Do Companies like EA Purposely make their games bad?

[Razkul]

When asking this question keep in mind im talking more about sports games than anything else.

Every year we hear " Now coming in XX 13!!!!" And I see so many flaws in games such as Madden and Fifa (Dont play other sports games as much as these 2)


So do you think EA Purposely makes their games bad for a reason? For example if everything worked fine what would be the point in people buying the next game, only for a roster update?

[Hulari]

Everybody still buys it, so why change it?

The only time I've seen drastic changes in Fifa was when Pro Evo was the better game for a couple years running. Then EA hired one of Konami's(?) developers from the Pro Evo team and he changed some of the system to what it is now.

[fearcazic]

No competition from NFL2Kx.

Also to make people buy it they would have features like A,B,C,D,E but remove B for next year but add F. Then the next year they would remove B and C, but add in G. Then the following year they would remove F but add in B. Then the next year they would remove F and G, but add in C so you'll have features like A,B,C,D, and E again. Repeat cycle and always update rosters.

GG!

[Razkul]

Exactly Madden is the worst. They could literally pull out their old "files" from Madden 95 update the graphics slap Madden 13 on it and sell it

[bcbully]

Well they buy studios and have them make the bare minimum. They look at it like "Your giving them too much. Make them pay for this. It's worth it."
Good thing TSW is still independent!

[Hraklea]

They don't do bad games, they do average games because people they are cheaper than good games and people still buy them. I don't blame them, I blame the gamers.

[tenzing21]

Since I don't work for EA, I can't say for certain. About 5 weeks ago, the prevailing theory, and one I came up with before I read it all over the net as well, was that the game was, for whatever reason deliberately not made as well as it could have been. In fact the game was sooooooo bad (Swtor), I almost convinced myself it was a mass psychology experiment, or maybe even the CIA or some such agency came in and demanded the game be the worst piece of crap ever sold to mankind. I mean the game was bad, no HORRIBLE on every conceivable level, in some cases the worse implementation of an idea or MMO aspect I had ever seen, except the area loot idea, which was balls out the best new thing I had encountered in Swtor.

Swtor, when released was a 5 on a scale of 1-100.

[Deleted]

A lot of exclusive licenses means they don't have to try hard...

We need another ISS type of revolution for the games before they started having to try and make them better.

[Chaotic1962]

I think that EA is just more money grubbing then it used to be and is just pushing unfnished / unpolished games faster and faster.

[Bitlovin]

No competition from NFL2Kx

This. The NFL license alone sells the game.

[Zelk]

FIFA 12 had a completely new engine, and it's an awesome game. Of course Madden would be bad, it's based on the fake 'football' that Americans play.

[maximusCat]

I used to work for EA. I spent time in several roles while I was with them: tester, test engineer and software engineer.

As a software engineer I worked on a project that had over 100 people on the team. I was amazed at how much money was going into such a terrible product. You have to be careful about what you say since anything negative about the product some people will take personally. Out of all the people on the project, there were only about two people who could make decisions of consequence, and those two people made some pretty terrible decisions in my opinion. Everyone else is just doing what they are told... or else. The game was a successful franchise that EA had purchased and destroyed, a typical pattern. There was terrible gameplay, meaningless stats (ie it would say level up, some bars would move, but it actually had 0 impact on gameplay). They also spent millions of dollars getting actors for terrible cutscenes. I could go on for some length.

[Requiemcliff]

FIFA 12 had a completely new engine, and it's an awesome game. Of course Madden would be bad, it's based on the fake 'football' that Americans play.

While not being a fan of either version of football, I will say, US football is no less legitimate than any other sport.

Also, I will say, the TC in a way sort of asking a loaded question, no matter which way we say it, the game is implied to be bad. While I do not like the general EA sports game, I will generally say, they aren't as much bad as in...they are the same game for the most part. There is next to no innovation in the games, for the most part they are just roster updates for the previous iteration, which could technically be made with a 10 buck DLC if they really wanted to. The reason they don't really innovate though, is because they have a general market for the games, a dedicated fanbase that will buy the games every year even if there is no real core gameplay changes. (I will also say, while I generally despise yearly remakes of the exact same game, if the core game mechanics aren't broke, why change them and get people annoyed, think about almost any game that came out with a core gameplay mechanic changed, people will rage just as much)

But yeah, TL;DR: Games aren't fundamentally bad, just they rarely change anything worth 50 bucks to buy a new copy every year.

[GW2lacky]

"This year we put a 12 on the box"
....Richard Mackey works at EA.

[bbr]

EA is EA.
They just make a dozen and one games exactly like the one before it, and fans will buy it regardless of how little content got added.

Little effort, decent profit.
It's how they stay in existence, sadly.
It's also why more people should boycott them entirely, and support other game developers more.

I dont see why anyone would want to buy those games listed above..
A soccer game is just a soccer game, if the only thing they add is new players, more shirts, different stadiums,.. you're still playing the same soccer game.
Total waste of money.

[Restos3]

From a programmer's point of view, software (including games) are never ever 100% finished. We are always fixing bugs, adding more content w/o fixing the previous bugs because a) not enough programmers, b) code is way too large and c) new content is always a priority.
Even if I think something is fixed and ready for release, when tested it might not be, but once you know this, you can't dedicate enough into fixing old bugs because new content is coming up and so on and so forth.

At least, that's my experience and is not grateful at all.

[McNeil]

If I remember it right, EA doesn't make games, they let their studios do it. But EA often forces their studios to rush their games, so the faster they can move on with the next games.

[Caiada]

No, most vocal gamers are just hateful and entitled.

[Wilian]

No, most vocal gamers are just hateful and entitled.

Yeah, and the rest are just blind sheeps.

[Caiada]

Yeah, and the rest are just blind sheeps.

Implying you're better than all the rest of the people buying these exceedingly popular games and the reviewers scoring them well. Classy.