8 ms·

I wish it were true but EA is still making bank while disrespecting customers, everybody complains yet still buy. Same with Facebook. Same with politicians. A

I wish it were true but EA is still making bank while disrespecting customers, everybody complains yet still buy. Same with Facebook. Same with politicians. A small group of smart people on the internet may do a lot of noise, but it just echoes in the void then it's business as usual.

jrootabega 7y ago
Game publishers are drug dealers. Complain all you want on the internet; you're still addicted to escaping this reality daily/weekly. Kids also don't know or care about this stuff, and they just bug their parents to buy the latest.
- buttsu_ 7y ago
  k, cept I did care when I was a child and I notice kids care today. There is a reason why minecraft and fortnite are more popular than a huge ip or something that would be expected to sell extremely high.
  - pnloyd 7y ago
    Fortnite and Minecraft are huge ip though.
    - whatshisface 7y ago
      Right, but they created their own huge-ness instead of buying it from something else that was already huge.
- Bakary 7y ago
  Gaming does have the particularity of being as expensive as you want it to be, or as cheap as you want it to be. I don't think there are many other markets where you can get hundreds of hours of genuine heartfelt value for $15.
onli 7y ago
Look at Bioware. If they hadn't lied about the Mass Effect 3 ending (they promised your decisions matter; but none of them do, you choose at the end between 3 buttons) Andromeda would still have been criticized, but it would have been criticized in a more positive atmosphere. That studio is in a downward spiral ever since. There are additional reasons than those lies, but I'm certain lying to their fans and eroding the loyalty they had (it's after all the studio that made Baldur's Gate) did not help them one bit.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  You know, just because the ending is the same regardless of your choices doesn't mean they didn't matter. No matter what we do, each of us is destined for the grave, even the universe will end one day, but our decisions still matter even though the outcome is identical. PS: I had no idea it was such a controversial statement to suggest that things matter even if the universe is ultimately doomed.
  - onli 7y ago
    Nope, it's not that kind of ending. Kill all the robots or not, that's more or less it. Not that philosophical kind of game. And if you want to see it like that anyway: Yes, we die, but our actions influence the people around us. People we help might help us later etc. None of that was properly covered.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
      ...and the universe will still end one day, meaning the outcome is, ultimately, identical. Why is this so difficult to understand?
      - speeder 7y ago
        You know that this is not proven right? Or rather, not even a "theory" in the physics sense, there are multiple competing hipothesis, none of them have enough evidence for us to be certain the universe will end... In some ideas the university does end, but in big crunch, or big rip, in others it just starts anew, in others humans spawn new universes, and so on...
Tade0 7y ago
EA can continue to do that, because they have FIFA, which for them is still a major source of revenue that's not going away anytime soon.
- thrower123 7y ago
  FIFA, Madden, NBA2k, NHL, MLB, they have all the sports licenses. I haven't figured out how they are still releasing a new game every year - they really should be releasing every season, or really, every team, as a DLC. The content is where it is at, not the engine.
  - eropple 7y ago
    2K is not owned by EA. EA's continual inability to not ship broken basketball games is at this point a running joke.
  - lightbyte 7y ago
    >I haven't figured out how they are still releasing a new game every year - they really should be releasing every season, or really, every team, as a DLC. The content is where it is at, not the engine. This is easy. People pay full price every year for the new version which contains a bare minimum of changes compared to the previous (not including the roster changes). Why would they cut that gravy train off? Presumably a yearly DLC would not be priced as a full game.
  - perpetualpatzer 7y ago
    >I haven't figured out how they are still releasing a new game every year. I would expect there are number of factors that militate against the approach you propose: * Fundamentally, what EA owns is the engine. They pay license fees to the. If someone else knows how to build a clearly better <insert sport> game. If the right to use NFL branding and likenesses is worth $10/yr to the user, and EA only ever sells roster updates, you should expect the cost to EA for an exclusive license to creep closer and closer to $10/yr/user. * The full game release justifies a $60 price point (vs the ~$10 you might hope to get for a roster update. * My understanding is that much of the DLC/add-on revenue now comes in the form of "power-ups" for the create-a-player modes. Progress on that track can be reset in a new edition to force pay-to-upgrade users to pay again. With a perpetual edition, this dynamic either creates power creep (which alienates the bulk of your users who refuse to pay extra and can no longer compete) or forces you to dilute the power-ups to the point they're no longer desirable to high-value customers. * From a staffing perspective, light, continuous updates are easier to staff for than spinning up a full scale rebuild once every platform generation, with less risk of blowing the new edition and losing your incumbency. If Madden 2020 releases a wildly unpopular change, you can fix it in Madden 2021.
rc_kas 7y ago
Because EA somehow got exclusive licenses to things they should not be legally allowed to have exclusive licenses for. Some other game maker would crush EA in the market if they were allowed to use NFL logo's and names.
- MrMember 7y ago
  I'm still salty about EA getting the exclusive NFL license. NFL 2K5 was a better game than Madden and they made the ballsy move of selling it for $20 brand new the day it came out. EA got so spooked they spent who knows how much locking down an exclusive license. Though in hindsight who knows what a 2K NFL game would look like today. With the way they butchered their NBA games I don't have much faith that an NFL game would be any better.
  - dvtrn 7y ago
    NBA 2k today suffers from the same problem Madden suffers from today: no studios competing with them to push them into making a better product. Who knows if the latest PES (which looks absurdly good) will push EA to make fifa worth a damn again, but at least we’ve got choices in futbol games now. Edit: No seriously, look at this trailer for PES2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_89i5H1zAeU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_89i5H1zAeU it's amazing

jrootabega 7y ago

Game publishers are drug dealers. Complain all you want on the internet; you're still addicted to escaping this reality daily/weekly. Kids also don't know or care about this stuff, and they just bug their parents to buy the latest.

