EA CEO Reveals that the Company is 'Not a Corporate Beast' -

SBFord

EA CEO Reveals that the Company is 'Not a Corporate Beast' -

IGN is reporting that EA CEO Andrew Wilson, in a speech given at the B.C. Tech Summit, has said that understanding the games business and branding EA as "this corporate beast that just wants to take money from them while people play our games" is not what is intended and not what EA is trying to do.

Read the full story here

jesteralways

He is right that people want to try 1st and then spend later, for most games that is true but what about the things they are doing with established IP like DA, ME, NFS and even SW? Can he honestly pretend the business practice they are currently executing is healthy? They do something outrageously unprecedented with their business model and pave way to more company doing the same nonsense and it all goes with the argument : "if EA can do it so can we".

thundercles

“You come in, and play a bunch of games, and ultimately you invest after that." Let me fix that. "You Pay, you come in, and play a bunch of games, and ultimately you invest (pay) after than." Actions speak louder than words.

GeezerGamer

Hey! EA! You said
"players want to 'try before buying"
There's a reason for this. When you figure it out, you'll be in a much better position to fix your image.

Talonsin

No more player-made maps, now you have to buy new maps instead of making your own but we are not greedy at all.

Vrika

"this corporate beast that just wants to take money from them while people play our games" is not what is intended and not what EA is trying to do.

Am I the only one who reads this as EA having some kind of plan to make people also pay while not playing their games?

Nanfoodle

Walks like a, talks like a, buys companies like a, focuses on quantity over quality like a, rushes projects like a.

EA needs to show they care more then just the bottom line. Making videos games is not just a business, its an art form. Sometimes you need to stop as ask if this art is ready to be consumed? EA never does that. Sell, make money and try and fix it later with lowest cost. EA has a bad name for a very good reason.

VorpalChicken28

Once upon a time, we used to get demo's of games, so we could try before we buy, now they just expect us to pony up money, and then pay for DLC content that really should have been in the game in the first instance.

I have no sympathy for Evil Arts, they are a corporate beast that (in my eyes) has ruined many good franchises with it's need to turn a huge profit.

Personally I took the stance a few years ago to no longer buy thier games, and as such I no longer do, sadly I miss some of the games they have brought out that I used to play in previous incarnations, but I won't be part of the destruction they have been wreaking any longer, more poeple need to do this until they learn that Quality is greater than Qauntity.

Quesa

EA is a corporation which has a responsibility to make money for it's shareholders. It's doing that and seems to be successful. All the negative publicity comes from the players, who continue to slop up their products despite their hate towards the company.

As long as the players keep gobbling up their content, their business practices will not change...AND THEY SHOULDN'T...because a corporations main focus is profit, and that is a good thing.

thundercles

Quesa said:

EA is a corporation which has a responsibility to make money for it's shareholders. It's doing that and seems to be successful. All the negative publicity comes from the players, who continue to slop up their products despite their hate towards the company.

As long as the players keep gobbling up their content, their business practices will not change...AND THEY SHOULDN'T...because a corporations main focus is profit, and that is a good thing.

You work for Trion?

Nanfoodle

Quesa said:

EA is a corporation which has a responsibility to make money for it's shareholders. It's doing that and seems to be successful. All the negative publicity comes from the players, who continue to slop up their products despite their hate towards the company.

As long as the players keep gobbling up their content, their business practices will not change...AND THEY SHOULDN'T...because a corporations main focus is profit, and that is a good thing.

We are getting this reply I am sure because they see sells are down. People are more often voting with their wallets and they have to rely more and more on whales to buy early access at top prices to make money. Now if they could keep the whales and get back the average joe as well. Now they would be making money. 

You say their main focus is making money. It should not be. Making money and making quality games should be equal. Why do you think Walmart and Costco is so successful. Customer satisfaction is key. Returns are not questioned. People feel confident spending their money with that type of business.

Can the same be said for EA? I am a customer of EA that has gone from the pre-order line to I wait and see how every launch goes before I buy. I have skipped many a game because of bad reports. Content missing and added later as DLC that should have been part of the buy in price. Many customers are like me when it comes to EA and thats why EA is speaking up IMO. They are feeling it.

