What exactly went wrong with EA?

[Dom Cruise]

Today EA's name is literally synonymous with everything that sucks about modern video games, but while people probably forget and I wouldn't blame, there have been times in which was actually awesome.

In particular I really love the EA of the late 90s and early 2000s, when they gave us games like the first 3 Medal of Honors on consoles and games on PC like Command & Conquer Red Alert 2, American McGee's Alice and Command & Conquer: Generals.

I also have a soft spot for an obscure 2002 game from Redwood and also published by EA called Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat.

But I noticed a shift starting in 2003, the fourth console Medal of Honor game was awful and it seemed like they transitioned to almost nothing but licensed games, sports games and racing games, with only The Sims, Medal of Honor (which continued to be a shadow of it's former self) and Battlefield being the exceptions.

In other words, they went from releasing games that had a lot of character like Alice to putting out stuff that felt very generic.

However, then a funny thing happened over the course of the 7th gen, they got interesting again, starting with Dead Space, in the late 2000s and early 2010s they put out stuff like the Alice sequel, Mass Effect 2 and Dead Space 2, all great.

There was also The Sim 3, which I haven't played, but seems like it was pretty well received, everything seemed fine.

And then... and then... Mass Effect 3 happened, then Sim City 2013 happened, then Dead Space 3 happened, then The Sims 4 and oof, talk about falling flat on your face, they've sucked ever since, for ten years now, with only an occasional fluke like Battlefield 1.

My question is, what's the behind the scenes story? Were there CEO changes?

 

[byuu]

EA was already terrible at the late 90s. They made none of those games. EA just bought the actual devs of these games and eventually ruined them completely.

You have to go back to fucking MULE times for EA to not be terrible.

 

[Dom Cruise]

EA was already terrible at the late 90s. They made none of those games. EA just bought the actual devs of these games and eventually ruined them completely.

You have to go back to fucking MULE times for EA to not be terrible.

You know what I mean though, developed or published I'm talking games that still had the EA logo on the cover.

Once upon a time the EA logo could still mean a good game, now it's very rare, what happened?

I know what you mean though about the fact that everyone who does sign on with them eventually closes completely or goes to shit, it's honestly surreal to think of devs like Maxis and Westwood being defunct and that's something that does seem to go way back.

I forgot to mention the developer Pandemic as another victim, which also really bums me out.

My question is why is it this way? Is it just the sports game connection? Is anything connected to jocks doomed to ruin anything connected to nerds?

 

[Pixy]

The rot already set in during the 2000's, evidenced by the previously mentioned Pandemic Games.

Someone, somewhere in the chain of EA or Pandemic leadership thought charging for softcore and nudity DLC was a 'bonus' people wanted to pay for, as well as forcing a blatantly unfinished game to ship before shutting down the studio.

 

[BillionBisonBucks]

EA's good games were good despite them, not because of them.

 

[Judge Dredd]

It depends who you believe.

There was one interview with a Bioware dev where they said EA didn't kill the studio, they just gave them enough money to hang themselves with.

For the Xbox360, they started doing the right thing by investing in new IP. However, many of these IPs (like Mirrors Edge) were loved by gamers but bombs commercially. The shareholders wanted profits up, so the CEO (or whoever was responsible) was fired and replaced with someone who would put profits over quality and long term viability.

 

[The Last Stand]

I'd say the seventh generation when production costs increased from the last generation. Risk taking was more costly, so EA went stagnant. See the sports game craze when arcade focused titles started to dwindle in quality and quanity.

 

[byuu]

You know what I mean though, developed or published I'm talking games that still had the EA logo on the cover.

These devs weren't owned by EA for that long, so they weren't completely ruined by them yet.

In the late 90s EA ruined Origin so much that we got garbage like Ultima 9.
In 2010, Mass Effect 2 was released after EA bought Bioware. But it took a few more years of running it into the ground to create garbage like ME3.

So it doesn't matter if it's 90s, or current day EA. It only matters how long the dev was owned by EA.

 

[mr.moon1488]

EA was always bad, they just kept getting worse as it became more and more difficult to be profitable as a publisher.

 

[Anon88]

Around like 2003-04 didn't EA get full rights to be the only company to make NFL related games? Once they realized they could just rereleased the same game over and over again and make a huge amount of money the company was just about over.

 

[ZMOT]

It depends who you believe.

There was one interview with a Bioware dev where they said EA didn't kill the studio, they just gave them enough money to hang themselves with.

For the Xbox360, they started doing the right thing by investing in new IP. However, many of these IPs (like Mirrors Edge) were loved by gamers but bombs commercially. The shareholders wanted profits up, so the CEO (or whoever was responsible) was fired and replaced with someone who would put profits over quality and long term viability.

this is nothing new, molyneux said as much when they bought bullfrog. ea came in, dropped bags of money and said "make us another magic carpet", and then everything stalled. and when the deadline comes up and nothing is done, what do people expect to happen, more bags of money showing up?

you can also see that effect in other places, just look at levine never being done with bioshock infinite. there's a reason you don't see a lot of "rockstar devs" anymore (ofc teams got bigger, but it's much easier to replace someone in a committee).
I suspect that's also the reason bioware and dice are the shitheaps that they are, no company with tight enough oversight would look like EA's version of blizzard. people shit on activision but they run a much tighter ship (arguably too tight) on their side. just one example, how many infinite ward or treyarch devs do you see smearing shit all over themselves on social media?

