Publishing house Electronic arts long and very deservedly holds the post of Evil Corporation. However, even bad guys tend to change, which is now happening with the company. But it’s worthwhile to figure out what affected this, as well as what awaits the players further.
Andrew Wilson Lootboxes
To understand what’s going on, you need to understand the origins of EA’s problems. Let’s get acquainted with their main annoying factor. Of course, we are talking about lootboxes.
Rewind time back. In March 2007, went on sale UEFA Champions League 2006–2007 – a branch from the main series of sports FIFA. It was the lazy Ruskin of the main series, whose task was to earn some more money.
But in 2007, the developers decided to add a new mode – Ultimate team. It was invented by a leading producer Ken Slayerwho wanted to diversify this stripped-down FIFA piece by adding a mechanic similar to collectible sticker albums from Panini. Opening packs with a random set of cards, the player got the opportunity to assemble the team of his dreams: find players, coaches, equipment, stadiums and even change the gameplay.
It was also decided to create an online trading exchange, allowing players to exchange and trade cards. There were no microtransactions – the currency needed to be earned, playing in single player mode and online. Duplicate cards could also be added to the sticker album: collecting sets, the player was rewarded with additional rewards.
In 2009, EA license to manufacture games for UEFA expired, but the publisher decided not to renew the contract, as the sub-series was unprofitable. Instead, it was decided to integrate Ultimate Team into the FIFA series. Then I went on stage Matthew Prior, who now holds the position of creative director of the flagship series of the company. He prepared a concept development plan and handed it over to his executive producer, who was Andrew Wilson. He supported the idea of turning sticker packs into microtransactions in FIFA 09.
And it turned out to be a real oil field. Four years after this, Wilson became the head of all Electronic Arts, changing the gaming industry forever.
The integration of Ultimate Team immediately began to bring in a huge amount of money, so EA management decided to add lootboxes to other games. So, in 2012 comes out Mass effect 3, which was equipped with a horde regime, and developers were advised by employees EA Canada. By recognition BiowareThe success was incredible. So, one of the players managed to spend 15 thousand dollars on chests.
As for FIFA, in just two years, card sales brought EA $ 100 million. In 2014, the company reported that revenue from sales of packs increased to $ 380 million (sales in Madden nfl) In 2017, Ultimate Team brought in $ 800 million.
According to a July 2019 report, Ultimate Team accounts for about 28% of EA’s revenue. At the same time, the share of sales of FIFA 19 itself was only 14%.
It is in the Ultimate Team that is the root of all current EA problems. Why do many projects, if you can save on development, but add lootboxes to the game? The developers had to think about how to implement microtransactions more efficiently. Aggressive planting of mechanics, more typical of mobile games, led to the fact that not only players, but also the governments of several countries drew attention to the situation. As a result, the publishing house turned back a bit, starting to study alternative earning opportunities. But it did not affect the flagship series of sports.
DICE problem
The roots of the second problem lie in Sweden. In 2008, the studio Dice made another attempt to transfer its flagship franchise Battlefield to the console market. Unlike the previous ones, this involved attracting players with a more compact multiplayer, a storyline about a detachment of morons in pursuit of a gold reserve and the introduction of destructible objects. It goes About Battlefield: Bad Company, which was developed on a new engine Frostbite.
The project was generally successful, but the sequel exceeded the original. Subseries almost completely got rid of humor. Despite the more boring plot, Bad company 2 still remains the reference game. She also sold great. Just around that time, it was decided to turn Battlefield into a competitor Call of Duty.
So started the development Battlefield 3, which required the concentration of all studio resources. I had to put a cooperative mode under the knife Onslaught for the PC version of Bad Company 2, as well as technical support Battlefield 1943, which did not receive either a PC port or new cards.
The game was worth the candle: the studio managed to make a blockbuster, which sold a million copies. However, the victims were still inevitable, and here – the console versions of the game were greatly reduced compared to the PC. BF3 introduced an updated version of the graphics engine Frostbite, which from that moment begins to forcefully take root in other EA projects.
Despite the visual merits of Frostbite, it is very difficult to work with it, adapting it to other tasks. Many things have to be invented again. However, EA did not care. Apparently, the forced planting of the Swedish development is due to the fact that immigrants from the studio made their way to the top of the food pyramid. So, until 2018, the executive director of the publishing house was Patrick Soderlund, before that headed DICE.
