Vapourware LOL ELECTRONIC ARTS: The EA Thread

[BlackAdderBG]

DLC? If I'm not mistaken Ultimate team is packs with players,so more like microtransactions

 

[Drax]

That's why I morally support russian repacks with all 243 dlcs included.

 

[Astral Rag]

http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...ea-we-never-want-to-be-worst-us-company-again

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Yeah, good luck with that.

 

[Infinitron]

Twilight of the casuals: PopCap co-founder John Vechey exits company

 

[Astral Rag]

It is happening again:

EA announces SimCity BuildIt for iPhone, iPad and Android devices
"Designed for gamers on the go."

EA has announced SimCity BuildIt, a new game in the city simulation series designed for mobile devices.

EA said SimCity BuildIt lets players build, craft and create cities. It's coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.

"Whether you're a savvy city planner or a strategic mastermind, take control and have fun wherever you are," reads the official blurb.

EA calls BuildIt "an all-new SimCity game like you've never seen before, designed for gamers on the go."

It added: "The choices you make evolve your city in a variety of ways. Meet your citizens' needs to keep them happy, or make questionable choices and feel your citizens' wrath.

"Pinch, zoom, and rotate 360 degrees as you manage your city in the palm of your hand. With countless buildings and vivid, 3D-quality graphics, it's the most advanced mobile building simulation game."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...y-buildit-for-iphone-ipad-and-android-devices

From the comments:

On the bright side.. the city plots look to be bigger than the PC version

 

[Dr Tomo]

The giant video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) is not universally loved – if you play games or talk about them on the internet, you may have noticed. Despite releasing some of the most successful games of the last 20 years (Fifa, Battlefield, Need For Speed, Mass Effect) the company has plenty of detractors. Why?

Like its great rival, Activision, EA is sometimes seen as a soulless corporate monolith, interested only in frisking players for as much cash as possible. For two years running – in 2012 and 2013 – it was voted the worst company in America by readers of the Consumerist blog, beating banks as well as corporate tobacco and weapons manufacturers. The disastrous launches of SimCity and Battlefield 4, the confining and somewhat invasive nature of the publisher’s Origin digital gaming platform and the voraciously monetised smartphone version of Dungeon Keeper, have kicked further dents in its reputation.

If you were to lead the company, what would you do? This was the question facing Andrew Wilson almost a year ago. Previously the president of the EA Sports label, the Australian became chief executive in September, replacing John Riccitiello. He took over a business that had seen six years of financial decline, its attempts to muscle into the casual gaming space having led to the expensive acquisitions of Jamdat, Playfish and Popcap, its sales falling, its MMO (massive multiplayer online) Star Wars: The Old Republic haemorrhaging money. What would you do?


The player-first philosophy

Wilson looks every inch the young thrusting business exec. Square-jawed, tanned, super confident, he is what a 3D printer would come up with if you typed in “modern CEO”. He is personable but media savvy: when we met in Cologne, it was clear he has a message to get out there. He doesn’t waste time.


“When the board asked me to take on this role, there were definitely things I wanted for the company – that I’d wanted for a long time,” he said. “I wanted us to be player first – to think about who the player is and what they want. For a long time, the games were the most important thing that we had. But then, in some ways, we got to thinking about EA itself, about how to to make it a good company. I said, okay, the player needs to be the lens through which we see the world and the filter through which we make decisions – and if we do that everyone wins. Players end up with great games, the people who work for the company end up working in a much more positive place and ultimately the shareholders will get a return.”


But the philosophy was tested, and found wanting, within a month of his appointment, with the controversial launch of Battlefield 4. It was a mess; the multiplayer servers were continually down and saved games kept disappearing. Investors began a lawsuit against EA claiming that they had been misled about the product. Months later the company released its free-to-play smartphone version of much-loved strategy classic, Dungeon Keeper, but the game was full of aggressively pushed in-app purchases. Another controversy, another dent to the public image.


