What really pisses me off is that they seem to genuinely believe that people are buying it. Like, "We really pulled the wool over their eyes this time, eh lads? Huhue!"
This just goes to show that ea only cares about making money. Making a good game is too much of a risk so they're going to fuck the game inside out and make it a cash cow. They' re going to do what they did to Dead Space 3 and do it to Amy Hennig's Star Wars game *before it even comes out.* Fucking greedy pigs. Profiteering sons of bitches.
I'd be happier if they just said something along the lines of "we only make really good money off these guys, not ludicrous amounts, so we gonna fuck these cunts off, fuck all of you, we don't care about any of you", if EA literally said "fuck you" to all their consumers I think it'd honestly feel like a weight off my chest, they obviously mean to say it, so just say it
konami want to have a say in that vote^^ Ubisoft has been trying to get it as well for some reason but warner brothers game department the strongest contender.
--> EA and Visceral Games introduces new, fresh and memorable IP to the gaming industry, the Dead Space --> Dead Space gets sequel which is also getting good scores --> Like always, EA gets greedy and goes out of control by making few changes to the 3rd Dead Space game to catch bigger audience --> Dead Space 3 deviates from the original Dead Space formula with its new changes, so instead of being survival horror game, it becomes just another generic 3rd person horde mode action shooter (with microtransactions and shitty weapon system) --> Dead Space 3 sells poorly and is disliked in the community --> EA suspends the Dead Space franchise because people no longer like it --> EA puts Visceral Games in charge of another project which they're unfamiliar with --> Battlefield Hardline sells poorly --> EA shuts down Visceral Games Just...fuck you EA. Sometimes I really wish that EA would go bankrupt so that it wouldn't continue manipulating or/and destroying these amazing game developers.
Fans of horror always whine and cry when it's not "survival horror" anymore. Dead Space 3 was fine for what it was and had some cool elements in it, like when one player hallucinates as Carver. The "horror" was starting to get toned down anyways as they weren't doing anything different with the necromorphs throughout the series. The only reason the first seemed so terrifying was because you didn't know how the necromorphs acted and how to deal with them..Obviously they're not going to be as scary three entries later when they do the same thing.
"By trying to please everyone you end up pleasing no one" - ...can't remember who said that. But it's good advice, and also speaks for modern game devs turning all SJW and dropping to their knees infront of purple-haired glasses wearing overweight non-binaries
Now I know why people refer to "EA ruining games". EA is like "Fuck good games, lets turn it into a shitty games". They are not only against games companies, but also consumers in the past. Remember Darkspore? Yes a game with ALWAYS ONLINE DRM plus shutting down their server without an offline patch or something so that the game product is useable for good. But nope, they decided to turn the game into wasted money.
@@KyrosTheWolf "modern game devs turning all SJW and dropping to their knees infront of purple-haired glasses wearing overweight non-binaries" how is this relevant to the topic?
Jim Sterling and you would have raked it in! I just wish EA would return to the business model they had in 2007. Release the garbage sports games and use the sales from those to continually invest in new IPs! But no, shareholders and ceos, and other executives don't have a pension quite as big as they did before, so we can't lay the foundations for increased popularity down the road! Whoops!
Would be nice to make a pool where we can vote who's next on their list, when some other studio die we can open it and see who won, I think the sim guys are next.
The only time I correctly predicted something positive was the Bug Princess in Hyrule Warriors. All my other predictions are grim, and too many come true.
Sambou Jaiteh Funnily enough I've been planning to call myself exactly that, the Cassandra of videogames, during a Jimquisition closer monolog. Just waiting for the right ep to deploy it.
You mean the deadspace endless runner with a pro and lite version where you have to pay to progress to each level or wait a day to continue playing and it would literally take a year to finish one chapter out of 10?
Guys, a minute of silence for talanted studios that were tortured and killed in cold blood by that despicable monster and serial killer - EA: Origin (Ultima series, Wing Commander series, Strike Commander, Bioforge, Crusader series) Bullfrog (Populous series, Magic Carpet series, Syndicate, Theme Park, Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper) Westwood (Eye of the Beholder series, Lands of Lore series, Kyrandia series, Dune 2 (first RTS), Command and Conquer series, Blade Runner) Maxis (Sim City series, The Sims series, Spore) Black Box (Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2/Underground/Underground 2/Most Wanted/Carbon/Pro Street/Undercover) Pandemic (Full Spectrum Warrior series/Star Wars Battlefront series/Mercenaries series) Visceral (Dead Space series, Dante's Inferno) NEVER FORGET.
Single player adventure Star Wars game!?!?!?!?!?!? After this, SWTOR and Star Wars 1313... we're NEVER going to get a good single player Star Wars game again are we? My gods... the franchise could not have been bought by a worse game developer. Okay maybe Konami. Then again they'd probably make at least one single player game before turning the rest into pachinko machines or something.
OneWingedRose Respawn (the dudes behind titanfall) are working on a 3rd person star wars action game. Hopefully they don't get canned too and hopefully it's good. Titanfall 2's campaign was actually pretty good.
Get used to it, we don't get a X-wing or Tie Fighter game since X-wing Alliance in 1999 because higher ups felt spacesims were out of fashion, now they won't make any single player game anymore because they feel single player is going out of fashion and of course multiplayer games can be flled with microtransactions.
After hearing this story I got so disappointed, we were so close to get a space adventure game of Star Wars, but once again the focus on multiplayer fucks a project.
Star Wars games "could" be good again. In 30-40 years Disney and EA will have ground the franchise so far down that nobody will like or even recognize it anymore. And there's a chance that they may let some IPs slip to a proper developer by accident. And for a few market cycles they could be good again. Of course, that success will draw those parasites back...
"EA : Challenge everything"... that includes video game industry ethics. "EA Sports : It's in the game"... but locked unless you preorder or until you buy DLC or microtransactions.
Ha, at least in the original scene this was quoted from she was crying. Ea is just laughing as they buy up and ruin their own competition. If they own the market and decide what everyone wants AND get away with shoving microtransactions into everything? Gaming as a whole is going to be a LOT less enjoyable than the gaming scene we knew growing up.
To be fair 10 people making 2million dollars is a lot better than a multi million dollar company making not even a billion heck some people get paid more than what an entire indie company ever makes .
Well if you consider that each developer, lead designer, artists, animators.. Etc is most likely making over 50k a year plus benefits and 401k. Plus you might have a studio team of 50 or more. Than 200k is not going to cut it. Especially considering money spent on resources and the fact some of these games take 2-5 years to make. So a big company has to earn in the millions compared to a small indie team to get any returns.
I don't get it, it's usually EA's meddling with their game studios affairs that cause them problems. Dead Space 3 was ruined by EA's lust for generic shooters. Titanfall 2 wasn't as successful as it should have been because EA wanted to corner the FPS market. BF1 lost playerbase because EA insisted on the season pass model for dlc map packs. They're not really shooting themselves in the foot, more so blowing the brains of each studio out, claiming the life insurance and framing it as a suicide.
The Joker yeah but it's just an example of how EA screws their own game studios, the playerbase dropped off for a little while around the time of the first dlc because EA decided to keep paid maps even though the market was changing.
The Joker They basically had to cave in and reduce the price of the premium subscription to get people to play again, that's pretty much what the Revolution edition was for
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Battlefield 1 wasn't as successful, I suppose, due to the neutered progression system and integration of battlepacks.
redmotive Those definitely contributed as well, the micro transactions of course being EA's idea, and wouldn't you know it Battlefront 2 is copping criticism for the exact same thing.
Chapter 1: Victory or death Chapter 2: In dire straits Chapter 3: Segmented Chapter 4: Caution to the wind Chapter 5: Evasive manoeuvres Chapter 6: Razor's edge Chapter 7: All in a day's work Chapter 8: Lost in space Chapter 9: Insidious origins Chapter 10: So little time Chapter 11: Damocles blade looms Chapter 12: EA is poised Chapter 13: Abandon all hope Chapter 14: Damocles blade falls
EA forces its developers to put things people don't like in games, then people don't buy those games because of those things, then EA shuts down the studio for not selling as much. EA makes the problems that it shuts down studios for.
Robert Fancyman Eventually, EA will have no support from other companies due to its reputation, and it will end up destroying itself since they're all they got.
Honestly, I would be okay if EA was utterly destroyed. Even if it meant all of the genuinely talented devs working for them were out of a job, it would be okay. The good people would find work for, hopefully, better companies, and it would be an example to the rest of the industry that you cannot be that evil and get away with it.
Robert Fancyman I would be okay with that as well. But the developers are probably scared of even abandoning what they're in at the moment. They probably see EA as the only company that will accept them. Until that perspective is shattered, the only way those good developers can open their eyes is if EA fails and sees other companies who recognize their talents.
Their only chance at survival is that Destiny 2 is dropping players like crazy as it did away with all the things the players liked from destiny 1, so there's a bunch of players out there hungry to fill their destiny-type gaming desires. If anthem is just a tad better than destiny 2, BioWare will live
No, they are businessmen trying to corner the creative market that is the domain of the artists. If this were the 19th century, EA will be those merchants who kept Picasso in chains in a basement and forcing him to create five art pieces every month with the threat to chop him up and throw his remains into the ocean if his art pieces did not rake in large amounts of money in day one.
If your game needs 5 million sales at least to break even, you probably have a failed business model or lack of budget control... Some of these marketing budgets get waaaaaaay overly inflated, like $500 million JUST for advertising for some games out there! It's nuts!
It's like EA's business model is "If people aren't buying our games, we're going to buy out the competition and force them to make our games too!" It's no wonder EA was voted worst gaming company in the world several years in a row.
Activision is pretty bad, too, though. Bobby Kotick focuses on games that can kick out another sequel every year instead of trying to do anything new, and ends up bleeding the market dry rather than creating new interest in his products.
You wouldn't believe how much having a style for your models and world other than photo realism DRASTICALLY decreases the amount of work needed done. In fact the 720p they had for the switch kinda actually helped them in cost effectiveness as well as they didn't need as much time trying to render the frames as much. But back to styles. If you aren't going for realism then what you are looking for is something just realistic enough to not need to get past the uncanny valley. That's why something like Ocarina of time or even TF2 has some likeable character designs even if they aren't completely 'Real Human' like what you see with any other big title.
To be fair, breath of the wild makes indirect money by selling switch consoles, even if they don't make all of their money with sales of the game, they make it elsewhere by the fact that its an exclusive convincing people to buy the very expansive switch. Dead space only makes money with sales of their basic game
You can be a dev for a long time Be a dev for a long time Be a dev for a long time Sooner or later EA'll cut you down Sooner or later EA'll cut you down Tell them Visceral Games Go and tell Dice the same Tell the journalists, the critics, all the reviewers Tell them EA's gonna cut you down
TheRealMichelozzo Fun game with a well-executed (original) concept. That's all I wanted from my games. Bullfrog was a developer that embraced that kind of idea. Troika Games was a developer that embraced that kind of idea. Yet here we are. The only successful studio that still embraces this idea is Paradox IIRC, and I can't say that I liked their business practice.
