Comments on: EA Goes Indie?

By: FngKestrel

FngKestrel — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:38:15 +0000

EA Sims? They actually have a whole division just for churning out more Sims expansion packs?

Oh yes. It’s like printing money for them.

That’s one goose they’ve managed to not kill.

By: Windlab

Windlab — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:20:55 +0000

Much as I hate EA, I have to admit to being interested in Mirror’s Edge.

It’s a reform of sorts – only time will tell which sort.

By: Stromko

Stromko — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:20:07 +0000

Smaller teams to create new IPs faster? There’s a good chance it turns out to be a budget division churning out Peggle knockoffs.

They couldn’t really make their reputation any worse if they went ahead and just stole ideas from indy games and churned out slightly-shinier clones to make money off them. Something between these two ‘extremes’ is a strong possibility. Anything good, is unlikely.

I’ll believe it when I see it. A couple months of announcements doesn’t change the inertia from a decade of being assholes.

By: Andrew Farrell

Andrew Farrell — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:34:10 +0000

Discussion of Stock Aitken and Waterman records turning up on the Indie Chart on the Chart Show in five… four…

By: Mr.Moon

Mr.Moon — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:49:47 +0000

Just wait and see. Honestly I don’t believe the words that come out big corporations.

And like someone stated earlier, their actions and not really following their words, as they are trying to gobble up their competion (UB and Take 2)

By: magnakai

magnakai — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:45:28 +0000

Hum

Indie games getting corporatised faster than indie music.

Or.

Someone with the money and power to change things getting it.

By: josh g.

josh g. — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:43:45 +0000

They’ve recently admitted to stifling their developers and relying on annual updates

Ah, yes, the annual updates … also known as “The Layoff Metric”.

Not that I’m bitter.

By: FngKestrel

FngKestrel — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:39:32 +0000

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Plus, what does this mean for everyone still in EA proper? Is it still the stifling sweatshop I remember it to be?

By: Mo

Mo — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:16:12 +0000

Yeah, so this thread pretty much proves a point I was going to make: like Microsoft, it doesn’t matter what EA do at this point, people are still going to go, “EA are the devil!” etc, etc.

Me? I’m really quite pleased. We’ve seen a different EA over the past couple of months. They’ve acknowledged their mistakes from the past, they’re committed to change, and they’re speaking with their actions. Their past few buy-outs have worked out well (DICE comes to mind) and they’re announcing new (or at least semi-new) franchises left, right and center.

I’m a glass-half-full type of guy. I think we’re going to see good things from EA.

By: Optimaximal

Optimaximal — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:42:14 +0000

Indie means Independent, ergo If EA are financing/releasing the games, they are no longer Indie games…

Someone at EA needs a smack…

By: Jason O

Jason O — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:25:02 +0000

We’ll see.

EA management is not very good at hands off and their standard internal software development model is outdated and ineffective. When a company routinely works their people 70 or 90 hour weeks in a job where thinking is key to the profession, it’s no great mystery why there is so little innovation or creativity at EA.

However, will EA be able to endure letting one of their teams take a few extra months to finish a game? Will they be able to deal with a game that maybe can’t be cross-platform? Will they be able to keep their hands off of games that are not made with the standard EA formula? Mercenaries 2 being pushed back is actually a good sign, but it will take more than a six month delay and a bunch of promises to convince me. EA has about zero credibility these days.

By: Volrath

Volrath — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:10:30 +0000

Nothing EA does or will do will make up for the fact that they destroyed Origin, Westwood and Bullfrog.