The influence of the Swedes led to the fact that Need for speed, FIFA, Mass effect, Dragon age, Army of two and many other games have switched to a new engine. Somewhere the transition looked relatively useless, but somewhere it led to disaster. So, studio Visceral I couldn’t get used to Frostbite. Their first game was Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel, which visually looked very weak. Battlefield hardline inferior in schedule Battlefield 4, and the project Ragtag in the Star Wars universe turned into a nightmare, which led to the cancellation of the game and the closure of the studio.
Studying the statements of the former employees of EA, it seems that DICE, in principle, makes poor contact, reveling in its status as a flagship studio. So, the Swedes played an important role in the fall of the franchise Medal of honor, which was supposed to alternate with Battlefield. As staff said Danger close, colleagues poorly made contact and constantly mocked them.
The absurdity is that the Swedish DICE cannot pull the development and support of the project on its own. This is clearly seen in games starting with Battlefield 4, which came out incredibly raw. The project was pulled by the Danger Close studio, which after the collapse Medal of Honor: Warfighter has been converted to DICE Los Angeles.
The situation is also affected by staff turnover. In recent years, the studio has been left without many specialists in the engine. This has led to numerous problems. Battlefield v. While communicating with influencers, company employees actively hinted that part of the game’s problems is directly related to Frostbite.
The fifth part was generally the quintessence of all the problems of the franchise. A failed advertising campaign, a raw version of the game, stubborn attempts to change the TTC, poor support, the release of the stillborn Royal Battle, the cancellation of the already prepared 5v5 competitive mode.
And apparently, the patience of Electronic Arts has burst. At the end of January, it became known that DICE was waiting for major changes: the publisher changed the management team of the Stockholm studio. In addition, the producer of the multiplayer Battlefield V David sirland announced his departure from the team after 11 years of work. He filed for dismissal a few months ago, but officially this was announced only recently.
The second hit is related to DICE LA. The American team was headed by a head about a year ago Respawn Vince zampella, and its name will be changed. According to the latest EA financial report, the next part of Battlefield is due out in 2023-2022. And DICE will have to release it on their own.
Zampella Sunrise
A change of rules was made possible by Respawn Entertainment, founded by Vince Zampella and Jason West. They became famous thanks to the shooter Medal of honorwhich was created under the patronage Steven Spielbergand in the studio Dreamworks interactive. When EA decided to buy the studio, they ran to Activision. Having formed Infinity ward, Zampella and West created Call of Duty. However after release Modern warfare 2 they already had a fight with Activision, where there was a semblance of a raider takeover of the team. The circle closed, and eminent developers again found themselves in EA.
Apparently, in the early years, Respawn was not sweet. Their debut shooter Titanfall was multi-platform. However, the developers were informed after the fact that the project will be a temporary Xbox One exclusive, which infuriated Zampella. As for West, he left the company before the announcement of the game.
Even more sad is the story of Titanfall 2, which was already multi-platform, but it was shoved into the release window between Call of Duty and Battlefield 1. The conflict between Zampella and the ruling squad of EA eventually went into public space. In an interview with the Glixel portal, the developer allowed himself to make a number of obscene attacks on the side of the leadership, which significantly distinguishes him from other developers inside EA, shackled by corporate ethics.
However, 2019 was a turning point. At the beginning of the year release Apex legends. Thanks to the masterly planned marketing company, the game has become a phenomenon, albeit a rather short-term one. The Battle Royale gained its loyal audience and was able to bring tens of millions of dollars to its creators. And at the end of the year she left Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – Star Wars action game without microtransactions and multiplayer. Despite the roughness, the game was well received by the public, which allowed it to disperse in circulation in the region of eight million copies.
An important fact is that Respawn projects were not made on Frostbite. Titanfall 1-2 and Apex are based on a modernized Source engine, and the Fallen Order generally uses Unreal engine 4, which greatly facilitates the work of the team.
The combination of these factors exalted Vince Zampella in the eyes of the authorities and shareholders. He was entrusted with taking control of DICE LA, which is quite symbolic, because the studio appeared after the merger of DreamWorks Interactive and Westwood studios. Hopefully, with him, the team will come out of the shadow of the Swedes.
Crisis in Canada
Another outsider listed Bioware. The crisis in it was outlined for a long time, but somehow the studio could cope with it. In particular, managed to save Dragon Age: Inquisitionexperiencing a complete change of concept and overcoming production hell at the cost of billions of nerve cells of developers. But the BioWare leadership believed too much in their own greatness, and routine replaced the work of creativity.