Bullfrog indeed.. how sad.. a time when games where just what they should be mostly: fun and immersive. Now days you can't even enjoy being immersed in a game without having to be constantly pulled out of the experience by having to think about real currency and forced gambling, even in Single player experiences!
I bet the process was something like this: "Wow, PUBG is selling like fucking hotcakes! How can we get in on the Battle Royale action? ... I know, we cancel Amy Henning's project, recycle the assets and slap together a Star Wars themed PUBG clone with triple A graphics ASAP, we'll make a fucking mint!"
That, my friend, is why EA screws up. They think like suits, not devs. It's like asking a whole bunch of accountants to come up with a heavenly bowl of soup. That soup is going to taste like a far blander version of what that other restaurant put out, with a hint of ink and paper.
Thing is, people would almost certainly buy a Star Wars Battle Royale game. A large proportion of people that play games don't keep up with all the goings on behind the scenes like we do, so I don't even think they'd even notice or care what the game could have been; people like us that watch Jim and follow the industry are in the minority.
captain savvy I don't think so. Like the mobas a few years ago, and hero shooters now, battle royale is gonna be a genre that every corporate suit will want to emulate. And, as always, they will not see that those markets don't have the room for multiple smash hits, as they're very time consuming and the "real" creators are already there.
This should be a message to all small developer companies. Big corporations are not your friends and all your work is going down the drain if you sell out to them.
Justin Kroboth I hope not I love Dragon age and mass effect yes the new one sucked ass but the old ones are amazing so I would like to see them bring it back with mass effect 5 and there doing a new Dragon age game so I really don't want this company to fail but I do see your point
Keep in mind, "bioware" had almost nothing to do with Mass Effect Andromeda. That was "Bioware Montreal", for whom Andromeda was their first game ever. "Bioware Edmonton" aka the real thing, is doing fine.
Honestly the last game that EA put out that was worthwhile was Mass Effect 3. After that they never put out a decent single-player again. Mirror Edge Catalyst is second biggest disappointing game I've ever played and I thought ME was perfect choice to make a open world game of.
When I was getting into the stock market, brokers kept telling me how great EA was since I was interested in investing in game companies. I legit laughed out loud and they looked very confused. The reason why game companies have reputations as being 'risky' is because most investors are Enron-fucks who've never played a game in their life, and don't understand what fan contempt is. They think they'll either get over it, or buy regardless. While some do, the video game consumer base is very different from others. EA's stagnancy and slow growth seems to indicate that it does have an effect.
It's at points like these that I seriously sit down and wonder, what the hell am I continuing on for? Good shit will continue to be twisted until it's awful, bad people will continue to have great days, and nothing will be done about it, nothing will ever change.
BrokenSet just wait till modern laws advance enough to cover gaming. Good news: no more gambling *COUGH* I MEAN " _loot boxes_ " Bad news: game taxes everywhere.
I feel especially heartbroken for Amy Hennig, the incredibly talented and dedicated woman responsible for creating the Uncharted series who was leading Visceral's new Star Wars game. She left Naughty Dog midway through production of Uncharted 4, months of her hard work being scrapped, and now this. To have two projects in a row that you've poured so much passion and effort into taken out of your hands or shut down altogether is a tragedy, and I can only wish Amy and all of the team at Visceral the best with future endeavours. They deserve so much better than this sh*tty situation.
Well it is official. This is now all the writing on the wall I needed to know that EA will kill not just studios but my love for Star Wars games. That’s no moon, it’s a micro transaction!
Fun fact: back in the day, founders of EA, were considering naming their company "Electronic Artists", but decided against it, to show their appreciation for the real artists - the developers. #irony
well that doesn't go for everyone, take elon musk and his recent ventures that turned him "patron saint" for engineering..... other than steam under gabe, we haven't really had someone/something like that for PC gaming for a long time. Steam is still going strong, but Facebook has already said multiple times that it aims to devour steam.... honest PC gaming will be dealt a near unrecoverable blow if something like that happens. And after that, you can practically guarantee that big publishers will try to pull a google play, and look for ways to make independent selling of games on the platform nearly impossible.
Zer0 Bin0pse Elon Musk, who has conned millions of $ from the public purse in multiple countries to fund projects that simply will never work, nor get off the ground.. He started corrupt, perhaps he will become a honest person ....
I just wish that once, just fucking once no one would show up to EA's, Ubisoft,(and now Bethesda's), press conference at E3. And if all that was captured live? That would be amazing. But 1/1,000,000 chance would be putting it lightly..
Woah Man As much as most of us would like it, it will never happen. They'll just pay some people to be a one-day fans. And someone need to write what they said.
That won't happen they'll just pay people to fill the seats ... plus reporters will show up regardless to comment on the shit show or shove their noses up EA Ubi and (insert your preferred shithead publisher here)'s asses.
Ubisoft doesnt consume other studios to kill them. Ubisoft has a pretty diverse line up of games, you just need to look past Assassins Creed. Also, Bethesda may have pulled some shit, but they have games like Wolfenstein , Evil Within, Prey, Dishonored......fucking fantastic all of them.
TheConst4nt exactly thank you for writing this. For all the bad things they do at least it feels like their developers are doing what they want. Just look at the indie games from Ubisoft and the series you are talking about from Bethesda. And of course the best example is Beyond Good and Evil 2. I just wish I could get another Driver game but to be honest The Crew is pretty similar. It's so sad that EA owns Criterion Games. I wanted that project they showed off years ago to be a thing. They're probably gonna shut them down too eventually.
What they did to Bullfrog was shitty. What they did with Pop Cap was predictable. What they did with Black Box was unethical. What they are currently doing with Visceral is just saddening and cruel.
The sad thing about all this is, in 2008 EA (through then-CEO Riccitiello) admitted the massacre around 2000 was because they blew up the studios too much and noone really knew how to deal with it. And to me it very much looks like the immediately started doing that again once Riccitiello left and now we're back where we were then...
That happened sooner than I thought it would. Edit: We have "Fuck Konami News #Fuckonami" and "Ohhh Ubisoft" maybe it's time for "Ewww E.A." or something?
Dude, this is such a good metaphor. I feel, that's exactly what happenned to Origin, Westwood and Bullfrog. Some of the most creative and talented studios in the industry were forced to become EA's conveyor bitches and lost all the passion and inspiration they once had, becoming mere shadows of what they once had been.
1) A great game development studio exists 2) EA buys said game development studio 3) EA starts interfering with instead of supporting the studio 4) Most devs quit 5) Devs found a new studio 6) GOTO 1 Needs to happen.
After 3), game fails, game dev gets the blame for making the game the way EA made them make it, even thought game dev told them it was a bad idea. I don't even understand this from a business perspective. If a developer is good enough you want to buy them, they probably aleready know what the fuck they're doing, so why would you start interfering and getting in the way? Just sit back and let them do their job - that's why you bought the fucking company in the first place. If you just want an army of yesmen who will do whatever you say, even if it's an idiotic idea, you can get them for much less than it costs to buy a successful developer.
Apparently the Star Wars title that Visceral was working will be given to a development team from across EA Worldwide Studios. Looks like Bioware dodged a bullet on that count. But don't worry, there's still the inevitable future Mass Effect MMO to crucify them on.
I don't blame Bioware Montreal for what happened to Andromeda, only EA. I doubt it was the devs' idea to push the game out half-finished. And I'm pretty sure it was EA's responsibility to allocate the needed talent.
Seeing as EA said they're cutting all ties with singleplayer Mass Effect forever (the defining mode of the whole fucking franchise) then the coming of a poorly made, grindy MMO is most certainly inevitable.
I have to ask, why does EA (or any publisher) have that much power to effectively destroy an entire development team? Is it a contract thing, or what? Seems like a huge red flag to see “we reserve the right to shut your studio down at any moment” in the fine print, then go ahead and sign the deal anyway.
DangerIncFilms Every publisher has that in their contracts. And to get the budget, especially the advertising budget, to get mainstream mass appeal you have to have a publisher who will provide the money.
DangerIncFilms basically they just go "here team a few dollars(at least for ea they are probably only a few $) and your company is now mine." so they can do what ever they want with it...sadly
This is why I adamantly refuse to work for a "real" game company.... If my indie company ever takes off the ground, I will stay independent even if it means going under.
Raph K, there are quite a few developers who make enough to pay their mortgage. That's not the hard part. The hard part is being patient and building your back catalog big enough that it can pay for employees and yourself to get larger projects started. If that game doesn't make profit you are not going under because the back catalog paid for it, you just saw less money. If you get an IP that does make a profit then you have the back catalog and the profit to increase the size of your studio and that can keep happening until your studio is essentially a AAA studio. Back catalog is an insurance at that point and pays the owner, new release sales can fully fund the next title plus studio owners nice bonus and you will have a stable game studio. There are GDC talks that describe just how to do it and why you shouldn't get in bed with a publisher. All the profit from game sales really goes to the publisher and the studio gets what can be described as scraps. If you remain independent your back catalog will support you rather than a publisher and new release sales will fund the next title. The only time you really need financial backing is if you decide to skip creating the back catalog and jump right into AAA scale games, and that's not the smartest approach even if the game is successful. You have to pay that money back and most likely need more loans for the next one. Then if your game doesn't break even you can lose everything.
It's a bit more nuanced than, "struggle vs. cash the cheque", "indie vs. sell-out" when you're talking about managing a software project. Keeping a team of professionals afloat for long enough to finish a major project carries a significant financial and social burden. It's simply a lot safer in terms of risk to use other peoples' money. Problem arises when the, "client", "publisher", "investor", etc., egregiously oversteps their area of expertise in an often well-intended attempt to contribute. Call it, "bike-shedding", "dunning-kruger", etc, there's a thousand ways to fuck up a software project.
I miss Pandemic games. They did some of my favorite games in the ps2. Including star wars battleffont 1 and 2, as well as destroy all humans. But then EA happened
Visceral former employees; group together and start your own small company. You guys and gals can form your own small-project games business, and make an indie title as good as Senua Hellblade. And who knows? Maybe you'll grow as a business, and maybe you'll even *e-VISCERAL-ate* the fucking bastards that is Electronic Arts!
Actually from what Ea said, people who worked at visceral studio have joined other dev teams. Besides, is easier to find a job as an individual. Especially for someone who had experience in a team like visceral. What you said is fantasy. It doesn't workike that in the real world.
