EA takes blame and genuinely vows improvement
This past year has been insane for so many reasons around Electronic Arts. From last year’s E3 up to now, there has been a lot of resentment against many of EA’s upcoming titles, decisions and poor lack of attention to their player bases and communities. Titles like A Way Out, Need For Speed: Payback, Fe, The Sims 4, Battlefront 2 and Anthem have been under a heavy spotlight of discussion, concern and heavy amount of repercussions. Not all is bad with EA but they have not been showing strength nor assurance no matter how much they coat their statements and promises.
Patrick Söderlund addressing issues of EA developing teams.
This past year has been insane for so many reasons surrounding the kingpin gaming company, EA. From last year’s E3 up to now, there has been a lot of resentment against many of EA’s upcoming titles, decisions and poor lack of attention to player bases in their communities. Titles like A Way Out, Need For Speed: Payback, Fe, The Sims 4, Battlefront 2 and Anthem have been under a heavy spotlight of discussion, concern and heavy repercussions on social media. Not all is bad with EA but they have not been showing strength nor assurance as time progresses. No matter how much they coat their statements and promises on their titles, business decisions and community management.
It has gotten so bad, Patrick Söderlund the Chief Studio Officer of EA, has emerged in a sense of urgency as if this is their true turning point for the company and its accompanying studios.
Söderlund goes on to say the following; ‘It’s clear to us that players see the company differently than we do. And in that situation, as a member of the executive team, as the guy who runs all of the studios, I have to take that seriously. And we have to continue to listen and understand what’s triggering that. We have to be very cautious of what we do.’
“We have to take action and show people that we’re serious about building the best possible products, that we’re serious about treating the players fair, and we’re here to make the best possible entertainment that we can,” he says. “And in the cases where we don’t get it right, we just have to listen and learn from it and be better.”
This addressing factor acknowledges that the highest ranked business peeps on the totem pole are aware of the situations arising. Preemptively and currently. Obviously, any good business person would be aware that they have faltered with horrible sales numbers and community resistance… however, Söderlund’s words are much more sincere than the copy and paste apologies we have been receiving the past few months. Especially around Battlefront 2’s progression and monetization decisions. It is one thing to be aware of your mistakes but it is another to take into consideration of how to improve yourself afterwards. Söderlund does just that with many other topics ahead.
This statement was released BEFORE Battlefront 2 (2017) was even released to the general public.
Anthem on the verge of skepticism and how Corey Hudson wants change.
Starting with Anthem, the new sci-fi adventure shooter under the care of EA Bioware, there has bee anticipation and a large amount of disbelief for the potential of this game. This is due to the fact Battlefront 2, Need for Speed and even FIFA contained micro-transactions and progression locks behind paywalls. Something that should not be repeated again.
Söderlund adds into this Anthem situation saying; ‘We have taken significant steps as a company to review and understand the mechanics around monetization, loot boxes, and other things in our games before they go to market. For games that come next, for Battlefield or for Anthem, players made it very clear that we can’t afford to make similar mistakes. And we won’t.’
Following up with Söderlund, Corey Hudson makes a statement as well for those who have been fans of Bioware titles but have felt betrayed or robbed of their experiences recently. With Mass Effect 3’s endings and the Mass Effect: Andromeda let down, it has not been a great impressionable feat on fans. Hudson, for those who do not know, is the General Manager of Bioware and has been on board with the company for over the duration of the Mass Effect series and has recently taken the General Manager position after the passing of it’s ex-manager, Corey Gaspur.
Mass Effect Andromeda guaranteed no single-player DLC content (a first for the series) and had a long haul of patches following up on launch.
Hudson goes on to say the following; "(Andromeda’s) experience ultimately became a defining moment in refocusing BioWare’s mission. We need to delight players with new experiences and innovation, but we must stay focused on the importance of the world, character, and storytelling elements that players expect from our games. And our games must be designed to continue delivering new stories and experiences, in an ongoing relationship with players in the worlds we’re evolving together."
