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[EverydayBeast]

I always thought the EA hate bubble was amusing and has that has shifted to Ubisoft?

On a personal level I noticed a lot of shovelwear shit (Ghost recon wildlands, Siege Extraction etc.) from Ubisoft this gen and I know EA had a PS2 era/2000s/2010s stretch where you have so many games, some awesome and some not so much.

Is Ubisoft with its live service crap (delayed far cry 7), declined market share, little alarming things like the AC Shadows controversy, studio disputes (work from home)) the new EA?





For people’s memories you have EA’s flop of a franchise dragon age, mass effect andromeda and other short comings with games and engines like frost bite, and battlefield.

 

[phant0m]

EA and Ubi have both adopted similar models. They make games with annual releases that target mass-market appeal. They'll also occasionally take a big swing on something new or revive/reboot an old IP, but gone are their days of putting out a big variety across genres.

I used to think back to 5th/6th gen consoles and reminisce on "remember when EA made games"? Their Bond games were decent, licensed IPs not bad (shoutout Simpsons H&R), they had EA Sports BIG, lots of different stuff going on. But they do still make games, and popular ones - look at any Circa report, they have at least 3 titles in the top 10-15 every month. They just make NFL, FIFA/FC, CFB, and Sims 4 now. They'll throw a bone to indies now and then (eg Hazelight) but generally speaking it's those 4 main franchises and Battlefield, but that's been a fucking mess since BF1.

Ubi is very similar - AC, FarCry, R6 Siege, Ghost Recon, Division, Just Dance. One difference is EA wants to sell you a $70 boxed product (+ VC) every year, Ubi's releases are more 2-5 years per franchise with paid live service/content/DLC to tide you over. But the result is the same, just keep plugging core franchises and recycling their open world game design with different settings/flavors.

 

[T4keD0wN]

The hate is fully deserved, not for all of the games they publish, but for Ubi and EA, if there werent any reasons to hate, you wouldnt see people hating them.

EA was one of the best companies at the beginning, then they went to shit when theyve hit gold with mtx, but have slowly started to improve (mostly) in the last 5ish years

Ubisoft were similar, one of the most innovative companies (not right away, but a bit later on) and then the same thing that has happened to EA came, theyve got hyper greedy and went to shit after 2012 as a result, now that they are in an existential crisis they finally have no choice but to attempt to figure it out.

This is not unique to these two though (or video games), i think every publisher, publicly owned one at least (add Take Two to the bag) will inevitably have to go through something like this:
1. establish quality, knowledge and cultivate audience/reputation through quality products
2. exploit: start cutting every corner and monetizing everything possible (price hiking/enshittification) for as long as possible (make your own launcher phase, haha)
3. course correct and get more consumer friendly when you get too far (return to steam phase, haha)
4. repeat if still standing

TLDR: Theyre not the new EA, theyve been the same as EA all along

 

[San Dan Glokta]

Diarrhea comes in many flavours

 

[Spukc]

No EA was never as fucking shit as ubisoft is right now

 

[Ozzie666]

EA can live off their Genesis success and reputation for years to come, add to that Bullfrog products and sharing the 1993 awards on Amiga with Team 17. Not to mention Jedi Survivor/Fallen order series. Not to mention their great 80's output like Skate or Die and many home computer games

I'm partially kidding, both companies are scummy. But EA seems to listen to their shareholders and profits alittle more. Both tone def, but EA at least has 1 working ear.

 

[Gamezone]

No EA was never as fucking shit as ubisoft is right now

I was here during the Xbox 360 era. They totally were.

 

[CLW]

Nah EA is still the WORST publisher in the business

 

[Spukc]

I was here during the Xbox 360 era. They totally were.

That was dead space era…

Only their sports games are scummy as fuck

 

[Durin]

1. Throw out performative virtue PR while releasing less polished products that suck more money from your consumer in exploitative ways.
2. Wittle away your creativity to the point of producing less new IP, and become more reliant on a handful of money-maker formulas.
3. Erode the quality of those brands over time, so fans from the beginning get shed for normies that are fickle.
4. Shed older talent that made said brands have value in the first place.
5. Have exploitative work practices that shamefully get called out more over time.

Ubisoft is doing most of it, but they're just speedrunning the worsening quality part.

 

[Soodanim]

The corporate version of having your head stuck up your bum and thinking you're too big to fail and have carte blanche to do whatever you like and still print money.

I guess the main difference is that EA never tanked in the same way that Ubi has, it just got an awful reputation (worst company in America) and eventually people got bored of it.

I have ignored both companies for years because they force their own launchers on PC, and I'm doing just fine without EA's latest remake of a game from when they were last good and Ubi's patented game design mechanics that became so stale that the company started to wither.

 

[Griffon]

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I don't really buy games from either EA or Ubisoft. I might pick up Split Fiction on sale or wait for it on PS+, but that's a pretty rare exception. I don't know the last Ubisoft game I bought. Probably the Scott Pilgrim side scroller, but not sure if I bought that or got it for free.

 

[Black_Stride]

EA was never as bad as people make it out to have been.

PS1 era they Command and Conquer, Medal of Honor a bunch of other titles that were respected.
OGX/PS2 era EA had Battlefield, Burnout, Colin McRae, the BIG sub brand so even their sports games were pretty good .
PS360 they had Dead Space, Mass Effect, Fight Night, Mirrors Edge......was Alice this generation or prior?
Cant remember when EAO started but that brought us a bunch of gems.

 

[Sybrix]

Why does Rockstar release iconic games and Ubisoft doesn't?

 

[Wildebeest]

PS1 era they Command and Conquer, Medal of Honor a bunch of other titles that were respected.