My sister used to work for EA-Maxis BITD. After finishing Spore she was owed a sabbatical, took it, and on her last day before taking the sabbatical they told her to clean out her desk and was downsized. A not uncommon occurrence in the industry I've been told.
Visceral's star wars game was the one quiet hope on the horizon for the franchise. They shit all over the battlefront name already. With the death of visceral, star wars games are basically dead in my eyes until EA loses the license.
GalaciousCrumb The sad part is, Disney will probably renew the contract, battlefront 1 made 760,000,000 dollars on the base game alone and most likely battlefront two will make 100s of millions as well.
Wouldn't it be ironic, if Disney bought EA and some years later closed them down? Sadly, there is no justice in the world, and EA will keep EAing along, killing studios and showing microtransactions down consumer throats.
You're wrong, EA is not the scorpion on the back. At least the scorpion had self awareness that it had a horrible nature. EA doesn't have the capacity to do something like that.
I LOVED it...DI was a very good game and had an AMAZING Ideal. Probably one of the best depictions of Hell in any video game ive seen. It was such a underrated game in my opinion.
M H Dante's Inferno was one of my favorite games ever made. Such a beautifully horrific portrayal of Dante's hell. Every year I kept my fingers crossed to see it again at E3, either in remake or sequel form. Now I'm right there with you, man...
Yeah man....this is very disappointing news. I remember at one point they were teasing and talking about a DI 2...I was super excited and I just figured it would be a matter of time until we got a DI Remaster or Remake...but it never came...
Let's not forget the Stalin to EA's Hitler: Activision. RIP Luxoflux, Neversoft, Gray Matter, Radical, Bizarre, RedOctane, and so on. Gone but not forgotten.
Stalin killed a LOT more people than Hitler did, and it was all in the name of forcing Russia through an industrial revolution and a government doomed to fail in less than a generation. Yes, Stalin was bad, arguably worse than Hitler
To be fair hadn't they forced themselves through that industrial revolution they wouldn't have had enough weapons and tanks to fight off the Nazis and we'd be speaking German right now.
Well, at the very least, sooner or later EA will run out of companies to kill, so they'll just kill themselves. Still, it truly is sad to see a developer with such a well known IP go down like this, even if it isn't the first time it has happened. Here's to hoping that the people involved with Visceral go on to make good independent games now that they're free of EA's control.
Unfortunately, EA will not die as long as it have a FIFA lincese. And considering the fact that FIFA (the sport association, not the game series) is basically mafia with morals that makes EA execs kindred spirits, this license is not going away anytime soon
EA just buy out all the shares of companies, thus taking them over, they even tried that on with rockstar, though all the share holders said fuck off to EA, i miss westwood and bullfrog, they managed to do it to them.... EA are just a cancer on the gaming industry, along with Ubisoft, they should just die in a fire, but they wont, as people keep buying there shit games.
I mean, "an action-adventure, story-based, linear game" set in the Star Wars universe developed by the guys who made Dead Space is the EXACT thing I'd pay $60 for. Hell before the lootbox bs I was gonna get Battlefront mainly for the campaign. What are they doing over there?
I only discovered the Game's existence hours before the announcement. You shared my thoughts exactly. It was what I was hoping 1313 was going to be. In fact I heard that two Uncharted dev's were working on it in the writer and director roles. Which I was totally down for too.
Guys come on! EA knows what we want better than we do. Of course there's nobody who wants an original, story focused game made by people who actually can do something like that. Why would anyone be against taking something special and making it super generic? And without pushing loot boxes (as in gambling) to children?! Now who in their right mind would ever want something awesome like that?
If the CEO of EA was in the universe of Persona 5, he would have a fucking massive palace. I wonder how it would manifest though, maybe it would be a slaughterhouse or something.
It really won't matter. Anyone that had a hand in making bioware great left the company years ago. All it is now is a reanimated corpse of a developer filled with EA yes-men that can only think within the confines of their latest focus test.
Let's hope the guys from former Visceral eventually fuck off of EA and make something good in the vein of what they did best. And that it doesn't end up like the Mighty no. 9 fiasco. Now excuse me while I torrent DS2.
EA giveth and EA taketh away. No use complaining. More studios should go independent and follow the model of CD Projekt, Ninja Theory, Frictional Games...
It seems, to me, that in order to escape EA you have to do some shady shit yourself so it's no better, since the companies that have escaped have moved on to being just about as crooked, albeit in a smaller scale. The Devs that are good guys aren't able to escape, sadly.
You ever wonder why these people still keep on signing the contract when EA asks? Sure, they throw a truck of money at you for purchasing your company, but you know you'll be underpaid while you're there, and you'll soon have your life's work trashed, and soon be out of a job. Sounds like a purely bad deal to me.
Incidentally, EA also goes and performs hostile takeovers of companies to try and bring them under the fold e.g attempting to buy out the shares of Rockstar before the shareholders said no. Its likely that most of the 'contracts' that these people sign are forced due to hostile takeovers, at least for incorporated businesses like Bioware (I believe that was a friendly contract, just using it as an example)
It's about time EA shut down, to be perfectly honest. I love many of the games EA publishes, but EA are the scourge of the games industry, and they seem intent on destroying everything they touch.
That would be jointly. Can't be single handedly when it's two of them doing it. But they really should reexamine what sort of bottom they're racing to.
Patrick: Ubisoft may be royal arseholes, but they haven't been as active as the other two in killing off creative groups and projects. They're notably smaller, too, though of course at a $3bn revenue they're still huge fucks.
The single player Star Wars story that has been in development for YEARS now is worthless to EA unless it plays more like a money-making Destiny model. I AM SO F'ING PISSED RIGHT NOW! The spirit of 1313 was supposed to be in there. This goes way back to when Disney bought Lucasfilm and Lucasarts was shut down. Now, EA shuts this studio down five years later?! OH I'M SORRY SINGLE PLAYER GAMES DON'T MAKE AS MANY MILLIONS AS MULTIPLAYER GAMES, EA! I'm F'ING DONE WITH THEM. I refuse to buy Battlefront 2 upon release. I have no problem waiting until it is a $10 Gamestop sale to ensure they do not get a lick of my money, and I was only going to buy this for the single player campaign! Come on, @John Boyega, make another tweet so EA will take their head out of their ass. This might not seem like a big deal to some, but I thrive off of the amazing stories that were told in the video game universe of Star Wars. From Knights of the Old Republic to Republic Commando to freaking Shadows of the Empire back in the day on N64. To me, this was like Disney was working on a four year long project to bring a Game of Thones-esque Star Wars series to Netflix or HBO and then they cancel it because they realize they'll make twice the money if they cut it down to a two hour movie. Please don't buy Battlefront 2. F YOU, EA!!!!!!!!!!
Josh Samuelson if I was younger and this was JUST because of me3 ending...then I'd call bs. But no, I'm done. EA proved how much they cared for their ip by putting little to nothing towards MEA, IT should've been better. It was guaranteed to sell well by name alone, and I'm so fucking mad that my favorite game series are going to die. At least it "ended" at me3 so I'll take that in some good
When Jim did Unicronic arts he felt that Bioware was still healthy because it hadn't mistepped yet and undermined itself. MEA however is the first symptom, I fear; the beginning of the end.
I still love the fact that the Battlefield Hardline footage featured the reload bug, they denied at first, then said couldn't be fixed before fixing it.
yeah Bioware Montreal's already gotten canned for Andromeda and that's really gonna put the main Bioware studio on the defensive, they're safe for now but my guess is that if they slip up on either Anthem or Dragon Age 4 they will be in deep shit that's what development is under EA's control, living in constant fear that any show of weakness will end in destruction, the only reason Bioware survived Andromeda is because they could blame it on a side studio and watch in horror as EA devoured them in their stead
Anthem looks a lot like "I wanna be Destiny", just like Battlefield/Medal of Honor kept looking like "I wanna be CoD" back before Battlefield finally got lucky to turn away from that, and I imagine it will be just as much of a failiure to match its competitors. EA is a cheap knockoff machine, the way it pressures its developers into trying to emulate the successes of other games.
The reason why Bioware Montreal did Andromeda is that most people behind previous Mass Effect series have left Bioware. So we can safelly say that what remains of Bioware is just a carcass. Now studio is only Bioware in a name alone all thanks to EA pushing their bullshit down developers throats.
I hope Anthem is good. I really do. Also, I think as long as they don't give the next entry of Dragon Age the same rush job treatment they gave DA2 it will be just fine.
But when the executives of EA show weakness through weak decision making and bad PR moves, they almost never get punished for it, lol. Oh the double standards of corporate capitalism...
Fucking incredible prediction Jim. Shame though, I liked Visceral. Guess I shouldn't say "incredible prediction" considering EA has a track for this kinda stuff.
Wow, when reading the list of studios shut down by EA I realized how much I have unknowingly been affected by this. I played and loved games from about 2/3rds of the studios :'(
Maxis, Westwood, Bullfrog, Visceral... ffs all of the studios. I am pretty sure I haven't bought many EA games in ages myself, but who are those who keep supporting this ripping and tearing? It has been proven long before you even had a show that EA at some point turned to pure profit focused company (and it never truelly was as "free" as the "rest"). They buy out studios to own their IPs, run them down and wait couple of years before they start grinding profit from those IPs by mediocre at best releases which they rush out. GG. GG. Keep fighting the good fight Jim. Keep us informed and then we all can together dream about a better tomorrow.
I know a lot of people who still buy their games, because they don't give a shit about what EA does. They want their games now, and they don't care if that sinks the industry. It's not them, who got fired, because they wanted to make singleplayer experience, it's not them who spends their last money on lootboxes, it's not them who get has terrible deadlines and has to release buggy, raw, clearly uncooked Andromeda.
The main engine of EA's lack of consideration is the sports series, where they can reliably sell ridiculous amounts of the same exact concept over and over, no matter how poorly executed. It just has to have the right licensed names and year on it. It's their first victim (with gambling and microtransactions galore) and since that didn't break it (see: no matter how poorly executed) they now use it as the yardstick. Anything that doesn't match it goes on the chopping block.
DoomCE the problem is that most people dont care. I mean i have a friend in school, i Would say his a pretty bright lad. Not dim witted anyway. But, when i sometimes tell him about some of these scandals in the gaming industry, he doesnt see the problem, and he does play video games, maybe not a ton, But he very much does play them on a regular basis. Even when i told him about the microtransactions in star wars battlefront 2, he thought i was being a whine little child. And thought that it was fine that they just wanted to earn some money.
Well, most "bright lad" nowadays are total, Sado Maso. Like every industry have this, and they always have their dumb, short-sighted, masochistic supporter.
Agreed. Amazing games, great ideas, completely murdered by EA, who then proceeded to shit all over Westwood's legacy with the so-called "C&C 4". Inexcusable.