What has all this taught him? “There are different elements that you hope to learn from,” he says. “As you push the boundaries, things are not always going to go how you like. One of the things we’ve tried to do is give our teams more space to evaluate where they are at at any given moment in time and change development process to facilitate that.


“With Battlefield Hardline, we wanted to get it into the hands of gamers earlier and really test it. The beta test was stable, so clearly some of the things we’d learned since Battlefield 4, on the server and the client side, were working. We learned about scalability and stability and that allowed us to let gamers in earlier and give us feedback. What we got from the community was, ‘this is cool, but we think the fiction should go deeper’. We were then able to make a judgment call on that. I don’t think it would have been possible before.”


Hardline, a spinoff from the main Battlefield series, featuring cops and criminals, was delayed to allow for more development. Responses so far have been mixed: some have seen it as a re-skinned Battlefield 4 but the hands-on sessions at E3 went down well. “Moving Hardline was the most frightening moment of the year,” said Wilson. “It was a hard … it was a big deal. But the feedback was positive from the gamers, the studio and the shareholders who invest in our decisions.”


It’s ready when it’s ready


So is this the EA maxim now: delay launching if necessary? Wilson says it is. “We decided that we couldn’t get an innovative Need For Speed title out this year so for the first time in 17 years we’re not launching one, we’re giving the team extra time. We moved Titanfall on Xbox One out of our fiscal year; we moved Dragon Age, we moved Hardline. These were difficult decisions. The business of what we do, as measured by the stock price and fiscal returns, has grown - to me that’s reassurance that we’re doing the right thing.”


But there’s something else game players are worried about – the dearth of originality in the mainstream games industry; the reliance on long-running franchises. In 2008, EA released Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge, two idiosyncratic and fascinating games – they were not amazing sellers but they have dedicated fans. Can that happen again, in the era of 400-staff teams and multimillion dollar budgets?


“We can experiment more now than ever!” exclaims Wilson. “I grew up in this business making games where the first [contact] you had with a player was when you dropped the demo. But the funny thing about demos was, by the time they were out, the game was done – if you got any feedback there was very little you could do. Now look at what we’re doing with Shadow Realms – we’re not planning on launching that until late 2015, but we had it playable on the showfloor at Gamescom.


“Our objective now is to bring players in much earlier. It gives us a better sense of what we’re investing in and whether there is demand for it, and it gives players an opportunity to say, ‘we like this, we like that, but it would be cool if this happened’. Here is the reality of games development. When you sit down and talk to the great creative leaders we have in the industry, the vision they sell is often intoxicating and contagious. However, what often happens is that either the vision doesn’t manifest in the game, or the player never gets to the vision because of a dumb HUD or a poor UI or some other fluff that gets in the link between the idea and the gameplay.


“This whole concept of the industry hiding everything until the very last moment is an outdated way to make games. Invite people in as early as you can, deal with the feedback and build that back into the game. What you get two or three years down the track are amazing games built with the help of the community.”


Virtual reality and Hollywood


We talk a little about industry trends and virtual reality comes up. Wilson is clearly intrigued by the concept but isn’t sure if the consumer format will be head-mounted displays, holograms or some other platform. “We have a series of incubation labs working in and around that technology, across the company right now,” he smiles. “When and how [they will be released] we’re not certain, but it’s very interesting to me.”


I mention that I think virtual reality (VR) will bring about new forms of gaming that are more about presence and emotion than action. He nods enthusiastically and tells me about something he saw at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, which has a successful game design course – Wilson has lectured there a few times.


“They had a project set up on Oculus Rift where you’re in a hunger line waiting for food. As you standing there, the person in front of you goes into shock from low blood sugar and collapses. The researcher are registering the ways in which different people responded.


“What I can tell you is, it’s amazing the impact that this experience has – you watch playback of people playing, you see them kneeling down trying to pick the person up, they’re reaching for their mobile phones! I just think … that’s games. I want to make games that immerse people like that.”


