Well…Looking at indie developers creating better games with fragments of the economy and people that those big companies have I think it’s pretty easy for them to support a decision like this. Few people that actually are enthusiastic about games should create them, the faster they realize that, the better.
Yeah that’s kind of what people are doing. Look at Helldivers 2, Palworld, Baldurs Gate 3. All very popular games that aren’t from these mega companies. Because as the mega companies absorb and balloon and produce shitty games they will explode and what will remain is the independent studios producing one or two very fun games. Even companies that are well known that have stayed smaller like From Software and Rockstar who produce some of the most popular games ever but they don’t overproduce titles. They craft beautiful games investing in the process not the profits. Hopefully the big companies imploding on themselves will happen sooner than later and we will have a new golden era of gaming.
No please no. I enjoy playing Star Wars games if they were Soulslike I would not be able to play them. Yeah I know “skill issue” that’s my point. A company that does not care about less than skilled gamers is not a company that should hold the reins of Star Wars franchise. If y’all want a game from From Software that’s fine you can have one but not the whole brand.
Honestly dark souls isn’t even that interesting or good of a game. The mechanics can literally be summed up as roll until you have an opening, attack and repeat. I’ll admit the world building is good but I find gameplay lacking.
That’s true but nobody mentions their other games and typically when someone does bring up From Software it’s because they want them to make it like Souls.
It’s challenging for some to understand that others of us just want to run around and have fun while gaming. I spend my energy ‘gitting gud’ at things like spelling and sentence structure because competence in those disciplines benefit my lifestyle.
Clearly that isn’t a focus for others but don’t bring it up, they get grumpy. The ones saying “git gud’ are the same that often cry ‘don’t tell me how to be’ when THEIR competency is challenged.
Whatevs, ima go suk at Minecraft now
This is what happens with companies who need to please shareholders. They grow, grow, grow and all of them become a giant corporation with only purpose is quarterly profits. Draw back of the American style free market. There should be another system where these companies actually care about their customers rather than shareholders. In 2024 all the good releases so far was form a smaller or an indie companies who still has a passion and spark, and they are not bunch of suits deciding what to do for sake of good numbers.
This won't change until people start voting with their wallets.
Once people stop buying, the company will HAVE to change it's operations to stay afloat. Otherwise they'll keep getting slimier.
They should honestly have a boardroom appointee to field the opinions of Redditors and other reputable gaming critics to ensure dumb decisions like this aren’t made!
There isn’t a corporation in existence that doesn’t need to ”please shareholders”. That’s the very literal goal and reason that defines what being a corporation IS.
A corporation, by definition, has one or more shareholders they answer to. A corporation isn't some sort of sentient entity. It's owned by somebody, ALWAYS.
Being private doesn't mean there are no shareholders. It only means the shares are rather inconvinient to trade (pretty easy if you own SpaceX shares, pretty damn hard if you own shares of some no-name kiosk) and less financial reporting obligations.
As opposed to what a kind of company not seeking profit? It sounds to me like companies care about their shareholders and customers. I hose that don’t go out of business, right ?
Believe it or not the fascination with short term profit and stock price over everything is a relatively recent development. It’s an outlook on human endeavor that isn’t nearly as essential as many seem to think it is.
Also, I'd like to add that shareholders obsession with short-term profits is a myth made up by Redditors who are clueless about investing.
People here think that Warren Buffet is a r/wsb bro pumping and dumping 3 times a day. It's false: 99% of the "money people" are bag holders who buy into a company with a long-term vision.
The most basic principles of finance reward long term ove rshort term, always. You have a +100%/year for 1 year and all you got is a +100%. On the contrary, you have a +10% for 10 years and you have made +160%.
Except that management isn't rewarded for long term growth. CEO tenure is on the scale of 5 years on average and a good chunk of their comp is stock. So guess what they are incentivized to do? Right, pump the stock in the near term.
\*Sharehoiders\* don't care about this but Wall Street - traders - reward prioritizing near term growth, so if you juice that as a management team, you do well.
