Electronic Arts says indie won't cut it
by Joshua "RegularX" Birk · in General Discussion · 05/18/2005 (4:50 am) · 114 replies
Not sure how many people took note of this:
"The high cost of game development means that only the largest companies can afford to be in the business. While low-budget movies can occasionally become hits, "it is now impossible to 'Blair Witch' this business," said Jeff Brown, vice president for corporate communications at Electronic Arts, referring to the successful independent film."
That was in the New York Times. I blabbed about in my blog, and from there you can hit Grand Text Auto's excellent declaration of Big Hair Games. Clearly it more or less annoyed me, as I would assume it aggravate many here. EA is being widly close-minded and egocentric here.
"The high cost of game development means that only the largest companies can afford to be in the business. While low-budget movies can occasionally become hits, "it is now impossible to 'Blair Witch' this business," said Jeff Brown, vice president for corporate communications at Electronic Arts, referring to the successful independent film."
That was in the New York Times. I blabbed about in my blog, and from there you can hit Grand Text Auto's excellent declaration of Big Hair Games. Clearly it more or less annoyed me, as I would assume it aggravate many here. EA is being widly close-minded and egocentric here.
About the author
#42
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4562705.stm
Price fears for next gen games
Alfred Hermida
Technology editor, BBC News website in Los Angeles
Much deeper thinking about how to exploit new consoles is needed
The games for the new consoles, such as the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Revolution, are set to wow players with heightened realism and cinematic graphics.
Some of the next-generation games showcased at the E3 games expo have already drawn gasps of amazement from the audience.
But there is a price to pay for getting to play something that is years ahead of current games.
New games are set to cost twice as much as current ones to make, say analysts.
With the bill for some big budget games now reaching $10m (£5.4m), producers are facing costs of up to $20m (£10.9m) a title.
We need a much deeper level of thinking on how we can exploit these machines
Simon Jeffrey, Sega president
"Teams working on a title can be one and half times the size today," said Scott Cronce, chief technology officer at games giant, EA.
"The budgets are bigger, the number of people working on it is bigger," he explained during a conference session on next-gen games at the E3 games expo in Los Angeles.
"EA has teams as large as 200 people or potentially as large as 300," he said, "but we also have teams as small as 50."
With so many people working on one big release, the bills quickly add up.
Price push
Many in the industry would like to push up the retail price of games, from $49 in the US to $59 or $69.
The question no one knows is whether gamers will be willing to pay a premium for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or Revolution titles.
There are fears that gamers will get bored of the same games
"We are seeing some $59 price point for current generation games," said Edward Woo, financial analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, explaining these tended to be special collectors' editions.
But he questioned whether an extra $10 a sale would be enough to cover the cost of making the new games.
"You're going to have to raise the price by more than $10 to get a return on your investment," he warned.
One idea that has also been tried out is getting players to pay for added extras to a game.
For example, fans of the best-selling Halo 2 game can buy and download two additional maps for a few dollars.
Over and over
But there are some who are sceptical that these micro-payments will add up to big sums of cash.
"I'm super adverse to this idea of just getting more and more revenue out of our players," said Mark DeLoura, Manager, Developer Relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America.
I do worry that we are going to see decreased risk and decreased innovation
Mark DeLoura, Sony Computer Entertainment America
"Me as a player, I am not going to keep buying stuff over and over again, unless I am super keen on the title."
For game enthusiasts, the next-gen consoles could be bad news as spiralling costs could mean game publishers end up putting out new versions of current games.
"I do worry that we are going to see decreased risk and decreased innovation," said Mr DeLoura.
"I fear that players are going to get bored because when they go to the store, they will see the games they played last year."
Other big names in the games industry shared these concerns, realising the challenge and opportunity offered by the computing power of the new consoles.
"We need a much deeper level of thinking on how we can exploit these machines," explained Simon Jeffrey, President of Sega of America.
"We are all a little bit nervous as we don't just want to see current generation games with high production values."
Some of the next generation games demonstrated at E3 look remarkable. But many of those crowding into the Los Angeles Convention Center for E3 realise that pretty looks are not everything.
05/19/2005 (3:26 pm)
Interesting BBC arrticle:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4562705.stm
Price fears for next gen games
Alfred Hermida
Technology editor, BBC News website in Los Angeles
Much deeper thinking about how to exploit new consoles is needed
The games for the new consoles, such as the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Revolution, are set to wow players with heightened realism and cinematic graphics.