riccitello resigned in 2013, mirror's edge came out in 2008, and as much he got meme'd he did some good stuff as well. tbh I never understood the hate EA got, at best they were retarded, and while they offed a lot of studios it still made sense most of the time from a business perspective. MUH WESTWOOD is nice and all but if they can't deliver and all the people that made the company what it was left long ago, what's the point? otherwise you end up with a comatose vegetable like bioware. people really need to stop idolizing companies "because they were great at some point". that comes right after "why not just make bad company 3?!?!", like what the fuck do people expect, to NOT fuck it up because it's suddenly a beloved title from a decade ago?

ubisoft was WAY worse in the past, like their always online drm shit and then claiming "pc players don't want our games" thus focusing on console.

basically all the AAA companies are shitty cancer one way or another, EA isn't anything worse, and at least for a while they did try, credit where credit's due (what's the equivalent of alice/dead space/mirror's edge from activision, ubisoft or take two?)

Around like 2003-04 didn't EA get full rights to be the only company to make NFL related games? Once they realized they could just rereleased the same game over and over again and make a huge amount of money the company was just about over.

you would too if you figure out your customer base is retarded and literally asks for it. basic supply and demand. they still made some of the most fondly remembered games after that, so it's not like modern EA which is too inept to do anything else than milk sportsball where they don't even have to try.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Trip Hawkins was the founder of EA in the 80's and left in 1991. During his time, they made a lot of games for the Apple/Amiga/Atari/DOS, but by the start of the 90's started making a fuck-ton of games for the Sega Genesis and SNES. So basically look around that time period after he left and you'll have your answer

He was also the guy that created the 3DO, specifically so that an American company could compete against the two big japs (SEGA & Nintendo). Great idea on paper, but it was POORLY executed, especially with that $700 price it's so infamously known for these days.

Now-a-days he makes educational & anti-bullying software for kids.

 

[Calandrino]

EA is just holding up a mirror to society

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

I'd say the seventh generation when production costs increased from the last generation. Risk taking was more costly, so EA went stagnant. See the sports game craze when arcade focused titles started to dwindle in quality and quanity.

Basically this, they've proven time and time again they're willing to make the odd risky game (Mirrors Edge and its sequel for example) but of course you look at the dev costs:profit and it's clear they see that more money would be made by melting said games division into their sports franchises to work on active sweat mechanics or something.

EA really doesn't have a fantastic library of original IPs that would work well in 2022. You're not seeing people jump for joy at a $50 Road Rash game or a $50 Future Cop LAPD game or a $50 Populus game because people not only want these franchises remade, but they want them remade at a budget price.

 

[Billy_Sama]

EA had a lousy rep back in the day of the Sega Genesis porting any PC game even if it didn't transfer well to console. Sword of Sodan, Dark Castle, and a lousy port of Shadow of the Beast are some of the worst games on console.

 

[I.B. Niggin]

EA really doesn't have a fantastic library of original IPs that would work well in 2022. You're not seeing people jump for joy at a $50 Road Rash game or a $50 Future Cop LAPD game or a $50 Populus game because people not only want these franchises remade, but they want them remade at a budget price.

Idk, I would have totally dropped 50 dollars on a Criterion developed Road Rash.

 

[Fagnacious D]

Anyone got an updated image? This one only goes to 2011.

 

[Had]

They haven't made Red alert 4

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

In the late 90s EA ruined Origin so much that we got garbage like Ultima 9.

That was Garriot though, he wanted the Ultima he always envisioned and the hardware specs they announced, early on, was just ridiculous.

basically all the AAA companies are shitty cancer one way or another, EA isn't anything worse, and at least for a while they did try, credit where credit's due (what's the equivalent of alice/dead space/mirror's edge from activision, ubisoft or take two?)

I remember having disdain towards EA in the 90's and I don't know why. Oddly enough people complain about them not making enough sequels unlike Activision where people complain about them making too many sequels. They cut off Skate at 3, SSX was abandoned and didn't really go 360/PS3, people want more Dead Space after three games but nah. Same with Mass Effect.

I think the problem with EA is that they don't make enough annual sequels of games that aren't sports.

 

[Dom Cruise]

EA's good games were good despite them, not because of them.

That's fair, but the good games were still signed off as "yes, we will publish this with our money" at some point by someone at EA.

Around like 2003-04 didn't EA get full rights to be the only company to make NFL related games? Once they realized they could just rereleased the same game over and over again and make a huge amount of money the company was just about over.

That was 2005.

you can also see that effect in other places, just look at levine never being done with bioshock infinite. there's a reason you don't see a lot of "rockstar devs" anymore (ofc teams got bigger, but it's much easier to replace someone in a committee).

That's one of the defining aspects of the 7th gen to me, the era of "rockstar devs" who were big personalities like David Jaffe, Cliffy B and Ken Levine.

And that's certainly a bygone thing now, Cliffy B has left games, Jaffe has lost his mind and Levine's been working on a game for almost a decade.

Anyone got an updated image? This one only goes to 2011.
View attachment 2908090

If Westwood closed in 2003, I wonder if Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat was one reason why, if it was a huge bomb or something?

They haven't made Red alert 4

Do we really need one? You couldn't have sexy girls.