Comments on: Do As We Say, Not As We Spend Hundreds Of Millions On Doing

By: Brask Mumei

Brask Mumei — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:06:00 +0000

Because, of course, the other prong of EA’s strategy is to “raise the bar” for development so that we find ourselves facing multi-million budgets to produce the modern equivalent of Pacman.

By: Psychochild

Psychochild — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 09:06:05 +0000

What’s funny is that it’s EA’s business practices that truly do crush any possibility of exciting, new products faster than anything else. Part of the standard publisher contract with a developer is that the publisher can buy said developer for peanuts in the future if they want to. So, the publisher signs the company, lets them develop some hot new game, then acquires them for a song if the game actually does well. The team is gutted in most cases, the people that poured their soul into the game get a few nice dinners paid for by the publisher, and the IP is ruthlessly exploited by for-hire teams that get paid a pittance. Any fan of the Battlefield games knows what this looks like from the fan’s perspective. In the end, the people that came up with the now-successful IP get little out of it, so they’re probably not eager to jump back into the meat grinder to repeat the process. Thus, innovation is successfully driven out!

This is one of the reasons I’m a vocal supporter of indie development. It’s the people that aren’t risking multi-millions that can bring a real change. Of course, indies have their own problems trying to get attention for their game.

By: J.

J. — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:46:47 +0000

Everything has “potential” in games. There’s potential to make a fun and successful game out of just about anything you can imagine. It’s the design and implementation that would have to be married to that potential for it to mean anything.

There’s “potential” for EA to keep making a new Madden every year until doomsday and continue to innovate incrementally. There’s also the potential for 2K Sports to steamroll their popularity and crush EA Sports utterly, thereby putting the whole of EA in jeopardy.

By: Ken S

Ken S — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:31:29 +0000

In other news, pot calls kettle black.

By: Frag

Frag — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:54:16 +0000

I think this is the after-effects of the Wii, the tremendous success that Nintendo has been having with the Wii has many people changing opinions about things like this. It clearly demonstrated that new and original ideas such as an alternative input interface have a real potential.

By: Amaranthar

Amaranthar — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:47:01 +0000

I read something very similar to this, if not exact(!), months ago. I did a quick search but didn’t find it. This move was anounced back in February, and that sounds about right on the timeframe, but I’m not sure. My point is that, since his words are so similar, and I repeat, sounding exactly the same, it lends to either a serious attitude change or an official line of bull.

Since he took over, he has iniciated changes in the structure at EA. This would be a must for any corp that wants to change directions. So I’m in the “wait and see” camp on this, since these things take time.

p.s. in doing my search, I’m reminded of just how much these CEOs make, especially in stock options. This really doesn’t belong here, but it pisses me off when thinking about the ever widening spance between what they make and the average worker.
link

By: Jeff Freeman

Jeff Freeman — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:19:03 +0000

A curious use of the word “spend”.

By: Dartwick

Dartwick — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 05:20:48 +0000

I call shenaigens on you guys who say that was hypocrisy with respect to sports games. A new very similar sports game comes out every year because many gamers want the changes in teams reflected as much as they want a new and improved game.
A good argument could also be made that some game genres are just simulations and the changes to the games are primary just ways to make them more realistic – but this quickly goes into grey areas making it a weak position.

Im no EA fan, and EA doesnt have room to preach on this subject anyway with respect to more creative type games. And they may be wrong , perhaps sequals are exctly what does make people happy.

By: Abalieno

Abalieno — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:25:25 +0000

Oh, look. Cosmik is back (sorta).

By: D-0ne

D-0ne — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:36:26 +0000

Leaders make changes first and talk about the changes success or failure later.
Any idiot can walk in like a cowboy and proclaim the wondrous changes they are going to bring about.
Anyone who has actually lead people know not to put the cart before the horse because doing what you say is the number one thing in leadership.