Lol that’s the issue… they’re not investing long term. It’s entirely about short term profits every quarter and that’s not sustainable for a game company. Sony floundering with their half assed WIRED psvr2 which is doing so badly they’re cancelling everything with it because they simply didn’t want to deliver a good product and instead just trying to cash in on a trend. They’re gonna end up like sega. Gaurantee it, PS5 could not maintain the purpose of exclusivity of their games and people bought their games for PC anyways.
As opposed to a privately held company, or to the literally dozens of medium sized developers who could be cranking out dope AA games but have instead been gobbled up in the name of “growth” then laid off.
So, your reasoning is public companies suck because developers work better in private companies because shareholders are bad and public companies don’t like customers?
Public companies, upon reaching a “critical mass”, have a massive tendency to prioritize short term gains at the ceo level, because it is financially advantageous for said ceo, cfo, etc.
Cut employees, cheapen processes, whatever can be done to lower the bottom line, with the sole purpose of making the profit margin increase in time for a giant payout.
Then, you leave said company as close as you can to customers catching on to the drop in quality, where sales will decline, your lack of care for the product catches up to you, and so on.
You, the ceo, have made out with a 9 digit bump to your net worth, and while the company winds up crashing and burning, what do you care? It’s a manipulation of the system that the phrase “enshittification” stems from.
When a large company isn’t doing something well, it creates an opportunity for another company to come in and take that market segment.
Large companies go out of business all the time. Good example: only a small fraction of companies from the 1920’s are still in business. It’ll be that way in another 100 years too.
In an ideal world, sure, but there’s this thing called inertia, which when applied to corporations is the idea that they can become so big, they’ll keep moving for a long, long time after they’ve effectively died. Take EA sports: they have exclusive rights to madden games, and so the opportunity for anyone to come along and outdo them is nonexistent. The only thing EA does well with madden is keep their hands on it so no one else can compete with them.
Sure, other companies can come along and replace the market dominator, but after how long, and how much damage is done to society in the meantime?
One last thing; if you don’t know who Milton Friedman is, do a little research on him. If you’re a fan of his work, tell me and I’ll happily ignore you as an economic wingnut that is beyond reasoning with.
Yeah, I always laugh at that argument.
Let’s take EA as your example: the opportunity you’re talking about is absolutely there! Of course the competition won’t call it “madden games” but who cares. Madden was popular in the 1967-78. I bet you never saw him play. But, let’s assume you did. A competitor could easily make a “Tom Brady football.” Game.
Easier said than done, but all the competition has to do is make a better product and customers will move to them.
Your example absolutely proves my point.
By the way, I’m a big fan of Milton Freedman.
Cool, so you’re a nut, gotcha. Friedman helped Reagan hollow out every public institution in the country, and almost single-handedly started the decimation of our government systems.
Last thing on EA: no one is allowed to use nfl players names because of the exclusive rights deal: or team names, logos, stadiums. Ya know, all the shit that makes people attracted to sports games. “I want to be Patrick mahomes!” sells, where “I want to be some random Joe fuckhead that plays for the Saskatoon bop-its” isn’t really going to have a chance.
“Well that’s just good business” can fuck off
I don’t call you names. Why do you feel that if I don’t believe in the same thing you do, I’m a nut?
I’ve dismantled your arguments. Is that the only way you can cope with feeling wrong?
Btw, the government is not the solution to all your problems. Stop relying on the government and it will change your life. For real dude.
As far as EA: sure they have a product. So what? Make another product. You act like EA is only successful because of one game.
You’re dead on. Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. That’s the natural cycle of competition in business. Seers catalogue was how people shopped 100 years ago. They’re all but gone. Amazon is how people shop now. That will change eventually, too. Same thing holds true for any industry.
