General Gaming EA: "I struggle with the perception that we're just a bunch of bad guys"

[AbsolutSurgen]

EA: "I struggle with the perception that we're just a bunch of bad guys"

Quote

"25 years at EA and I still struggle with the external perception that we're just a bunch of bad guys," says Matt Bilbey, EVP of strategic growth at EA. "We love making and playing games. Unfortunately, when we make mistakes on games, the world knows about it because it's of a size and scale."

But EA is a public company. Surely there has to be a business case for EA Originals.

"As we got bigger, there is the concern that we had become disconnected from new talent coming through," Bilbey admits. "EA Originals is our opportunity to connect with that talent and those smaller ideas. When you are part of a big company, it's too easy to fall into the trap where when you see a game concept... it has to be big.cThe notion of actually coming up with small, unique game ideas... We know from the work that we've been doing on our subscription business that gamers will play a FIFA or a Fortnite -- they have one main franchise -- but then they want breaks from those games to play something that's maybe five or ten hours long.

"EA Originals are also games that we don't make in the bigger part of EA, or don't make enough of. So while there was a philanthropic part to it, selfishly it was the way for us to connect to talent on smaller ideas. When you are in a company and have had successes and mistakes around live service microtransactions, free-to-play, what geographies, what partners to work with, what animation engines... it actually feels good for our teams to sit with EA Original developers and you can actually give real advice. It genuinely makes you feel good. It's advice to help them not make the same mistakes."

 

Here is a hint -- EA used to be a publisher where I would buy several games from every year.  Some of my favourite games of all time were from EA  (Think 688 Attack Sub, The Bard's Tale Series, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer, Command & Conquer, Dead Space Series, Desert Strike, James Pond, Mass Effect Series, Mirror's Edge, M.U.L.E., NFS (the good ones), NHL '94, Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies, Populous series, Syndicate, Titanfall 2, Wings of Glory, etc.)  I've been playing your great single player games for over 30 years.  No all you want to make is GaaS online RPGs, FTP shooters and pay-to-win sports games.  You took some of my favourite developers, and turned them into shit factories.  This is why I hate you.

 

[Dodger]

EA was awesome when I was growing up, like you said they put out a lot of good games. Now I can't think of anything that EA puts out that I have any interest in. Not that anybody from a corporation can ever come out and say yeah we're just a bunch of greedy cartoon villians but they are going to get a lot of crap for that quote. 

[GameDadGrant]

Start making SSX games again and all (well, most) will be forgiven.

[Brian]

Quote

"Part of our investment in the streaming tech last year wasn't necessarily because we have aspirations to be a platform -- but we know from the days of Gaikai that we get held accountable for the quality of the experience when someone plays it. If we don't understand what FIFA is like to play when streamed, or what happens with the twitch gameplay of Battlefield... If we don't understand that and aren't the best at it, then the quality of our games could go down and that's not good for us. The main motivation of the investment in that space was based on a creative need to continue to make quality rather than necessarily a change in our business towards becoming a platform."

[XxEvil AshxX]

1 hour ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

"25 years at EA and I still struggle with the external perception that we're just a bunch of bad guys," says Matt Bilbey, EVP of strategic growth at EA. "We love making and playing games. Unfortunately, when we make mistakes on games, the world knows about it because it's of a size and scale."

 

Except they keep making the same mistakes. Over and over. They just put them in a different wrapper and slap a different label on them. This isn't something that happened once or twice over the past few years. It's an endless cycle that pretty much everyone in the industry can recognize at a glance because they've been doing it for years. 

 

This guy can eat shit.

[Rodimus]

Wait How many years has EA been voted by consumers to be one of the worst companies?

[brucoe]

I was working for Maxis when we were bought by EA and told there would be no direct control. For a year, it was fine. Then they forced us to move over to Redwood City instead of where Maxis was located. I worked on The Sims for about a year before I decided I really didn't want to be part of EA any longer. It was a really toxic place to work. I know they don't want people to think that, but yes, it was. I remember at one point being told that because Lucy Lawless was going to be on property (for Xena, the game), we were required to (they passed around a list of things you weren't allowed to do and told me under no circumstance was I supposed to address her or even look her in the eye). And then they came through and asked if I would be willing to walk her through the compound and introduce her to the game (the senior producer was actually not going to be able to make it...she had said before she didn't want to deal with him again). So, I could have made a bunch of people feel awkward by not talking to her or looking her in the eye while I was basically the only one supposed to be talking to her, but I chose not to do so.

[Mr.Vic20]

Maybe start with saying things straight forward, offer honest deals, and generally stop doing slimy things? I “struggle” with this guy’s perception of EA’s public reputation.

[Dre801]

Reputation is well-earned.  Hell, even your CEO looks like some creepy movie bad guy.

[John]

3 minutes ago, Dre801 said:

Reputation is well-earned.  Hell, even your CEO looks like some creepy movie bad guy.

Looks normal to me.

[Mr.Vic20]

I'm thinking he meant this guy:

 

[John]

@Mr.Vic20 He is talking about Unity Technologies?

[Chairslinger]

34 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

I'm thinking he meant this guy:

 

 

 

It's pretty much impossible to see that photo and not picture him turning around dramatically in a spiny chair and saying, "Hello, Mr. Bond".

[Brick]

Nah Andrew Wilson definitely looks like a villain in a Bond movie, or even since weird sci-fi movie where he's a murderous android. 

 

 

 

If EA struggles with their perception of being the bad guy, maybe stop whining about it, and actually change your predatory, and toxic practices. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I know EA is bad, but it seems I don't have the same animosity for them like I used to. I don't buy many of their games these days, either, though.

 

Epic takes up most of the hate in my soul these days.  

[John]

Konami takes up most of my hate these days.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

20 minutes ago, John said:

Konami takes up most of my hate these days.

I've resigned myself to sadness regarding Konami. I'll forever mourn the series they murdered and buried out in the woods.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

You either die a hero or love long enough to see yourself become the villain. And EA has killed many heroes during their fall from grace in the hunt for higher profit margins. 

[Keyser_Soze]

They introduced surprise mechanics, how bad can they be?

[Dexterryu]

This is the reality of almost any large corporation. There are almost always conflicts of interests across many levels:

1) Do we invest in the company/employees or maximize profits

2) Do we try something new or bank on existing performers

3) You have people that genuinely care about their work and products vs those that are ladder climbers.

4) There is almost always a conflict of voice between the ladder climbers & those that want to make the product.

5) You have the 80/20 rule... 80% of the people working don't care and just do the minimum/half ass and 20% who bust ass and do 80% of the work.

 

These are all things that tend to infest large companies in addition to often large egos of certain creative types. The thing is, for us as gamers and direct consumers of their products you can often see these conflicts come through in what they make because we're basically playing through many of the decisions they made. Compare that to hardware products where they might just not be as performant in a given iteration.

 

Naturally, there are exceptions. Sometimes leaders listen to the passionate voices vs the ladder climbers. Sometimes a company gets to enjoy a transformative leader that has the passion of a fan (at the moment, Phil Spencer comes to mind with how he turned around Xbox One and putting Xbox games on PC).