Alias Anybody i would compare Them more to The Ting, from The Thing... you know... sins They kill of and make a look a like In its place, before going on to the next “studio”
Fucking Pandemic, Bullfrog and now Visceral... God it's like EA watched my childhood and just wanted to kill it off one by one just to spite me. Bring back the old Battlefront, bring back Populous, bring back what I loved about games before it turned into this shit
OzixiThrill Oh absolutely, even some of these studios went on to create amazing games like Lionhead made Black and White 2 and other games and indie games still hold that love I have for gaming luckily but when it comes to IPs such as Populous and Battlefront even if they were made under different titles and set in different universes the power publishers have make me think there would be court cases claiming they copied their style or whatever. Although I can't name many off of the top of my head there have been publishers to do this, Scrolls from Mojang for example and the Elder Scrolls brand. It just seems we won't get games of that style or of that vein ever again
We haven't gotten a Star Wars single player since what The Force Unleashed? People want another Star Wars rpg, hell if they just remastered classic ones like Republic Commando/Kotor/Jedi Knight that would be good enough. EA is probably going to implement some bullshit into the game now, that the original team never wanted.
chris123sm I'd love a new Republic Commando but I don't think I'd want EA anywhere near it, so many have brilliant memories of it and they'd definitely destroy it over time.
Ubisoft, Konami, Activision and TakeTwo deserve to be pirated too. Bethesda-developed games too, but the games they publish are sometimes worth buying. Basically, the whole fucking industry needs a complete teardown. Start over fresh.
Evil Elmo I actually rather liked the 2012 Syndicate, it was a very great playing game that didn't get the recognition it deserved. Yes the classic games are amazing but Starbreeze did a bang up job imo.
The whole focus-testing bullshit still pisses me off. Kids don't give a shit about shitty rip-offs of Destiny, Call of Duty and Minecraft because they already have Destiny, Call of Duty and Minecraft.
Overall I agree. However, when a genre is still young having a surge of games trying to catch the wave can be a good thing, since usually the first game won't be the best one and a bunch of variants can reveal how the genre shines best. That window has long since closed on Call of Duty and Minecraft, and while I think Destiny still has a bit of time left on it the presence of the constantly updating Warframe really does limit that. In the end there's only going to be room for one or two top dogs, and established juggernauts are rarely unseated.
I remember this story from a graduated that created his own company. One time he tried to offer his products to a company and that company inmediatly rejected him, and told him "why should i buy from you when i already have a supplier?", he realised that he should not pursue to take the clients from his competition but take clients his competition isn't.
I hate these corporate "statements" and EA's "reasoning" so much ahhrg. So much BS in one sentence, it's unbelievable.
What really pisses me off is that they seem to genuinely believe that people are buying it. Like, "We really pulled the wool over their eyes this time, eh lads? Huhue!"
The tryple Ayy publishers are becoming so much better at spouting bullshit than they are at making games. (even shitty games)
This just goes to show that ea only cares about making money. Making a good game is too much of a risk so they're going to fuck the game inside out and make it a cash cow. They' re going to do what they did to Dead Space 3 and do it to Amy Hennig's Star Wars game *before it even comes out.*
Fucking greedy pigs. Profiteering sons of bitches.
THEY KILLED MY FUCKING FRANCHISE!!!
I'd be happier if they just said something along the lines of "we only make really good money off these guys, not ludicrous amounts, so we gonna fuck these cunts off, fuck all of you, we don't care about any of you", if EA literally said "fuck you" to all their consumers I think it'd honestly feel like a weight off my chest, they obviously mean to say it, so just say it
Nice to see EA actively campaigning for "worst company of the year" again.
Can't they give EA a lifetime achievement as Worst Company?
konami want to have a say in that vote^^ Ubisoft has been trying to get it as well for some reason but warner brothers game department the strongest contender.
+The Metal One Bethesda is more likely to take that title.
EA is bad, but there's no need to be ridiculous. There are companies that profit from people's misfortunes.
You realize that EA is one of them, right?
--> EA and Visceral Games introduces new, fresh and memorable IP to the gaming industry, the Dead Space
--> Dead Space gets sequel which is also getting good scores
--> Like always, EA gets greedy and goes out of control by making few changes to the 3rd Dead Space game to catch bigger audience
--> Dead Space 3 deviates from the original Dead Space formula with its new changes, so instead of being survival horror game, it becomes just another generic 3rd person horde mode action shooter (with microtransactions and shitty weapon system)
--> Dead Space 3 sells poorly and is disliked in the community
--> EA suspends the Dead Space franchise because people no longer like it
--> EA puts Visceral Games in charge of another project which they're unfamiliar with
--> Battlefield Hardline sells poorly
--> EA shuts down Visceral Games
Just...fuck you EA.
Sometimes I really wish that EA would go bankrupt so that it wouldn't continue manipulating or/and destroying these amazing game developers.
Fans of horror always whine and cry when it's not "survival horror" anymore. Dead Space 3 was fine for what it was and had some cool elements in it, like when one player hallucinates as Carver. The "horror" was starting to get toned down anyways as they weren't doing anything different with the necromorphs throughout the series. The only reason the first seemed so terrifying was because you didn't know how the necromorphs acted and how to deal with them..Obviously they're not going to be as scary three entries later when they do the same thing.
"By trying to please everyone you end up pleasing no one" - ...can't remember who said that. But it's good advice, and also speaks for modern game devs turning all SJW and dropping to their knees infront of purple-haired glasses wearing overweight non-binaries
Now I know why people refer to "EA ruining games". EA is like "Fuck good games, lets turn it into a shitty games". They are not only against games companies, but also consumers in the past. Remember Darkspore? Yes a game with ALWAYS ONLINE DRM plus shutting down their server without an offline patch or something so that the game product is useable for good. But nope, they decided to turn the game into wasted money.
At least Activision is marginally nicer by reviving Crash, Spyro, and Sierra...
@@KyrosTheWolf "modern game devs turning all SJW and dropping to their knees infront of purple-haired glasses wearing overweight non-binaries"
how is this relevant to the topic?
Looking at the opening section again... I really should've put some cash down on that bet.
There's still time to slap some cash on Biowares fate.
Ohhh, I made myself sad... :c
Jim Sterling and you would have raked it in! I just wish EA would return to the business model they had in 2007. Release the garbage sports games and use the sales from those to continually invest in new IPs! But no, shareholders and ceos, and other executives don't have a pension quite as big as they did before, so we can't lay the foundations for increased popularity down the road! Whoops!
Would be nice to make a pool where we can vote who's next on their list, when some other studio die we can open it and see who won, I think the sim guys are next.
If you mean The Sims, that was a product of Maxis.
Which EA already gutted years ago.
Worst odds you would have gotten is 1:1
Jim’s right when he’s right. But damn, does it sting, sometimes.
The only time I correctly predicted something positive was the Bug Princess in Hyrule Warriors.
All my other predictions are grim, and too many come true.
You’re the Cassandra of video games. Always right about the worst fate, and no one listens and believes you until its too late.
Jim Sterling why must your predictions be so crappy? Has god him self tried to punish you for your amazingness?
SambouJaiteh So true.
Sambou Jaiteh
Funnily enough I've been planning to call myself exactly that, the Cassandra of videogames, during a Jimquisition closer monolog. Just waiting for the right ep to deploy it.
CANT WAIT FOR THE NEW DEADSPACE MOBILE GAME FILLED WITH UNLIMITED LOOTBOXES AND MORE!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Motomeru Music The iPhone mobile game was actually pretty decent.
You mean the deadspace endless runner with a pro and lite version where you have to pay to progress to each level or wait a day to continue playing and it would literally take a year to finish one chapter out of 10?
Motomeru Music, yeah. And slot machines ;-)
You sure it was Dead Space Mobile?
Dead Space for iOS is actually pretty impressive. I actually like the story in it better than the original game.
Guys, a minute of silence for talanted studios that were tortured and killed in cold blood by that despicable monster and serial killer - EA:
Origin (Ultima series, Wing Commander series, Strike Commander, Bioforge, Crusader series)
Bullfrog (Populous series, Magic Carpet series, Syndicate, Theme Park, Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper)
Westwood (Eye of the Beholder series, Lands of Lore series, Kyrandia series, Dune 2 (first RTS), Command and Conquer series, Blade Runner)
Maxis (Sim City series, The Sims series, Spore)
Black Box (Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2/Underground/Underground 2/Most Wanted/Carbon/Pro Street/Undercover)
Pandemic (Full Spectrum Warrior series/Star Wars Battlefront series/Mercenaries series)
Visceral (Dead Space series, Dante's Inferno)
NEVER FORGET.
Who's next. Bioware? DICE?
kosmosyche yeah I actually liked dantes inferno. Yeah it was a GoW clone with Christian mythology, but I felt it really worked
Rest in Spaghetti never forgetti
kosmosyche probably bioware after Mass effect Andromeda...
kosmosyche
For sure its gonna be Bioware because DICE is the new cash cow
Goodnight, sweet prince...
They had such a bright future until they joined EA, the blackhole of video games.
Single player adventure Star Wars game!?!?!?!?!?!?
After this, SWTOR and Star Wars 1313... we're NEVER going to get a good single player Star Wars game again are we? My gods... the franchise could not have been bought by a worse game developer.
Okay maybe Konami. Then again they'd probably make at least one single player game before turning the rest into pachinko machines or something.
Ever since big D handed EA the license I've lost all faith in SW games ever being good again.
OneWingedRose Respawn (the dudes behind titanfall) are working on a 3rd person star wars action game. Hopefully they don't get canned too and hopefully it's good. Titanfall 2's campaign was actually pretty good.
Get used to it, we don't get a X-wing or Tie Fighter game since X-wing Alliance in 1999 because higher ups felt spacesims were out of fashion, now they won't make any single player game anymore because they feel single player is going out of fashion and of course multiplayer games can be flled with microtransactions.
After hearing this story I got so disappointed, we were so close to get a space adventure game of Star Wars, but once again the focus on multiplayer fucks a project.
Star Wars games "could" be good again. In 30-40 years Disney and EA will have ground the franchise so far down that nobody will like or even recognize it anymore. And there's a chance that they may let some IPs slip to a proper developer by accident. And for a few market cycles they could be good again. Of course, that success will draw those parasites back...
"EA : Challenge everything"... that includes video game industry ethics.
"EA Sports : It's in the game"... but locked unless you preorder or until you buy DLC or microtransactions.
Stefan Hohnwald EA games: Charge everything.
EA: Entertainment Assassination.
Or as Yahtzee would put it "Excruding A * * * holes"
Rip westwood studios.. never foretti
Can they aquire Bungie im sick of seeing all those copy and paste Destiny XD
I recently stopped hating EA.
Even more recently, I took a reality check.
