- SubZ3r0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21Finally for awhile there thought EA was gonna take over the gaming industry they can keep losing money ill be happy for IGD
- rolosworld, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2well... lets see what happens when Spores comes out!
- phpirate, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Personally, I don't think EA is better than companies like Rockstar or Bungie.
- jrsims, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5BURN!! BURN!!
- antipro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+36Guess people aren't buying sequels anymore
- smartpatrol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Nelson: "HA HA!"
- cypher35, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4w00t!
***** EA
- SubZ3r0, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4sequels or mods? Most of EA's Money comes from making mods for the existing games expansions atleast thats what I think cause every EA game other then sports have lame expansions that are just mods and there forced in your face. Like the upcoming battlefield 2142 thats just a mod to me if its not using a new engine.
- mrhahn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5What about games on the Unreal engine? Same engine, different games, right?
- hexix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6mrhahn: If the game shares the same title, same gameplay, and same engine, then yes it is probably just a mod.
- mikeon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3They should have just called it an "expansion" pack. If they had waited another year, then maybe I would consider 2142 a sequel, but they release it after one year and at the same time are pumping out their little "booster" packs.
I bet EA might even release a patch to break BF2 even more after 2142 debutes so that maybe they can force the BF2 players to go buy the next one. You know, the ones who always say "I'll never buy another EA game again!"
- flyingspatula, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4Oh man... i need that company to stay successful and in business.
I need my NHL hockey series!- alxdman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2i need it too, i usually buy one every 3 years, 94-97-2000-2003, havent got the latest one though, i hope the fightings improved :p
- alxdman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2i need it too, i usually buy one every 3 years, 94-97-2000-2003, havent got the latest one though, i hope the fightings improved :p
- SubZ3r0, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6Yea I will give EA some credit for NHL series I have almost every single one myself :)
- antipro, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5I prefer 2K Sports Hockey. But EA Hockey did get a lot better this year. It's at the point where hockey fans will be pleased no matter which game they buy.
I like the passing system in 2K Sports where you click down the analog stick and it brings up a button for every player, then you can hit button combinations and do multi person passes before the first one reaches its man. Then if you press the button assigned to the person with the puck that player will shoot. So lets say your the right wing and you press Y, Black, White, X, X. You'd pass it to the center then to the Left Dman then the Right Dman and then Back to you the Right Wing to execute a one timer.
That's the best I can do to explain it but it works really well. I also like the Enforcer system where some players, the really tough/aggressive ones, are labled enforcers. And if they they rough up a particular player enough that player will become intimidated and their performance will suffer. So if the Flames are playing the Ducks and Chris Simon kept checking Teemu Selanne into the boards and hooking him and what not, Teemu would become intimidated.
It's mainly fun for multiplayer. Like if your friend has Paul Kariya and hes zooming around trying to deke you and you just cross check him in the face with Chris Pronger and put him in his place.
Oh well. EA Hockey is good too. Those are just the things I like more about 2K Sports Hockey - pjh3000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2EA HAS to try with their NHL games as they don't have an exclusive license like they do for NFL.
- antipro, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5I prefer 2K Sports Hockey. But EA Hockey did get a lot better this year. It's at the point where hockey fans will be pleased no matter which game they buy.
- karmatic, on 10/12/2007, -26/+1This has been posted multiple times already. Spam.
- pjh3000, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Yes, by you! Stop whining just because your posting of this story got fewer mouse clicks.
- rm999, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9yay!
- anonymoustroll, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12let me guess... their overtime settlement was paid in company stock?
- SubZ3r0, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Yea its alot like that one simpsons episode please wait as we make your cartoon help yourself to some company stock to kill some time LOL
- dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Some punctuation would be nice, bro.
- jer2eydevil88, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Good! Lousy games deserve lousy revenue!
- adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I imagine a good chuck of this is from the big sports titles they have, a lot of people I know didn't get it because someone they knew did and said that the games were pretty crappy.
- filovirus, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2RAAAAMONE, tell EA to lower prices on console games.
- Arramol, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I don't get it, what's the "RAAAAAAMONE" I keep seeing on comments?
- threemagic, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Opie and Anthony skit... XM radio shock jocks (well.. now the replacement for Howard Stern as well since David Lee Roth didn't pan out)
- threemagic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17"well we lost money this year because we didn't make as much as we spent. if we'd have spent less and made more, we'd have made money"
actual quote by John Madden on EA's loss- ahhell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5What a ***** genius.
- q3ctf4, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1That's too funny
- TylerDurden0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No, how about actually making the game worthwhile for the 360? That's how you could have made some money for the co.
