There's also the fact that EA owns something like 42% of all the cool old games anyone loves that aren't available on DD services (including the Ultima series, the Wing Commander series, System Shock 1 and 2, Magic Carpet, Syndicate, Populous, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper, the early Maxis Sim* titles, Lands of Lore, Legend of Kyrandia, and I'm sure I'm forgetting many others) and show no signs of remedying said problem.
Can't wait for that game. Also Mirror's Edge is probably one of my favorite games this gen. So...different. And the graphics (on PC) are just...god damn.
There's also the fact that EA owns something like 42% of all the cool old games anyone loves that aren't available on DD services (including the Ultima series, the Wing Commander series, System Shock 1 and 2, Magic Carpet, Syndicate, Populous, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper, the early Maxis Sim* titles, Lands of Lore, Legend of Kyrandia, and I'm sure I'm forgetting many others) and show no signs of remedying said problem.
This one is still undetermined, but the state of Mirror's Edge 2 is questionable and it's funny because it was such a great game and it earned them a lot of good will in the gaming community, but it's likely that they're sweeping the sequel under the rug.
If anything, I will say that they are quickly spending the good will they earned previously this gen. For every Mirror's Edge and Dead Space is a case of studio closures and Bioware-fication of preorders.
EA has done a lot this gen. The only reason I would even glance at a game that has connection to Activision these days is if its Blizzard. Crysis alone makes EA win this generation IMO.
Remember when EA was "Electronic Arts," the company founded by Trip Hawkins to release videogames with "album cover art" that prominently featured the names of their developers and which would help catapult games into being a respected artistic medium?
....
Actually, for that matter, remember when Activision was founded by people who left Atari to found a new company that would put the names of the developers on the boxes and lead to a new era of respect and appreciation for developers?
(I actually remember both. I had a whole set of those original EA games lined up on the fucking shelf above my Apple IIc. Seven Cities of Gold, Pinball Construction Set, Age of Adventure, Archon....)
I must be in the minority, but I don't have a problem with EA and their ways of doing business. At the end of the day, they need to stay profitable and try to bring in enough money to fund new projects.
Plus, the 10 Dollar Project really isn't that big of a hassle, only if you buy used, which they then succeed in doing what it was supposed to do.
Activision affects me by shutting down great studios and throwing out one milked game after another. What actions of EA would be harmful to me? You mean that ban of the Dragon Age 2 player?
EA brought me the universes of Dead Space and Mass Effect. For this alone, they are gold in my eyes.
Yeah, they may do pre-order BS, but I don't care much about that, cause everyone does it. Plus, they green light and support a lot of new IPs that other companies don't do. I mean, if EA had released Singularity, I bet there would have been a much stronger push behind it.
Edit:
I will admit however, their marketing leaves much to be desired. But at least they try.
Not just that. They have created lots of great IP's. I think I bought more new IP's published by EA than any other publisher this gen. But I don't really buy games that much so maybe its just me.
I wonder to what degree DD will throw out the traditional publisher relationship. Not too greatly I think, what with the vast majority of the market still being made at retailers... but we'll see. Maybe the per-sale income is high enough on DD that it doesn't need to neccessarily clash directly with retail, though I doubt publishers see it that way.
Given the quality of the games they've been publishing as of late, EA are kind of a necessary evil. I look at what few physical media PC releases I still buy and they're almost all EA's games: Bulletstorm, Crysis 2, Dead Space 2, and Mass Effect 2. Darkspore will likely soon be added to that list.
I totally agree that it's a giant headache dealing with the EA Accounts, Bioware Social accounts and pre-order shenanigans. It wasn't until I bought some DLC for ME2 that I was aware of all this added content that was tied to my Bioware account. The current set up that they have is so staggeringly stupid and obtuse. Their antagonism with Steam and Valve is puzzling, although not a huge impact given that I buy their games on physical media predominantly, and the back catalogue of older PC games that they simply sit on rather than releasing through the appropriate DD channels (be it Steam, GoG or whatever) is kind of sad.
But then I look at something like Alice: The Madness Returns or Mass Effect 3 and their bullshit is just something I have to tolerate. At least until they grind their content creators into the dust and stop making things I like for a few years, which they do rather consistently.
An evil publisher doesn't green light IP's like Dead Space, Mirror's Edge and Alice: Madness Retunrs
(especially that last one. I mean, are you kidding me?)
.