I hate EA again
Everything I touch dies!
-EA
Caz I bet they have a list of developers they want gone, like the movie "Kill Bill"
Caz Oh Activision! want to come over and give EA a congratulatory hand touch?
-Bungie
Ha, at least in the original scene this was quoted from she was crying.
Ea is just laughing as they buy up and ruin their own competition. If they own the market and decide what everyone wants AND get away with shoving microtransactions into everything? Gaming as a whole is going to be a LOT less enjoyable than the gaming scene we knew growing up.
Caz EA's become the globalists of video games...
.
EA: Well shit our game didn't get 5 million cancel everything!
Indie devs: 100,000 sales? *throws major party*
KelvinBelmont thats why they need dlc and microtransactions. Having huge teams costs
To be fair 10 people making 2million dollars is a lot better than a multi million dollar company making not even a billion heck some people get paid more than what an entire indie company ever makes .
Well if you consider that each developer, lead designer, artists, animators.. Etc is most likely making over 50k a year plus benefits and 401k. Plus you might have a studio team of 50 or more. Than 200k is not going to cut it. Especially considering money spent on resources and the fact some of these games take 2-5 years to make. So a big company has to earn in the millions compared to a small indie team to get any returns.
Yeah, in the millions. But what you forget is that 5 million multiplied by sixty is making a profit about eight times over.
What's you point? Ea spends alot more than indie devs to make their games. Srsly i keep reading comments made just for the memes. Like fucking sheeps.
I don't get it, it's usually EA's meddling with their game studios affairs that cause them problems. Dead Space 3 was ruined by EA's lust for generic shooters. Titanfall 2 wasn't as successful as it should have been because EA wanted to corner the FPS market. BF1 lost playerbase because EA insisted on the season pass model for dlc map packs. They're not really shooting themselves in the foot, more so blowing the brains of each studio out, claiming the life insurance and framing it as a suicide.
The Joker yeah but it's just an example of how EA screws their own game studios, the playerbase dropped off for a little while around the time of the first dlc because EA decided to keep paid maps even though the market was changing.
The Joker They basically had to cave in and reduce the price of the premium subscription to get people to play again, that's pretty much what the Revolution edition was for
Battlefield 1 wasn't as successful, I suppose, due to the neutered progression system and integration of battlepacks.
redmotive Those definitely contributed as well, the micro transactions of course being EA's idea, and wouldn't you know it Battlefront 2 is copping criticism for the exact same thing.
truth
Chapter 1: Victory or death
Chapter 2: In dire straits
Chapter 3: Segmented
Chapter 4: Caution to the wind
Chapter 5: Evasive manoeuvres
Chapter 6: Razor's edge
Chapter 7: All in a day's work
Chapter 8: Lost in space
Chapter 9: Insidious origins
Chapter 10: So little time
Chapter 11: Damocles blade looms
Chapter 12: EA is poised
Chapter 13: Abandon all hope
Chapter 14: Damocles blade falls
That Guy Ayy, dead space reference.
Well done.
good jorb i like this reference.
That Guy a
I think that something is....dead
EA forces its developers to put things people don't like in games, then people don't buy those games because of those things, then EA shuts down the studio for not selling as much.
EA makes the problems that it shuts down studios for.
Robert Fancyman Eventually, EA will have no support from other companies due to its reputation, and it will end up destroying itself since they're all they got.
Honestly, I would be okay if EA was utterly destroyed. Even if it meant all of the genuinely talented devs working for them were out of a job, it would be okay. The good people would find work for, hopefully, better companies, and it would be an example to the rest of the industry that you cannot be that evil and get away with it.
Sadly that will never happen, cuz idiots will still buy there games.
Robert Fancyman I would be okay with that as well. But the developers are probably scared of even abandoning what they're in at the moment. They probably see EA as the only company that will accept them. Until that perspective is shattered, the only way those good developers can open their eyes is if EA fails and sees other companies who recognize their talents.
Robert Fancyman Please god no, getting a game dev job is already a nightmare.
The way Anthem is shaping up, my money is definitely on Bioware being the next to be buried
They're already dead, EA would be doing the merciful thing really.
Their only chance at survival is that Destiny 2 is dropping players like crazy as it did away with all the things the players liked from destiny 1, so there's a bunch of players out there hungry to fill their destiny-type gaming desires. If anthem is just a tad better than destiny 2, BioWare will live
I'd give it two years after Anthem comes out. Visceral was up for only two years after their last game as well.
There's a new Dragon Age game in the making. I wouldn't get my hopes up tho (remeber, no preorders).
Man youre a wizard you got it right
Apparently EVERY game has to sell 5 million copies, have DLC and be a AAA killer-app. Sheesh!
In other words, publishers are incompetent morons and the studios are paying the price for it.
No, they are businessmen trying to corner the creative market that is the domain of the artists.
If this were the 19th century, EA will be those merchants who kept Picasso in chains in a basement and forcing him to create five art pieces every month with the threat to chop him up and throw his remains into the ocean if his art pieces did not rake in large amounts of money in day one.
If your game needs 5 million sales at least to break even, you probably have a failed business model or lack of budget control... Some of these marketing budgets get waaaaaaay overly inflated, like $500 million JUST for advertising for some games out there! It's nuts!
Funny enough, Dead Space 3 was the game that made me swear I'd never buy another EA title. I've kept my promise to this very day.
Spore was it for me. It wasn't a bad game, but the way they rushed it out the door proved to me that EA does not give a shit about making good games.
Yep. Another victim of Spore. I think that may have been the last Triple-A game I ever bought.
Mass Effect 3 for me, those final hours a sign of things to come...
Same!
SithisHimself Same here
1: Take developer 2:Force them to make shitty games 3:Shut them down
Every single fucking time.
ProTip: NEVER sell to EA
It's like EA's business model is "If people aren't buying our games, we're going to buy out the competition and force them to make our games too!"
It's no wonder EA was voted worst gaming company in the world several years in a row.
EA is bassicaly THE DEVIL.
That should be a giant note for the game industry. "Partner with anyone else but EA"
Activision is pretty bad, too, though. Bobby Kotick focuses on games that can kick out another sequel every year instead of trying to do anything new, and ends up bleeding the market dry rather than creating new interest in his products.
Vanja Arsic Hey that's no fair! How dare you insult Satan like that?
I find it ridiculous that Dead Space 3 had to sell 5 million copies to be profitable while Breath of the Wild needed to just sell 2 million copies.
You wouldn't believe how much having a style for your models and world other than photo realism DRASTICALLY decreases the amount of work needed done. In fact the 720p they had for the switch kinda actually helped them in cost effectiveness as well as they didn't need as much time trying to render the frames as much.
But back to styles. If you aren't going for realism then what you are looking for is something just realistic enough to not need to get past the uncanny valley. That's why something like Ocarina of time or even TF2 has some likeable character designs even if they aren't completely 'Real Human' like what you see with any other big title.
To be fair, breath of the wild makes indirect money by selling switch consoles, even if they don't make all of their money with sales of the game, they make it elsewhere by the fact that its an exclusive convincing people to buy the very expansive switch. Dead space only makes money with sales of their basic game
cabinboy1031 it runs at 900p on switch tho
seeing that westwood logo always breaks my heart
Ryan Nixon same. :(
:\
You can be a dev for a long time
Be a dev for a long time
Be a dev for a long time
Sooner or later EA'll cut you down
Sooner or later EA'll cut you down
Tell them Visceral Games
Go and tell Dice the same
Tell the journalists, the critics, all the reviewers
Tell them EA's gonna cut you down
recognised
BRICKTOP
No please fuck this parody.
A bit late but bioware will be dead soon
*quietly salutes the death of Bullfrog, and the horrific reanimation of dungeon keeper as the money grubbing zombie it now is*
TheRealMichelozzo
Fun game with a well-executed (original) concept. That's all I wanted from my games. Bullfrog was a developer that embraced that kind of idea. Troika Games was a developer that embraced that kind of idea. Yet here we are. The only successful studio that still embraces this idea is Paradox IIRC, and I can't say that I liked their business practice.
It's just goes to show you. Even bullfrog couldn't control the horned reaper overlords at EA.
Bullfrog indeed.. how sad.. a time when games where just what they should be mostly: fun and immersive.
Now days you can't even enjoy being immersed in a game without having to be constantly pulled out of the experience by having to think about real currency and forced gambling, even in Single player experiences!
I bet the process was something like this:
"Wow, PUBG is selling like fucking hotcakes! How can we get in on the Battle Royale action? ... I know, we cancel Amy Henning's project, recycle the assets and slap together a Star Wars themed PUBG clone with triple A graphics ASAP, we'll make a fucking mint!"
Holammer my thoughts as well. Bravo mate.
Amy Hennings is awesome too. Shame. God I want a Legacy of Kain continuation. I NEED TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS.
That, my friend, is why EA screws up. They think like suits, not devs. It's like asking a whole bunch of accountants to come up with a heavenly bowl of soup. That soup is going to taste like a far blander version of what that other restaurant put out, with a hint of ink and paper.
Thing is, people would almost certainly buy a Star Wars Battle Royale game.
A large proportion of people that play games don't keep up with all the goings on behind the scenes like we do, so I don't even think they'd even notice or care what the game could have been; people like us that watch Jim and follow the industry are in the minority.
captain savvy
I don't think so. Like the mobas a few years ago, and hero shooters now, battle royale is gonna be a genre that every corporate suit will want to emulate. And, as always, they will not see that those markets don't have the room for multiple smash hits, as they're very time consuming and the "real" creators are already there.
*VISCERAL GAMES* WAS BELOVED *"DEAD SPACE"* IS A *MASTERPIECE*
￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
Taronamic pure masterpiece
God dammit EA. Are you trying to be worse than WB?
SilvarusLupus They're a fucking plague.
A scourge on the games industry.
SilvarusLupus EA thanks you for your feedback. Takes feedback and dropps it into the shredder never to be seen again
Trying?
EA have been worse than WB for a long, long time...
The truth is all of them take turns being the worst
PRESS F TO PAY RESPECTS
F
F
F
Cypher Caliban f
Cypher Caliban F for visceral and also a Y for ea. Y ea, Y?
remember when EA was voted the worst company twice in a row? Then they promised to be "better"?
hahahahaha.....
better at being better or better at being worse ?
They did not specify their action's course...
When you accidentally rhyme two words while speaking and you contemplate what your life would have been if you had become a rapper
Pretty sure they meant a better parasite.
They're better in some ways. In other ways they're as parasitic as ever. But if you really hate parasites, I'd advise voting for Valve.
they are just money hungry wores
I cried over Westwood studios.
So many amazing names, all of them relegated to the crypt now.
It wasnt EA, Westwood destroyed themself.