***** Madden for 360 sucks! Thank Mary Magdalene's bergina I did not buy it.
- lutzlutz2005, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Well ya stop releaseing ***** games like Tiger Woods Ds and step it up a few noches EA>.......
- kofspades, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I heard that EA's programmers worked many "noches". hahaha eh, bad pun. I'll go hang my head in shame now.
- Pseudo98, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Serves them right for buying too many other studios and releasing bug ridden games with insufficient QA.
- ReikiMaster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I was going to say something similar. EA is buying up everybody, and thus have less competition. This has resulted in a very long line of poor games. Corners are being cut, and it appears the consumers are starting to take notice. I still hold hope out that they can turn around their current trend.
- Ansible, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I, on the other hand, hope that they and their overtime oriented, soul crushing sweatshop methodology go down in flames, with the spectacle of their downfall serving as a warning to others.
- Red_Eye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11EA had some cool stuff back in the day but considering some of the junk they put out now and the rumors about how they (mis)treat their employees then this doesnt upset me too much.
- Iceduck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Buying a mobile game publisher for $682m is simply idiotic. It's still a young industry, all they would have to do is to start up a few teams and turn out lots of generic EA Sports titles.
- Metabolife, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hey guys, wanna play madden 2k10? They added on team deathmatch mode. Every football player has a gun and they all run around the football stadium shooting one another.
Really.. how many times can someone rehash something?- saigumi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As many times as they want... with those exclusive rights that they have.
How much did that cost them again? 50 million?
- saigumi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As many times as they want... with those exclusive rights that they have.
- jocknerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Good. let them rot in hell. I'm still mad for spending $50 on that crap product called Earl Weaver Baseball 2.0. Biggest junk ever produced. And I was a huge fan of Earl Weaver Baseball 1.0 and 1.5.
- rodrigo74, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Yeah their sport titles have been lousy lately, but Need for Speed is IMHO a very nice series.
- alchemism, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4> Really.. how many times can someone rehash something?
Whats the fun of playing a football game if I cant control (insert name of popular 2010 draft pick here)?! I need to have officially-licensed NFL teams, names, and logos in my game, or else the experience would be even more of a feeble recreation of what I watch on TV than it is now.- Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You know, they could dynamically do this over the net, but then you wouldn't have to fork over hundreds of dollars for almost the same game every year.
- tehnico, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Hmmm... well they obviously have to start squeezing more out of their employees.
< /sarcasm > - ahhell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8This is great news. Maybe consumers are finally starting to wake up to the ***** that is EA.
God I hope so. - poee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3> "Sales of games for consoles rose 14 percent from a year ago to $360 million, while those for PCs advanced 22 percent to $104 million."
Well it's good news to see that PC game sales are up 22% from last year. The imminent 'death of PC gaming' that I've been reading about for years is sure taking its sweet time. ^__^ - Arramol, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5If EA goes down (hardly a certainty at this point of course, just speculating), I hope they don't take the smaller franchises they've purchased with them. It'd be a huge blow to the gaming industry if we lost innovative developers like Maxis.
- tdiehm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5And yet millions of people will still rush out to buy EA's football roster update this August, a.k.a. Madden 2007.
- Solis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I pray for the day when EA goes bankrupt and ends it's horrid existence. Such a vile company.
- owls21, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I'm so tired of hearing people complain about EA. If you don't like them, don't buy them. I'm a big EA fan, but I'm a sports video game fan first. If a game is good, buy it, if not, don't. But don't hate EA just because it's gotten so big. That's what successful companies do, they grow. EA had a sub-par year, which was mainly due to the next-gen transition. These titles were incomplete, but be sure that EA will put out some stellar offerings during the nest 6-12 months.
- Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"There are things that you don't know you don't know." -D.R.
You haven't read many of the comments. I know this because those comments answer your complaints.
- Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"There are things that you don't know you don't know." -D.R.
- Cerebral, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2What is wrong with all of you people??? Why all bash EA? Sorry let me rephrase that; Why bash EA Games?
Look at all the good games they have going for them:
Battlefield
Madden
Hockey
Live
Need for Speed
Black
Burnout
Battle for Middle Earth
Bond Games
The Sims
That is just a quick list off the top of my head. Seriously there is nothing wrong with their games. I do have a problem with the way they have chosen to do business around all of these games. I dislike the entire add-on thing they stumbled upon with The Sims where every month you pay another $30 for stuff that would be IMO a better business move for fans/customers to not nickle and dime them to death. You cannot complain about sports titles because it would not be fun for (just an example) a boston fan to play a baseball game where Johnny Damon is still on their team. I do agree that the NFL etc. should NEVER have been so greedy as to sign an exclusive deal with any company. We all know that Monopolies just hurt the consumer and so now that people (seem to be) are move informed of everything now days with the internet we do hold games up to a higher standard they need to push the envelope which I think Madden did this year with the passing changes they made. I also dislike the way milked the 1st Gen Xbox 360 titles from people... They removed courses from Tiger, Madden was not in the Madden game, removed game features etc. all so they could push games out for people ot blow $60 bucks on. My last thing that bothers me with EA is that they are the only company I know of that NEVER shows in game footage of any of their games on the package or on commercials while cliaming that the footage is in fact in game... BULL S*@!
