Analyst: EA Brand Tarnished
For the first time, it appears that the corporate world has realized that the quality of EA ’s games have declined. The average rating of games released by EA has dropped drastically over the past few years, most notably their EA Sports series, which carried little or no improvement from year to year (counting out the roster updates, of course). Analyst Evan Wilson from Pacific Crest Securities says,
“Poor reviews and quality are beginning to tarnish the EA brand. According to our ongoing survey of GameRankings.com aggregated review data, Electronic Arts’ overall game quality continues to fall.”
EA issued the usual (and rather pathetic) half-reply, half-PR announcement,
“The EA brand is strong with great games from franchises that continue to break sales records. Across the portfolio, EA always strives to drive innovation and quality into its titles. EA continues to invest in next-generation development and technology which will translate into high quality gaming throughout the next console cycle.”
Looking at the reviews of some of the latest offerings from EA, Evan Wilson is right indeed. However, people still buy the games, and that’s pretty much all EA needs.
Via GameSpot
December 3rd, 2006 at 5:36 pm
This IS EA we are talking about. It has been very easy to see that other than the Burnout series they really haven’t done much of anything in the last 18 months … especially not on the 360 platform. LOTR:BFME could have been decent to good but there were so many instances where the framerates dropped to almost zero and it was a constant struggle to manage your troops … I traded that game in within a two weeks of buying it. Then of course we have the awful Madden 360 series … followed by the worst hoop games ever made (maybe a bit strong but the point is clear) … it was so bad they cancelled the PS3 version for this year. Superman … well that was a joke … it is so horrible I don’t know how it passed QA.
So it is pretty obvious that EA just doesn’t get how to make good solid games anymore even with all the money they have. I doubt they have even really invested in any quality R&D. There philosophy these days seems to be “If you can’t beat ‘em buy ‘em … then F*ck up whatever it was they were developing”. Finally everyone is really starting to see just how horrible of a development/publishing company they really are. Now all we can do is pray that Crytek doesn’t fall victim to their continuing spree of purchasing really solid companies.
December 4th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
“If you can’t beat ‘em buy ‘em … then F*ck up whatever it was they were developing
December 4th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
I don’t buy EA no matter what the hype. The ads/spyware in BF2142 was the final straw for me, I’ll never go back, even if they remove it.
December 5th, 2006 at 6:31 am
EA pwnz all
December 5th, 2006 at 6:42 am
FUCK EA!! DAMN GREEDY BAZTARDS!