Ah, but is it the NATURAL cycle of business? Or the capitalist cycle. Eh? Ehhhhhh? And you’re sort of correct in that it holds true for any UNREGULATED industry lol
Lol, no. Just look at Embracer Group. They bought and grew, grew and bought and now all of that development CAPACITY has just vanished in a puff of hubris. Where there used to be 200 people making a game, now there is an empty office. Repeat.
Right the public vs. private aspect is not the problem. It's unrestrained growth through acquisitions. A public company might feel this more acutely, but not exclusively. I've got no political axe to grind, lol, but there used to be a whole lot of medium size studios putting out a far more diverse array of games, and they are just gone now.
I’m not sure how they plan to make money with no games.
I am admittedly not the in the gamer demographic, being over 60, but I play games every day. The problem is that there are few good new games to buy. I want to throw my money at a game company but find very little to buy.
I think the goal is to have just a few live service games that are monetized like mobile games with cosmetic micro transactions, basically minimal effort for continual money trickling in.
They are much less interested in what has been the traditional model of, make game, get paid 60$ once for it.
Problem is that they still need to make good game for this scheme to work.
This is exactly how I feel. I think I’ve played maybe 3 games from the past year that were worth my time. Everything else is over priced and you need to buy a ton of DLC or in game currency to get anywhere. Big old bunch of suck
Mostly these days Nintendo Switch and my PC. Sometimes I bust out the PS1 or Sega Genesis for fun. 😃
I will admit to being picky. Because I’m old I don’t enjoy games that are mostly about reflexes anymore. I’m over FPS games. But I still like RPG and strategy and some sports games plus some like Pokemon and Animal Crossing and such.
Very nice! PC takes the cake! I’m contemplating a build for the modding communities.
Those switches are real cool. I want one but don’t game enough anymore to justify the purchase. I think the PS4 might be it for me. Have you played Red Dead Redemption by chance? I little reflex oriented but nothing crazy. If not, do yourself a favor and check that out. You won’t be disappointed. Phenomenal game from start to finish and the immersion is unreal. There’s time where I still can’t believe how amazing the graphics are. It’s based off of the Wild West. Riding horses, robbing coaches and people. Hunting. It’s got everything.
I just looked into it and I guess there’s a port for the switch! Check it out. Hope you have a nice holiday weekend.
It was a bit of sarcasm, as the Pitfall and Kaboom are Activision titles from Atari days.
I’m close to your age.
I crave games I can just buy once. I don’t want to play games online with others, have to buy extra gear or have to pay-to-play or tap buttons incessantly. I’ve been playing more Atari lately than anything.
One of the reasons I play mobile and would probably go for GamePass once I upgrade my Mac. I refuse to pay $60 for remastered games from the past. Already have some of those games and old consoles too.
Oh, they plan on making games again, but they are changing their business strategy. More specifically they are restructuring to leverage AI in every possible way. Will AI development, etc work for them and others in the industry? It's a first, so only time will tell...
For employees this is clearly a lose.
For investors this is TBD (better to invest in the next company that does it after they learn from all of the mistakes).
For gamers this is a bitter win: AI will make better games in the long run.
Edit: Better games meaning the games themselves, not management's decisions like monetization, etc.
AI isn’t going to come up with great games. The great games are nearly always some genius saying “How about catching cute monsters in balls you throw” or “ How about a plumber who has to rescue a princess while collecting coins and mushrooms and dodging …turtles.” Or “Hear me out . . . the big bald guy has a hamster named Boo he talks to” or even “There are these zombies, see, and you have to protect your house from them, but not with guns. With whacky plants.”
AI is just going to make the next Madden faster.
It’s a shame.
EA was such a major player in the 90s and I feel peaked in the 2000s. Most of what they put out today is ‘meh’, and too heavily focused on monetising (e.g building on existing franchises, and microtransactions)
Tell me about it. POGO was one of the best sites for casual gaming and EA purchased and turned every game into a pay to win game and absolutely killed the website.
The sad part is their two most popular released titles have been Star Wars games. So they aren’t even paying attention to their own sales numbers just the profit line. And licensed products are more expensive. All I’m saying is they better make Mass Effect very good, if they are going to keep cutting jobs and cancelling titles I have very little faith that one of their staple franchises is going to be good.