That’s interesting, I say. Take a company like BioWare: it makes great genre adventures like Dragon Age and Mass Effect but it would be fascinating to see the studio tackling a drama, something in the real-world. A romantic comedy even. If games did that, couldn’t they truly overtake cinema as the emotional story-telling medium of our age?


“I don’t want us to be a movie studio, but do I believe that story and emotion and the development of characters is going to play an important role in games,” says Wilson with unguarded enthusiasm. “If you look at a lot of films today, they’re basically video games. They should have been video games. When I sit down with Patrick Söderlund [head of EA Studios], this is what we talk about. We say, why aren’t we sitting in Hollywood reading cool scripts, and then building games that immerse people? Our medium can deliver on scripts so much better than a linear two-hour story can. Yes, I think that’s in our future.”


Present tense


Meanwhile in the present, there is plenty to do. Fifa 15 is on the way; Dragon Age Inquisition and Hardline too. Sims 4 looks interesting but fans are worried about how much content is being left out of the initial release. Wilson says he doesn’t want to focus on extracting money from people, but a hobbled Sims release followed by waves of downloadable content would hit the company’s reputation once again. And Wilson says he doesn’t want that: he doesn’t want to be a contender in the Consumerist awards ever again.


“We didn’t even make it out of the first round this year,” he laughs. But it is awkward and for a moment the tension shows. “When I came into this job, the board didn’t want the company to be perceived that way. I said if we commit to delivering amazing games built on creativity and commit to engaging with gamers when they think we have done them a disservice, then that puts us in the best possible position.


“I hope we never appear on that list again, I truly do. But I expect that, as we push the boundaries of entertainment, we will get feedback from time to time that people want us to do different things. That’s okay. That’s the cool thing about our industry.”


We’ll see. But certainly the company has reported better than expected earnings in the last two quarters, with Titanfall proving a strong seller. It is expecting big things from The Sims 4, Fifa 15 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, and there is something new on the way from Burnout creator, Criterion.


I have to ask one last thing as I’m being ushered away. How is the EA Dice team doing with the much-anticipated shooter Star Wars Battlefront and the surprise sequel, Mirror’s Edge 2? “Both are in development,” he says. “We had a review in October, where the executive team headed up to Dice to see the latest on both of those games. They are making amazing progress. We also saw some other stuff that’s hiding in some dark corners up there; they’re incubating new ideas. We’re feeling very good about the future.”
*source

Can't believe I missed this nice little interview, anyway highlighted some of the more interesting points and so it looks like there is going be some real change in EA and we might actually get some incline.

 

[Volourn]

I support EA overall, and have enjoyed plenty of their games (espicially their sports titles) however they done fucked up with the newest NWL game. It'll be the first one I don't buy since like 2007.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

...where the first [contact] you had with a player was when you dropped the demo. But the funny thing about demos was, by the time they were out, the game was done – if you got any feedback there was very little you could do.

This... is actually very true. I know that he's only saying this to justify how players are supposed to buy themselves into beta versions of future EA games to become glorified QA staff, but the days of the "demo" are done.

 

[groke]

The best way for EA to endear themselves to players would be to pull their own killswitch.

 

[racofer]

...where the first [contact] you had with a player was when you dropped the demo. But the funny thing about demos was, by the time they were out, the game was done – if you got any feedback there was very little you could do.

This... is actually very true. I know that he's only saying this to justify how players are supposed to buy themselves into beta versions of future EA games to become glorified QA staff, but the days of the "demo" are done.

Untrue. TPB provides the best demos.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

So how fucked is the company right now on a scale of 1 to 10?

 

[Delterius]

So how fucked is the company right now on a scale of 1 to 10?

EAs excellence is ever off the charts.

 

[Outlander]

There doesn't seem to be any MAJOR fuck ups from them lately... Ubisoft on the other hand has been taking a lot of flak lately due to their ridiculous downgrades.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i thought it was because of shitty games.

