EA: Buy this game or we'll shoot this IP.

[LK]

Welp, sayonara Dead Space franchise. It was nice knowing you.

[Kitsune]

Yeah, it's a shame.  Had a lot of promise after the second one.

[Sky]

I gave up ten minutes into the shitty pc port of the original.

[Kageru]

I check the steam forums to find out if a game is DRM infected, price gouging or a bad port so I can avoid wasting those 10 minutes.

Watching EA making their fans weep is almost entertaining though.

[HaemishM]

Sounds like Dead Space got an injection of Army of Two.

[Fabricated]

I gave up ten minutes into the shitty pc port of the original.

[Teleku]

I played both on the PC, and really didn't have any problems with them.......  As mentioned, I really enjoyed both.  Shrug.

[Kageru]

Why EA's market valuation has crashed. I guess it's time to start cutting developers and this is part of the preparation. Good job EA.

Something has gone terribly wrong for EA, at least in the eyes of stock market investors. There are several plausible explanations for this - each of which is likely to be true to a certain degree, since it's unlikely that any one factor alone is responsible for driving the price down so far.

[Paelos]

For many investors, the disappointing performance of SWTOR is almost certainly seen as the "final straw" in terms of the second factor in this decline - John Riccitiello's leadership of EA. Riccitiello has been CEO since 2007, and arrived to the job promising to turn the company around - outlining a transformation plan which would see EA focusing on quality, controlling costs, embracing digital business models and improving the company's tarnished reputation.

Well let's see:

Quality - SWTOR was an unbalanced mess with a terrible AH when it launched. ME3 wasn't really a success due to the ending. Sims Medieval wasn't really well received. DA2 had copypasta issues.
Costs - This is laughable. SWTOR spun out of control. Kingdoms of Amular sank a company. Costs of the products have gone down, but marketing is way up. So he's achieving gains by hamstringing quality and trying to make up for it with higher advertising budgets.
Digital - Yes, they released Origin. He made good on this promise, but I think we all know Origin isn't there yet, and may never be there. Getting dickslapped early over their draconian EULA didn't help.
Reputation - If anything, it's worse than in 2007 when we started. For every success like DA:O and LFD, there's 5 clusterfucks that pissed people off.

[Sky]

I gave up ten minutes into the shitty pc port of the original.

[img]smarmy/img]

Yep. Ran through a full tweak battery. Never ran very well for me, I have other games to play without hassles.

[Fabricated]

I just think the image is funny since VSync fucks the game up SO bad.

But yeah the Dead Space 1 PC port is bad. The DS2 one is better supposedly but I never got around to installing it after picking it up for like $3.

[Sky]

After the tweak battery, it did run better. I forget exactly what was bothering me, but itI'm not even sure if I bought it at $3. I think I was going to and remembered how shitty the original played on the pc and didn't bother....so I guess EA had already shot the IP in the knee years ago.

Glad Volition got SR3 sorted, that's how you turn around a botched port (SR2) and make a fun game.

[UnSub]

Why EA's market valuation has crashed. I guess it's time to start cutting developers and this is part of the preparation. Good job EA.

Something has gone terribly wrong for EA, at least in the eyes of stock market investors. There are several plausible explanations for this - each of which is likely to be true to a certain degree, since it's unlikely that any one factor alone is responsible for driving the price down so far.

The article points out the problem for a large number of publishers, only really excepting Blizzard Activision.

EA is hurting because SWOR was meant to be a home run, but has turned out to be barely a single (on the standards it proclaimed itself, anyway).

[Phred]

Costs - This is laughable. SWTOR spun out of control. Kingdoms of Amular sank a company. Costs of the products have gone down, but marketing is way up. So he's achieving gains by hamstringing quality and trying to make up for it with higher advertising budgets.

It's hard to imagine the kind of geek rage that would blame Riccitiello for anything to do with Amular but ok.

[Paelos]

It's hard to imagine the kind of geek rage that would blame Riccitiello for anything to do with Amular but ok.

One interesting note is that Electronic Arts (EA), who published Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning via their EA Partners program, provided an advance to 38 Studios. The Partners program is a contract-based suite of services that can include marketing, public relations and distribution. While EA declined to speak with us about the particulars of their arrangement for Reckoning, they did disclose that each contract is different. One frequently asked question that emerged in the wake of the 38 Studios collapse was, “Where did the money from Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning go?” Now we know. Much of it went to repay EA for the advance and services provided.

[Sky]

Er...doesn't that make him look good for lining the corporate coffers with taxpayer money rather than writing it off?

From a corporate standpoint, anyway.

[Paelos]

Er...doesn't that make him look good for lining the corporate coffers with taxpayer money rather than writing it off?

From a corporate standpoint, anyway.

No because they state just hired collection attourneys to go after 3rd party associates involved in the collapse.

http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/06/26/rhode-island-hires-law-firm-in-schilling-companys-bankruptcy/

[HaemishM]

I don't see how EA could be liable for that. After all, 38 signed the agreement that said EA gets paid their advance back. Just because it was a bad contract for 38 doesn't mean the state of Rhode Island is due that money. They'd probably have to get in line.

[Paelos]

I don't see how EA could be liable for that. After all, 38 signed the agreement that said EA gets paid their advance back. Just because it was a bad contract for 38 doesn't mean the state of Rhode Island is due that money. They'd probably have to get in line.

Oh I don't think they are "liable" necessarily. But I'm also not sure it's going to be worth the hassle to defend a lawsuit filed by the state in terms of legal costs. Also, they are going to rip apart these financials with over 1,000 creditors holding the bag. If money went to EA, it's an easy plum to pick.

