EA fired Plants vs Zombies Creator for refusing to add Pay2Win.

[TheDeeGee]

Starts at 41:00.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWX1...youtu.be&t=41m

[DesoPL]

This is seriously dumb... EA is going get another title of worst company soon(TM)

[Val the Moofia Boss]

More people need to know about this. Vote with your wallets people! Let EA know that they can't get away with this!

[Segus1992]

This is seriously dumb... EA is going get another title of worst company soon(TM)

Doesn't matter. People are still stupid enough to buy their games, and as long as that's the case (always will be), EA will continue. They know they're hated (by people who care), and they know that it's worth it for profit.

[morph4037]

This is seriously dumb... EA is going get another title of worst company soon(TM)

At this point, it's safe to say they are proud of getting that title yearly.

[McNeil]

This is whats becoming of video games... and we were naive enough to allow it to happen. We should've told them NO when a cash shop was starting to become a thing, and now we're in the middle of an even hotter mess.

[Pony Soldier]

Fired for not being a greedy douchebag. Fired after making one of the most successful indie games ever.

Fucking hell, EA just keeps getting lower and lower. Bunch of fucking assholes. And to think people actually buy into these loot boxes and support this way of business, it's infuriating. They are supporting the people who do shit like this. This is why EA is still floating around like the infectious cloud that they are. Spreading their fucking microtransaction disease everywhere.

People, for fucks sake stop being such mindless drones and stop supporting this. Otherwise you may see your favorite company consumed by EA and you can kiss your favorite franchise goodbye. I mean just look at what they did with Mass Effect, Dead Space, and now Star Wars Battlefront. They prove time and time again that they don't care about us or video games. They care about money. They are businessmen not passionate gamers like the developers and us.

[8bithamster]

so we literally have;

A developer known within the Binding of Isaac community (the game he created) as a frequent basher of anything not indy
A second hand story with no evidence, just hearsay
Perfectly generated at the time where it's even easier to bash EA?

While it wouldn't surprise me, it's a bit.. to covenient.

[Saluna]

Fyi. There's also a lot of people saying that that claim is wrong.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/plants-vs-z...e-fan-fired-ea

One person vision is not necessarily a fact.

[Jester Joe]

Fyi. There's also a lot of people saying that that claim is wrong.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/plants-vs-z...e-fan-fired-ea

One person vision is not necessarily a fact.

I mean, those people saying "it's wrong" are basically amounting to saying "whoa that didn't happen! But...I have no idea why he was really fired."

Especially that one guy they used as an example...he went from "That's not true" to "But it never launched. George was unfortunately part of the layoffs in Aug ‘12, but I know none of the details surrounding his departure. In Oct ‘12 there was a change in franchise leadership that mandated a shift to f2p mobile."

It's very possible the game was still suppose to shift to Pay to Win, and they fired him for saying he doesn't want that. It's possible the detail he was "fuzzy" on was the game, since it's one that was never released, and it's possible there's still some legal nonsense preventing Fan from talking about it.

[dextersmith]

This is seriously dumb... EA is going get another title of worst company soon(TM)

They don't care because it doesn't effect sales.

[Krastyn]

I mean, those people saying "it's wrong" are basically amounting to saying "whoa that didn't happen! But...I have no idea why he was really fired."

Especially that one guy they used as an example...he went from "That's not true" to "But it never launched. George was unfortunately part of the layoffs in Aug ‘12, but I know none of the details surrounding his departure. In Oct ‘12 there was a change in franchise leadership that mandated a shift to f2p mobile."

It's very possible the game was still suppose to shift to Pay to Win, and they fired him for saying he doesn't want that. It's possible the detail he was "fuzzy" on was the game, since it's one that was never released, and it's possible there's still some legal nonsense preventing Fan from talking about it.

You also ignored the tidbit of:

I was the lead producer from Jan ‘12 to launch in July ‘13, about 18mo. George was never involved during the time I worked on the project.

So while the details of his firings are not clear, what is clear from the statements is he wasn't involved in PVZ2.

But if people want to make assumptions and flame EA without any actual evidence, fill your boots?

[Saluna]

https://kotaku.com/widespread-rumor-...rea-1820649466

Even Kotaku states its not quite true. But I guess the hour is about bashing EA whatever the conspiracy says? It reminds me the Trump supporter bashing anything about Clinton without having a single evidence.

[Jester Joe]

You also ignored the tidbit of:


So while the details of his firings are not clear, what is clear from the statements is he wasn't involved in PVZ2.

But if people want to make assumptions and flame EA without any actual evidence, fill your boots?

No, I didn't ignore the tidbit, you just ignored half of my post though-

It's very possible the game was still suppose to shift to Pay to Win, and they fired him for saying he doesn't want that. It's possible the detail he was "fuzzy" on was the game, since it's one that was never released, and it's possible there's still some legal nonsense preventing Fan from talking about it.