I honestly do not see how they lost $16 mil other than the fact that they thought everyone and their mom would buy madden because they held the exclusive rights and that just did not happen. I think that their games are solid but they have become too big headded for their own good. They need better business practices in order to win my sympathy on this one.- fofr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3...and then look at their half assed sequels?
- Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There was an episode some years ago where it came out that their employees were treated like sh*t. Now I don't know if it was EA for sure, but this could be why.
- fani, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Lets see, Madden 2001 - wow, good.
Madden 2002 - wow. didn't know they could improve on Madden 2001
Madden 2003 - ok, its just a new roster
Madden 2004 - nice but didn't I just buy 2003 version
Madden 2005 - grrr...
Madden 2006 - Now this is getting annoying...
Madden 2007 - !#@%^ !@@ % --> EA posts massive losses - Konrad9, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I can hear the angels singing.
I only hope their losses continue and grow and grow and then EA dies a horrible death.
Anyone who says there is nothing wrong with their games is on crack.
Go play one of their PC games and wait for a patch, then you won't play it. Then they'll release another patch that fixes one thing and completely screws up the rest of the game. And then that continues.
Oh yeah, they don't have ANY toll free numbers, so if your game isn't working, you're going to be waiting a week for their tech support to respond.
Don't even think about asking them about gameplay mechanics, you know, such as why in NFS:MW your car suddenly stops dead if it loses ONE tire to a spike strip, because they don't know anything about the games they make, and don't give a crap if you have a question.
EA is to the gaming industry what the smoking industry is to the rest of the world. - skoobisnaxs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I love EA Sports games. and Why? Because they have bought the license to be the only company to release NFL, NBA, and MLB games. They bought the right to have no competition. No Competition = Less quality. Why make Madden 2005 different from 2004 (except for QB vision) when nobody else can make an NFL game with the licensed teams. If somehow Ford motor company became the ONLY company legally able to make a car, do you think the new model would be any different than the old model? Competition leads to inspiration.
- owls21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Of the 3 leagues you mentioned, the only one that has an exclusive agreement with EA is the NFL. The NBA is open while MLB has an exclusive agreement with Take-Two, which put out a stellar MLB 2K6 . I agree that all consumers lose when monopolies exist.
And to Konrad9, the fact that you say EA does not know what they're doing is so invalid, it's comical. How can they be the number one video game publisher, even before any of this exclusive agreement crap started? Get a clue. Every game will have its issues as no game is perfect, but everyone wants perfection and needs to be more realistic. - Ionik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1MLB 2k6 is a good game - but there were major launch flaws with nearly every one of their discs. You couldnt play more than 2 innings without the game freezing and having to restart. It took them about 3 weeks to get a patch that would even allow you to play the game. I wish Take Two would never have acquired the rights to mlb - ea's MVP series was a whole lot better.
- owls21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Of the 3 leagues you mentioned, the only one that has an exclusive agreement with EA is the NFL. The NBA is open while MLB has an exclusive agreement with Take-Two, which put out a stellar MLB 2K6 . I agree that all consumers lose when monopolies exist.
- owls21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2And by the way, a $16 million dollar loss sounds substantial, but EA is a hair shy of a $15 BILLION market cap and has assets in excess of $4 Billion. The number of games EA sold on the 360 was highly dependent on how many 360 consoles were available. Madden regulalry sells in the millions, but the nmber of consoles was substantially lower.
And saying that Madden 2001 was better than 2005? Granted,, 06 was not much more than a roster change and the addition of SupersStar mode, but don't hate on 05. - SVPirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Apart from some very rare shining gems (Battlefield series anyone?) EA churn out crap. It's high time they had their ear thumped and were told to get back in line with all the other games publishers. I used to bash Codemasters for aspiring to be like EA but they seem to have brushed up recently (TOCA RD3 is an awesome game, for example) and seem to have responded to the negative feedback fired at them a couple of years back. If only EA had done that.