GeezerGamer

Quesa said:

EA is a corporation which has a responsibility to make money for it's shareholders. It's doing that and seems to be successful. All the negative publicity comes from the players, who continue to slop up their products despite their hate towards the company.

As long as the players keep gobbling up their content, their business practices will not change...AND THEY SHOULDN'T...because a corporations main focus is profit, and that is a good thing.

Yeah, clearly they are doing this right.

CrazKanuk

Nanfoodle said:

Quesa said:

EA is a corporation which has a responsibility to make money for it's shareholders. It's doing that and seems to be successful. All the negative publicity comes from the players, who continue to slop up their products despite their hate towards the company.

As long as the players keep gobbling up their content, their business practices will not change...AND THEY SHOULDN'T...because a corporations main focus is profit, and that is a good thing.

We are getting this reply I am sure because they see sells are down. People are more often voting with their wallets and they have to rely more and more on whales to buy early access at top prices to make money. Now if they could keep the whales and get back the average joe as well. Now they would be making money. 

You say their main focus is making money. It should not be. Making money and making quality games should be equal. Why do you think Walmart and Costco is so successful. Customer satisfaction is key. Returns are not questioned. People feel confident spending their money with that type of business.

Can the same be said for EA? I am a customer of EA that has gone from the pre-order line to I wait and see how every launch goes before I buy. I have skipped many a game because of bad reports. Many customers are like me when it comes to EA and thats why EA is speaking up IMO. They are feeling it.

I don't think they're feeling it. I mean their stock price has risen consistently year-over-year. I think that EA gets a bad rep for being the big fish. I'm not saying that EA isn't guilty of capitalizing on their assets, but it's like criticizing Wal-Mart for making so much money. Reality is they just found a better way to do it. It's cheap, sometimes, but I really don't think that people are voting with their wallets. I mean I think that a quarter of the games in the Top 20 games of 2015 on PSN are EA games. 

I definitely think it's a bit of fire fighting, but I think it's more like Google fire fighting, like "We're not evil" opposed to actually looking to change. 

Kayo83

lol, well as long as EA's CEO says it..... lol

Nice try. You dont want to be the evil "corporate beast" anymore ...

1) Try taking a page from CDProjekt or other companies like it who release great games, substantive well priced DLC packs, and none of it has sh*t to do with some stupid spyware DRM program (or at least has the option). Which brings me to...

2) Get rid of Origin. Steam is bad enough. No im not going to install some stupid program in my computer to play your games and tells you entire entire library, gaming schedule, etc. F-U thats valuable marketing info, pay people for it.

3) Stop buying companies. I know corrupt politicians constantly look the other way when companies like EA or Comcast do it ... but purposefully buying out your competition and to create monopoly for yourself is not only boderline illegal but makes people hate you when you force your corporate bullshit down their throats.

4) If youre going to buy them anyway, at least leave them the hell alone to do the job which scared you into buying them in the first place, before they got too big to challenge EA.

5) Treat your employees better. Seriously... you suck.

6) Enough with the yearly releases. I mean, theyre easily ignored ... but it still shows everyone just how apathetic EA is, only caring about sell sell sell!

7) Stop trying to tell us youre not the devil ... show it. Only shows how little you really care about your "reputation."

Off the top of my head. Im sure there is more but whatever ... its lunch time....

GeezerGamer

CrazKanuk said:

Nanfoodle said:

Quesa said:

EA is a corporation which has a responsibility to make money for it's shareholders. It's doing that and seems to be successful. All the negative publicity comes from the players, who continue to slop up their products despite their hate towards the company.

As long as the players keep gobbling up their content, their business practices will not change...AND THEY SHOULDN'T...because a corporations main focus is profit, and that is a good thing.

We are getting this reply I am sure because they see sells are down. People are more often voting with their wallets and they have to rely more and more on whales to buy early access at top prices to make money. Now if they could keep the whales and get back the average joe as well. Now they would be making money. 

You say their main focus is making money. It should not be. Making money and making quality games should be equal. Why do you think Walmart and Costco is so successful. Customer satisfaction is key. Returns are not questioned. People feel confident spending their money with that type of business.

Can the same be said for EA? I am a customer of EA that has gone from the pre-order line to I wait and see how every launch goes before I buy. I have skipped many a game because of bad reports. Many customers are like me when it comes to EA and thats why EA is speaking up IMO. They are feeling it.