*battle control terminated*
Factor 5 Rogue Squadron series. RIP
Construction complete. New construction options. They created my childhood.
This should be a message to all small developer companies. Big corporations are not your friends and all your work is going down the drain if you sell out to them.
All these studios that have closed down should band together and form an all-stars game dev team! :D
Maxis, Pandemic, Westwood, and now this? You could say EA has refined the ART of killing ELECTRONIC game studios.
Bioware's already got a foot and a half in the grave - it'll be there soon.
With that foot being very poorly animated and kinda glitching in and out of the grave.
Justin Kroboth I hope not I love Dragon age and mass effect yes the new one sucked ass but the old ones are amazing so I would like to see them bring it back with mass effect 5 and there doing a new Dragon age game so I really don't want this company to fail but I do see your point
Their life, depends on the success or failure, of Anthem.
Ross D i was just going to say that. If anthem isnt received well, and fails, bioware is done. Which i think EA would at that point go bankrupt. Imo
Keep in mind, "bioware" had almost nothing to do with Mass Effect Andromeda. That was "Bioware Montreal", for whom Andromeda was their first game ever. "Bioware Edmonton" aka the real thing, is doing fine.
My EA boycott is going on for 5 years now. It is getting easier and easier to continue.
user14789 I think you mean "boycott"
Honestly the last game that EA put out that was worthwhile was Mass Effect 3. After that they never put out a decent single-player again. Mirror Edge Catalyst is second biggest disappointing game I've ever played and I thought ME was perfect choice to make a open world game of.
correct, a country gets an embargo :)
I'm right there with you! I also don't buy ubisoft games either.
user14789 7 years for me. still going strong.
*Steps on EA's logo*
Ewwww... I stepped on dog shit.
When I was getting into the stock market, brokers kept telling me how great EA was since I was interested in investing in game companies. I legit laughed out loud and they looked very confused.
The reason why game companies have reputations as being 'risky' is because most investors are Enron-fucks who've never played a game in their life, and don't understand what fan contempt is. They think they'll either get over it, or buy regardless. While some do, the video game consumer base is very different from others.
EA's stagnancy and slow growth seems to indicate that it does have an effect.
There's a starman waiting in the sky nasty get new shoes
There's a starman waiting in the sky dude make videos people will watch them
NANIIIII??!!!!!
Even Speedwagon is disgusted...
It's at points like these that I seriously sit down and wonder, what the hell am I continuing on for? Good shit will continue to be twisted until it's awful, bad people will continue to have great days, and nothing will be done about it, nothing will ever change.
BrokenSet you keep on...to do what captain price did: kill them all.
We can't ever give otherwise they've won already!! #killEA
BrokenSet just wait till modern laws advance enough to cover gaming.
Good news: no more gambling *COUGH* I MEAN " _loot boxes_ "
Bad news: game taxes everywhere.
I feel especially heartbroken for Amy Hennig, the incredibly talented and dedicated woman responsible for creating the Uncharted series who was leading Visceral's new Star Wars game. She left Naughty Dog midway through production of Uncharted 4, months of her hard work being scrapped, and now this. To have two projects in a row that you've poured so much passion and effort into taken out of your hands or shut down altogether is a tragedy, and I can only wish Amy and all of the team at Visceral the best with future endeavours. They deserve so much better than this sh*tty situation.
U got that right
Well it is official. This is now all the writing on the wall I needed to know that EA will kill not just studios but my love for Star Wars games. That’s no moon, it’s a micro transaction!
Fun fact: back in the day, founders of EA, were considering naming their company "Electronic Artists", but decided against it, to show their appreciation for the real artists - the developers.
#irony
Duchu26 Yeah, it's easy to forget that EA wasn't always the shit company they've been for the past two decades. How the times change...
"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain".
kosmosyche so it will happen to cd project red one day :( sigh
well that doesn't go for everyone, take elon musk and his recent ventures that turned him "patron saint" for engineering..... other than steam under gabe, we haven't really had someone/something like that for PC gaming for a long time.
Steam is still going strong, but Facebook has already said multiple times that it aims to devour steam.... honest PC gaming will be dealt a near unrecoverable blow if something like that happens.
And after that, you can practically guarantee that big publishers will try to pull a google play, and look for ways to make independent selling of games on the platform nearly impossible.
Zer0 Bin0pse
Elon Musk, who has conned millions of $ from the public purse in multiple countries to fund projects that simply will never work, nor get off the ground..
He started corrupt, perhaps he will become a honest person ....
I'm just sitting here thinking what about the people that relied on it for income just for them to throw it out like that
Because let's be honest they are ea they wont shift every single employee
You think higher ups give a shit about them? Probably gave them a separation package and said see ya
Who's Next? Here's my prediction- Bioware.
Jackson Mccreery same
DA 4 will be their last game, I'm willing to bet. IF they get that out.
if it is because of andromeda they closed the branch of bioware that was responsible for the majority of that mess already.
Jackson Mccreery code master I guess I going soon that's if their not gone already
+JacksonMccreery Consider Bioware recently disappointed with Mass Effect Andromeda so I wouldn't be shocked.
I just wish that once, just fucking once no one would show up to EA's, Ubisoft,(and now Bethesda's), press conference at E3. And if all that was captured live? That would be amazing.
But 1/1,000,000 chance would be putting it lightly..
Woah Man
As much as most of us would like it, it will never happen. They'll just pay some people to be a one-day fans. And someone need to write what they said.
That won't happen they'll just pay people to fill the seats ... plus reporters will show up regardless to comment on the shit show or shove their noses up EA Ubi and (insert your preferred shithead publisher here)'s asses.
From what I've seen (and played), Ubisoft and Bethesda are doing all right for themselves. EA's the only one cutting its own limbs off... ;)
Ubisoft doesnt consume other studios to kill them. Ubisoft has a pretty diverse line up of games, you just need to look past Assassins Creed. Also, Bethesda may have pulled some shit, but they have games like Wolfenstein , Evil Within, Prey, Dishonored......fucking fantastic all of them.
TheConst4nt exactly thank you for writing this. For all the bad things they do at least it feels like their developers are doing what they want. Just look at the indie games from Ubisoft and the series you are talking about from Bethesda. And of course the best example is Beyond Good and Evil 2. I just wish I could get another Driver game but to be honest The Crew is pretty similar. It's so sad that EA owns Criterion Games. I wanted that project they showed off years ago to be a thing. They're probably gonna shut them down too eventually.
Konami: "I am the most hated video game company."
EA: Hold my sausage!
This just makes me so sad and angry.
What they did to Bullfrog was shitty. What they did with Pop Cap was predictable. What they did with Black Box was unethical. What they are currently doing with Visceral is just saddening and cruel.
Isn't PopCap still around?
The sad thing about all this is, in 2008 EA (through then-CEO Riccitiello) admitted the massacre around 2000 was because they blew up the studios too much and noone really knew how to deal with it. And to me it very much looks like the immediately started doing that again once Riccitiello left and now we're back where we were then...
That happened sooner than I thought it would.
Edit: We have "Fuck Konami News #Fuckonami" and "Ohhh Ubisoft" maybe it's time for "Ewww E.A." or something?
Ewwwww Ayy
Electronic Arse
"E.A.t a bag of dicks"?
EA is horrible enough to have its own Jimquisition videos. No need to share with other topics like Konami and Ubisoft.
Experience Assholery. Entrails Away. Endless Anuses. Evermore Assholes. El Assholes. Extingshing Asswipes.
Executioners' Arts.
I'll never understand why EA expects developers who got popular making square pegs to force them through round holes.
...because there stupid?
Dude, this is such a good metaphor. I feel, that's exactly what happenned to Origin, Westwood and Bullfrog. Some of the most creative and talented studios in the industry were forced to become EA's conveyor bitches and lost all the passion and inspiration they once had, becoming mere shadows of what they once had been.
1) A great game development studio exists
2) EA buys said game development studio
3) EA starts interfering with instead of supporting the studio
4) Most devs quit
5) Devs found a new studio
6) GOTO 1
Needs to happen.
After 3), game fails, game dev gets the blame for making the game the way EA made them make it, even thought game dev told them it was a bad idea.
I don't even understand this from a business perspective. If a developer is good enough you want to buy them, they probably aleready know what the fuck they're doing, so why would you start interfering and getting in the way? Just sit back and let them do their job - that's why you bought the fucking company in the first place. If you just want an army of yesmen who will do whatever you say, even if it's an idiotic idea, you can get them for much less than it costs to buy a successful developer.
Apparently the Star Wars title that Visceral was working will be given to a development team from across EA Worldwide Studios. Looks like Bioware dodged a bullet on that count. But don't worry, there's still the inevitable future Mass Effect MMO to crucify them on.
Man, BioWare is already dead, look at Andromeda. Absolute garbage of a title that EA gave no shits for to begin with.
Id love a SWTOR style mmo in the mass effect universe but knowing ea theyll just turn it into loot box/microtransaction filled pay to win crap hole
I don't blame Bioware Montreal for what happened to Andromeda, only EA. I doubt it was the devs' idea to push the game out half-finished. And I'm pretty sure it was EA's responsibility to allocate the needed talent.
Seeing as EA said they're cutting all ties with singleplayer Mass Effect forever (the defining mode of the whole fucking franchise) then the coming of a poorly made, grindy MMO is most certainly inevitable.
I have to ask, why does EA (or any publisher) have that much power to effectively destroy an entire development team? Is it a contract thing, or what? Seems like a huge red flag to see “we reserve the right to shut your studio down at any moment” in the fine print, then go ahead and sign the deal anyway.
DangerIncFilms Every publisher has that in their contracts. And to get the budget, especially the advertising budget, to get mainstream mass appeal you have to have a publisher who will provide the money.
DangerIncFilms basically they just go "here team a few dollars(at least for ea they are probably only a few $) and your company is now mine." so they can do what ever they want with it...sadly
Agent 005 Hopefully one day. I like to think that Hellblade has started something.
Agent 005 Except Dodos didn't deserve that
That's what happens when you let EA own your studio.
EA...EA never changes. Wait a minute, or was it war? Ah well, still the same ending.
If Anthem flops, Bioware gets murdered. Calling it right now.
Lets be realistic, even if it would sell amazing, Bioware is about to get torn to pieces either way.
This is why I adamantly refuse to work for a "real" game company.... If my indie company ever takes off the ground, I will stay independent even if it means going under.
Throttle Kitty You say that now, but your tune may change when you have a mortgage to pay off, kids to feed and aging parents to care for.
Throttle Kitty Oh, and i forgot any backer who demand payment and employees who need their jobs.