Some of the next-generation games showcased at the E3 games expo have already drawn gasps of amazement from the audience.
But there is a price to pay for getting to play something that is years ahead of current games.
New games are set to cost twice as much as current ones to make, say analysts.
With the bill for some big budget games now reaching $10m (£5.4m), producers are facing costs of up to $20m (£10.9m) a title.
We need a much deeper level of thinking on how we can exploit these machines
Simon Jeffrey, Sega president
"Teams working on a title can be one and half times the size today," said Scott Cronce, chief technology officer at games giant, EA.
"The budgets are bigger, the number of people working on it is bigger," he explained during a conference session on next-gen games at the E3 games expo in Los Angeles.
"EA has teams as large as 200 people or potentially as large as 300," he said, "but we also have teams as small as 50."
With so many people working on one big release, the bills quickly add up.
Price push
Many in the industry would like to push up the retail price of games, from $49 in the US to $59 or $69.
The question no one knows is whether gamers will be willing to pay a premium for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or Revolution titles.
There are fears that gamers will get bored of the same games
"We are seeing some $59 price point for current generation games," said Edward Woo, financial analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, explaining these tended to be special collectors' editions.
But he questioned whether an extra $10 a sale would be enough to cover the cost of making the new games.
"You're going to have to raise the price by more than $10 to get a return on your investment," he warned.
One idea that has also been tried out is getting players to pay for added extras to a game.
For example, fans of the best-selling Halo 2 game can buy and download two additional maps for a few dollars.
Over and over
But there are some who are sceptical that these micro-payments will add up to big sums of cash.
"I'm super adverse to this idea of just getting more and more revenue out of our players," said Mark DeLoura, Manager, Developer Relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America.
I do worry that we are going to see decreased risk and decreased innovation
Mark DeLoura, Sony Computer Entertainment America
"Me as a player, I am not going to keep buying stuff over and over again, unless I am super keen on the title."
For game enthusiasts, the next-gen consoles could be bad news as spiralling costs could mean game publishers end up putting out new versions of current games.
"I do worry that we are going to see decreased risk and decreased innovation," said Mr DeLoura.
"I fear that players are going to get bored because when they go to the store, they will see the games they played last year."
Other big names in the games industry shared these concerns, realising the challenge and opportunity offered by the computing power of the new consoles.
"We need a much deeper level of thinking on how we can exploit these machines," explained Simon Jeffrey, President of Sega of America.
"We are all a little bit nervous as we don't just want to see current generation games with high production values."
Some of the next generation games demonstrated at E3 look remarkable. But many of those crowding into the Los Angeles Convention Center for E3 realise that pretty looks are not everything.
#43
I am beginning to feel the same way about the products shipped as a video 'game' and what they are becoming. They are[to me] more of a cross-morph between what I call a 'feature' film[since I make a living in the business] and screensaver. Actual 'gameplay' in this type of entertainment is inconsequential. Burning thru a bloated budget is not producing better 'games'[imvho, nor film]; just better cinematography[and some well-feed mid-levelers and above{investors} when the train pulls in].
Perhaps; it's within the mission statement of these organizations [in the board rooms] to simply move past the vehicle that got the machine to it's current status as seeing their market-segment desire this type of 'entertainment', while maintaing that it is a game. To me a 'game' has a definite goal and requires the participant to use their wits and reflexes to achieve the goal and it's rewards.
...and with the recent glut of 'Reality', I foresee some quick thinking 'idea' guy formulating the pitch for a new form of entertainment for Television. Namely watching very good players competing on a regular basis[not merely Tournaments] and having the viewers at home get a nice real-time rendered "feature-game". I'm staking my claim to it now... Copyright(c) 2005 RexHeavyIndustries. All rights reserved.
:)
05/19/2005 (10:59 pm)
Good point, Joshua "RegularX" Birk[as well as others].I am beginning to feel the same way about the products shipped as a video 'game' and what they are becoming. They are[to me] more of a cross-morph between what I call a 'feature' film[since I make a living in the business] and screensaver. Actual 'gameplay' in this type of entertainment is inconsequential. Burning thru a bloated budget is not producing better 'games'[imvho, nor film]; just better cinematography[and some well-feed mid-levelers and above{investors} when the train pulls in].
Perhaps; it's within the mission statement of these organizations [in the board rooms] to simply move past the vehicle that got the machine to it's current status as seeing their market-segment desire this type of 'entertainment', while maintaing that it is a game. To me a 'game' has a definite goal and requires the participant to use their wits and reflexes to achieve the goal and it's rewards.