If Corey Hudson actually follows up with the statement as intended, Anthem can really knock disbelief out of it’s fans and really kick back that excitement that has been long lost. This is a huge order to fill and even with me, a non sci-fi fan except in that with Star Wars and Mass Effect, have a lot to show to really hook me into believing this can be a reality. Even the short teaser of Anthem’s gameplay shown back at E3 last year, it was nothing too hype driven for me and constantly left me questioning, what is going on. Scripted game demos always leave me with an uneasy feeling of what is truly trying to be shown.
Battlefront 2 in review. Learning from one of the worst backlashes of monetization in gaming history.
Söderlund goes into a hefty amount of consultation surrounding the events of Star Wars: Battlefront 2’s development process and monetization decisions. It would help to put things into perspective first so that all the (star) cards are laid out on the table and the repercussions can be interpreted properly.
Back in October, Battlefront 2 posed it’s open beta to the public. Giving potential players a taste of what is to come in November. It featured varying game modes, classes and a new progression system from the last game. One of the most notorious progression systems to hit the competitive gaming market yet. Players can earn Credits (in-game currency) which can unlock themed loot boxes for specific classes or affiliations in the game. They were also able to earn Spare parts which would be rewarded upon duplicates given in the loot boxes purchased with Credits. This is where the problem already begins to spiral out of control. Players took the torches and pitchforks and went right for Dice’s head on this system. Why? It sounds like a typical loot box system with two simple currencies. What is the problem? Loot box rewards. Unlocked loot boxes would award players distinct advantages in the competitive play space featuring new abilities but even worst, statistical advantages. This is where loot boxes go from bad, to unacceptable in a heartbeat. No player should have an advantage over another, especially in these acclaimed titles on the market and triple A space.
A loot box in Battlefront 2 including an upgrade, cosmetic, duplicate currency and a stat upgrade on the officer class.
With these game-play advantages came the riots of the community. EA quickly acts in the launch weeks and reworks the progression system by tweaking numbers on Credits earned and what you will unlock as you level up. Rather than being random and undefined through each profile. Months pass, loot boxes get removed and unlocks are now linked to level up progression instead of through chance and currency purchasing. However, EA brings back loot boxes only to link them to a new currency and make it cosmetic only. A decision that should have been set in stone from the start. Not just mentioned for future implementation. There are new crystals in Battlefront 2 and the progression system has gotten to a point where EA pretty much said, “screw it”. All heroes became unlocked a month ago and the progression system has gotten it’s last major revamp to be much more accessible for new players. Based off all the negative feedback given for almost half a year non-stop, the loot box situation diminishes from Battlefront 2 but has permanently scarred EA and Dice in the long run.
This is the quick synopsis of the Battlefront 2 debacle but Söderlund approaches and begins to break down this whole series of events into a mini-postmortem; ‘I’d be lying to you if I said that what’s happened with Battlefront and what’s happened with everything surrounding loot boxes and these things haven’t had an effect on EA as a company and an effect on us as management. We can shy away from it and pretend like it didn’t happen, or we can act responsibly and realize that we made some mistakes, and try to rectify those mistakes and learn from them.’
‘We had the intent that was designed for us to have more people play it over a longer period of time. And like a lot of other games on the market, to be able to afford to do that we had an idea of getting returns from that. But at the same time, we got it wrong. And as a result, we had to take very quick and drastic actions to turn everything off, and we’ve since worked and redesigned the progression system. People seem to appreciate what we’ve done, players are coming back, and we’re seeing stronger engagement numbers. People seem to think that for the most part, we got it right. It doesn’t mean we will stop. We’ll continue to improve the game, we’ll continue to push on these things, and we’ll have to be very cautious with what this means for future products.’
Banner image advertising the new "Night on Endor" update featuring Ewoks and the implementation of Crystals. Note: The "Night on Endor" game mode will be a timed event starting April 18th, 2018.
What almost baffles me about these statements is the sincerity behind the words but the amount of time it took to implement such changes. The community has been enraged even before the open beta dropped and when it did, they had all the feedback they could have possibly needed regarding this system. There was plenty of red flags before the gates opened. Nothing from the community has changed and it was a non-stop push declaring the same changes and what should be removed and adjusted from the game. Half a year later, they finally hit on all the requests. Should it have really taken it this long to pull through? Especially with such a powerhouse like EA and Dice behind the wheel of development and organization? Söderlund does mention that the sales were off the mark by an entire margin of almost 50% but it just makes me wonder: If these actions were taken even earlier, where would EA be now? It was a bullet that could have been avoided but EA has eaten it quite heftily.