The guy made a tweet insisting "No, he wasn't fired for those reasons, I was in charge of PvZ2!" when all he really knows is that George wasn't working on PvZ2. That doesn't change that whatever George WAS working on he was fired for saying "Don't go P2W"

[Saluna]

The guy made a tweet insisting "No, he wasn't fired for those reasons, I was in charge of PvZ2!" when all he really knows is that George wasn't working on PvZ2. That doesn't change that whatever George WAS working on he was fired for saying "Don't go P2W"

In short, those sources said, Fan’s ethos as an indie game developer conflicted with the new corporate structure of EA, which had purchased Popcap in the summer of 2011. He didn’t mesh well with the massive corporation. It was true that Fan didn’t want to make “freemium” games, the sources said, but he wasn’t working on Plants vs. Zombies 2—he was working on other projects. Fan lost interest in Plants vs. Zombies when EA began envisioning it as a massive franchise, the sources said, and he spent time on new ideas, like a game with the brilliant title Full Contact Bingo. When it became clear that Popcap’s future would revolve around making free-to-play games with microtransactions, Fan no longer fit in.

Although I see your point, you are making a correlation between "he didn't like the freeium (p2w) approach" and "he got laid off" when there is nothing that says that.
There's other big reaons in the quote above that shows some elements that there is more to it than just the correlation.

[Krastyn]

The guy made a tweet insisting "No, he wasn't fired for those reasons, I was in charge of PvZ2!" when all he really knows is that George wasn't working on PvZ2. That doesn't change that whatever George WAS working on he was fired for saying "Don't go P2W"

The initial claim in the OP was that he was specifically fired because they wanted to make PvZ2 P2W. Not whatever he was working on, specifically PvZ2.

And they’re like hey let’s make the sequel, we’re gonna put it on mobile, and we’re gonna do this “pay to win.” And he’s like, ah I don’t know, that’s not a good idea, I don’t really want to do that with my game, and they said “You’re fired.” And he left.

So there is a lot more evidence to show that the statement made is incorrect, than correct. The only evidence showing he was fired for not wanting PvZ2 to be P2W is one guy's second hand statement 4 years after the fact, while you have several people claiming otherwise.

So again, if you want to pickup the pitchforks based on the unverified second hand word of someone 4 years later, have at it.

I'll wait until some actual evidence shows up.

[CosmicGuitars]

Friend of PVZ Creator Gives Highly Biased and Skewed Interpretation of Events.

[Jester Joe]

Although I see your point, you are making a correlation between "he didn't like the freeium (p2w) approach" and "he got laid off" when there is nothing that says that.
There's other big reaons in the quote above that shows some elements that there is more to it than just the correlation.

The initial claim in the OP was that he was specifically fired because they wanted to make PvZ2 P2W. Not whatever he was working on, specifically PvZ2.
So there is a lot more evidence to show that the statement made is incorrect, than correct. The only evidence showing he was fired for not wanting PvZ2 to be P2W is one guy's second hand statement 4 years after the fact, while you have several people claiming otherwise.

So again, if you want to pickup the pitchforks based on the unverified second hand word of someone 4 years later, have at it.

I'll wait until some actual evidence shows up.

In regards to both since its a similar response, yeah, there's probably far more going on than the version that was heard. My point was more of even in light of the Kotaku article, it's still very possible that he was fired for that reason, the Kotaku article is going very much off of second hand sources themselves, especially that one guy who said he was in charge of PvZ2.

I'm not about to start rioting myself, don't get me wrong. I just think this is very much a situation where it could go either way. Maybe it was even as simple as a miscommunication. I mean, to me though personally, this part sticks out-

When it became clear that Popcap’s future would revolve around making free-to-play games with microtransactions, Fan no longer fit in.

It does seem like his anti-P2W viewpoint did have a role to play here somewhat.

[Krastyn]

In regards to both since its a similar response, yeah, there's probably far more going on than the version that was heard. My point was more of even in light of the Kotaku article, it's still very possible that he was fired for that reason, the Kotaku article is going very much off of second hand sources themselves, especially that one guy who said he was in charge of PvZ2.

I'm not about to start rioting myself, don't get me wrong. I just think this is very much a situation where it could go either way. Maybe it was even as simple as a miscommunication. I mean, to me though personally, this part sticks out-

It does seem like his anti-P2W viewpoint did have a role to play here somewhat.

I agree this could go either way. To me though the fact that there is no actual evidence to back it coupled with bringing it up 4 years after the fact when there is already recent actual reasons to hate EA leads me to lean more towards this "release" of information was to capitalise on the piling on of hatred to EA.

Take a story like this. This was from Feb 1, 2011 before Popcap was even bought out by EA. They were already shifting to freemium style. You could say the writing was on the wall before EA even bought them that Fan's philosophy would be at odds with where the market was heading. But I guess because at the time it was just Popcap, and not the big bad evil EA that people just didn't give a shit.

[mvaliz]

The initial claim in the OP was that he was specifically fired because they wanted to make PvZ2 P2W. Not whatever he was working on, specifically PvZ2.

Where's this said "claim"?

He said exactly what happened. The Creator of PVZ was fired for not adding P2W.

Who the hell would assume it was PVZ or PVZ2 since those games came out YEARS ago? The OP was pointing out that EA sacked another great game developer over wanting a moneygrabbing scheme painted into his next game.