How do you take this deathly Publisher down?
Here on this blog one might get the impression that I hold a particular animosity towards one particular publisher of electronic artworks. Quite often, in the paragraphs I choose to pen you may find that familiar acronym, 'EA', and naturally come to the conclusion that I have some personal grief or vendetta against the folks. Such would, of course, run counter to my earlier assertions that I would try my hardest to be impartial, but I made that promise so long ago that I can't even remember the name of the blog in which I wrote it, so we can probably just assume that it never happened. In truth, I do not have personal grievances with the company, at least not anymore personal than a relationship between consumer and creator can allow; they are just that eclectic in their mishaps that their logo comes hand-in-hand with almost every sad or disturbing development in the video gaming world. Point in case; take a look a today's story.
Ghost Games was a studio that had grown out of EA's den to become it's own branded entity. Originally known as EA Gothenburg, the Ghost Games license marked the start of a potential new studio that could grow to become something special, given time and nurturing. Seems that EA weren't all to ready to give this budding studio such time, as they dropped their awful reboot of the 'Need For Speed' series in their laps and then gawked when the games didn't turn out good. To be fair to absolutely everybody here, it's unclear if the rampant anti-consumer choices, (Such as monetising customisation so badly that it required lootbox pulls) and plain deluge of bugs were specifically EA mandated, but in the interest of staying professional I'll just say that all parties are to blame here.
'Need for Speed: Rivals' was the first game developed by this studio. (A game who's quality varies wildly depending on the eyes of the beholder. I thought it was crap.) After that the next three games (which were the start of the reboot) NFS, NFS Payback and NFS Heat, all got progressively less inspired until we reach the point where we are at today, with EA officially closing down Ghost Games and wrapping them back up into EA Gothenburg. (They were aloud to spread their wings a little, before having them ultimately clipped.) It's unclear what this means for the folk that started signing up to Ghost Games, although some have reported they there are being absorbed into nearby projects, but this has allowed the Need For Speed Licence to go back to Criterion; a company safely within EA's bubble.
But why am I even talking about this today? What makes the shuttering of a baby studio that didn't even show that much potential a 'blog worthy' issue. Well, you might have noticed but I have a particular thing about broken promises, they really drive me nuts. When Bethesda promised that they would keep Fallout 76 free of gameplay-influencing microtransactions and then broke that promise, I was quite ticked off. When Blizzard vowed to do better with communication and conduct following the Blitzchung debacle, only to mess up again a handful of months later; I was justifiably angered. And when EA have recounted time and time again how the practice of consolidating partner studios is antithetical to their vision for growth, and how they don't want to maintain the cycle of 'purchase and consume'; I start to see the beginnings of a lie considering how this story is playing out.
Of course, the situation isn't one-for-one what they were discussing, Ghost Games were born out of EA and weren't purchased and guttered for their talent and licenses; but you can't deny that this still isn't a good look for a studio that claims to be on the reform. When it comes to my stakes in the matter, I'm just worried for the future of one of my favourite game studios of all time, Bioware. They've had a rough go of things for the past few years and it honestly feels like their relationship with EA is rocky at best. The studio has been bleeding talent like crazy recently and the most substantial concrete note on their current to-do-list is the reform of 'Anthem', the game that Bioware wasted several years worth of EA's time and money just to screw up royally. EA may claim that they have no intention of swinging the axe down on our old heroes, but the Bioware team must be feeling like the last chicken on the farm after hearing about the Ghost Games abortion.
This sort of behaviour would be by no means out of the blue for EA, and that's part of the reason why they are hated by game Developers alongside consumers. Just by doing a preliminary google search online you can see the vast number of high profile, promising, studios who met their end when they signed their souls over to EA. Bullfrog Productions, (Peter Molyneux's studio) Westwood Studios, (Who's survivors made the fantastic Empire at War) Origin Systems, NuFX, Pandemic, Playfish, Black Box Games, Dreamworks Interactive, Phenomic Game development, Victory Games, Mythic Entertainment, Maxis, EA Salt Lake and, the one which hurt me personally, Visceral. (It was nice of Heavy.com to have a handy list to scroll through. Although they'll need to add an addendum soon.)
The 'vampiric' reputation which EA has cultivated should be reason enough to rally against them, unfortunately the company just has too much money, licences and influence for fresh studios to completely boycott them and for fans to abandon their products. I mean I do it, but there's a lot more gamers out there who simply don't care about the black stain this publisher helps to carve upon the industry and prefer to just buy their games and worry about other matters. (Which is, I suppose, their right.) I just find it crazy that such a predatory influence on the market has been left to sail completely unabashed without any real pushback, aside the odd 'weekend outrage' on the consumer's side.
So what is the solution for this? Honestly I haven't the slightest clue. Whereas EA's baby, lootboxes, is currently in danger of being seized due to mounting legal pressure, even if that does happen it'll just be treating the symptoms, not the sickness. I started this blog by saying that I hold no ill-will to the company EA, and that much is true. I'm sure that there are plenty of fine, talented folk working under that label. My issue is more with the abstract entity that EA represents, a twisted personification of corporate greed that gorges upon itself over and over without stopping to consider how sustainable their course in life is. Some like to paint EA as a pantomime villain, but I see them as something much more mindless than that. They know that their 'live-service mandate' is unsustainable and self sabotaging, they know that killing all their partners ultimately harms their future, and yet they persist as though powerless to stop themselves. Like a mile long ship that's far too gone to even bother correcting itself now. So perhaps the only way to resolve this tale would not be to destroy EA but to find a way to reform them, and maybe even save them from themselves.
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