Is EA killing the video game industry

[deh-cheesekake]

I have read quite a lot of "firm" views against EA and how they are drowning out competition by engulfing them as sub companies then making them conform to EAs money grabbing tactics. is anyone able to tell me how much of this is true and how much is hyped up rumor? I have to admin I am not a fan of EAs way of doing things and I do not like the idea of them scanning my PC when I run their software

If you want to know where these 1 sided views I mentioned were from then they stem mainly from this youtube video (I find it very funny)
[video=youtube;e-LE0ycgkBQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LE0ycgkBQ[/video]

 

[Kalisnoir]

Welcome, welcome as you have now become another member of the gaming society engulfed by mis-fed information.

I have to admin I am not a fan of EAs way of doing things and I do not like the idea of them scanning my PC when I run their software

This is for sure the one I see that creeps up the most. What does Steam have in common with Origin? They both scan your computer... what for? To check for games already installed as well as hardware which in turn gives them free statistics. Does Origin access any more information then Steam does? No. Think of the internet as a really big game of Chinese whispers and try not to take everything you find as truth (although unfortunately it can be easy to fall for) although I suppose you could quite easily come back at me and say "well how can you believe that Origin only scans the same as Steam?" touche, however EA have came out & said exactly what is scanned and say have said no personal information will be obtained so unless they fancy a million pound law suit I imagine they will stay clear of that.

Next, basically the whole controversy over companies 'like' EA is that people claim they are greedy, the same is said for practically all major publishers and the reason is simply that as the gaming industry moves on, there are (and always will be (at no fault to their own)) people who are stuck in the past. Remember how back on the PlayStation 1/2 or the Xbox you bought a game and that was it, so now days games get updates and DLC. The problem people see with this is that it is seen that games are being developed half arsed, released early and "fixed" afterwards while people suffer in the mean time. The two answers to that is 1. Yes, publishers are forcing developers to rush the completion of games. 2. Games are much, much more complicated to develop now then they were 10 years ago, compare the first few games you saw on a "next gen" console (Xbox 360 / PS3) compared to now and you can see that developers are constantly pushing the hardware to the limit without any upgrades to the hardware them selves all in a uphill struggle to keep games looking fresh and to keep people buying them.

It takes longer to make a game of the same size in modern expectations than it did back in the days of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. To compromise for this, the clever boffins in the fancy cars came up with DLC, this allowed them to release a game in the same time frame (albeit less game) and bang on extras afterwards to keep the game interesting and also earn more money (win win for both teams right?)

Say what you will, at the end of the day it is down to each individual person to decide how they see the current gaming industry and not through the words of some man writing a blog about the decline of the industry because he has nothing better to do then rant all day.

My own personal opinion? Sure, in a sense it is cheeky to charge more, for less of a game, and expect to then release DLC and charge for it but you have to realize that it is extremely costly to develop a game. How can big companies be killing the game industry when in the past few years we're seeing more & more innovative games breach the market as indie developers are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. The games industry is huge, and it's only getting bigger generating more and more money per year which in turn gives us great games.

I may of said some things wrong in there, but given its 2 AM and I'm going to bed I honestly can't be bothered to read-proof it! Like I said, each to their own but look and think with your own eyes and brain to come up with your own reasonable answer.

 

[steaky360]

Well said! I agree with everything Kalisnoir wrote.

It is an exciting time to be in the gaming industry especially as a gamer. More time and effort is being poured into the games we love now than ever before. Even if it turns out the game is a console port, its likely that the game itself is excellent, well made and has a good grounding story-wise. Gamer's expectations have grown quite a long way since the days of the Megadrive and SNES etc. As much as I'm likely to be corrected, I wouldn't imagine people would be happy paying top shelf game prices for a game like Sonic the Hedgehog today. It would need to be a revamp and most likely, it would need to be far cheaper.

Also the gaming sector as a whole has grown massively over the last few years (I would suggest its likely due to the popularity of the console's), the issue with the likes of EA being greedy (etc) though is a bit misleading. It is every company's goal to grow, prosper and earn more profit. The easiest way to do this for most companies will be to increase in size (and produce more). I guess my point is that they are essentially all greedy, right down to the tiny start ups. They just might not realise it yet, either they will be successful (in which case they will grow, or be bought out by a larger company) or they wont. It's not just EA, they just got there first and are getting all the bad press.

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

EA are evil, sure, but I always look on the bright side of life...they could be Activision

 

[rickne]

EA are evil, sure, but I always look on the bright side of life...they could be VIVENDI

I fixed this for you

 

[deh-cheesekake]

Thanks for your views, on this topic. I find it quite intrusting to see how video game companies have developed over the years but I still do however prefer the older games such as HL2, TF2 & Minecraft to games like BattleField 3

 

[rickne]

Its all the always online Drm thats gets me ...cough UBISOFT...cough

 

[tom_gr7]

lol that was a pretty naf video....

but anyway... I like origin, never had a problem with it. You can also choose where you want to install the games. for example, I've installed Origin and bf3 on my ssd, but my other origin games can be installed straight away to my caviar black. With no messing, messing that would be required to do that with steam.