...and with the recent glut of 'Reality', I foresee some quick thinking 'idea' guy formulating the pitch for a new form of entertainment for Television. Namely watching very good players competing on a regular basis[not merely Tournaments] and having the viewers at home get a nice real-time rendered "feature-game". I'm staking my claim to it now... Copyright(c) 2005 RexHeavyIndustries. All rights reserved.
:)
#44
I have written pages and pages of history for the world Orb takes place in. History, stuff that has nothing to do with the game directly, and most of it won't be there unless people really look hard at tapestries and such. We have a religion writen from begining to end crafted to give it a sense of wonder. We have spent 4 years on the storyline, character personalities, look, feel, history, origins, lifestyle, etc. We've also done extensive research into real world cultures. Very very few mainstream devs will do that, at least to the depth we have. 4 years spent on one project and just now are we starting work on the actual development in Torque. No mainstream publisher would let us get away with that if we were on their paylist, but we believe in what we have (as do the hundreds of people who have read our storyline over the past years), if we were mainstream we'd have had the project cancelled by the accountants years ago and the marketing team would have told us to make it darker to better attract the 'core' gamer of 18-24 year old males.
I've said it before, if companies like EA have their way, there won't be an industry left much longer.
05/20/2005 (12:55 am)
Indie games don't have to be about innovation and something different only. My team at CSE has been working for 4 years to make a game that could be made by the mainstream devs in terms of gameplay. What are we doing different? We're doing what we want. We could care less for demographics, focus groups,or the like.I have written pages and pages of history for the world Orb takes place in. History, stuff that has nothing to do with the game directly, and most of it won't be there unless people really look hard at tapestries and such. We have a religion writen from begining to end crafted to give it a sense of wonder. We have spent 4 years on the storyline, character personalities, look, feel, history, origins, lifestyle, etc. We've also done extensive research into real world cultures. Very very few mainstream devs will do that, at least to the depth we have. 4 years spent on one project and just now are we starting work on the actual development in Torque. No mainstream publisher would let us get away with that if we were on their paylist, but we believe in what we have (as do the hundreds of people who have read our storyline over the past years), if we were mainstream we'd have had the project cancelled by the accountants years ago and the marketing team would have told us to make it darker to better attract the 'core' gamer of 18-24 year old males.
I've said it before, if companies like EA have their way, there won't be an industry left much longer.
#45
What I would like to see...
LIVE AT CEASAR'S PALACE:
Jeff Brown "The Hole" Vs. ID Software (Doom, Quake, etc.)
LOL!
What a chump.
I bet he doesn't know the origin of CISCO either, yet his company depends on it daily.
I hope this post kills this thread dead in it's tracks.
"Check my passport, I wasn't even in the country."
"ARP poisoned? Wasn't me, go ahead and check my MAC."
"The utility company shut everything off because someone impersonated you and said you were going on vacation? How interesting."
"Sorry bro, my cell only works when it's upside down."
"Hey, I never graduated high school, I don't even know what an IPO is."
"We wash your dishes, drive your taxies, teach in your schools..."
"Don't tread on me."
05/29/2005 (7:05 am)
Ooooh really?What I would like to see...
LIVE AT CEASAR'S PALACE:
Jeff Brown "The Hole" Vs. ID Software (Doom, Quake, etc.)
LOL!
What a chump.
I bet he doesn't know the origin of CISCO either, yet his company depends on it daily.
I hope this post kills this thread dead in it's tracks.
"Check my passport, I wasn't even in the country."
"ARP poisoned? Wasn't me, go ahead and check my MAC."
"The utility company shut everything off because someone impersonated you and said you were going on vacation? How interesting."
"Sorry bro, my cell only works when it's upside down."
"Hey, I never graduated high school, I don't even know what an IPO is."
"We wash your dishes, drive your taxies, teach in your schools..."
"Don't tread on me."
#46
millions of copies (unlike just about any single ea sports title).
whens the last time an indie game sold 20 million(aggregate of all versions) copies like TheSims, or Tomb Raider for the PC?
if your looking at it with blinders on, like EA, then it does appear indie games are not keeping up (from a bean
counter perspective).
Doesnt mean indie games arent good, in fact they are often very good, but without marketing and distribution channels
of someone EA's size, its very difficult to compete (on a bean counting level anyway).
so looking at it like that, they are correct. but looking at it any other way they are completely wrong.
