It’s been a while since Electronic Arts became the villain of video games, but on Thursday Fifa Publisher He sucked all the oxygen out of the room thanks to a bad joke made worse by the company’s cutthroat past. If there’s a gaming mega company He’s the one out there who shouldn’t be doing casual shoots in single-player games, but with a history of shutting down the studios that made them and disrupting multiplayer broadcasts filled with microtransactions and loot boxes.
EA: “They’re ten years old but they just like to play single player games” sent at 19:33 play on a breast It first popped up on TikTok in early June, and it’s already starting to fade on Twitter late last week. It also quickly invited heaps of disdain. “Obviously, you’re not familiar with the concept of 10s,” replied forbes‘Paul Tassi. “You did it Anthem. I’m just stating a fact here,” replied most Washington PostGene Park.
EA’s first post has already amassed over 9,000 comments and 11,000 quoted tweets. Some pointed out that single-player games are among EA’s most popular and acclaimed titles. sims and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Respawn boss Vince Zampella, currently overseeing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, reacted to the post with just the palm emoji. A few hours later the company left. “Deserved Roast” Wrote. “We’re going to take that L because playing single player games actually makes them 11.”
But EA’s social media scam was more than just ordinary brand bullshit. When it comes to breaking and burning revenue, it’s been nerve-wracking because of the publisher’s uniquely checkered history. In 2012, the company earned $4.1 billion. Last year it earned nearly $7 billion. This growth was primarily driven by the doubling of multiplayer live service games such as: Fifa, Maddenand Apex Legends, and finding new ways to earn money through elaborate microtransaction stores, season passes and loot boxes.
At the same time, EA was relentless in investing in new studios only later. turn them off and in the process they cancel their ambitious but risky projects. The most infamous example of this was Visceral Games. Formerly EA Redwood, studio critically acclaimed dead space series only to see it later scrapped when it failed to meet sales expectations after getting bogged down in multiplayer and microtransactions. Visceral then started working on a single player game. Star wars play with not mapped author Amy Hennig called
Project Ragtag, but Visceral turn it off instead in 2017 and Ragtag canceled.
Ragtag has been problematic from the start, but the shutdown and cancellation also became a lightning rod for frustration with EA’s return to online games where it could cut players for five dollars.
EA, of course, denied this.
“You may have heard of the conversation between single player versus multiplayer or single player versus live service, and that wasn’t about the conversation,” said CEO Andrew Wilson. told investors After a short time. “It wasn’t just a single player game or a live service, it was more about how we get to a point where the overall gaming experience is just right for players.”
Weeks later, EA released Star Wars: Battlefront II with Pay-to-win loot boxes.
The ensuing backlash led to legal scrutiny and ultimately the removal of exploitative mechanics from many games, including the following. Battlefield II. Specifically, one of the remaining strongholds of the loot boxes is EA’s Fifawhere are they contribute billions The company generates revenue from its online sports modes every year.
It was also unfortunate that the company looked for new ways to withdraw money from its games. Anthembeloved single-player RPG powerhouse BioWare’s tragic attempt to replicate Bungie’s live-service success destiny 2. Multiplayer mechanics initially approaching Dragon Age: Dreadwolf as much Anthemfailure convinced the company to give up. (BioWare remains the exception to EA’s shutdown of past RPG makers like Mythic, Bullfrog, and Origin).
“We are confident that bank heads are relieved that oil, tobacco and weapons companies are not on the list this year,” EA spokesman John Reseburg said. aforementioned crowned as America’s worst company in the first year. After the second run, he stopped making EAs in 2013. sims 4 is an online only game.
All major video game publishers have a negative reputation for anything beyond their claims. sexual discrimination, workplace abuseand brutal overtime. Activision Blizzard finds the hits and then knocks them down. Every Ubisoft game feels the same. Square Enix forever Disappointed. With EA, it makes sense that the company would rather trap you in an online casino than make a game, sell it to you, and move on with your life. It’s no longer the only company to blame for this, but others aren’t trying to post cute memes about it.