We, the games playing public, have suffered too long with crappy games getting new releases every 9 months while good games get left to rot with no bug fixes or support. EA's board must be smoking the whacky baccy if they can't see they are destroying themselves from the customer's PC backwards. - TheGuruStud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3We're bashing EA *AND* the games because even if the game isn't inherently bad, EA's support and release quality for the title is virtually nonexistant. Here's the biggest example to date: Battlefield 2. The game for the first 3 months was nearly unplayable for a lot of people due to performance problems and crashing. And no, that's not the only damn one. Several, several others are the same. Basically every FPS that EA publishes is like this. Then, there is all of the BS that Cerebral pointed out. That's why we hate EA and wish them the worst.
- dankers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Could this have anything to do with the 14 million or so that was payed out in that lawsuit they lost to the game programmers because of not getting payed for overtime.
So really 2 million loss; but they probably included this lawsuit in there to get some tax breaks.- Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So they tried to defend themselves over a case like that?? *****
- owls21, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Ther are plently of people in this world who work on salary and they are required to get their job done, regardless of how many hours are involved. Talk to accountants in audit who do not have a day off in 5 weeks. Do they get paid any more? No! Maybe if employees started being more efficient, they would have to spend less hours outside of a normal workday to finish a given project.
- ZergyPoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That just tells me that I would NEVER work for you.
You're right, people are salaried, and work overtime without getting paid extra. But EA has the highest turnover rate in the industry, and is known for running it's employees into the ground.
Whether or not you think they should pay overtime is irrelevant to the fact that EA is a sucky company to work for and treats its employees like crap.
- JShope, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Here's an interesting thing to think about. People have been copying games for as long as they have been copying music and movies. That means there is extralegal trading and downloading of games as much as with music and movies.
YET - Game companies aren't experiencing a decline in sales (or aren't cooking the books to show one).
We can only hope that the game companies don't form a cartel like the ones killing the movie and music industries.- SubZ3r0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thats the truth. Be horrible to have a GAOA - Game Association of America kicking down your door lol
- Paddrino, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Without a doubt any serious (or even semi serious) gamer out there that is worth their salt knows that just about every game that EA has touched has disintegrated into a pit of despair. Popular titles that they took over have been ruined by their "vision". Most of the people who made those games so popular and so good were so disgusted with the EA product versions that they left all together to pursue other games and good products that the gaming community demands. Can we say C&C anyone? The battlefield series is/has been junk since BF:V was released. BF2 is horrible, and I honestly don't know why anyone is playing this garbage anymore. I don't care about how big a company gets as long as they produce a quality product, and for the last few years people have been blindly buying anything that EA puts out just because it has the word "Battlefield" or "*insert date here*" in the title. Over the last year people have realized what kind of insanity that has been released, and more and more people are starting to turn away from EA. I predict that the new "Battlefield" games are going to bomb, and all of the RTS games that are coming out by very good developers (mostly from people who left EA after they took over) and testers are going to probably wipe out the new Red Alert.
- MrKite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3this just made my day. Proof that pumping out unfinished and buggy games for the quick buck will eventually burn you in the end.
And that's not to mention all their rehashed games that people buy and find out that it's only a slight graphics update with features taken out. - jmdajr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4AWESOME!!!!
- xst4t1kx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Treat your employees better than dirt and release something other than sh***y games, problem solved.
- G-RaZoR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I hate EA for one reason, and one reason only: Their NASCAR product sucks so bad. EA bought out the exclusive license back in 2003 for 6 years (ends in 09), and so far all of their products suck. Nascar Thunder seems horribly arcadish, and their sim that came out was so buggy.
- fu_fish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well, if you can't make money by selling millions of copies of barely-updated games every year for $50 AND selling advertising in your games, then I don't know what to say.
- Thesimpsonsfan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Make better games before you lose more!
- Thesimpsonsfan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Nearly everybody hates EA games
gee Its going down - phuqju, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2EA Sports NFL Franchise SUCKS compared to the old NFL 2k Series!!!!!!!! Madden Sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- ajcomet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As long as Need for Speed does go down with them.... DOWN WITH EA!!
- jjintheuk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I hate most of EA's Games, but there are stil good one out there. I liked the new NFS and I like the Sims - but theres not many other I could list, but loads of their games I think the graphics are too smooth and bulky if you know what I mean. I hated fifa soccer 2006, and 2005, and all the others - and I hated the new SSX, the only good one was Tricky.
At least this is showing them they cant take over everything. Stick to some types of games, but leave others well alone
Jack
http://www.psp-uk.net - zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hay game testers if your reading this.
You just got fired from EA, again!!!
Stop working for them.
Go back to school learn some real skills and get a real job.
Stop being EA's bitch! - towski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0does anyone remember james pond for sega genesis? that alone should be providing enough revenue. i guess they've been squandering their funds. that game was so amazing. i guess it takes more than money to inspire good art. who would have thunk?


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