Raph K, there are quite a few developers who make enough to pay their mortgage. That's not the hard part. The hard part is being patient and building your back catalog big enough that it can pay for employees and yourself to get larger projects started. If that game doesn't make profit you are not going under because the back catalog paid for it, you just saw less money. If you get an IP that does make a profit then you have the back catalog and the profit to increase the size of your studio and that can keep happening until your studio is essentially a AAA studio. Back catalog is an insurance at that point and pays the owner, new release sales can fully fund the next title plus studio owners nice bonus and you will have a stable game studio. There are GDC talks that describe just how to do it and why you shouldn't get in bed with a publisher. All the profit from game sales really goes to the publisher and the studio gets what can be described as scraps. If you remain independent your back catalog will support you rather than a publisher and new release sales will fund the next title.
The only time you really need financial backing is if you decide to skip creating the back catalog and jump right into AAA scale games, and that's not the smartest approach even if the game is successful. You have to pay that money back and most likely need more loans for the next one. Then if your game doesn't break even you can lose everything.
It's a bit more nuanced than, "struggle vs. cash the cheque", "indie vs. sell-out" when you're talking about managing a software project. Keeping a team of professionals afloat for long enough to finish a major project carries a significant financial and social burden. It's simply a lot safer in terms of risk to use other peoples' money. Problem arises when the, "client", "publisher", "investor", etc., egregiously oversteps their area of expertise in an often well-intended attempt to contribute. Call it, "bike-shedding", "dunning-kruger", etc, there's a thousand ways to fuck up a software project.
I also refused to work for "a real company" so I became a teacher :D
can't spell death without EA.
I miss Pandemic games. They did some of my favorite games in the ps2. Including star wars battleffont 1 and 2, as well as destroy all humans. But then EA happened
Visceral former employees; group together and start your own small company. You guys and gals can form your own small-project games business, and make an indie title as good as Senua Hellblade. And who knows? Maybe you'll grow as a business, and maybe you'll even *e-VISCERAL-ate* the fucking bastards that is Electronic Arts!
Actually from what Ea said, people who worked at visceral studio have joined other dev teams. Besides, is easier to find a job as an individual. Especially for someone who had experience in a team like visceral. What you said is fantasy. It doesn't workike that in the real world.
My sister used to work for EA-Maxis BITD. After finishing Spore she was owed a sabbatical, took it, and on her last day before taking the sabbatical they told her to clean out her desk and was downsized. A not uncommon occurrence in the industry I've been told.
Visceral's star wars game was the one quiet hope on the horizon for the franchise. They shit all over the battlefront name already. With the death of visceral, star wars games are basically dead in my eyes until EA loses the license.
GalaciousCrumb The sad part is, Disney will probably renew the contract, battlefront 1 made 760,000,000 dollars on the base game alone and most likely battlefront two will make 100s of millions as well.
Battlefront 2 actually has good gunplay.
YesteryearsGamer PLOT TWIST!
Wouldn't it be ironic, if Disney bought EA and some years later closed them down?
Sadly, there is no justice in the world, and EA will keep EAing along, killing studios and showing microtransactions down consumer throats.
Another on the list. Better fix the screenshot.
Assirra b
You're wrong, EA is not the scorpion on the back. At least the scorpion had self awareness that it had a horrible nature. EA doesn't have the capacity to do something like that.
EA is more like the tick on an overweight gamer's ballsack.
Looks like I won't get that Dante's Inferno Remake...
I LOVED it...DI was a very good game and had an AMAZING Ideal. Probably one of the best depictions of Hell in any video game ive seen. It was such a underrated game in my opinion.
M H Dante's Inferno was one of my favorite games ever made. Such a beautifully horrific portrayal of Dante's hell. Every year I kept my fingers crossed to see it again at E3, either in remake or sequel form. Now I'm right there with you, man...
What a fucking shame.
Yeah man....this is very disappointing news. I remember at one point they were teasing and talking about a DI 2...I was super excited and I just figured it would be a matter of time until we got a DI Remaster or Remake...but it never came...
M H And now it never will. Fuck EA.
Let's not forget the Stalin to EA's Hitler: Activision.
RIP Luxoflux, Neversoft, Gray Matter, Radical, Bizarre, RedOctane, and so on. Gone but not forgotten.
>implying stalin was bad
Stalin killed a LOT more people than Hitler did, and it was all in the name of forcing Russia through an industrial revolution and a government doomed to fail in less than a generation. Yes, Stalin was bad, arguably worse than Hitler
Rip my boi Neversoft
Stalin was a terrible person. ONLY commies think he was anything better than shit.
To be fair hadn't they forced themselves through that industrial revolution they wouldn't have had enough weapons and tanks to fight off the Nazis and we'd be speaking German right now.
Bioware is up next. If Anthem fails you can expect them to see the chopping block too.
Well, at the very least, sooner or later EA will run out of companies to kill, so they'll just kill themselves.
Still, it truly is sad to see a developer with such a well known IP go down like this, even if it isn't the first time it has happened. Here's to hoping that the people involved with Visceral go on to make good independent games now that they're free of EA's control.
Sadly, some small time companies would have trouble resisting the fat sacks of cash EA promises them (and leaves all the bullshit in the fine print).
I don't think they will kill themselves, mostly because they seem to be only good at killing developers.
Unfortunately, EA will not die as long as it have a FIFA lincese. And considering the fact that FIFA (the sport association, not the game series) is basically mafia with morals that makes EA execs kindred spirits, this license is not going away anytime soon
EA just buy out all the shares of companies, thus taking them over, they even tried that on with rockstar, though all the share holders said fuck off to EA, i miss westwood and bullfrog, they managed to do it to them.... EA are just a cancer on the gaming industry, along with Ubisoft, they should just die in a fire, but they wont, as people keep buying there shit games.
They don't run out of studios to kill. They just buy/acquire more of them sadly, and the cycle continues.
I mean, "an action-adventure, story-based, linear game" set in the Star Wars universe developed by the guys who made Dead Space is the EXACT thing I'd pay $60 for. Hell before the lootbox bs I was gonna get Battlefront mainly for the campaign. What are they doing over there?
I only discovered the Game's existence hours before the announcement. You shared my thoughts exactly. It was what I was hoping 1313 was going to be.
In fact I heard that two Uncharted dev's were working on it in the writer and director roles. Which I was totally down for too.
Quite simple, they do not want 60, they want 600
Thats the worst thing of all! Great developers, work hard, do good, ea DUN FUCKS IT UP, as Angry Joe would say.
Guys come on! EA knows what we want better than we do. Of course there's nobody who wants an original, story focused game made by people who actually can do something like that. Why would anyone be against taking something special and making it super generic? And without pushing loot boxes (as in gambling) to children?! Now who in their right mind would ever want something awesome like that?
Cocaine, most likely.
If the CEO of EA was in the universe of Persona 5, he would have a fucking massive palace. I wonder how it would manifest though, maybe it would be a slaughterhouse or something.
TheLiveAssasinHD That would be likely.
Bioware is next, whether Anthem succeeds or not.
I stopped enjoying the story's of bioware games after mass effect 3. The shift from dragon age 2 to inquisition just felt wrong.
It really won't matter. Anyone that had a hand in making bioware great left the company years ago. All it is now is a reanimated corpse of a developer filled with EA yes-men that can only think within the confines of their latest focus test.
Scout Trooper fine by me, put it out of its misery.
One less cesspit of left-wing conglomerate of SJW fucktards, so don't care
That would trigger the LGBT Community and become a terrible PR nightmare.
Let's hope the guys from former Visceral eventually fuck off of EA and make something good in the vein of what they did best. And that it doesn't end up like the Mighty no. 9 fiasco.
Now excuse me while I torrent DS2.
Dinner-fork tongue why not 3?
because 3 is shit and 2 is good.
cheeki breeki
EA giveth and EA taketh away. No use complaining. More studios should go independent and follow the model of CD Projekt, Ninja Theory, Frictional Games...
7.62 x39mm
I was gonna say "because I haven't played DS2 myself yet", but that works just as well.
ben hur go a-way
Only one to ever straight up escape was Double Fine.
medhathobo xonly to do their own weird questionable bullshit
It seems, to me, that in order to escape EA you have to do some shady shit yourself so it's no better, since the companies that have escaped have moved on to being just about as crooked, albeit in a smaller scale.
The Devs that are good guys aren't able to escape, sadly.
Jim... Please tell me you're kidding... Please... Not visceral. Omg.
DarkKitarist nope. Visceral is gone.
Phillip Malerich no... God dammit no. Dead space is one of my favourite series of games. I fucking loved visceral.
He's telling the truth
doom7ish I know... I just did the research. I'm so damn sad.
DarkKitarist it's okay man, EA will get what they deserve. One of these days.
Every Company falls.
You ever wonder why these people still keep on signing the contract when EA asks? Sure, they throw a truck of money at you for purchasing your company, but you know you'll be underpaid while you're there, and you'll soon have your life's work trashed, and soon be out of a job. Sounds like a purely bad deal to me.
Zebo12345 People got mortages and student loans I guess
Incidentally, EA also goes and performs hostile takeovers of companies to try and bring them under the fold e.g attempting to buy out the shares of Rockstar before the shareholders said no. Its likely that most of the 'contracts' that these people sign are forced due to hostile takeovers, at least for incorporated businesses like Bioware (I believe that was a friendly contract, just using it as an example)
Because the people who sell the company and the people who are forced to stick around and keep working under the new EA regime are different people.
Good thing EA is too stupid to understand how short attacks work.
My god, if they ever started working with Goldman Sach's, the world would be FUCKED!
Zebo12345 most of those studioes were with EA before they started to kill other studioes
well with the fuckup that is Mass Effect Andromeda, Bioware is one step closer to being EAs next victim.
It's about time EA shut down, to be perfectly honest. I love many of the games EA publishes, but EA are the scourge of the games industry, and they seem intent on destroying everything they touch.
EA and Activi$ion are single handedly destroying the whole entire video game industry. It's pathetic.
That would be jointly. Can't be single handedly when it's two of them doing it. But they really should reexamine what sort of bottom they're racing to.
buy cuphead and hellblade. buy nintendo switch .
Don’t make Ubisoft jealous, they wanna be in on that party too.
+Alon S
Fuck Nintendo. They aren't helping with their shitty hardware and the massive amounts of shovelware they bring to their consoles.
Patrick: Ubisoft may be royal arseholes, but they haven't been as active as the other two in killing off creative groups and projects. They're notably smaller, too, though of course at a $3bn revenue they're still huge fucks.