[HaemishM]

It probably depends on how separated they kept the EA money from the MMO studio. Of course, based on how they were trying to peddle film credits for operating expenses in the last days, I'm sure the answer to whether the pots of money were separated is "not very."

[Lantyssa]

The problem is that if EA should get in line, Rhode Island might consider them having cut into it.  Why did EA get paid but none of these other companies, or the State?

[Phred]

Er...doesn't that make him look good for lining the corporate coffers with taxpayer money rather than writing it off?

From a corporate standpoint, anyway.

No because they state just hired collection attourneys to go after 3rd party associates involved in the collapse.

http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/06/26/rhode-island-hires-law-firm-in-schilling-companys-bankruptcy/

No where in that article does it mention EA as a target for investigation. Do you have some insider source?

[Rokal]

The problem is that if EA should get in line, Rhode Island might consider them having cut into it.  Why did EA get paid but none of these other companies, or the State?

Most likely 38 Studios wanted them to fund the sequel.

[Phred]

The problem is that if EA should get in line, Rhode Island might consider them having cut into it.  Why did EA get paid but none of these other companies, or the State?

Most likely 38 Studios wanted them to fund the sequel.

Not only that I'd like to hear in what universe the publisher doesn't take moneys owed off the top when they sell your product.
I know in the record business you don't see a dime on royalties until the advances are paid off.

[UnSub]

The problem is that if EA should get in line, Rhode Island might consider them having cut into it.  Why did EA get paid but none of these other companies, or the State?

If EA looked after publishing and retail, they would have collected their money straight from that.

It seems like EA gave 38 Studios an advance of (up to) US$35m that 38 Studios spent propping up other parts of their business. In turn, EA collects the sales revenue and if KoA:R had sold over a certain value, would have paid back more to 38 Studios.

EA would have already collected the majority of the money prior to 38 Studios collapsing.

[Lantyssa]

We understand that, but do you think Rhode Island isn't going to investigate and see if something can be done?

[UnSub]

Sure, but despite some posts I've seen elsewhere (and may have been vicariously responding to) EA doesn't look like they've done anything wrong here.

Of course, what happens to the KoA:R sales revenue once 38 Studios collapsed and who gets to keep it will be interesting.

[HaemishM]

Sure, but despite some posts I've seen elsewhere (and may have been vicariously responding to) EA doesn't look like they've done anything wrong here.

Legally wrong. But it's EA so we can probably say at the least they weren't being anymore evil than they usually are. 

[UnSub]

Anyway, Dead Space 3: apparently you can mod your own weapons. Want a Ripper that has a flamethrower secondary? Build it. A line gun that attaches to your plasma cutter? Build it.

As such, only having one ammo type makes a lot more sense.

[Fabricated]

Dead Space Status: Shot.

EA has canned the Dead Space series, according to a new report.

Development on Dead Space 4 was ceased after lower than expected sales of Dead Space 3, a source told VideoGamer.com.

The game had been in pre-production at Visceral Games and Visceral Montreal. The latter was reportedly closed after a restructuring.

EA declined to comment when contacted by Eurogamer this morning.

Last month EA Games Label boss Frank Gibeau confirmed layoffs at EA's Los Angeles and Montreal developers. EA has gone on the record to say its core game franchises need to sell upwards of five million copies to remain viable.

It seems Dead Space 3 suffered a somewhat troubled development. According to the report, weapon-specific ammo was switched for generic ammo late in the day to accommodate the game's controversial micro-transactions, and developer Visceral were ordered to take the series into a more action-focused direction in order to emulate BioWare's Mass Effect franchise and broaden its appeal.

Dead Space 3 topped the UK all-format chart upon release, albeit with 26.6 per cent fewer sales than its predecessor. Dead Space 2 launched two years ago in a similar post-Christmas slot.

It seems EA has undergone something of a rethink across the board in recent weeks. Overnight it emerged that Dragon Age: Legends developer BioWare San Francisco had shut down, with all staff let go.

In January EA confirmed the retirement of the Medal of Honor brand after Medal of Honor: Warfighter flopped.

EA is still in the process of promoting Dead Space 3 downloadable content, including an expansion called Awakened.

Ahahaha, the worst company.

[calapine]

So only sport games and FPS from now on, for the broadest appeal?

BTW, according to Wikipedia Dead Space 1 sold 'over 3 million copies', so it would have been a flop by that standard.

Lets hope EA goes bust.

[Fabricated]

Considering we now have Steam/Steam Greenlight along with GoG and other platforms, I almost kinda can't wait for the next videogame crash.

[Paelos]

So a game has to gross $300M to remain on the docket in EA's world. Want to know why numbers have to be that high?

Because EA has substantially large R&D and Admin costs they have to cover, to the tune of $2.4 Billion a year. They spend over a Billion a year on Selling and Admin alone. Instead of cutting that ridiculous amount of overhead, it's increased by $200M over the last 4 years, while R&D has fallen by $150M. They basically shifted away from R&D to trying to sell their bullshit, while making massive cuts at the development level.

They were in the black for the first time in a damn long time in 2012. However, I can't see that growth lasting given how they are moving away from innovation and squeezing their base. Their brand is becoming synonymous with shit, and even through all their underhanded cuts and tactics, they still only cleared $35M in profit on $4.1B in sales. That's 0.9% and not good.

[Yegolev]

What sort of R&D goes on at EA?

[tgr]

What sort of R&D goes on at EA?

"Can we monetize this harder, yes/no?"