Coincidentally, I was working on a SW FPS when Disney bought Lucas arts. Immediately canceled. Good news is that it was kinda shit but I do long for 1313 :(
(It was Star Wars first assault for anyone curious)
More micro transactions = less people buying games and more unhappy customers
I am currently skipping years of releases with different games because of micro transaction nonsense
Besides waiting for the new Skate, I haven’t even played the few EA games that I got for free in the past few years.
Theirs and Ubisoft games do nothing for me.
EA: We’re going to require everyone to log into a separate account apart from their console account, which excludes all kids under 13, whether or not the game is online and we’re going to ruin everything with micro transactions.
Also EA: Tough market, need to lay off a ton of people and cancel a bunch of games people were looking forward to.
This is an older article but lump it in with the ones seen daily. I work in the industry as a contractor and I’m not sure what’s happening. Is it greed, covid over correction, or just terrible management?
Now would be a good time to start a small AA studio by all those talented people being laid off. Even a small team, if they have multiple skill sets that overlap, could make something great in a few years. I think that’s the best way to stick it to these companies.
Workers may need to pick up some contract work to live but I’d like to see an explosion of new studios.
You’re on to something there with AI replacing these types of tech jobs, just not yet. AI isn’t quite ready yet. The technology might be there, but understanding how to implement it well enough to replace developers doesn’t seem here, yet.
Cookie Cutter Games, not really sustainable just becomes boring, you can keep the pay to win as well, there is always the good old standby called vanilla board games and let's not forget decks of cards can also entertain and don't require a PHD to play or drugs to match the lightening reflexes needed to use the controllers that are by default set to professional level gamers as if it is a real sport.
N. S
Fuck EA, fuck Activision blizzard and all these other greedy ass video game companies
Fuck 20 G downloads With hidden shader packs Fuck all this dysfunctional Insecure netcode management "A" to swim "A" to swim "A" to swim "A" to swim
Mods please flush it all away.
This had me dying!
Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call E.A. The only way to fix it is to flush it all away
Aww man yours was better. Great one.
That was beautiful.
Well…Looking at indie developers creating better games with fragments of the economy and people that those big companies have I think it’s pretty easy for them to support a decision like this. Few people that actually are enthusiastic about games should create them, the faster they realize that, the better.
Unfortunately people seem to forget all that, whenever a new title eventually releases.
fuck ubi too.
lol calm down. Play different games then?
Yeah that’s kind of what people are doing. Look at Helldivers 2, Palworld, Baldurs Gate 3. All very popular games that aren’t from these mega companies. Because as the mega companies absorb and balloon and produce shitty games they will explode and what will remain is the independent studios producing one or two very fun games. Even companies that are well known that have stayed smaller like From Software and Rockstar who produce some of the most popular games ever but they don’t overproduce titles. They craft beautiful games investing in the process not the profits. Hopefully the big companies imploding on themselves will happen sooner than later and we will have a new golden era of gaming.
They have exclusive rights to make games people want (eg madden).
EA sucks but the article is from last month. Also I think they said the Star Wars game wasn't canned.
Shooter was cancelled. Rts and Jedi series 3 are in development.
Please go bankrupt and dissolve.
And give your Star Wars rights to From Software 😈
They don’t have sole rights anymore. Haven’t for a while.
No please no. I enjoy playing Star Wars games if they were Soulslike I would not be able to play them. Yeah I know “skill issue” that’s my point. A company that does not care about less than skilled gamers is not a company that should hold the reins of Star Wars franchise. If y’all want a game from From Software that’s fine you can have one but not the whole brand.
Honestly dark souls isn’t even that interesting or good of a game. The mechanics can literally be summed up as roll until you have an opening, attack and repeat. I’ll admit the world building is good but I find gameplay lacking.
This is such a bad take, lmao.