The single player Star Wars story that has been in development for YEARS now is worthless to EA unless it plays more like a money-making Destiny model. I AM SO F'ING PISSED RIGHT NOW! The spirit of 1313 was supposed to be in there. This goes way back to when Disney bought Lucasfilm and Lucasarts was shut down. Now, EA shuts this studio down five years later?! OH I'M SORRY SINGLE PLAYER GAMES DON'T MAKE AS MANY MILLIONS AS MULTIPLAYER GAMES, EA! I'm F'ING DONE WITH THEM. I refuse to buy Battlefront 2 upon release. I have no problem waiting until it is a $10 Gamestop sale to ensure they do not get a lick of my money, and I was only going to buy this for the single player campaign! Come on, @John Boyega, make another tweet so EA will take their head out of their ass. This might not seem like a big deal to some, but I thrive off of the amazing stories that were told in the video game universe of Star Wars. From Knights of the Old Republic to Republic Commando to freaking Shadows of the Empire back in the day on N64. To me, this was like Disney was working on a four year long project to bring a Game of Thones-esque Star Wars series to Netflix or HBO and then they cancel it because they realize they'll make twice the money if they cut it down to a two hour movie. Please don't buy Battlefront 2. F YOU, EA!!!!!!!!!!
You are only buying Battlefront 2 for the feminist single player campaign ? Lol
At least Janina Gavankar is hot and talented and they didn't go with the Mass Effect lead's aesthetic.
I don't think she's hot but what ever.
TJP Real don't be a bitch about it
+BibaRhett13 I've seen this TJP troll. He stalks Star Wars related content and spews out the same shit over and over.
Talk about Dead Space. :(
And it looks like Bioware is soon following.
Ironman1o1 to be fair it needs to be put out of it's misery.
Depends on how anthem turns out and how many micro transactions they are willing to cram into the game.
Josh Samuelson if I was younger and this was JUST because of me3 ending...then I'd call bs. But no, I'm done. EA proved how much they cared for their ip by putting little to nothing towards MEA, IT should've been better. It was guaranteed to sell well by name alone, and I'm so fucking mad that my favorite game series are going to die. At least it "ended" at me3 so I'll take that in some good
When Jim did Unicronic arts he felt that Bioware was still healthy because it hadn't mistepped yet and undermined itself.
MEA however is the first symptom, I fear; the beginning of the end.
bet your ass it will, anthem its going to be a faliure still and they'll just kill bioware
I still love the fact that the Battlefield Hardline footage featured the reload bug, they denied at first, then said couldn't be fixed before fixing it.
yeah Bioware Montreal's already gotten canned for Andromeda and that's really gonna put the main Bioware studio on the defensive, they're safe for now but my guess is that if they slip up on either Anthem or Dragon Age 4 they will be in deep shit
that's what development is under EA's control, living in constant fear that any show of weakness will end in destruction, the only reason Bioware survived Andromeda is because they could blame it on a side studio and watch in horror as EA devoured them in their stead
Anthem looks a lot like "I wanna be Destiny", just like Battlefield/Medal of Honor kept looking like "I wanna be CoD" back before Battlefield finally got lucky to turn away from that, and I imagine it will be just as much of a failiure to match its competitors. EA is a cheap knockoff machine, the way it pressures its developers into trying to emulate the successes of other games.
The reason why Bioware Montreal did Andromeda is that most people behind previous Mass Effect series have left Bioware. So we can safelly say that what remains of Bioware is just a carcass. Now studio is only Bioware in a name alone all thanks to EA pushing their bullshit down developers throats.
Elurdin
Bioware is ALSO partly to blame.
I hope Anthem is good. I really do. Also, I think as long as they don't give the next entry of Dragon Age the same rush job treatment they gave DA2 it will be just fine.
But when the executives of EA show weakness through weak decision making and bad PR moves, they almost never get punished for it, lol. Oh the double standards of corporate capitalism...
Fucking incredible prediction Jim. Shame though, I liked Visceral. Guess I shouldn't say "incredible prediction" considering EA has a track for this kinda stuff.
I'll take "grimly incredible" or "grimcredible."
Jim Sterling Wonderful portmanteau my friend.
Wow, when reading the list of studios shut down by EA I realized how much I have unknowingly been affected by this. I played and loved games from about 2/3rds of the studios :'(
Maxis, Westwood, Bullfrog, Visceral... ffs all of the studios. I am pretty sure I haven't bought many EA games in ages myself, but who are those who keep supporting this ripping and tearing? It has been proven long before you even had a show that EA at some point turned to pure profit focused company (and it never truelly was as "free" as the "rest"). They buy out studios to own their IPs, run them down and wait couple of years before they start grinding profit from those IPs by mediocre at best releases which they rush out. GG. GG.
Keep fighting the good fight Jim. Keep us informed and then we all can together dream about a better tomorrow.
I know a lot of people who still buy their games, because they don't give a shit about what EA does. They want their games now, and they don't care if that sinks the industry. It's not them, who got fired, because they wanted to make singleplayer experience, it's not them who spends their last money on lootboxes, it's not them who get has terrible deadlines and has to release buggy, raw, clearly uncooked Andromeda.
The main engine of EA's lack of consideration is the sports series, where they can reliably sell ridiculous amounts of the same exact concept over and over, no matter how poorly executed. It just has to have the right licensed names and year on it. It's their first victim (with gambling and microtransactions galore) and since that didn't break it (see: no matter how poorly executed) they now use it as the yardstick. Anything that doesn't match it goes on the chopping block.
DoomCE the problem is that most people dont care. I mean i have a friend in school, i Would say his a pretty bright lad. Not dim witted anyway. But, when i sometimes tell him about some of these scandals in the gaming industry, he doesnt see the problem, and he does play video games, maybe not a ton, But he very much does play them on a regular basis. Even when i told him about the microtransactions in star wars battlefront 2, he thought i was being a whine little child. And thought that it was fine that they just wanted to earn some money.
Well, most "bright lad" nowadays are total, Sado Maso.
Like every industry have this, and they always have their dumb, short-sighted, masochistic supporter.
EA kills another studio...
JARRYDTHEPAIN Why are we even suprised at this point?
Fuck EA. RIP Visceral.
God, I miss Westwood. At least Petroglyph seems to be doing okay.
Westwood is still the biggest tragedy imo
Rip C&C
Westwood and Origin. Rip Ultima, Rip Wing Commander.
Agreed. Amazing games, great ideas, completely murdered by EA, who then proceeded to shit all over Westwood's legacy with the so-called "C&C 4". Inexcusable.
I loved Westwood and C&C
EA is like the f*cking mushrooms from TLoU, only worse.
Alias Anybody i would compare Them more to The Ting, from The Thing... you know... sins They kill of and make a look a like In its place, before going on to the next “studio”
Alias Anybody Ya mean Cordyceps and yes I agree
That's a great analogy actually, didn't think of that.
EA needs to do us all a favor find itself a Team Fortress 2 and just make digital hats forever.
Ironic you say that. New weapons were released sub 1 hour ago.
hey leave valve out of this
When I read EA, I cannot help but picture the head of Mobius from The Evil Within. That smug prick in the dark suit and tie.
Yeah your right i know what you mean.
that is exactly what they are
I get the image of the Ghost woman who sucks the life out of you, only it's EA
Walter Sullivan Huh, how fitting to you say that.
Correct! And now we need a badass like Kidman!
Fucking Pandemic, Bullfrog and now Visceral... God it's like EA watched my childhood and just wanted to kill it off one by one just to spite me. Bring back the old Battlefront, bring back Populous, bring back what I loved about games before it turned into this shit
I forgot Maxis and Westwood... Fuck you EA
You do realize that everything you loved about gaming is still there, you'd just need to look for it; And not in the AAA sphere.
OzixiThrill Oh absolutely, even some of these studios went on to create amazing games like Lionhead made Black and White 2 and other games and indie games still hold that love I have for gaming luckily but when it comes to IPs such as Populous and Battlefront even if they were made under different titles and set in different universes the power publishers have make me think there would be court cases claiming they copied their style or whatever. Although I can't name many off of the top of my head there have been publishers to do this, Scrolls from Mojang for example and the Elder Scrolls brand. It just seems we won't get games of that style or of that vein ever again
Uh oh, EA is gonna remake dead space without visceral , that's just douchy
Who's next? Ghost Games maybe? No, they have loot boxes in the new NFS, they are fine.
We haven't gotten a Star Wars single player since what The Force Unleashed? People want another Star Wars rpg, hell if they just remastered classic ones like Republic Commando/Kotor/Jedi Knight that would be good enough. EA is probably going to implement some bullshit into the game now, that the original team never wanted.
Now I want a remake of Republic Commando...
Jedi Academy was so much fun back in the day
This project will turn into a multiplayer game with lots of microtransactions.
Not a remake. We need a sequel. The original game ended on a cliffhanger.
chris123sm I'd love a new Republic Commando but I don't think I'd want EA anywhere near it, so many have brilliant memories of it and they'd definitely destroy it over time.
EA is the only company i advocate piracy with.
Piracy actually doesn't cause lost sales gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-found-piracy-do-1818629537
That's only true when people announce their piracy all over the internet.
Most "Triple A" games nowadays deserve to be pirated.
Angel, i don't do it to harm their sales, i do it so they don't get my money.
Ubisoft, Konami, Activision and TakeTwo deserve to be pirated too. Bethesda-developed games too, but the games they publish are sometimes worth buying.
Basically, the whole fucking industry needs a complete teardown. Start over fresh.
Remember when Syndicate was a great game and not some jizzed out first person shooter?
Evil Elmo I heard the Syndicate shooter was pretty damn cool
Red Lobster it had some interesting stuff but the name stopped most people from giving it a chance as it's own thing
No, but I remember when Microsoft did the exact same thing with Shadowrun. Thank god for Hairbrained.
Evil Elmo I actually rather liked the 2012 Syndicate, it was a very great playing game that didn't get the recognition it deserved. Yes the classic games are amazing but Starbreeze did a bang up job imo.
Remember back in the day that video games were just about having fun and not spending buckets of money into it?
The whole focus-testing bullshit still pisses me off. Kids don't give a shit about shitty rip-offs of Destiny, Call of Duty and Minecraft because they already have Destiny, Call of Duty and Minecraft.
Overall I agree. However, when a genre is still young having a surge of games trying to catch the wave can be a good thing, since usually the first game won't be the best one and a bunch of variants can reveal how the genre shines best. That window has long since closed on Call of Duty and Minecraft, and while I think Destiny still has a bit of time left on it the presence of the constantly updating Warframe really does limit that. In the end there's only going to be room for one or two top dogs, and established juggernauts are rarely unseated.
I remember this story from a graduated that created his own company. One time he tried to offer his products to a company and that company inmediatly rejected him, and told him "why should i buy from you when i already have a supplier?", he realised that he should not pursue to take the clients from his competition but take clients his competition isn't.
I'm not a fan of the FPS genre but the new Doom is probably my favourite shooter ever alongside Metroid Prime.
Its been years but DAMN it still hurts to see the westwood studios logo
Sigh, they were great, both Dante's Inferno and Dead Space were awesome