06/01/2005 (11:43 am)
Well, in one perspective they are correct unfortunately, its been a really long time since a indie game soldmillions of copies (unlike just about any single ea sports title).
whens the last time an indie game sold 20 million(aggregate of all versions) copies like TheSims, or Tomb Raider for the PC?
if your looking at it with blinders on, like EA, then it does appear indie games are not keeping up (from a bean
counter perspective).
Doesnt mean indie games arent good, in fact they are often very good, but without marketing and distribution channels
of someone EA's size, its very difficult to compete (on a bean counting level anyway).
so looking at it like that, they are correct. but looking at it any other way they are completely wrong.
#47
06/01/2005 (11:46 am)
Alien Hominid ?
#48
06/01/2005 (12:09 pm)
Well to me this is an oppotunity for smaller developers to get funding. They're right that the smaller dev's won't have the same production quality of those higher cost games but if they can make something with say good production and excellent gameplay there is a market for it. And if it costs 1/8 of the budget of the high production games then I think there will also be opportunity for funding for it too. For example if you would simply cut out the normal mapping for a game (and use an art style that doesn't need it) then you cut out a huge cost for the game. Once dev's start using these flashy gimmics as tools instead of requirements they'll be a drop in the cost of dev. And by that time the tools will be strong enough that using them will be easy. Yes, I like my dream world I'm living in ;).
#49
The true lack of sight in EA is in assuming extensive game content equals good game play. When really good game play is only a by product of good creativity.
06/01/2005 (12:15 pm)
Attitudes like EA's are a simple case of "underestimating one's enemy." The indie games industry continually improves upon the development tools available. Although AAA class games require extensive development work with cutting edge technology, indie games revolve around a cycle of continual improvements upon "obsolete" AAA technology to maintain a rating pushing "A" or better. That doesn't leave a whole lot of room for the big wigs of the game industry to get cocky as EA is doing here.The true lack of sight in EA is in assuming extensive game content equals good game play. When really good game play is only a by product of good creativity.
#50
06/01/2005 (3:38 pm)
A single indie team can't compete with EA but indie teams as a whole are a threat just like Linux and Open Source is to Microsoft. If anything this adds fuel to the fire for indies. In all reality you can do what you think you can not what some egotistical arrogant cocky SOB says. When people get confident with things and underestimate others they open doors. If whats his name thinks that EA has the game industry sown up by recycling licenses and ideas and running their employees into the ground he's in for a rude awakening. Stay true to what you want to play and have fun making it. Indies have a left hook because we can be original when EA cannot. Time will pull the rug out from under his tighty whities and he'll be leaving skidmarks.
#51
. Anyway, things are changing!
06/01/2005 (3:51 pm)
Yep ... it's funny just the other day I was in EB with a friend of mine who isn't into indie games at all (doesn't have much of a clue except that I make some) was saying ... Devel May Cry 23 (as a joke) ... sequel this ... sequel that and in general complaining about the fact that all the games are the same. I am willing to bet he's part of a larger majority of mainstream gamers who are pissed off that every game is the same these days. It's really sad when only one game in recent memory gets props from being different ... Katamari Damacy! It's even sadder when you think about the fact that we could have had probably 100 other more different experiences like KD instead of all the recycled crud we got over the last few years
#52
Matt
P.S. We Love Katamari looks great! It still kept it's awesome art and I think it's definately not gonna be recycled crap like most of this other stuff we're seeing...
06/01/2005 (4:01 pm)
*sigh* I hate most of EAs stuff. They release so many titles each year. Few of them are ever any good. The Sims, in my opinion is one of the only good EA published games. Thats not fair to say that indies cant make it into the industry. I'd agree with Jeremy that Katamari Damacy is one of the games that I remember best of the past year. It was original, crazy, and fun! I love that game and I think that game can show that even new developers can make it big if they think of something unique and original. Matt
P.S. We Love Katamari looks great! It still kept it's awesome art and I think it's definately not gonna be recycled crap like most of this other stuff we're seeing...
#53
If they had half a brain cell working in their business, they would be promoting indies into EA, grabbing the cookies out of the jar so to speak. But then again, who's a sell out...
Oops! I'm a little late, aren't I? /hint//hint/
I guess it wouldn't be that bad to be an indie and get bought into by a big company, just watch out for those freedoms disappearing if it happens. If this was the case for me, I'd have to have a clause stating I'm allowed to persue my own business outside of the company as long as I'm not infringing upon said company's distinguished products, or them on mine.
