Simcity

[Wiglaf]

Shamelessly stolen from Reddit:

It's okay though - he will just accept the first job he comes across.

I hate this so much. It's not inherently a flaw in the simulation that sims don't have fixed jobs. Properly implemented, it changes nothing. Even as implemented now, you have to go out of your way to make that quirk meaningfully problematic for your city.

There is nothing new or innovative about their games except how they try to nickle and dime people for things which should have been included as part of the purchase price to begin with.

If they can make more money with it as DLC, it shouldn't be free with the game. Their strategy with the sims has been amazingly successful.

[Wiglaf]

It's not even mostly true, by the way. Sims don't go to any house or jobs. Their wealth class is persistent, as is education level etc. A rich sim agent will not seek out or "deposit" in a poor house or business.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Lace curtain sims.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Then like me too.

Post something insightful, intelligent and original on occasion.

[The Mad Monk]

As Earnings Falter And SimCity Fires Burn, John Riccitiello Steps Down As EA CEO
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EA has announced just minutes ago that John Riccitiello will step down as CEO of the company. After poor earnings and a tidal wave of negative PR surrounding big titles over the past few years like Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mass Effect 3 and most recently, SimCity, it appears a change was in order.

Larry Probst has been appointed executive chairman while EA searches for a new CEO. There’s not a hint of negativity in the entire press release from Mr. Probst, which pitches Riccitiello leaving as a “leadership transition.”

“We thank John for his contributions to EA since he was appointed CEO in 2007, especially the passion, dedication and energy he brought to the Company every single day,” said Mr. Probst. “John has worked hard to lead the Company through challenging transitions in our industry, and was instrumental in driving our very significant growth in digital revenues. We appreciate John’s leadership and the many important strategic initiatives he has driven for the Company. We have mutually agreed that this is the right time for a leadership transition.”

Or from Riccitiello himself:

Mr. Riccitiello stated, “EA is an outstanding company with creative and talented employees, and it has been an honor to serve as the Company’s CEO. I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and after six years I feel it is the right time for me pass the baton and let new leadership take the Company into its next phase of innovation and growth. I remain very optimistic about EA’s future – there is a world class team driving the Company’s transition to the next generation of game consoles.”

Many will recall that this is actually Riccitiello’s second stint at Electronic Arts. He was COO from 1997 to 2004 before leaving to start his own private equity firm. During that first stretch he grew the company into one of the biggest players in gaming software, and he eventually returned as CEO in 2007. That’s when things took a turn.

It’s likely a combination of factors that have led to Riccitiello’s departure. Earnings have been down for EA and their stock has been suffering since Riccitiello came aboard for the second time. Official numbers aren’t in yet, but it seems as if EA is going to miss their earnings mark for this quarter, which Riccitiello credits as the reason for his departure in a letter sent to the company (see it in its entirety down below). But why has the company suffered financially?

That could have something to do with the PR angle, which has seen the brand’s name dragged through the mud as disasters keep piling up. EA was voted The Worst Company in America by the public in a poll by The Consumerist, and simply laughed off the distinction. Over the past year or two, they’ve been targeted by fans for mismanaging aspects of Mass Effect 3, and most recently the launch of SimCity, a currently unfolding crisis that had many players unable to either play their game or find refunds during the launch window. And this may seem like a distant memory by now, but Star Wars: The Old Republic was a huge disaster for the company. It’s thought that SWTOR may indeed be the most expensive game ever made, but it didn’t have what it took to go toe to toe with the aging World of Warcraft. Subscribers of the MMO numbers dropped until the game was converted to free to play.

Fans constantly fault the company for unfriendly practices including intrusive DRM (the cause of the SimCity debacle) and questionable tactics with regards to micro transactions and DLC, which are sometimes felt as a type of gouging. It’s true that most large gaming companies are experimenting with all of the above, but it’s almost always EA that bears the brunt of such criticism from the press and fans, as they usually tend to provide the most significant examples.

Though SimCity may be the latest crisis for the brand, it’s far from the only one as they really have started to pile up over the last few years. Hopefully the next CEO will move the company into a more consumer friendly direction, and they can redeem themselves in the eyes of their one-time fans who have since grown tired of their recent practices. It’s important to note that it’s not just the CEO who is responsible for the direction of the company, and EA’s more influential higher ups and investors need to stop trying to squeeze blood from the stone at the expense of the brand’s reputation.

