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[Katrina Oniseki]

EA's talent isn't in making games. It's marketing them. EA is a publisher first and foremost. Marketing, sales, hype and fluff. That's what they do best, and their incredible initial sales numbers reflect that. That being said, they have the habit of placing a very strict corporate structure on their studios.

Devs who are used to relaxed and informal workspaces with brainstorming features over impromptu visits to the local food joint quickly find themselves stuffed into a cubicle reminiscent of a scene from Office Space. EA stifles the studios with bureaucracy and corporate culture. It doesn't work.

They simply don't understand the studios they buy out.

[Lyn Farel]

The main issue is how property rights work in the game industry in the first place. When a Creative Director brings up a new project, it belongs to the studio. Then the studio needs financing and publishing, and will sell it to publishers. Eventually, the copyright is transferred to the publisher.

Publisher being what they are, they own both the financial power and the legal rights, so, they basically can decide whatever they want, studios must comply.

There is another issue, also, which is that artists usually can keep a little of their rights through intellectual property, and so, copyright. It should obviously be the case for artists working in game studios. But the main issue today is that we do not have a clear legal definition of which rights a game studio should have. They sure have artists which can perfectly claim copyrights. They are also first and foremost constituted by programmers, that can not. In information technologies, rights belong to the companies buying the concept since copyright does not cover ideas or information themselves.

Obviously, the people with the most power took the best solution for them, which is the second one.



Edit : Also, on a sidenote, 20-30% of the price you pay for a game belongs to the publisher, 30-40% belongs to the console maker if it's a console based game, and most of the rest belongs to the retailers, which does not leave a lot for studios themselves.

[orange]

stuff

So ... buy independent, digitally distributed games and support the programmers! 

[Lyn Farel]

Basically, with the emergence of all the new mediums like Steam, Kickstarter, and soon cloud gaming, conventionnal retailers are already smelling their death, and publishers are forced to adapt.

PC games which were believed more or less on a severe decline to the profit of console games in 2007-2008 are now living a huge boom through all these new platforms. Tbh it's about time, and I hope it will last. Independant gaming has been going under a complete resurrection for the few past years.

Either that, or the few studios that manage to keep the rights as co-owners of some of their licences, but they are not legion.

[Andreus Ixiris]

In all honesty I just want to grab the EA board of directors by the lapels and SHAKE really fucking hard and yell "YOUR COMPANY IS LOSING MONEY BECAUSE YOU'RE MAKING TERRIBLE DECISIONS. NOT YOUR CONSUMERS, NOT YOUR DEVELOPERS, NOT YOUR MARKETERS, YOU. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM HERE."

And the shittiest thing of all is that even if EA do end up reaping what they sew and finally crash and burn, it won't be the executives who suffer - it'll be the developers and operational staff who actually put in hard work despite knowing that they're working on mass-market garbage.

[BloodBird]

Welcome to capitalism and/or corporatism Andreus, and some of it's negative factors.

It fucking sucks, but it's not likely to go away anytime soon.

Anyhow, the silver-lining for this recent case is STILL that I got DS3 out of it, and I love it <3

[Katrina Oniseki]

If EA actually collapses, I can only see that as a good thing. It may temporarily put those devs out of jobs for a while... but these are not walmart clerks and construction workers. These are people with experience and very valuable skillsets.

With the emergence of Kickstarter and related methods of funding, I have no doubt that motivated developers who got laid off from a dying Big Name Publisher will be able to form new studios and create new games. It may take some transitioning and jostling around, sure... but by freeing these workers from EA's yoke, that's doing the industry a favor.

There may be many who are unable to restart their careers, and such is the consequence of corporate collapse. It's a given. But many of those people will be those who are not very creative or innovative, who don't know how to think outside the box. These are the kinds of developers we need LESS of in the industry, not more. The real gems will find their own way. They don't need EA to spoon feed them money and stone tablets.

Oh, and with EA's death... many copyrights and IP will be stuck in limbo, which may finally put a stop to the damn sequels.