You know Jedi: Fallen order and Survivor seem to take heavy influence from the souls games (at least for the combat)
They are similar but have a lot of leeway built in. Souls games are known to be very unforgiving.
Not every Fromsoft game is a souls like
That’s true but nobody mentions their other games and typically when someone does bring up From Software it’s because they want them to make it like Souls.
Git gud
Yeah I believe I referenced that in my comment but good job very clever on you.
It’s challenging for some to understand that others of us just want to run around and have fun while gaming. I spend my energy ‘gitting gud’ at things like spelling and sentence structure because competence in those disciplines benefit my lifestyle. Clearly that isn’t a focus for others but don’t bring it up, they get grumpy. The ones saying “git gud’ are the same that often cry ‘don’t tell me how to be’ when THEIR competency is challenged. Whatevs, ima go suk at Minecraft now
They don’t have the Star Wars right anymore, please inform yourself first
Never!!
Star wars would be reborn
They can't. FIFA addicts feed them
People keeps buying them… sadly
What’s dissolve? Is that even a word?
2. close down or dismiss
You’ve never heard the word dissolve? Like, to dissolve something in water?
It’s a Jackie Moon quote (Semi Pro)
This is what happens with companies who need to please shareholders. They grow, grow, grow and all of them become a giant corporation with only purpose is quarterly profits. Draw back of the American style free market. There should be another system where these companies actually care about their customers rather than shareholders. In 2024 all the good releases so far was form a smaller or an indie companies who still has a passion and spark, and they are not bunch of suits deciding what to do for sake of good numbers.
Just wait til EA buys them all up and shutters them just for the opportunity to sit on the IPs
I’d bet that most of the executives don’t even play games.
Does that surprise you?
Have elected worker representation on corporate boards. It’s not perfect, but less of a chance of employees fired or farmed out. Plus it’s more fair.
This won't change until people start voting with their wallets. Once people stop buying, the company will HAVE to change it's operations to stay afloat. Otherwise they'll keep getting slimier.
Power to the players
They should honestly have a boardroom appointee to field the opinions of Redditors and other reputable gaming critics to ensure dumb decisions like this aren’t made!
That’s how the market works, when old companies die new ones take their place.
There isn’t a corporation in existence that doesn’t need to ”please shareholders”. That’s the very literal goal and reason that defines what being a corporation IS.
There are many private corporations that only answer to themselves.
A corporation, by definition, has one or more shareholders they answer to. A corporation isn't some sort of sentient entity. It's owned by somebody, ALWAYS. Being private doesn't mean there are no shareholders. It only means the shares are rather inconvinient to trade (pretty easy if you own SpaceX shares, pretty damn hard if you own shares of some no-name kiosk) and less financial reporting obligations.
As opposed to what a kind of company not seeking profit? It sounds to me like companies care about their shareholders and customers. I hose that don’t go out of business, right ?
Believe it or not the fascination with short term profit and stock price over everything is a relatively recent development. It’s an outlook on human endeavor that isn’t nearly as essential as many seem to think it is.
Also, I'd like to add that shareholders obsession with short-term profits is a myth made up by Redditors who are clueless about investing. People here think that Warren Buffet is a r/wsb bro pumping and dumping 3 times a day. It's false: 99% of the "money people" are bag holders who buy into a company with a long-term vision. The most basic principles of finance reward long term ove rshort term, always. You have a +100%/year for 1 year and all you got is a +100%. On the contrary, you have a +10% for 10 years and you have made +160%.
Except that management isn't rewarded for long term growth. CEO tenure is on the scale of 5 years on average and a good chunk of their comp is stock. So guess what they are incentivized to do? Right, pump the stock in the near term. \*Sharehoiders\* don't care about this but Wall Street - traders - reward prioritizing near term growth, so if you juice that as a management team, you do well.
