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Beware of Electronic Arts
Soejckdswg
Member Posts: 338
Hello,
In 2004 i started playing an MMO called Earth and Beyond, granted it wasn't a Large game, its base was around 50,000 subscribers. The game was a good game, came along before eve in fact a lot of eve's success is old Earth and Beyond players. EA shut down Earth and Beyond, not because it was a poor game but it is in my opinion and opinion of guildmates that the managing and marketing was the cause of the downfall of the game. My guild in Earth and Beyond moved to Star Wars Galaxies, we played there for a couple years and of course i'm sure everyone knows what went on there, but the strange thing was EA was commissioned to oversee SWG - Japan. Well, EA made quick work of that game and before you knew it, it was shutdown as well.
This year EA shutdown Sims Online which really wasn't a surprise, Earth and Beyond players were offered a 1 month sub to Sims Online to try and Bait some players into moving over there, but overall the players were disgusted with the offer. EA has tried to make it in the market but continues imo to fail in first of all Managing and secondly Marketing. EA Shutdown Both sequals to their hit title Ultima Online before their planned release. According to their record they buy companies, Aquire their assests and games, and run them into the ground. So my advice to people who want to play Warhammer Online, play it but, consider their track record and be careful, do some research, I hope it never gets shutdown but, to all those that know EA, and their history with managing games, are gunshy to support anything EA produces.
Electronic Arts Games
Earth and Beyond - Shutdown
Sims Online - Shutdown
Motor City Online - Shutdown
Ultima Online sequals x2 - Shutdown before Release
SWG Japan - Shutdown
Quote from http://wiki.tentonhammer.com/index.php?title=Electronic_Arts
"EA is also notorious for the practice of rushing out products, setting extremely short deadlines and emphasizing good graphics to compensate for the lack of gameplay aspects originally intended by many developers, not implemented due to lack of time."
"EA is also criticized for shutting down its acquired studios after a poorly performing game. Many see EA's control and direction as being primarily responsible for the game's failure rather than the studio"
Keeper
Comments
well yhings have changed at EA and they ahve given there sub-divsions alot of freewill now.
mythic runs WAR but it is owned by EA.
there was an interview with mack jacobs discussing the EA/Mythic deal.
I don't expect WAR to experience the same fate as those other games for several reasons. Those other games were all aquired, weren't they? They don't sound as though they were particularly exciting or successful either, no offense intended.
WAR was made alongside EA from the start, and is a much more attractive game overall. Some may remember this but again I will say that at least one other larger IPs development and direction hinges in large part on the reception of WAR, IMO. They have to have WAR as a successful game so that they can research on a broad scale what players like and what works that can easily be applied to this Other Project.
edit: Not to mention they want to challenge Blizzard for the video game crown. Its the one thing Blizzard has that they don't, and I imagine that makes them jealous.
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Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
guess its a good thing mythic (daoc cough, still running cough) is running war, ya ya ea is the parent company but mythic is nearly completely autonamous on their running of the game, ea just gets to syphon off the profits
I Hope its changed for the better and maybe they have learned from their passed mistakes, but its still a good idea to procede with caution.
Keeper
EA has changed somewhat, they are letting developers keep thier identity example; Mythic, Bioware. They approve when Mark Jacobs went to the higher ups and said they need to delay WAR twice! IMO EA's CEO John Riccitiello has started to change the image of EA alot.
I don't think it will happen to WAR, but if EA tells Mythic to shutdown the game, Mythic can't argue with them.
Its hard to predict things like this, but its never good to have negative outlook on the future.
I remember when the rumors about Mythic being bought by EA started and they Denied, Denied, Denied it.
Now they say EA is the perfect boss, that gives and gives and gives money to develop, without asking or demanding of them anything.
But I wouldn't worry about it. Warhammer looks like it will be a fun game. And just don't put to much into these games. At anytime they can decide to shutdown if its costing them more then it makes. Mythic Entertainment did it with there Spellbinder, DFC, Magestorm games. But you can't expect people to just pay to maintain these games just so a handful of people can continue to enjoy them.
Thats like charity gaming... These are companies and you have to not lose yourself in the illusion and learn to enjoy them in moderation for what they are, Entertainment.
Also, by letting studios keep their titles, they can defer responsibility for failures without tarnishing EA's name.
"The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius."
-Oscar Wilde
There isn't one single MMO publisher that this can't and shouldn't be said about.
So hopefully War will have the same fate DAoC has had...you know still up and running after how many years?
Lets just hope mythic doesn't copy their parents company ethics.
I like the info though, nice.
i can see war having 500k-2mil subs within a year, ea wont shut down that kinda cash flow, look how many crappy madden games they churn out for suckering kids into spending 60 bucks, ea is a sucker for easy money and an mmo as good as war is easy money
Ultima Online - still up and running.
If Earth and Beyond had been profitable EA wouldnt have needed to close it.
my only experience with EA is through NHL/MADDEN/MLB series...which i love...so i got no beef at all with EA
You can't even write a proper sentence. Knowing this, I doubt you can see into the future.
Yea, sure, they are going to close game they pumped $100 mln into.
Any other bright ideas?
100 million... yea no i dont think so. Theres no WAR cost 100milion to make. It would be the be all end all MMO.
The only way EA would shutdown WAR is if it ran into the same subscription problems that AOC had. WAR would have to fal well under 200k subscriptions before EA would think about pulling the plug.
Hell, if EA owned AOC, they would probably shut down the game by the end of this year.
Rest in peace, Bullfrog.
Rest in peace, Westwood.
Rest in peace, Origin.
How any gamer can support this company is beyond me.
Same here.
RIP Flagship Studios
Isn't the battlefield series made by EA? Those are good games.
Motor City Online was so fun and the cars were just beautiful! I miss that game...
Well if 'good graphics' is a test, then WAR fans have nothing to worry about.
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im to lazy too use grammar or punctuation good
there will always be problems as long as 2 corps. have one game, arguments about cash, because it always come to cash in the end.
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Remember the good old days when devs made games just for the sake of making a great game?
They are forever gone now all they care is about how much they can earn from them, if they can't make millions they won't make that game.
REMEMBER THE OLD DAYS AND REGRET THEY HAVE PASSED.
I don't believe that War will have an issue as I believe it will be a lot more popular then those titles were. Those games all had a small, but loyal fanbase that followed them. EA is a company that wants a game to compete with Warcraft IMO. I believe that Warhammer will compete with Warcraft as it is a very similar game, but adds some things of it's own that are unique.
Even if its not going to shut down... i have the feeling that they are not going to add much content after realease until the next paid expansion. Just like wow does...
30 bucks for a single hero class and a couple of features promised at release? No way blizz