[Lyn Farel]

If EA actually collapses, I can only see that as a good thing. It may temporarily put those devs out of jobs for a while... but these are not walmart clerks and construction workers. These are people with experience and very valuable skillsets.

Depends of the people. It's not easy to find jobs in that industry. It's ruthless.

With the emergence of Kickstarter and related methods of funding, I have no doubt that motivated developers who got laid off from a dying Big Name Publisher will be able to form new studios and create new games. It may take some transitioning and jostling around, sure... but by freeing these workers from EA's yoke, that's doing the industry a favor.

While Kickstarter sure is a great thing, among other things, around 90% of video game studios collapse after (or even before) their first game.

There may be many who are unable to restart their careers, and such is the consequence of corporate collapse. It's a given. But many of those people will be those who are not very creative or innovative, who don't know how to think outside the box. These are the kinds of developers we need LESS of in the industry, not more. The real gems will find their own way. They don't need EA to spoon feed them money and stone tablets.

Honestly Kat, I find this a little harsh. We do not live in a meritocracy. I may not have a lot of experience, sure, but I have seen and heard a decent amount of cases of opportunists getting the jobs, and creative people never finding anything. It's mostly a combination of luck and contacts. That's how corporate works. Only the pure gems you speak of are the ones that are sought after.

Not sure exactly in which company you have a job, but do you consider yourself to be one of those rare gems you speak about ? How would you feel if you suddenly got fired even if you do a decent, professional job with a decent set of skills ? Because that's the case of most people in there. We do not have geniuses all around the street. And the average skillset is already high enough, it's a very demanding industry.

EDIT : and most of all, you can perfectly be a fine employee but that does not make that you have the final word on the important matter. It's the boss that decides, and if the boss is stupid, everyone pay for it eventually.

[Katrina Oniseki]

You're welcome to disagree. It doesn't bother me one bit.

I'm not going to try and justify my opinion to you though, even if you find it harsh. Okay, I will. I'll say it again, just to make sure you understand:

I think the death of a Big Publisher would be good for the industry. It's a ruthless industry because of its nature as Big Gaming. It's a ruthless industry because of huge entities like EA/Ubisoft/Activision who throw their weight around, abuse their workers, smash smaller studios, and underdeliver products devoid of any real content or innovation. They contribute to a stale selection of regurgitated sequels and ruined franchises.

I think the death of a Big Publisher would be good for the industry. I'm assuming you pulled that 90% percentage of failed studios out of your pocket. If you have some sources to cite that, feel free to link them. Because you have no sources yet, I'm not going to address the point at all.

I think the death of a Big Publisher would be good for the industry. Do I care about the little man? The code monkeys typing away at Call of Duty XVII, or Madden 2018 Super Deluxe, or WoW Clone #247? No, I don't. I don't give a damn about them, because the games they work on are poison to the industry.  Should I support them and hope they get to keep their slave shackles under Big Publishing because life might be hard when they lose their job? Oh gee, someone else might have to face a tough life. Somebody who's only mediocre at something will not have my respect for their work. That goes for Publishers, studios, and individual coders/artists.

I think the death of a Big Publisher would be good for the industry. A notable exception is if the remnants of it are simply eaten up by another Big Publisher. Like if Activision or Ubisoft bought out EA. That leads us closer to monopoly, which is even worse than the current status quo. Nobody wants that.

That's a nice appeal to pathos (emotion) you made there too, asking me how I would feel. I have actually been through that situation, since you ask. You know what? I pulled through it. I got a better job elsewhere, and I realized I am better off. Did I go through some rough times while in-between work? Sure. But hey, that's life.

[Lyn Farel]

Why being so rude ? I didn't ask for you to explain or justify yourself or whatever...

[Katrina Oniseki]

Why being so rude ? I didn't ask for you to explain or justify yourself or whatever...

I reconsidered and answered.