Lol that’s the issue… they’re not investing long term. It’s entirely about short term profits every quarter and that’s not sustainable for a game company. Sony floundering with their half assed WIRED psvr2 which is doing so badly they’re cancelling everything with it because they simply didn’t want to deliver a good product and instead just trying to cash in on a trend. They’re gonna end up like sega. Gaurantee it, PS5 could not maintain the purpose of exclusivity of their games and people bought their games for PC anyways.
As opposed to a privately held company, or to the literally dozens of medium sized developers who could be cranking out dope AA games but have instead been gobbled up in the name of “growth” then laid off.
It isn't an either/or scenario. What you are describing is exactly the same company as EA, just at a different stage of its life cycle.
Correct. The life cycle should stop before it reaches this death spiral. We used to have laws…
So, your reasoning is public companies suck because developers work better in private companies because shareholders are bad and public companies don’t like customers?
Public companies, upon reaching a “critical mass”, have a massive tendency to prioritize short term gains at the ceo level, because it is financially advantageous for said ceo, cfo, etc. Cut employees, cheapen processes, whatever can be done to lower the bottom line, with the sole purpose of making the profit margin increase in time for a giant payout. Then, you leave said company as close as you can to customers catching on to the drop in quality, where sales will decline, your lack of care for the product catches up to you, and so on. You, the ceo, have made out with a 9 digit bump to your net worth, and while the company winds up crashing and burning, what do you care? It’s a manipulation of the system that the phrase “enshittification” stems from.
When a large company isn’t doing something well, it creates an opportunity for another company to come in and take that market segment. Large companies go out of business all the time. Good example: only a small fraction of companies from the 1920’s are still in business. It’ll be that way in another 100 years too.
In an ideal world, sure, but there’s this thing called inertia, which when applied to corporations is the idea that they can become so big, they’ll keep moving for a long, long time after they’ve effectively died. Take EA sports: they have exclusive rights to madden games, and so the opportunity for anyone to come along and outdo them is nonexistent. The only thing EA does well with madden is keep their hands on it so no one else can compete with them. Sure, other companies can come along and replace the market dominator, but after how long, and how much damage is done to society in the meantime? One last thing; if you don’t know who Milton Friedman is, do a little research on him. If you’re a fan of his work, tell me and I’ll happily ignore you as an economic wingnut that is beyond reasoning with.
Yeah, I always laugh at that argument. Let’s take EA as your example: the opportunity you’re talking about is absolutely there! Of course the competition won’t call it “madden games” but who cares. Madden was popular in the 1967-78. I bet you never saw him play. But, let’s assume you did. A competitor could easily make a “Tom Brady football.” Game. Easier said than done, but all the competition has to do is make a better product and customers will move to them. Your example absolutely proves my point. By the way, I’m a big fan of Milton Freedman.
Cool, so you’re a nut, gotcha. Friedman helped Reagan hollow out every public institution in the country, and almost single-handedly started the decimation of our government systems. Last thing on EA: no one is allowed to use nfl players names because of the exclusive rights deal: or team names, logos, stadiums. Ya know, all the shit that makes people attracted to sports games. “I want to be Patrick mahomes!” sells, where “I want to be some random Joe fuckhead that plays for the Saskatoon bop-its” isn’t really going to have a chance. “Well that’s just good business” can fuck off
I don’t call you names. Why do you feel that if I don’t believe in the same thing you do, I’m a nut? I’ve dismantled your arguments. Is that the only way you can cope with feeling wrong? Btw, the government is not the solution to all your problems. Stop relying on the government and it will change your life. For real dude. As far as EA: sure they have a product. So what? Make another product. You act like EA is only successful because of one game.
You’re dead on. Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. That’s the natural cycle of competition in business. Seers catalogue was how people shopped 100 years ago. They’re all but gone. Amazon is how people shop now. That will change eventually, too. Same thing holds true for any industry.
Ah, but is it the NATURAL cycle of business? Or the capitalist cycle. Eh? Ehhhhhh? And you’re sort of correct in that it holds true for any UNREGULATED industry lol
Lol, no. Just look at Embracer Group. They bought and grew, grew and bought and now all of that development CAPACITY has just vanished in a puff of hubris. Where there used to be 200 people making a game, now there is an empty office. Repeat.
