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EA May Be Gone Within 10 Years

Discussion in 'General Open/Public Discussion' started by Hyncharas, 16 Dec 2013.


  1. It hasn't been a good quarter. Near the end of October production ceased on the new Command and Conquer game as well as closed Victory Studios, only to turn around and say the F2P title would be scrapped for it in favour of the tried-and-tested commercial option. Little did players know, however, less than a month later, Battlefield 4's servers would suffer the worst DDOS attack in history and cease production on all expansion, only to then be under investigation this week for SEC fraud.

    To put the last nail in, stocks for the corporate giant have plummeted, despite the fact they seem to have unlimited leeway when it comes to growth appreciation of shares...

    So what does this mean for EA or, (more importantly) its game franchises? For the corporation, it appears, very little if they carry on sacrificing personnel to keep their losses low, but their games will continue to suffer poor technical releases until, many experts believe, the conglomerate implodes within the decade.
     
  2. Sentrosi

    Sentrosi Protocol Officer Officer

    Officer
    "Patience is a virtue of the strong."

    If I worked for EA, I would be getting my resume out there and networking with my technical peers.
     
  3. I could see DICE (free from EA) being able to crank out BF games on a crowdfunded model. They have enough of a fan base to make it happen, perhaps not the near yearly release tempo EA demands however, and it has not been proven yet that console games could be successfully crowd sourced as their player bases tends to have less disposable income then their PC gaming cousins.

    But I am all for the downfall of major publishers and putting the power back in the developers and players hands, I am much more content to help pay for a great game then the profit margin of a bunch of stock holders.

    And I believe the SEC Fraud things was cleared back in July with EA found at no fault.
     
    Last edited: 16 Dec 2013
  4. EA probably isn't going anywhere. As UnclearAsh mentioned, the SEC fraud was dismissed. And two (relatively minor) issues, one in which EA had absolutely no control, does not a company-failure make.

    It's easy for experts to say that EA will dissolve within 10 years - but those experts have said the same about Microsoft, IBM, and Google in years past. EA has some very lucrative brands under its control - Battlefield, Mass Effect, Crysis, The Sims, just to name a few - and unless corporate management really botches things, the strength of those brands will keep the company going for a long time.
     
  5. EA is on a downward slide but just as massive successes do not mean a company is set forever, so too do massive cock-ups not mean that a company is doomed.

    *IF* EA continues on the path they're on of shoveling out half-baked titles lacking proper back-end support, then yes they will fail. If they continue to do that without realizing that such a thing is a mistake, then they deserve to fail.

    That said, the industry in general is in a major transitory period, and there are going to be casualties. EA's behavior certainly makes them likely, but not assured.

    An interesting, and humorous, take on the current state of the industry: http://www.cracked.com/article_20727_5-reasons-video-game-industry-about-to-crash.html
     
  6. That was basically my point - looking at the short-term data and extrapolating out to the long-term doesn't often play out. We could look at Apple in 1996 as a perfect example. The company had been on the rocks for years and Microsoft was beating them at pretty much everything. Then Steve Jobs came back as CEO in 1997, and, well, the rest is history.

    Organizations are not closed systems - they react to both internal and external forces. Much like a person, organizations will seek to maintain themselves and will try to self-improve as much as possible, changing everything from internal culture (see IBM) to swapping out executives (see Apple) when necessary.

    From what I have heard from EA and its executives, they realize that their product line is stagnating and that they need to develop fresh IP and talent rather than simply creating more Battlefield games. Whether or not that change is successfully implemented is something else entirely.
     
    Last edited: 16 Dec 2013
  7. GraniteRok

    GraniteRok Executive Officer Officer

    Officer
    Sounds to me like typical fear mongering and Chicken Little "sky is falling" syndrome. So called experts who say EA's stock has plummeted.... Highest it's been in five years. With the 2009 massive drop, same thing happened to every publicly traded company with the market meltdown of that year.
     
  8. Hamma

    Hamma Commanding Officer Officer

    Officer
    EA isn't going anywhere
     
  9. Sentrosi

    Sentrosi Protocol Officer Officer

    Officer
    Unacceptable.
    It needs to fall.
     
  10. We may not like everything EA does, some of us may even hate them. That being said, I don't want to see any business fail. It's a big company that employs a whole lot of people. Those people have families too.

    I will agree that they've made some dubious decisions, but other companies have made bigger turnarounds. They've taken some steps in the right direction. Let's see if they can continue.
     
  11. best thing stated in this entire thread
     

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