I'm tired of the way the gaming industry is going, Lyn. I'm angry about it. I'm disillusioned, and I'm not going to feel bad if some innocent people get hurt to see it fixed.

But, I have next to no power, influence, or authority over anything that happens up there. I am one of hundreds of million consumers. Just one. My opinion is a grain of sand in a dune. You shouldn't worry about what I think of the industry, since whatever the case... it will not have any noticeable effect on its own.

LAST EDIT: Incidentally, these feelings are why I support CCP so strongly. They operate without a big publisher. They have been striking out on their own from the beginning, and they are proving a point that we don't need publishers at all. Same with Blizzard. Same with Bethesda Softworks. Same with Valve.

We don't need EA. We don't need Ubisoft. We don't need Activision.

[Lyn Farel]

Well, I have my griefs against the industry too. After all, I work in there, so yes, it's not all flowery. I am also perfectly aware that I am a lucky one that works in a company that is mostly independent or that keeps at least a part of their rights on their titles, like CCP does.

And yes, we have contracts with Ubisoft from time to time. The last one was RUSE, and without Ubisoft, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to develop this new shiny engine we have, and we wouldn't have a lot of things. Funny thing is that Ubi probably didn't make a lot of money out of it either.

And no, CCP are not proving that we don't need publishers at all. I know my company needs them since we do simply not have the backbone to make publishing (web, marketing, distribution, etc). We have the chance to have found a small one that respects our rights and that actually works very well (Focus Interactive). Most studios are not CCP and didn't get the chance to make a big hit and earn money. I know we don't. I know that after every game we release (which still gets between 80 and 90 on metacritic still) we do not gain nor lose money. With that in mind, how do you want that kind of studios (40 employees at best) to invest in publishing ?

The same way that other independent developers need publishers, we need them. We just don't want the big, nasty ones like EA.


Also, we could go at lenght on Blizzard commercial policies, they are definitly not white either. Nor Bethesda, that are seriously starting to look like Ubisoft and EA with all the studios they are buying. Would you tell that publishing companies like THQ are the devil ? They recently collapsed. I never saw them especially bad as publishers. Sure, like Ubisoft and all, they followed the current rules of the market and didn't do a lot to make it better. But where they comparable to companies like EA ?

If EA are known for what they are, it's because of the way they treat their consumers. But on the otherhand, I have difficulties to see the difference between the ones you cite as example (Blizzard, Bethesda and Valve) and the ones you don't need (like Ubisoft or Activision). You know how Valve makes money with Steam ? Their is lot less money to pay to publish a game on a dematerialized platform. No need for physical copies, no losses of unsold physical copies, no need to pay the retailer, and much more visibility, much longer. And yet they sell their games at the same prices. That must be an insane amount of money. And yet, I like Steam for what it is, except these few annoying points. I don't like Ubisoft policies much either, but you can't throw everything in the process either. They still have some offices (like in Montpellier) that actually focus on creative/artistic 2D games (like Rayman). Rayman excepted, these licenses are certainly not bringing them a lot of money, and yet, they keep developing them.

It's not all black and white imo.

Edit : oh and I forgot, Activision and Blizzard fusioned in 2008 (making Activision Blizzard), and belongs at 63% to Vivendi.

[Lyn Farel]

I think the death of a Big Publisher would be good for the industry. It's a ruthless industry because of its nature as Big Gaming. It's a ruthless industry because of huge entities like EA/Ubisoft/Activision who throw their weight around, abuse their workers, smash smaller studios, and underdeliver products devoid of any real content or innovation. They contribute to a stale selection of regurgitated sequels and ruined franchises.

I couldn't agree more.

I think the death of a Big Publisher would be good for the industry. I'm assuming you pulled that 90% percentage of failed studios out of your pocket. If you have some sources to cite that, feel free to link them. Because you have no sources yet, I'm not going to address the point at all.

You guess wrong, but you are right to point it out. That's the number I kept from my studies and also from the medias, but I can't find myself a clear number on the internet (i'm not going to look for it all the day). However, I can perfectly find things that definitely hint at this.