Good luck with that happening, for now...
Personally, I've never really cared for much of EA's products anyways. Maxis has always been a favorite though, and I seperate the two myself.
He'll have reason to be scared soon, I promise!
- Ronixus
06/01/2005 (4:27 pm)
I'd like to hear Will Wright's opinion about EA's remarks. I bet he laughed his ass off when he heard that as well. Indie's have nothing to fear, only big name businesses who keep rehashing the same game every year. It's obvious he's shaking in his little space boots and looking down the edge of a very tall cliff. He sounds like the kind of guy that would take a plunge when his business went down. Poor, senseless excuse for a human being...If they had half a brain cell working in their business, they would be promoting indies into EA, grabbing the cookies out of the jar so to speak. But then again, who's a sell out...
Oops! I'm a little late, aren't I? /hint//hint/
I guess it wouldn't be that bad to be an indie and get bought into by a big company, just watch out for those freedoms disappearing if it happens. If this was the case for me, I'd have to have a clause stating I'm allowed to persue my own business outside of the company as long as I'm not infringing upon said company's distinguished products, or them on mine.
Good luck with that happening, for now...
Personally, I've never really cared for much of EA's products anyways. Maxis has always been a favorite though, and I seperate the two myself.
He'll have reason to be scared soon, I promise!
- Ronixus
#54
think about this. i remember the first game i ever bought with money i had 'earned' in the usual way an american child gets their gruby little handles on the cursed stuff. anyhow, this game was the original 8bit famicom castlevania game, hot off the presses for the state side nes. this game was behind a glass wall and everything. guess how much it cost me? 50$ i remember that to this day. now think about what a new game costs now... still 50$. now think about how much man hours is required to produce a game, circa 2005, versus this castlevania game. you may have guessed the difference is probably unfathomable even with technological inflation taken into consideration. the truth is the development model really hasn't changed. or in other words the developers just have to work all that much more to make the same buck they were making 15 years ago. in short they're competing themselves out of business.
and you may have guessed that this incline can't continue forever. at some point the development model will have to change, or the bottom will fall out of the industry. no other medium is as demanding as fully realized 3D simulation and immersion. there is no parallel industry to compare it with. the only other alternative is raising the cost of games to where they probably should be according to what they probably should be... 300$ for a game etc... it boils down basicly to whether or not the special effects and content are worth your pennies. the alternative to this though is a shared content development model. but the only way that will work is if making games is more important to the developer than making a buck. of course the third alternative is a single corporation attempting to saturate the creative space all on its own... but the chance of such a greedy act being competitive for long against all of the people of the world freely sharing their content amongst one another seems unlikely.
----
what really needs to be going on is people need to be getting together to create mult-resolution polygon models of objects standard to all games. someone complained about hair for instance. guess what a lot of people can use the same basic type of hair. we just need goups and an organization which can work together to produce standard conent like human faces and hair-dos. look at games like 'metal gear solid 3', there is no reason why 'indie' games couldn't all have faces that look as good as thoughs. you just need one small group to produce the database and share it. most corporate games do not have faces this good. personally an EA stamped on a game tells me, "you don't even need to think about wasting your time with this game cause it is going to be stupid and ugly". a simple project like this could really boost the range of indie games. human heads would be the best place to start the database because that is something difficult to do. if anyone would like to get in touch with me and help setup a project like this i would be happy to. i have a good low resolution androgynous face model with perfectly placed vertices comparable to the female ally in 'metal gear solid 3' (i haven't played the game), which i produced when i was younger as a stock face. it would make a good start. beautiful, realistic, and believable faces can really grab attention for a game. faces like poser(tm) models just don't cut it. you really have to look at the japanese industry. they are really light years ahaed when it comes to presentation. i would just like to see people working together in the art department outside of their own narrow sighted personal projects. why not collect footage of iconic celebitries, measure their dimensions, and immortalize them within a database of compelling faces. then any character is just a few adjustments away from unique but perfect for the role... just a positive thought to leave on!