Pre-order bonuses: everyone has 'em, get used to 'em. EA is absolutely no worse than any other major publisher on the market in that regard. I can see why it seems like they're one of the worst offenders because, quite frankly, look at their library: they're publishing some awesome shit lately! Are they're pre-order bonuses in all their games? Yeah. There are pre-order bonuses for all of Rockstar's games too. Same for Ubisoft. The difference is, EA releases more than two games a year.
Online Pass: Personally? Love it. Used game sales are hurting the industry and I always buy brand new anyway. I'll acknowledge that it's a personal preference, but when GameStop only takes off five bucks anyways, you might as well go ahead and pay full price to get a whiff of that new game smell.
I will say Duckroll has a point: they need to get the forum bullshit together.
Personally, the worse thing about EA is how they've bought up so many companies and IP only to dispose of them and just sit on it.
Origin and Ultima. This was basically the Final Fantasy of PC RPGs in terms of importance. They finally dusted it off, only to make an Evony clone out of it. Not even on facebook, doesn't even merit that.
(Not to mention all the other cool Origin stuff)
Bullfrog and Dungeon Keeper/Theme ______
Maxis and Sim_____
Not to mention, Will Wright originally promised to release the editing tools for the Sims. But when the game was a success, EA overruled him. So they could monopolize providing content for the Sims series (didn't work, thanks to one insider and people who reverse engineered stuff, but still pisses me off).
As a Wii owner, I like Activision better because they're SO money hungry that they actually try to port their big franchises (like Call of Duty) to the Wii. Hooray for greed.
Moving on from the Activision thing, which I failed at trying to deflect in my OP:
How do you feel about EA's digital distribution strategy, and do you think they are making a mistake by giving minimum support to Steam (no Steamworks, late releases etc)?
EA brought me the universes of Dead Space and Mass Effect. For this alone, they are gold in my eyes.
And that's without even getting into their stupid treatment of Steam and PC in general. Where are my PC Sports games?
The fact that everyone seemed to fall head over heals in love and ignore all their continual horrible practices over two games was pretty amazing. Gamers are so easy to please.
An evil publisher doesn't green light IP's like Dead Space, Mirror's Edge and Alice: Madness Retunrs
(especially that last one. I mean, are you kidding me?)
.
Pre-order bonuses: everyone has 'em, get used to 'em. EA is absolutely no worse than any other major publisher on the market in that regard. I can see why it seems like they're one of the worst offenders because, quite frankly, look at their library: they're publishing some awesome shit lately! Are they're pre-order bonuses in all their games? Yeah. There are pre-order bonuses for all of Rockstar's games too. Same for Ubisoft. The difference is, EA releases more than two games a year.
Online Pass: Personally? Love it. Used game sales are hurting the industry and I always buy brand new anyway. I'll acknowledge that it's a personal preference, but when GameStop only takes off five bucks anyways, you might as well go ahead and pay full price to get a whiff of that new game smell.
I will say Duckroll has a point: they need to get the forum bullshit together.
Yes, their forums are so awful. I stopped going on the DS boards because their forums are that bad. I don't love the online pass, but I do think it's clever, so I don't hate it or anything.
Activision affects me by shutting down great studios and throwing out one milked game after another. What actions of EA would be harmful to me? You mean that ban of the Dragon Age 2 player?
EA shuts down studios too and you're not exactly forced to buy Activision's milked games not to mention that EA were the original kings of milked yearly releases in the first place.
EA pushes the preorder DLC stuff to ridiculous levels, more than any other publisher. They're also the ones that came up with this $10 online pass too right? They are also anti-steam while Activision uses steamworks in CoDBLOPs.
Yes they are a big evil corporation but atleast they have been making amends lately with new IP's like Dragon Age, Dead Space, Mirrors Edge and refreshing old ones like Need for Speed Shift and Battlefield Bad Company 2.
They also run the Rockband franchise much better than the competition with constant DLC support.
The day-0 DLC and pre-order bullshit is a common thing today and it is a way for publishers (and gamestop) to make extra sales, its just business and not really that expensive for you.
Deep down I personally can never forgive them for what they did to Bullfrog, but i have a pretty neutral stance towards them. They release really really good games. And they don't milk the 2 franchises they got to death like some competitors.
There's also the fact that EA owns something like 42% of all the cool old games anyone loves that aren't available on DD services (including the Ultima series, the Wing Commander series, System Shock 1 and 2, Magic Carpet, Syndicate, Populous, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper, the early Maxis Sim* titles, Lands of Lore, Legend of Kyrandia, and I'm sure I'm forgetting many others) and show no signs of remedying said problem.
