matt's column this week
Why EA Sucks
if you think you can stomach it, there's an extended version...
just click "read more" the html tags aren't embedded in the style template yet soooo... it'll just be posted as a comment until that's done
posted by askjghaskjgh @ 7:00 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
EA Fucking Blows
Microsoft is often seen as emblematic of everything wrong with computers today, and to be fair, ultimately Microsoft has caused in one way or another many of the problems it’s blamed for. A major cause of loathing Microsoft is its often questionable business practices which result from and exacerbate its near monopoly. Until recently, no such company existed within the video game world, or at least not one that seemed to represent all that is wrong and going with the industry. Let’s meet our Microsoft: Electronic Arts.
Just as the video games industry has exploded over the last few years, EA’s fortunes have as well, currently controlling roughly 22% of the gaming market according to US News, making it the largest game publisher in the world. In the last couple of years, EA has taken to its role as the industry leader with alarming force, looking to further its stronghold.
Mostly recently, EA shocked the gaming world when it finalized a powerhouse deal with the NFL to acquire exclusive rights the NFL’s teams, players and stadiums, dealing what could amount to a deathblow to competing company’s football games. To add insult to injury, it then signed a deal for ESPN’s licensing rights, who had previously been signed with Sega/Take Two Interactive . Take Two responded by netting a much weaker, perhaps pointless, licensing deal with the MLB. The MLB deal sucks basically because 1st party companies, such as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft and can still make MLB games, and (surprise!) EA could just hook up with them to make their own. Moreover MLB games make only about ¼ of what football games do. Oh, and Take Two vastly overpaid.
The ESPN deal is more of a “nah nah nah all of football is ours” than a serious blow to EA’s competitors because the ESPN name isn’t that big of a seller in and of itself. Besides, all of the real damage was done with the NFL deal, since EA’s Madden series will be the only with actual names and likenesses of football players, teams, etc. limiting players’ choices to one company if they want to use real players. Score one for consumers, creativity, and competition..
EA has also been moving on gaming studios themselves, recently buying out Digital Illusions CE (DICE), makers of the Battlefield series among others after a long dispute. More disturbing is its actions towards French developer Ubisoft, maker of the Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia series. In what the Ubisoft CEO said was a “hostile action” EA purchased about 20 percent of the company in shares, according to Gamespot. EA declared that this was merely an “investment” and they weren’t interested in a hostile takeover. Being a paradigm of corporate consistency, last week, EA said it’s considering buying more shares, and isn’t ruling out a takeover of Ubi. This was somewhat obvious, as EA never sits on its hands for long. Infogrames, another European game company, has said it may help Ubi fight an EA takeover, with the blessing of the French government to maintain Ubi’s Euro-roots.
What makes EA’s possible takeover of Ubi frightening is what it could do to the quality of Ubi’s games, namely have it follow EA’s own dark path over recent years, which has been a trend of mediocrity. (EA used to make great games, and every now and then does, probably through some Law of Averages.) The most recent Prince of Persia title, Warrior Within, is reason enough to give me chills.
To make it appeal more to “popular”(read: shitty) tastes (I realize that economic factors must be taken into consideration when making games i.e., they need to make money) Ubi completely deviated from the spirit of the series, transforming it from primarily an excellent platformer/puzzle game with light combat with a somewhat shy, though charming and clever prince, to a “dark,” action-based title with a smartass prince uttering lameass lines like “You bitch!” while mediocre band Godsmack wails in the background. I have no problem with violence and profanity (both are awesome), it just it doesn’t fit the series. While the game’s not bad, it’s not nearly as great as its predecessors. Given EA’s approach to throw creatively devoid generic schlock to the masses, I fear this would be 10x worse if EA took over. Splinter Cell run and gun while Linkin Park whines in the background anyone?
To boot, EA’s other business practices are horrendous too, with allegations of essentially sweatshop labor done by programmers, layoffs despite higher profits than ever before, and repeated delays of highly anticipated games. They’re just sloppy. It gets better. EA’s CEO has looked into his crystal ball and predicted higher prices for the next generation of games, up from the average of $50 now. If EA’s control of the market continues to grow, these higher prices could become a reality, because there’d be no competition to force them down. For example, look for higher prices for EA’s NFL titles, because no one else can produce them, and of course, Madden fans will buy them.
EA is the epitome of everything going wrong in video games now, and is in the position to make it worse, by forcing mergers and consolidation similar to what’s happened in the media, simply so others are able to compete with the beast rather than join it. Mediocrity will rule over innovation with just a few studios producing generic titles year after year, and as long as people keep buying games, that’s exactly what EA wants.
In terms of licenses, what’s next? Already the NFL move has caused a scurry to acquire licenses; the NBA smartly refused, though not so much out of our interest in that it makes more money in its current situation. I’m sure more attempts to exclusively license out other properties (or even types of game themselves) will soon follow. It’s eerily similar to the patent wars I’ve semi-documented in the past, and God forbid it reach that point. These types of exclusive deals hurt consumers because it limits choices and competition, and by limiting competition, it cuts creativity. EA isn’t going to be forced to do anything new with its football games now; people will buy them because it’s the only place to go.
What makes it scary is that this could happen all over the place reducing the industry to a stagnant cesspool, particularly since the danger of independent games doesn’t exist like it does in the movie industry because the costs of games (to a certain point) is much greater than those of movies. Competition breeds innovation. In a post-consolidation industry, innovative games like Katmari Legacy, or say Mario 20 years ago wouldn’t happen, because companies wouldn’t want to take the risk – they would just want dependable, if mediocre games, and as a result, everyone would suffer.
For once, Madden gamers can actually do something useful, however, for the rest of the real gamers, and it’s easy: stop playing Madden. If you have to play football, buy another series. Just don’t buy EA. The only way to kill the beast is to starve it. We’re counting on you. Of course, this goes out to all gamers. Don’t buy EA games, for the sake of all games.
Post a Comment
<< Home