 

[Trash]

EA has always been a fucking monstrosity. At least they used to have good games.

Then again, that was when this was still their logo.

EDIT: Heh, I actually think even this one is newer than the one from the golden years.

 

[Spectacle]

...where the first [contact] you had with a player was when you dropped the demo. But the funny thing about demos was, by the time they were out, the game was done – if you got any feedback there was very little you could do.

This... is actually very true. I know that he's only saying this to justify how players are supposed to buy themselves into beta versions of future EA games to become glorified QA staff, but the days of the "demo" are done.

So far it seems to be about running free beta tests early enough that feedback can be integrated in development, such as the BF hardline beta this summer that lead to the game being delayed for six months so they could change things based on the player feedback.

 

[Dr Tomo]

So how fucked is the company right now on a scale of 1 to 10?

Well it depends, if you go by this article on their "serious" attempt to change it will be an 8, but a 5 to me presently as both Dice/Bioware and other studios still operate even though the publisher has been hemorrhaging cash. They are planning to experiment and no stick with releasing the same franchises over and over and hopefully emulate Destiny.

 

[Infinitron]

EA actually isn't hemorrhaging cash anymore AFAIK

 

[Infinitron]

Meanwhile in EA headquerters, evil masterminds want a piece of them MOBA cake.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-11-05-ea-cancels-moba-dawngate

EA cancels MOBA Dawngate
"We're not seeing the progress we'd hoped for."

EA has cancelled Dawngate, the cartoony MOBA being made by Waystone Games under the BioWare label.

It's been in open beta since April - and in beta of some kind for 18 months - but progress wasn't matching expectations.

"Today, I have the unenviable task of announcing that we've decided to stop development of Dawngate," announced BioWare group general manager Matt Bromberg.

"Dawngate has been in beta for almost 18 months... And although the game has grown, we're not seeing the progress we'd hoped for. This isn't the outcome we wanted, but beta testing is about learning and improving, and ultimately, about making difficult decisions about how to proceed."

Dawngate was to be EA's first proper foray into MOBAs, the genre-du-jour spewing riches for Riot (League of Legends), Valve (Dota 2) and presumably soon Blizzard (Heroes of the Storm).

Dawngate looked like a mish-mash of those games, an 'I want a piece of that pie', although Bromberg defended the game as "truly a labour of love" in his post.

"We chose to enter a new genre for EA in MOBA, one that we knew going in was extremely competitive," he wrote. "We built a game in Dawngate that wasn't simply a clone of existing MOBAs, but one that truly pushed the genre forward in many ways.

"The game was truly a labour of love, and it shows."

For those who participated in the beta, full refunds on money spent will be offered.

Where developer Waystone Games goes from here (it being a studio built for Dawngate with members of Dead Space team Visceral) still needs to be addressed.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

EA fails, and the world doesn't have another MOBA.

Double incline?

 

[groke]

The best thing is that now, when EA fails, Bioware fails.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Good riddance!

 

[MicoSelva]

When games are actually ongoing online services - which is the case with MOBAs as it has been for a while with MMORPGs, some titles will dominate the landscape, making any attempt to get a slice of that pie difficult. EA saw this before with SW TOR, so they have probably decided to cut the losses with Dawngate earlier, seeing it is destined for a similar fate.

People do not like to play MOBAs as a genre - they like to play one particular MOBA, which is also played by their friends. They do not care about the rest of the 'genre'. Yes, they might switch to another title if it is significantly better than the one they play, but guess what - it will not be, because the continuous development of the currently played game means it can incorporate any innovations that might give the competition an edge.

 

[DeepOcean]

I think it is funny how EA and other big publishers pushed so hard the agenda of gamming as a service and, when that happens, they are excluded. WoW and League of Legends proved that is pratically impossible for the whole industry to change to a service based system as always one game will dominate and the others won't get even close.