Like "In an industry where only the top 5% of products make a profit,[r 13] it's easy to understand this fluctuation [of the employment]. Numerous games may start development and are cancelled, or perhaps even completed but never published. Experienced game developers may work for years and yet never ship a title: such is the nature of the business. This volatility is likely inherent to the artistic nature of games." -Wikipedia (game development)

Believe me or not. vOv

I think the death of a Big Publisher would be good for the industry. Do I care about the little man? The code monkeys typing away at Call of Duty XVII, or Madden 2018 Super Deluxe, or WoW Clone #247? No, I don't. I don't give a damn about them, because the games they work on are poison to the industry.  Should I support them and hope they get to keep their slave shackles under Big Publishing because life might be hard when they lose their job? Oh gee, someone else might have to face a tough life. Somebody who's only mediocre at something will not have my respect for their work. That goes for Publishers, studios, and individual coders/artists.

That's why I said I find it a little harsh to say so. It almost sounds like you are comparing that to people working for the weapons industry or something and telling them that's bad.

Well, more seriously though :

1) You don't systematically have to choose where you are going to work. Considering how overcrowded the market is for very few jobs, finding something is already awesome in itself, even if it's for EA. Edit : actually, as unfortunate as it may sound, an experience for EA is probably one of the best thing you can hope for in your resume/CV.

2) Better to earn your life than dying in the street.

3) You seem to assume that all of these people are unskilled, uncreative, and bad at their jobs. That's completely false. You say yourself that developers are at the yoke of their publishers (which I agree to some extent, again). And yet you consider that these ones are perfectly free of what they are doing. Believe me, you have to be damn good to work on AAA titles like CoD. Firslty because everybody wants to work on AAA titles, and secondly because it just asks for a LOT of skills. So yes, they are good, but they are also asked to work on vapid AAA titles because of their publishers. These people are not mediocre, quite the opposite.

I think the death of a Big Publisher would be good for the industry. A notable exception is if the remnants of it are simply eaten up by another Big Publisher. Like if Activision or Ubisoft bought out EA. That leads us closer to monopoly, which is even worse than the current status quo. Nobody wants that.

Definitly.

That's a nice appeal to pathos (emotion) you made there too, asking me how I would feel. I have actually been through that situation, since you ask. You know what? I pulled through it. I got a better job elsewhere, and I realized I am better off. Did I go through some rough times while in-between work? Sure. But hey, that's life.

Well, I plead guilty. But because you did does not mean that some systematically will. Believing that being successful in one's career or just successful in finding a new job depends exclusively on skills and meritocracy is a delusion imho.

[Silver Night]

Why being so rude ? I didn't ask for you to explain or justify yourself or whatever...

I reconsidered and answered.

I'm tired of the way the gaming industry is going, Lyn. I'm angry about it. I'm disillusioned, and I'm not going to feel bad if some innocent people get hurt to see it fixed.

But, I have next to no power, influence, or authority over anything that happens up there. I am one of hundreds of million consumers. Just one. My opinion is a grain of sand in a dune. You shouldn't worry about what I think of the industry, since whatever the case... it will not have any noticeable effect on its own.

LAST EDIT: Incidentally, these feelings are why I support CCP so strongly. They operate without a big publisher. They have been striking out on their own from the beginning, and they are proving a point that we don't need publishers at all. Same with Blizzard. Same with Bethesda Softworks. Same with Valve.

We don't need EA. We don't need Ubisoft. We don't need Activision.

Eve was actually originally published (as in, the physical boxed copies you could buy in stores) by Simon and Schuster. CCP had the digital rights. I don't recall all the details, but basically S&S screwed everything up (went bankrupt, IIRC, shortly afterward) and Eve didn't have much of a retail presence. It actually took a while for CCP to get physical distribution rights back, but they managed on digital sales, pretty much. OFC, some of us have those original Eve CDs around still. 

[lallara zhuul]

... and the features in the booklet that are still not in the game