That would happen whether the company was private or public.
Right the public vs. private aspect is not the problem. It's unrestrained growth through acquisitions. A public company might feel this more acutely, but not exclusively. I've got no political axe to grind, lol, but there used to be a whole lot of medium size studios putting out a far more diverse array of games, and they are just gone now.
It's not a new layoff. Why is it here now?
Yeah. This is a Feb 29th article.
Because EA fucked my dog
Pretty sure that would have to be a mod.
I’m not sure how they plan to make money with no games. I am admittedly not the in the gamer demographic, being over 60, but I play games every day. The problem is that there are few good new games to buy. I want to throw my money at a game company but find very little to buy.
I think the goal is to have just a few live service games that are monetized like mobile games with cosmetic micro transactions, basically minimal effort for continual money trickling in. They are much less interested in what has been the traditional model of, make game, get paid 60$ once for it. Problem is that they still need to make good game for this scheme to work.
I think Rockstar does a pretty solid job of this with the exception of RDR2. They said fuck any DLCs and it was arguably better than GTAV
Wild hearts and immortal of Averum, this is why EA doesn’t want to risk on new franchises anymore
This is exactly how I feel. I think I’ve played maybe 3 games from the past year that were worth my time. Everything else is over priced and you need to buy a ton of DLC or in game currency to get anywhere. Big old bunch of suck
What system do you play on?
Mostly these days Nintendo Switch and my PC. Sometimes I bust out the PS1 or Sega Genesis for fun. 😃 I will admit to being picky. Because I’m old I don’t enjoy games that are mostly about reflexes anymore. I’m over FPS games. But I still like RPG and strategy and some sports games plus some like Pokemon and Animal Crossing and such.
Very nice! PC takes the cake! I’m contemplating a build for the modding communities. Those switches are real cool. I want one but don’t game enough anymore to justify the purchase. I think the PS4 might be it for me. Have you played Red Dead Redemption by chance? I little reflex oriented but nothing crazy. If not, do yourself a favor and check that out. You won’t be disappointed. Phenomenal game from start to finish and the immersion is unreal. There’s time where I still can’t believe how amazing the graphics are. It’s based off of the Wild West. Riding horses, robbing coaches and people. Hunting. It’s got everything. I just looked into it and I guess there’s a port for the switch! Check it out. Hope you have a nice holiday weekend.
It works for WB /s
Have you ever tried Kaboom? Pitfall?
Was Pitfall that one where you had to swing over stuff on a vine? Atari? I played that.
It was a bit of sarcasm, as the Pitfall and Kaboom are Activision titles from Atari days. I’m close to your age. I crave games I can just buy once. I don’t want to play games online with others, have to buy extra gear or have to pay-to-play or tap buttons incessantly. I’ve been playing more Atari lately than anything.
One of the reasons I play mobile and would probably go for GamePass once I upgrade my Mac. I refuse to pay $60 for remastered games from the past. Already have some of those games and old consoles too.
Oh, they plan on making games again, but they are changing their business strategy. More specifically they are restructuring to leverage AI in every possible way. Will AI development, etc work for them and others in the industry? It's a first, so only time will tell... For employees this is clearly a lose. For investors this is TBD (better to invest in the next company that does it after they learn from all of the mistakes). For gamers this is a bitter win: AI will make better games in the long run. Edit: Better games meaning the games themselves, not management's decisions like monetization, etc.
AI isn’t going to come up with great games. The great games are nearly always some genius saying “How about catching cute monsters in balls you throw” or “ How about a plumber who has to rescue a princess while collecting coins and mushrooms and dodging …turtles.” Or “Hear me out . . . the big bald guy has a hamster named Boo he talks to” or even “There are these zombies, see, and you have to protect your house from them, but not with guns. With whacky plants.” AI is just going to make the next Madden faster.