The studio is an excellent example of what is generally wrong with EA: poor communication between departments, lack of sane quality control, idiotic competition between different branches. Just look at Mass effect: andromeda, which is made according to the patterns of Inquisition, but inferior to it in everything.
However Anthem managed to fall even lower Andromeda. An uncharacteristic project for the studio, constant debate about the concept, fake demonstrations of gameplay, a disgusting release that managed to bring down the network infrastructure of ALL publisher’s games. Not surprisingly, it is BioWare that players consider the main candidate for closure. Apparently, EA also understands this, which decided to give the once-great studio the last chance.
A restart of Anthem was announced this year. It is about a complete rethinking of the main gameplay loop by adding clear goals, motivating trials and progression with significant rewards. The very essence of the game – flights and battles within the framework of an extensive science and fantasy setting – will remain in place. However, the studio did not provide any specifics, so skepticism persists.
What about other projects? Austin continues to support IMO The old republicHowever, funding was clearly reduced. In addition, in production hell floundering Dragon age 4which has already been credited with restarting. There are also rumors that EA is working on a restart project. Knights of the old republic.
Strange PR and Production Hell
2019 was marked for EA with non-standard gestures in marketing and PR. It is associated with a strange advertising of studio projects. As mentioned above, Apex Legends was advertised through streamers, bloggers, and other influencers. Despite the fact that the players tried to convince of “spontaneity” and “surprise”, everything was calculated.
Apparently, the publisher perceived the success of the project as a signal for action. As a result, they did not normally promote Need for speed heat and Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville. They were also mostly advertised through streamers. Accustomed to the standard methods of promotion, people found themselves in an information vacuum.
This strategy played against EA, because nothing was heard about the successes of these two games, and the Ghost Games studio, which was responsible for NFS, was now demoted to the support team and renamed EA Gothenburg . Franchise transferred to the care Criterion: creators Burnout will develop the next part of Need for Speed for next-generation platforms.
At the same time, EA managed to quietly kill spin-offs. Star Wars: Battlefrontwho grew out of long-suffering Project orca, which in turn emerged from the canceled Project Ragtag. According to the data Kotaku, the publisher planned to quickly build a game based on groundwork, plugging the release hole in the fall of 2023. The leading role in the project was played by Criterion studio, which did not cope with ambitions.
EA looks to the future
Despite a bunch of problems, Electronic Arts is still livelier than all the living and raking money with a shovel. However, management is still aware of the need for change. The process goes with a creak, but a start has been made.
Earlier Andrew Wilson shared the plans of the publisher to develop the popular brand The Sims. According to the comment of the top manager, the developers of the next part of the game intend to expand their online functionality, focusing on social interaction and competition between players, as well as on encouraging creativity.
Wilson mentioned as a guide MMO The sims online (she EA Land), which lasted from 2002 to 2008, but could not become popular. He also recalled that the Sims series will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary. The new project from Maxis will be cross-platform, but developers are not ready to abandon offline mode.
As the head of the studio said EA Motive Patrick Klaus, Electronic Arts has completely changed priorities. The emphasis is now on the quality of projects, and the strategy for the release of MVP (minimally viable product) is gradually dying. Klaus added that Motive employees are currently working on two projects, one of which is related to Star Wars. Perhaps he is associated with a new initiative Lucasfilm entitled Project luminous.
Publisher feels good in the mobile market. So, over the past six years, mobile games based on the Star Wars saga in application stores App store and Google play earned over a billion dollars. The lion’s share fell on Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes from Electronic Arts, which brought the creators of 924 million dollars.
The company has also revised its affiliate program. If earlier she sponsored large AAA projects from third-party studios (Crysis), now the emphasis is on independent teams. Thanks to this, they came to light A way out, Fe and other indie games. Gamers will also be pleased to know that the publisher has revised its views on the release of remasters, so soon we can expect to reissue the trilogy Mass Effect and other series.
Will EA Change? The answer to this question we should find out soon. This fall, sales of new generation consoles will start, which will give rise to a new cycle. However, we can say with confidence that the company does not intend to engage in charity work. Nothing personal – just business.
Read also: The future of Ubisoft after the failure of game services: A new strategy, an old leadership and a course on diversity
The future of Star Wars in the clutches of Mickey Mouse: From The Mandalore to Knights of the Old Republic
Project Luminous: Lucasfilm is preparing to launch the next phase of Star Wars
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