year ago for $750 million, also looms large. PopCap claimed that EA had nothing to do with the layoffs and that without its financial support the cuts may have been even deeper, but that still leaves a couple of pretty big questions unanswered. Why George? And why now? Business is business, but this just does not look good.
So the big news here is that EA has been scummy for longer than the past week? That companies should never allow themselves to be acquired by EA? Looks to me like McMillen is taking the opportunity to garner attention since EA stories are hot right now, so he can get free press before The End is Nigh switch release in a few weeks, with the added bonus of putting Fan's name back in circulation, whose game is also due. Fan would obviously be under NDA, so I'm curious whether he approved this disclosure beforehand or if this was all McMillen. Either way, solid marketing.
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
Mentally deficient for not listening to a 2 hour podcast?
Mentally deficient for not clicking the video once instead of LOLing about muh cartoon faces in the EA thread, since through the magic of timestamped links it'll automagically jump to the right two minutes of him telling the story 41 minutes in.

Fan would obviously be under NDA, so I'm curious whether he approved this disclosure beforehand or if this was all McMillen. Either way, solid marketing.
He's talking about that in the video too, he's apparently not under NDA (anymore?), just nobody supposedly cared to ask him so far.
 

Lahey

Laheyist
Patron
Joined
Jun 10, 2017
Messages
1,467
Grab the Codex by the pussy
I clicked on it the first time you posted it, before adding the timestamp.
 

Telengard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 27, 2011
Messages
1,621
Location
The end of every place
Mentally deficient for not listening to a 2 hour podcast?
Mentally deficient for not clicking the video once instead of LOLing about muh cartoon faces in the EA thread, since through the magic of timestamped links it'll automagically jump to the right two minutes of him telling the story 41 minutes in.
You forgot that this was a site for RPG fans. So, you got to do a few things for them. They need a full quest compass, but also you (the quest giver) have to also tell them precisely where they are going and exactly what they will find when they get there. Bonus points if you also explain what they should think about what they will find there before they see it, so they will be totally "in the know", but you can't tell them in authoritative or educative way, like you were some expert, but instead talk like you were joshing with one of your friends.

Otherwise, rpg fans just get lost at the first turn and run back home, then use one of their goto excuses to explain why the adventure wouldn't have been worth it anyway. 'Cause rpg fanbois r supr smairt wit lodes of Hi T*.




* I assume they mean the children's drink, Hi-C.
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,086
Location
Bulgaria
Ahhh the Roman way,laying back drinking wine,eating grapes and watching a bunch of mentally crippled individuals fight.
12-facts-ancient-roman-gladiators.jpg

:killit:
 

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