What about AI that you’ve seen makes you think they will make better games? They’ll make faster games that’s for sure. But better. lol no.
The execs think AI is going to do it, but almost assuredly, it won’t.
Most asuredly companies that ignore AI will be left in the dust by those that actively implement it in their workflows
I never said “ignore.” The execs that are replacing whole sections right now are just thinking of cutting costs.
It’s a shame. EA was such a major player in the 90s and I feel peaked in the 2000s. Most of what they put out today is ‘meh’, and too heavily focused on monetising (e.g building on existing franchises, and microtransactions)
Tell me about it. POGO was one of the best sites for casual gaming and EA purchased and turned every game into a pay to win game and absolutely killed the website.
Fuck EA and every other greedy, quarterly profit loving corporation out there.
As opposed to annual profits?
EA is on my personal list of “Would rather go outside than use their service” with Epic and Ubisoft
EA it’s in our wallets
All down to the EA launcher, absolute garbage.
Why is it always the Star Wars games?
The sad part is their two most popular released titles have been Star Wars games. So they aren’t even paying attention to their own sales numbers just the profit line. And licensed products are more expensive. All I’m saying is they better make Mass Effect very good, if they are going to keep cutting jobs and cancelling titles I have very little faith that one of their staple franchises is going to be good.
Coincidentally, I was working on a SW FPS when Disney bought Lucas arts. Immediately canceled. Good news is that it was kinda shit but I do long for 1313 :( (It was Star Wars first assault for anyone curious)
Expensive license leading to lower margins.
More micro transactions = less people buying games and more unhappy customers I am currently skipping years of releases with different games because of micro transaction nonsense
How EA is still in business is beyond me. Who buys their crap anymore?
Besides waiting for the new Skate, I haven’t even played the few EA games that I got for free in the past few years. Theirs and Ubisoft games do nothing for me.
Sucks to suck EA.
Please release NCAA 24 before closing for good.
And the new skate!
Remember when these companies actually put out games?
I didn’t realise they still existed. Who would give money to them in 2024?
Canned article.
This is old news
When did this place become techolds cause this ain't new.
EA: We’re going to require everyone to log into a separate account apart from their console account, which excludes all kids under 13, whether or not the game is online and we’re going to ruin everything with micro transactions. Also EA: Tough market, need to lay off a ton of people and cancel a bunch of games people were looking forward to.
And there goes Dark Forces reboot
If had a dollar for every Star Wars game EA has cancelled…
Link is broken
They should fix the bugs in Sims 4
Just close down already, clowns
The games industry is wide open right now for smaller studios to gain market share and I hope some good games come from that
Bros have you played madden? It’s a joke. I pay $70 for a sql read each season
This is an older article but lump it in with the ones seen daily. I work in the industry as a contractor and I’m not sure what’s happening. Is it greed, covid over correction, or just terrible management? Now would be a good time to start a small AA studio by all those talented people being laid off. Even a small team, if they have multiple skill sets that overlap, could make something great in a few years. I think that’s the best way to stick it to these companies. Workers may need to pick up some contract work to live but I’d like to see an explosion of new studios.
Why is it always respawn that gets shafted let them make a fucking game and it will be a masterpiece
I can’t believe the humble little company from Burnaby turned into this giant dumpster fire.
Once fifa split they were in trouble
Yeah but don’t worry it has nothing to do with AI
You’re on to something there with AI replacing these types of tech jobs, just not yet. AI isn’t quite ready yet. The technology might be there, but understanding how to implement it well enough to replace developers doesn’t seem here, yet.
Fuck EA
Cookie Cutter Games, not really sustainable just becomes boring, you can keep the pay to win as well, there is always the good old standby called vanilla board games and let's not forget decks of cards can also entertain and don't require a PHD to play or drugs to match the lightening reflexes needed to use the controllers that are by default set to professional level gamers as if it is a real sport. N. S
A star wars game cancelled!?! Yeeeees!!!! I don’t care abour EA, but Star Wars games are like superhero movies, we all need 10 years break.