The Impact Factor

EA: Two Lefts Does Make a Right?

Article

Abstract: EA has been the butt of the internet’s ire for several years, and for a good reason. Terrible business practices they both helped to invent and popularize, like always-online DRM and microtransactions, left a black mark on the video game publishing company. 2014 was a rough year for AAA games, especially for other large publishers. EA has capitalized on these missteps, while simultaneously taking small steps to re-endear themselves to their hardcore audience. EA seems to have learned from 2014’s lessons. I hope that EA’s realization of its need to appeal to the core audience acts as a harbinger of better things to come.

Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has had a rough go of things in the past couple of years. That’s putting it lightly, though. EA was voted the worst company in America two years in a row. The “award” was reflective of the terrible business practices EA championed. Practices that plagued the gaming industry and helped add a distinctly bitter note to the end of the last console generation. Chief among theses issues were (are) mandated online connectivity/DRM (digital rights management) and microtransactions. Let me dissect those two briefly.

The launch of SimCity was an unmitigated disaster.

Video games being pirated has always been an issue for game makers and publishers, and one that is increasingly problematic as PC gaming becomes more and more popular. There are various ways publishers can combat online piracy, but in the end, none are particularly effective at stopping (or even deterring) pirates. The solution that has worked best is the approach championed by CD Projekt: full disclosure, putting developers at the forefront of the games’ discussion, and avoiding any sense of exploitation in the monetization of their products. CD Projekt releases all of their games DRM-free, is open about any development hurdles, and releases tons of extra content in their games for free. EA, on the other hand, did none of this. To ensure their games weren’t pirated, EA added heavy layers of DRM to all their big releases. This manifested itself in several ways. Many EA games had to be played online at all times, regardless if the game was single-player only or multiplayer focused. This allowed EA to constantly verify the games’ licenses with their servers to make sure it was legitimately obtained. This practice caused obvious problems, however. If you could not connect to the internet, you couldn’t play the game. If the EA servers were down, you couldn’t play the game. And this is for single player experiences. SimCity (2013) is the best example of how this system fails. For weeks on end, the single player SimCity was unplayable due to EA server malfunctions. EA received fiery vitriol for months due to this fiasco. Heavy layers of DRM and forced internet connectivity violated consumer trust, and put a bad taste in consumer mouths.

Not content to only mildly irritate its consumers, EA also championed another divisive practice: microtransactions. For those unaware, microtransactions are a monetization method for games in which consumers spend small amounts of money for in-game benefits: like cosmetic items, level boosts, etc. Microtransactions aren’t an inherent evil, and Valve has proven this. In games like Team Fortress 2 and DOTA2, players can spend money to obtain all sorts of cosmetic doo-dads. New hats for characters, new player skins, changing the announcer’s voice, etc. There are two important things to remember when considering Valve’s microtransactions, however. First, none of these purchases affect the gameplay. All game modes, maps, etc are free in-game, and none of the items give you an advantage over other players. Second, both games I mentioned are free-games, so microtransactions make sense as a way to monetize. EA messed both of these up, badly. Microtransactions in EA games often provided substantial gameplay advantages, or felt like they were gating content that should have been included for free in the final release behind an annoying pay wall. EA seemingly stuffed as many pay-options into their games as possible, including their $60 AAA experiences. As a consumer, it felt like you were being milked for as much money as possible. Adding to this frustration was EA’s insistence on early/day-one paid downloadable content (DLC), which, again, felt like EA was parsing out content behind a pay wall.  Therefore, taking these two huge things into consideration, I was not surprised at all when they were nominated as the worst company in America.

But this article is not about how bad EA is, or how these practices remain a problem for the industry. It’s about how EA has worked hard, and gotten lucky, in rehabilitating their image.

First and foremost, EA has capitalized on the missteps of others. 2014 was a rough year for game releases. Nearly every AAA game that was released had substantial issues at launch. Assassin’s Creed Unity was a glitchy mess, plagued with disappearing faces and characters falling through the game world. The Master Chief Collection had (still has?) unplayable multiplayer. Driveclub released nearly completely broken, with servers still unable to handle player traffic (pun not intended) for months after its release. 2014 was not only about broken games, but also lackluster AAA games period. Watch_Dogs was met with average reviews and a deflated player base when it did not live up to its hype. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was only talked about for a week or two following its release, as it seems to be just another sequel. Perhaps most importantly, 2014 was a rough year for Ubisoft. Internet audiences panned Watch_Dogs, Assassin’s Creed Unity and The Crew. The latter two also had significant launch issues. EA 100% capitalized 2014’s roughness. To EA’s credit, their big AAA releases this year worked well right out of the gate—both Titanfall and Dragon Age: Inquisition were smooth and mostly glitch free. EA also had some successful experiments, like Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. It might seem odd to say, but releasing functional games counted for a lot in 2014 and EA definitely came out of it in a positive light.

PvZ: Garden Warfare's colorful & silly multiplayer was a fun, pleasant surprise.
I am glad I got to try it out for free. 

EA’s chief effort has been in reconnecting to their players. Their mantra has been a lot of small gestures can go a long way. To make up for any perceived lack of releases, EA has placed effort into teasing their upcoming big guns, namely Battlefield: Hardline and Star Wars: Battlefront. 2014 was also the year of free stuff from EA.  Following the critical and market success of the new Dragon Age, EA was quick to announce a free content pack. Free DLC works wonders on your image (ask CD Projekt about The Witcher), and EA was smart to take note. Rewarding your players pays in dividends. Further, EA is clearly aware of making good to their core audience. At the Playstation Experience, which took place in early December 2014, EA’s Peter Moore came on stage to thank Playstation players for their continued support. In a move I certainly wasn’t expecting, Moore then announced to the crowd that three EA games would be given away for free: one for each Sony platform. And these were not just some small games, either. Need for Speed: Most Wanted on the Vita, Mirror’s Edge on the PS3, and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare on the PS4. EA knew the more dedicated of its fan-base would be following the news of this event, and in giving them something as a way of thanks, Moore and EA hit a PR homerun. These small gestures also begin to gain momentum when taken in concert with other small steps EA is taking: less pay wall-like DLC in their games, combatting piracy by using Origin sales to encourage snap purchases, etc. Little by little EA is trying to undo the past, and make up for huge mistakes like SimCity or Battlefield 4.

The struggle for EA in 2015 will be to keep this positive feeling going. Players are on a hair trigger right now. After such a disappointing year for AAA releases, any fault in a game release is going to be exponentially amplified. EA is on the right path, but that needs to continue as we get further into the year. The most important thing EA can do in 2015 is not release a broken or buggy game. If it is looking rough, please delay the release. CD Projekt acknowledged their game, The Witcher 3, still had an unacceptable number of bugs and therefore would not make its anticipated February release. The game is now scheduled to release in May. EA needs to do the same thing: if it’s broken, as painful as it may be for your projected quarterly earnings, do not release the game. I’m fearful for Battlefield: Hardline, as it seems like the game has issues that need to be dealt with before its March 17^th release. Last, EA needs to remain as transparent as possible. Tell the community what your developers are up to. Tell them about the new experiences you have planned. Tell them where you messed up, and what you plan to do to fix it in the future. I want all game makers and publishers to succeed: it creates a richer gaming environment in which we get quality releases from a large spectrum of people. Here’s to hoping EA, and everyone else really, learn from the mistakes of 2014 and listen to their audience moving forward. It could make for one hell of a games landscape.