Quality control in EA and how more games should have a brighter future.
With the main attractions out of the way, there have been a few titles from EA that have not followed suit in atrocious marketing decisions… in fact polar opposites. A Way Out is an amazing example of this. EA Originals, games where EA do not buy developing teams for production, support game developers but with no incentive of profit. EA has not made any money since A Way Out has been released and with a registered amount of one million players already invested into A Way Out, that is already around 30 million in profits directly to the independent developers and a not an ounce belongs to EA. Hell, A Way Out could have made double what they have released but because the game offers a free copy for your cooperative partner, it was not intending itself to cash grab at all. A really interesting marketing choice and something we may not have even thought was possible with EA engraved into a project.
A Way Out, the co-op only game designed by "A Tale of Two Brothers" developer, Yosef Fares. In collaboration with EA Publications.
The marketing decisions to handle indies is something that has been extremely outstanding on EA’s part and truly shows that they are not just wolves in sheep's clothing. Most certainly not the most innocent and definitely have a lot to fix but not all of their actions are intended for destruction upon it’s developers and gaming communities. Even Fe, another EA Original title, did not profit EA but got access to release their title on all platforms including Origin with no extra costs and got support during it’s development. EA has all the tools needed to make and advertise great games. They just need to remember to take the advertising out from inside our games as well.
Snuffy's Closing Statement:
This whole position on EA has been something really interesting to wrap my head around. I need to say this now, I do not support any of the marketing or monetization that EA has implemented into any recent titles including but not limited to Star Wars: Battlefront 2, Need for Speed: Payback or even FIFA 2018. Loot box systems, good or bad, are not something I am a fan of and am more keen on looking forward to how we can stop implementing loot boxes in our games. Just seeing it in Shadow of War made me sick to my stomach. However, none of the games EA has released either have been trashed. They have come out with such amazing titles but have all been defaced with horrendous marketing and monetization decisions that have affected the core of progression systems. It is not okay. I will heavily defend Battlefront 2 being a fluid, gorgeous and theatrical class based shooter of this generation and would play this version of Battlefront 2 than the one released in 2005. It has immensely changed the way it has played in the past decade and even fixed a lot of the issues in the last version that just came out. It is far superior in terms of it’s game-play and presentation than any of the other titles in the Battlefront series in my personal opinion.
This is why marketing needs to do things right and listen to our voices before things get out of hand. The game’s image will get so smudged out that no one will see how much work was actually put into making the game what it is. They will see the appalling loot boxes and rubbish progression blocked by unnecessary requirements. When they should be admiring the beautiful landscapes, sleek design choices and amount of love put into their titles. Blame gets distributed too wholly among the gaming industry and with such a powerhouse like EA behind the helm, it only gets worse when mistakes are made.
Patrick Söderlund made a great move informing us all of the atrocious decisions made in the last year and has vowed to really step down and address such concerns. Managers in leading companies like Dice and Bioware are adhering to improvement as well in this transitional phase. EA, follow through with Anthem and your next Battlefront. Prove to us that you actually are listening and can show us the wonderfully crafted games you intend to make. That is what I want to see. Not excuses, no band aids on your issues but the game you intended to release. Not everything follows the dollar and Battlefront 2 was your wake up call.
Very skeptical, but most importantly optimistic. Patrick Söderlund's involvement puts in a new layer of trust into my judgement.
This discussion was supported heavily of "The Verge's" interview with Patrick Söderlund which can be found here. Note, all images provided were taken from official press releases or websites advertising "A Way Out", "Star Wars: Battlefront 2", "Anthem", "Need for Speed:Payback", "Fe", and "UFC 3".
Disclaimer: I was not paid nor offered any incentives to write this discussion by the accompanying publisher, developer or any outside force. This is solely for personal production and interest. My opinions and recommendations are based off my personal interpretation of the idealogies and statements provided by the companies involved.