I don't think they're feeling it. I mean their stock price has risen consistently year-over-year. I think that EA gets a bad rep for being the big fish. I'm not saying that EA isn't guilty of capitalizing on their assets, but it's like criticizing Wal-Mart for making so much money. Reality is they just found a better way to do it. It's cheap, sometimes, but I really don't think that people are voting with their wallets. I mean I think that a quarter of the games in the Top 20 games of 2015 on PSN are EA games. 

I definitely think it's a bit of fire fighting, but I think it's more like Google fire fighting, like "We're not evil" opposed to actually looking to change. 

Yeah, they figured out that gamers are fanbois who will hype and crusade eagerly await every single piece of crap  game their shovelware slaves software developers can crank produce out of their sweatshops studios.

SEANMCAD

SBFord said:

EA CEO Reveals that the Company is 'Not a Corporate Beast' -

IGN is reporting that EA CEO Andrew Wilson, in a speech given at the B.C. Tech Summit, has said that understanding the games business and branding EA as "this corporate beast that just wants to take money from them while people play our games" is not what is intended and not what EA is trying to do.

Read the full story here

not only does his quote not imply an acknowledgement of change nor and admittance of past bad decisions to be inspected it also counter to what a company is and for a CEO to say that and most importantly one that is a company that is publically traded just shows how out of touch leadership is.

Iselin

All I see (if you keep clicking through first to IGN and then to Vancouver 24 Hr) is PR spin to justify their newish service where you pay a monthly fee to have access to a game catalog... the Netflix model in gaming they say. Or that's the theory anyway.

The reality is that you're paying a monthly fee for early access to some games if you buy them and get time-limited, full featured demo versions of a select number of games. If you want to actually keep the full game, you have to also buy it.

If Netflix actually functioned the way EA Access does, we'd get the first episode of Jessica Jones as part of the monthly fee and then have to pay extra for the rest of the season's episodes.

Their acknowledgement that the gaming public perceives them as greedy corporate scum is just facing facts. But we perceive them that way for good reason: they are.

SEANMCAD

Iselin said:

All I see (if you keep clicking through first to IGN and then to Vancouver 24 Hr) is PR spin to justify their newish service where you pay a monthly fee to have access to a game catalog... the Netflix model in gaming they say. Or that's the theory anyway.

The reality is that you're paying a monthly fee for early access to some games if you buy them and get time-limited, full featured demo versions of a select number of games. If you want to actually keep the full game, you have to also buy it.

If Netflix actually functioned the way EA Access does, we'd get the first episode of Jessica Jones as part of the monthly fee and then have to pay extra for the rest of the season's episodes.

Their acknowledgement that the gaming public perceives them as greedy corporate scum is just facing facts. But we perceive them that way for good reason: they are.

gaming companies need to stop thinking like movies and TV studios.

SEANMCAD

CrazKanuk said:

I don't think they're feeling it. I mean their stock price has risen consistently year-over-year. I think that EA gets a bad rep for being the big fish. I'm not saying that EA isn't guilty of capitalizing on their assets, but it's like criticizing Wal-Mart for making so much money. Reality is they just found a better way to do it. It's cheap, sometimes, but I really don't think that people are voting with their wallets. I mean I think that a quarter of the games in the Top 20 games of 2015 on PSN are EA games. 

I definitely think it's a bit of fire fighting, but I think it's more like Google fire fighting, like "We're not evil" opposed to actually looking to change. 

The reason EA does well in the stock market is because its one of a handful of gaming companies that are publicly traded. I have no doubt that if Valve exposed their earning they would blow EA out of the water.

Walmart sells the same items you can get in other places but for less. That is basically their model of success.

EAs model of success is convincing people that their products are the only products that are any good. Which is fair play but my point is the success of EA is MOSTLY built on manipluation

Joseph_Kerr

If EA didnt show us how bad they are, it wouldnt be their responsibility to convince us that they are not.

heerobya

Doesn't EA now offer a subscription service where you can play all kinds of games for one low monthly price? For console and (if I remember right) even for PC?

That's a pretty sweet deal, and if I understand it right, one of the only companies to do that.

Well, SoE would do the station pass, but all of their games are/were garbage.