The above, plus documentation.

[Guynemer]

Interesting tie in with SWTOR. That was another beloved and critically acclaimed single player franchise forced into a multiplayer box, and lo and behold, it failed.

I hope Bethesda isn't pinning their company's future on The Elder Scrolls Online, because that **** is gonna crash and ****ing burn.

[Hauldren Collider]

ESO is baffling to me. I never sat around in skyrim and thought "Man, I want massively multiplayer." Co-op play would be great though.

Also I think they are pulling a profit on swtor, just not as much as they hoped. It made back its dev costs at launch, iirc.

[Dinner]

Interesting tie in with SWTOR. That was another beloved and critically acclaimed single player franchise forced into a multiplayer box, and lo and behold, it failed.

I hope Bethesda isn't pinning their company's future on The Elder Scrolls Online, because that **** is gonna crash and ****ing burn.

Over at reddit there is a quote from the company's CFO who was bragging he hadn't green lighted a single player game in years. He believes that is how you fight piracy, get people to buy DLC, and advertise your other junk to them. The problem is most people who buy games have a passionate hatred of the tactic of always having to login to play not to mention EA has the nasty habit of killing off the servers after two years meaning people can no longer even play the game they spent so much money on.

[onodera]

ESO is baffling to me as well. I mean, if they built a huge world that had the level of detail of Skyrim but was less scaled down, maybe more like Just Cause 2, it would be great. Instead, they've showed something that looked 100% WoW, but with butt-ugly Argonians. Elder Scrolls are explorers' games, not games about happy dungeon raids, ffs.

[DinoDoc]

Interesting tie in with SWTOR. That was another beloved and critically acclaimed single player franchise forced into a multiplayer box, and lo and behold, it failed.

Uhm, SWTOR is still going. An expansion is due to be released soonish.

[The Mad Monk]

1. The Old Republic is Likely a Bigger Disaster Than Anyone’s Saying

This was touched on briefly in the post yesterday about the SWTOR layoffs, but it’s perhaps a bit unclear as to how much EA had riding on The Old Republic. The game was meant to be the first serious threat to Activision/Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, yet failed to make much of an impact, and has been shedding users since launch.

Even if the game is halfway decent and has attracted a modest following of a million players or so (though it’s likely less than that now), that’s not enough to call it a success. Far from it, in fact. Though EA never officially released budgetary figures, estimates are the game took between $200 and $300 million to develop, with marketing costs inflating that figure to possibly as much as $500M. Even if the numbers are off by half, it would be one of the most expensive games ever made.

Since release, there have been many layoffs associated with SWTOR, including the executive producer of the game as announced yesterday. SWTOR might end up going free-to-play like so many other of World of Warcraft’s competition, but that’s not the model that’s going to earn them their money back. They really needed the monthly fee model to work, and the fact that it hasn’t makes the game a failure, no matter how many players a free-to-play switch may bring back.

Five Reasons EA is in Decline

[DinoDoc]

Five Reasons EA is in Decline

What's the rationale for wasting resources giving a failure of a game an expansion? I'll grant you that an predictions it would be a WoW killer were pie in the sky though.

[Dinner]

HAHAHAHA! It just gets better and better. Hackers have figured out how to use the hated DRM in the game to destroy everyone's online cities. What's the point of building up a city and pay $15 for a marina when it will all just be destroyed in seconds anyway? Yep, I'd say a lot of people are pissed off about this game especially with the DRM and the hyper inflated costs of the DLC.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/SimCity-Hack-Lets-Users-Destroy-Anyone-Online-City-Thanks-Always-DRM-53685.html

[Dinner]

Uhm, SWTOR is still going. An expansion is due to be released soonish.

Yeah, it's still around but so few people bothered to buy subscriptions it was quickly turned into free online play. It turns out people will pay $60 for a full featured game without the DRM but when you want to charge them $60 plus $10 per month plus $100+ for DLC then they simply walk away and don't buy anything.

The CEO got fired for a reason and it's not because his plans worked out so well.

[DinoDoc]

Yeah, it's still around but so few people bothered to buy subscriptions it was quickly turned into free online play. It turns out people will pay $60 for a full featured game without the DRM but when you want to charge them $60 plus $10 per month plus $100+ for DLC then they simply walk away and don't buy anything.

The CEO got fired for a reason and it's not because his plans worked out so well.

I think you're confusing SWTOR with Simcity.