4096
08/08/2005 (1:35 am)
Reading through most of this thread there was one thought which occured to me worth sharing. my apologies if the point has already been made past the point at which i had to stop reading....think about this. i remember the first game i ever bought with money i had 'earned' in the usual way an american child gets their gruby little handles on the cursed stuff. anyhow, this game was the original 8bit famicom castlevania game, hot off the presses for the state side nes. this game was behind a glass wall and everything. guess how much it cost me? 50$ i remember that to this day. now think about what a new game costs now... still 50$. now think about how much man hours is required to produce a game, circa 2005, versus this castlevania game. you may have guessed the difference is probably unfathomable even with technological inflation taken into consideration. the truth is the development model really hasn't changed. or in other words the developers just have to work all that much more to make the same buck they were making 15 years ago. in short they're competing themselves out of business.
and you may have guessed that this incline can't continue forever. at some point the development model will have to change, or the bottom will fall out of the industry. no other medium is as demanding as fully realized 3D simulation and immersion. there is no parallel industry to compare it with. the only other alternative is raising the cost of games to where they probably should be according to what they probably should be... 300$ for a game etc... it boils down basicly to whether or not the special effects and content are worth your pennies. the alternative to this though is a shared content development model. but the only way that will work is if making games is more important to the developer than making a buck. of course the third alternative is a single corporation attempting to saturate the creative space all on its own... but the chance of such a greedy act being competitive for long against all of the people of the world freely sharing their content amongst one another seems unlikely.
----
what really needs to be going on is people need to be getting together to create mult-resolution polygon models of objects standard to all games. someone complained about hair for instance. guess what a lot of people can use the same basic type of hair. we just need goups and an organization which can work together to produce standard conent like human faces and hair-dos. look at games like 'metal gear solid 3', there is no reason why 'indie' games couldn't all have faces that look as good as thoughs. you just need one small group to produce the database and share it. most corporate games do not have faces this good. personally an EA stamped on a game tells me, "you don't even need to think about wasting your time with this game cause it is going to be stupid and ugly". a simple project like this could really boost the range of indie games. human heads would be the best place to start the database because that is something difficult to do. if anyone would like to get in touch with me and help setup a project like this i would be happy to. i have a good low resolution androgynous face model with perfectly placed vertices comparable to the female ally in 'metal gear solid 3' (i haven't played the game), which i produced when i was younger as a stock face. it would make a good start. beautiful, realistic, and believable faces can really grab attention for a game. faces like poser(tm) models just don't cut it. you really have to look at the japanese industry. they are really light years ahaed when it comes to presentation. i would just like to see people working together in the art department outside of their own narrow sighted personal projects. why not collect footage of iconic celebitries, measure their dimensions, and immortalize them within a database of compelling faces. then any character is just a few adjustments away from unique but perfect for the role... just a positive thought to leave on!
4096
#55
08/08/2005 (1:56 am)
Wow.. after that i'm really angery.. meh.. what does he know! unit!
#56
Personally, I'm disgusted by the majority of EA's titles.
08/08/2005 (9:55 am)
Actually, despite the supposed increase in the cost of game production, EA makes most of its money reselling the same games every year with minor tweaks. Something a mod community would do for free in the same amount of time. (Possibly less!)Personally, I'm disgusted by the majority of EA's titles.
#57
08/09/2005 (9:31 am)
I agree with you Dustin, EA doesn't come out with any new orginal games, all the do is buy a liscene of a movie and turn it into a game, or make small tweaks to a game and re sell it (for example Medal of Honor series)
#58
08/09/2005 (9:41 am)
Bejong - Name 5 original games made in the last 15 years. I bet you can't :P
#59
It's also easy to hate EA for all the media attention they've recieved over treating their workers like crap. I doubt there is another company in the industry as focused on widening their profit margin. (Except MAYBE Sony Online Entertainment, but they've not had any complaints from employees...)
08/09/2005 (9:57 am)
Being 100% original is one thing, but for gods sake, you could probably map the progression of the Madden games by 2 features in a given year, barring new consoles coming in and forcing them to change their format completely. The fact that EA once made original titles like Road Rash makes it kind of tragic that they've turned out the way they are. (What happened??)It's also easy to hate EA for all the media attention they've recieved over treating their workers like crap. I doubt there is another company in the industry as focused on widening their profit margin. (Except MAYBE Sony Online Entertainment, but they've not had any complaints from employees...)
Torque Owner Adrian Tysoe
Everyone that wants to make it big will have to start somewhere, right now its hard enoug for even a team of skilled proven veterans to make it in commercial dev.
Most will have to struggle until they get noticed, just like movie/rockstars that have struggle till they get that one big hit.
I don't really want fame and fortune really, just to have fun making the games I like and earning enough to get by with a few comforts.