I mean, if I could pay EA, Activision/Blizzard, maybe Ubisoft, etc. a low monthly fee like 5-7$ a month and I could play all of their releases - I'd do it.

Harbinger1975

Someone said it above.  EA tries hard to show this:  "But we're the good guys!" face.  But it gets more and more disingenuous every time they say it.  Here are the facts.  EA has REPEATEDLY destroyed franchises with their desire to make a quick buck.  They destroyed Command and Conquer (VERY awesome franchise that was driven to the dirt), Mass Effect 3 debacle (I don't really have to go into this, do I?), Star Wars: Battle(store)front.  (Now with this I will point at the NUMEROUS amount of reviewers, not just Angry Joe and Jim Sterling, but PCGamer and others on YouTube which gave it a VERY mediocre score, asking why so much was butchered out of it.  And the pricing.  WTF?).  Dragon Age 3  and their COMPLETE ignoring of PC problems with the game and eventually just halting the PC support because of the terrible game engine.


I can go on.  But the point is, they keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over and hoping for different results.  If they want to change the face of their company, they HAVE to stop the greed aspect first.  Give us QUALITY over QUANTITY.  Prove it to us.  Don't just give PR spin and hope we forget your past transgressions.

SEANMCAD

Harbinger1975 said:

Someone said it above.  EA tries hard to show this:  "But we're the good guys!" face.  But it gets more and more disingenuous every time they say it.  Here are the facts.  EA has REPEATEDLY destroyed franchises with their desire to make a quick buck.  They destroyed Command and Conquer (VERY awesome franchise that was driven to the dirt), Mass Effect 3 debacle (I don't really have to go into this, do I?), Star Wars: Battle(store)front.  (Now with this I will point at the NUMEROUS amount of reviewers, not just Angry Joe and Jim Sterling, but PCGamer and others on YouTube which gave it a VERY mediocre score, asking why so much was butchered out of it.  And the pricing.  WTF?).  Dragon Age 3  and their COMPLETE ignoring of PC problems with the game and eventually just halting the PC support because of the terrible game engine.


I can go on.  But the point is, they keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over and hoping for different results.  If they want to change the face of their company, they HAVE to stop the greed aspect first.  Give us QUALITY over QUANTITY.  Prove it to us.  Don't just give PR spin and hope we forget your past transgressions.

yeah.

the main key is that when they do this they do not ever acknowledge a previous failure which makes them look like they are just playing the victim.

What they should do (I think) that would help their sales, please shareholders and make better games is simply to say 'we screwed up but we are going to do better'
its soooo rare for anyone to say that first part. 

Iselin

heerobya said:

Doesn't EA now offer a subscription service where you can play all kinds of games for one low monthly price? For console and (if I remember right) even for PC?

That's a pretty sweet deal, and if I understand it right, one of the only companies to do that.

It would be if it actually worked that way lol. http://www.ea.com/eaaccess/en_CA.html


What you get is the previous year's version of their yearly sports franchises (NHL, Madden, FIFA...the '15 versions not the current '16 versions) about  5 other games 18 months or so after release, a 10% discount on the games you actually buy in addition to the monthly fee and you get to play those games you buy about a week before the official release.

Joseph_Kerr

heerobya said:

Doesn't EA now offer a subscription service where you can play all kinds of games for one low monthly price? For console and (if I remember right) even for PC?

That's a pretty sweet deal, and if I understand it right, one of the only companies to do that.

Well, SoE would do the station pass, but all of their games are/were garbage.

I mean, if I could pay EA, Activision/Blizzard, maybe Ubisoft, etc. a low monthly fee like 5-7$ a month and I could play all of their releases - I'd do it.

If it wasnt a complete joke I still wouldnt do it simply because it's EA. EA Access is laughable at best, they give you 15 old games and you only get to test new ones during testing periods. Its like someone said earlier - if netflix adopted this model it would be like you being able to watch the first episode of Jessica Jones as part of your sub but having to pay for the rest of the season if you wanted to continue watching. EA belongs in the movie Idiocracy... Its got electrolytes!

Thourne

I just can't ever seem to get over them buying Origin and Westwood and well, killing them.

Yah, it was forever ago but my memory is good and they haven't ever demonstrated they have changed.