Those games were made by Westwood and Dreamworks interactive, respectively. EA absolutely did not make them.

 

[StueyDuck]

shovelwear shit (Ghost recon wildlands, Siege Extraction etc.)

Don't you blaspheme in this house.

Wildlands is the best thing Ubi has put out in a long long time.

unless you mean breakpoint, then i get it.

 

[MMaRsu]

No EA was never as fucking shit as ubisoft is right now

 

[PauloRoberto]

He is right. Every polemic topic related to AC Shadows is a result of a deliberately choice made by Ubi. Ubisoft WANTS this game to cause avid discussions, because this generates free press for it.

 

[RoboFu]

Any game publisher / developer that becomes a large corporate business eventually replaces all it passionate people with numbers people and begins to only put out games that are nothing but over budget, market statistic driven, focus group approved , consultant milking, soulless, crap.

 

[StereoVsn]

Big issue for Ubisoft is that unlike EA they can’t fall back on Football (FC), Football (Madden), Football (College), and Hockey for recurring yearly operating $$$ .

As far as games output, both have been kind of shit.

 

[Black_Stride]

Those games were made by Westwood and Dreamworks interactive, respectively. EA absolutely did not make them.

EAO doesnt make any of the games they publish.
They still deserve credit for those games getting to market.

My first Command and Conquer was Tiberiun Sun and im pretty sure I remember the EA logo on the box.
Medal of Honor has been under EA since its inception.

 

[Mattyp]

The only hate EA gets it’s from the yearly sport titles at full freight.

They are also behind a lot of absolute banger and total variety of games over the generations that far surpass Ubisofts

They also told FIFA to go fuck themselves, based.

 

[PeteBull]

EA got their madden and Fifa series to keep them afloat, Ubi on the other hand...

 

[Impotaku]

Lol no need to pick one over the other I have enough hate for both. AAA slop factories the both of them.

 

[Sooner]

Gamers love to hate.

 

[Baemono]

Diarrhea comes in many flavours

Got this in my last fortune cookie, it was correct

 

[Lunarorbit]

The only hate EA gets it’s from the yearly sport titles at full freight.

They are also behind a lot of absolute banger and total variety of games over the generations that far surpass Ubisofts

They also told FIFA to go fuck themselves, based.

Except for the 2 decades long Pappy EA meme.

Oh and them destroying 2 flagship franchises.

Oh and anthem.

oh and generally doing a horrible job with the star wars ip....

 

[Bond007]

I feel like they are. Its a cycle. Gamers need something to bitch about.
EA will lose the hate and release some bangers and all is well- they are already seeing less hate today. Lets see if Ubi can survive this onslaught of hate now. Shadows is awesome

 

[Hudo]

I don't think so. Ubisoft's problem is that many games they put out these days are either mid and/or have shit marketing cycles. But at least they seem to do something with their IPs. EA's problem is that they barely can get games out in the first place. For a publisher as large as EA, it's amazing how inefficient they are. Luckily for them, they've been carried hard by EA Sports for more than a decade now.

But both seem to be very disorganized/chaotic, tbh.

 

[SScorpio]

Development seems to go:

• New small studios makes an awesome game that takes off
• Studio grows and makes another awesome game
• A future game fails to hit and studio closes

Studios joining a larger publisher can help them not die after a single failure. And provide additional support in terms of marketing, market research, development help, and testing.

But overtime the people who made the awesome games we love leave, and the studio is nothing but the name. The studio's IP is used, but the games aren't like they once were. There are only a few studios I think of that the heads of stuck around Insomniac (We'll see what happens since Ted Price is retiring), and Bethesda (Todd Howard gets hate, but he has a creative vision). Just look at all of the small indies that hit it big and then struggle to release a sequel.

EA seemed to have a bunch of individual studios working on projects, with some studios that were dedicated to support and working on pieces of larger projects. Ubisoft appears to be focused on huge projects will all the studios just being support. You get a few creative things, but things seem focused on the large summer blockbusters. EA is no saint, but I see them as a regular movie studio working with lots of smaller studios and labels. While Ubisoft is the Marvel Studios. Making the big movies everyone that grown tired of. The new ones are fine, but not some new mind blowing experience. It's just playing it safe trying to bring in as much money as possible.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Don't you blaspheme in this house.

Wildlands is the best thing Ubi has put out in a long long time.

unless you mean breakpoint, then i get it.

Yes breakpoint, while an ok third person shooter it couldn’t surpass wildlands (they didn't capitalize on Ghost Recon Wildlands' Boliva, drug cartels etc.)

 

[touchfuzzy]

EA and Ubisoft have released the two best games of the year so far.

 

[Sleepwalker]

EA is way better than ubisoft is

Over the past years they have published

Star wars jedi series
Star wars squadrons
Dead space remake
It takes two
Split fiction
The sims
Dragon age
Tales of kenzera
Immortals of aveum
Battlefield
Need for speed
Apex
Titanfall
Mirrors edge
Plants vs zombies

On top of all their sports titles.

Yes they have had flops and some IP are in bad shape but overall they are a much more healthy company with a much wider input than Ubi across different genres whereas Ubi mostly just rehashes the same shooter or the same open world bloated rpg with a different skin.

 

[Fbh]

These days I'm still more likely to play an EA game.
Their collaborations with Hazelight have been great and I still had fun with the Respawn Star Wars games (even though Survivor was a bit mid).
The Dead Space remake was solid and even though it hasn't really worked out for them (aside from the Hazelight games) I do appreciate their EA originals initiative at least trying to push new IP like Immortals and Wildhearts.

I've had zero interested in anything Ubisoft does for a long time. It's bottom of the barrel stuff in the AAA space except they do push out nice graphics.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

No, just a modern version of IJN.