buttsu_ 7y ago
k, cept I did care when I was a child and I notice kids care today. There is a reason why minecraft and fortnite are more popular than a huge ip or something that would be expected to sell extremely high.
- pnloyd 7y ago
  Fortnite and Minecraft are huge ip though.
  - whatshisface 7y ago
    Right, but they created their own huge-ness instead of buying it from something else that was already huge.
Bakary 7y ago
Gaming does have the particularity of being as expensive as you want it to be, or as cheap as you want it to be. I don't think there are many other markets where you can get hundreds of hours of genuine heartfelt value for $15.

onli 7y ago

Look at Bioware. If they hadn't lied about the Mass Effect 3 ending (they promised your decisions matter; but none of them do, you choose at the end between 3 buttons) Andromeda would still have been criticized, but it would have been criticized in a more positive atmosphere. That studio is in a downward spiral ever since. There are additional reasons than those lies, but I'm certain lying to their fans and eroding the loyalty they had (it's after all the studio that made Baldur's Gate) did not help them one bit.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
You know, just because the ending is the same regardless of your choices doesn't mean they didn't matter. No matter what we do, each of us is destined for the grave, even the universe will end one day, but our decisions still matter even though the outcome is identical. PS: I had no idea it was such a controversial statement to suggest that things matter even if the universe is ultimately doomed.
- onli 7y ago
  Nope, it's not that kind of ending. Kill all the robots or not, that's more or less it. Not that philosophical kind of game. And if you want to see it like that anyway: Yes, we die, but our actions influence the people around us. People we help might help us later etc. None of that was properly covered.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
    ...and the universe will still end one day, meaning the outcome is, ultimately, identical. Why is this so difficult to understand?
    - speeder 7y ago
      You know that this is not proven right? Or rather, not even a "theory" in the physics sense, there are multiple competing hipothesis, none of them have enough evidence for us to be certain the universe will end... In some ideas the university does end, but in big crunch, or big rip, in others it just starts anew, in others humans spawn new universes, and so on...

Tade0 7y ago

EA can continue to do that, because they have FIFA, which for them is still a major source of revenue that's not going away anytime soon.

thrower123 7y ago
FIFA, Madden, NBA2k, NHL, MLB, they have all the sports licenses. I haven't figured out how they are still releasing a new game every year - they really should be releasing every season, or really, every team, as a DLC. The content is where it is at, not the engine.
- eropple 7y ago
  2K is not owned by EA. EA's continual inability to not ship broken basketball games is at this point a running joke.
- lightbyte 7y ago
  >I haven't figured out how they are still releasing a new game every year - they really should be releasing every season, or really, every team, as a DLC. The content is where it is at, not the engine. This is easy. People pay full price every year for the new version which contains a bare minimum of changes compared to the previous (not including the roster changes). Why would they cut that gravy train off? Presumably a yearly DLC would not be priced as a full game.
- perpetualpatzer 7y ago
  >I haven't figured out how they are still releasing a new game every year. I would expect there are number of factors that militate against the approach you propose: * Fundamentally, what EA owns is the engine. They pay license fees to the. If someone else knows how to build a clearly better <insert sport> game. If the right to use NFL branding and likenesses is worth $10/yr to the user, and EA only ever sells roster updates, you should expect the cost to EA for an exclusive license to creep closer and closer to $10/yr/user. * The full game release justifies a $60 price point (vs the ~$10 you might hope to get for a roster update. * My understanding is that much of the DLC/add-on revenue now comes in the form of "power-ups" for the create-a-player modes. Progress on that track can be reset in a new edition to force pay-to-upgrade users to pay again. With a perpetual edition, this dynamic either creates power creep (which alienates the bulk of your users who refuse to pay extra and can no longer compete) or forces you to dilute the power-ups to the point they're no longer desirable to high-value customers. * From a staffing perspective, light, continuous updates are easier to staff for than spinning up a full scale rebuild once every platform generation, with less risk of blowing the new edition and losing your incumbency. If Madden 2020 releases a wildly unpopular change, you can fix it in Madden 2021.

rc_kas 7y ago

Because EA somehow got exclusive licenses to things they should not be legally allowed to have exclusive licenses for. Some other game maker would crush EA in the market if they were allowed to use NFL logo's and names.

MrMember 7y ago
I'm still salty about EA getting the exclusive NFL license. NFL 2K5 was a better game than Madden and they made the ballsy move of selling it for $20 brand new the day it came out. EA got so spooked they spent who knows how much locking down an exclusive license. Though in hindsight who knows what a 2K NFL game would look like today. With the way they butchered their NBA games I don't have much faith that an NFL game would be any better.
- dvtrn 7y ago
  NBA 2k today suffers from the same problem Madden suffers from today: no studios competing with them to push them into making a better product. Who knows if the latest PES (which looks absurdly good) will push EA to make fifa worth a damn again, but at least we’ve got choices in futbol games now. Edit: No seriously, look at this trailer for PES2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_89i5H1zAeU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_89i5H1zAeU it's amazing