EA cans 1500 employess will be focus on "Big Sellers"

[Saxon1974]

EA just sacked 1500 employees (the Mythic team is gone, Pandemic will be shut up after releasing Saboteur and even the C&C team is going after they ship C&C4 apparently).

Apparently they are going to concentrate on their big sellers (minimum 2 million in sales).

I thought this was an interesting discussion over on the RPGCodex boards so wanted to see what the people on this board felt about it. (This board has a smaller membership but more intelligent base:)

As the thread mentions...makes me wonder if mainstream RPG studios are dying as a viable product. Might not be a bad thing if more small indy like studios sprung up.

http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=38111

[CrazyBernie]

Interesting. I'd like to meet the oracles that they're employing to predict these big sellers.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Wow. Well, you know it's all about the numbers, kids.

There was a little film released this past summer called "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". Maybe you heard of it, or even seen it yourself. It was universally slammed by critics and fans alike for being such a horrible film (19% on Rotten Tomatoes). But there is likely to be another sequel, because despite the horrible reviews it made over $400 million worldwide. How is this possible? Well, it goes a little something like this:

The target demographic, 8-16 year old boys, didn't care that the movie lacked plot, contained offensive stereotypes, had horrible writing and was badly acted. They just think giant fighting robots are cool. So moms and dads across the country took their young boys to see this movie...and that equates to a lot of tickets getting sold.

My point to referencing Transformers is that video games now work the same way. It's all about finding the largest and most profitable demographic audience, then offering a product to them that requires as little development costs as possible. This means most games that are made now feature familiar game mechanics with gratuitous violence, mutants, fast cars, or some kind of online fantasy world that resembles World of Warcraft. When you take the creativity out of game development, you can make games with a smaller staff (this is where the 1500 layoffs come from).

There are very few creative, experimental or "niche games" to be seen coming from mainstream AAA game studios anymore. Saxon1974, you are right- it just means more indie studios are going to be filling in these gaps. Just look at this year's Independent Games Festival entries- a record 306 games were submitted.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Interesting. I'd like to meet the oracles that they're employing to predict these big sellers.

Those would be the oracles that advised them to gobble up half the smaller studios and overweight themselves with {parasites}management that will mostly not be touched by the layoffs.

I have a friend at another big company who is cringing at the pile of resumes hitting his desk.

[CrazyBernie]

It seems to me that we're starting to see a reversal of the "Big Game Company" phenomenon. As the "Big Game Companies" management see that the cruiseliner is starting to take on water, rather than bail out the water, they toss the crew-hands overboard in an attempt make the boat lighter. The crew-hands make it safely back to shore, and realize that they're better off on a smaller, more specialized vessel, where their skills will be more appreciated and valued. It's a poor, incomplete analogy, but it works for me... ^_^

That being said, I perused the entire list of IGF entries, and really couldn't find much interesting (to me, of course). There aren't a lot of RPG's, and of those few, Eschalon looks the most polished. There's tons of sidescrollers and puzzle games which I don't really find that appealing. The only other game I really found that caught my eye was Zombie Driver. It strikes me as a GTA2 meets L4D meets Carmageddon... the graphics looked like they meshed well and I was always a fan of the orginal two GTA games... 3 (and all of its subsidiaries) and 4 didn't do much for me.

[BasiliskWrangler]

That being said, I perused the entire list of IGF entries, and really couldn't find much interesting (to me, of course)

Yeah, "indie" doesn't mean a game is always going to be great- I mean, there are plenty of entries in this year's IGF that look pretty bad. But indie games are the only place where you can still find niche games- side-scrollers, tactical war games, and yes, old-school RPGs. There are a lot of experimental games as well, which is really what AAA developers avoid- anything that has not already been proven popular.

And then there are games like Shank. Innovative and beautiful platform-fighter hybrid. Looks awesome!

[CrazyBernie]

Yeah, "indie" doesn't mean a game is always going to be great- I mean, there are plenty of entries in this year's IGF that look pretty bad. But indie games are the only place where you can still find niche games- side-scrollers, tactical war games, and yes, old-school RPGs. There are a lot of experimental games as well, which is really what AAA developers avoid- anything that has not already been proven popular.

And then there are games like Shank. Innovative and beautiful platform-fighter hybrid. Looks awesome!

*Sigh* No need to get so excited over it just because the game involves health bars and button mashing, BW.

It has a Muramasa: The Demon Blade look to it, but with guns and chainsaws. That's not a bad thing, I suppose. ^_^

[BasiliskWrangler]

*Sigh* No need to get so excited over it just because the game involves health bars and button mashing, BW.

Yeah, I've mentioned before I have a juvenile fascination with fighting games. Me and a friend of mine would spend hours dominating the Virtua Fighter 2 game at the local arcade, then the Tekken series on the PlayStation. I never enjoyed the 2D fighters though (such as Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter), just the VFs and the Tekkens. The real point is that a good fighter is not about "button mashing"; there is a real strategy to the timing and choice of moves. VF2 especially- it became almost like a game of chess, trying to surmise what kind of attack your opponent would do and what your response should be.

[Necromis]

I long for classic style games to be remade and continued. X-com, Master of Magic. Those games were the best IMHO. I have seen some start-ups begin to develope remakes and before they complete it, go poof into the night. <sigh>

[Saxon1974]

It seems to me that we're starting to see a reversal of the "Big Game Company" phenomenon. As the "Big Game Companies" management see that the cruiseliner is starting to take on water, rather than bail out the water, they toss the crew-hands overboard in an attempt make the boat lighter. The crew-hands make it safely back to shore, and realize that they're better off on a smaller, more specialized vessel, where their skills will be more appreciated and valued. It's a poor, incomplete analogy, but it works for me... ^_^

That being said, I perused the entire list of IGF entries, and really couldn't find much interesting (to me, of course). There aren't a lot of RPG's, and of those few, Eschalon looks the most polished. There's tons of sidescrollers and puzzle games which I don't really find that appealing. The only other game I really found that caught my eye was Zombie Driver. It strikes me as a GTA2 meets L4D meets Carmageddon... the graphics looked like they meshed well and I was always a fan of the orginal two GTA games... 3 (and all of its subsidiaries) and 4 didn't do much for me.

Interesting Post CrazyBernie. I do think its possible that since so many people experience making games are getting laid off from big studios that some of them will find homes in smaller shops. Im hoping this signals a shift where some more medium size shops open up that will make more specific types of games.

[Evnissyen]

And there're three practices that have been bothering me for some time: 1. fleecing of customers with expansion packages, 2. the insistence on making games that, because they are intentionally driven to push the limits of possibilities in games, are inevitably made inaccessible to people who have computer systems that are just a little bit too old or too small (because of money constraints) to handle it, and 3. the resistance to porting their games to non-PC systems (yes, I realize that that this is because of money issues, but it still bothers me).

Anyhow...

At the risk of being labeled a pessimist or an alarmist: I want to point out that while it's nice to think that indy developers will fill in the void: patterns show otherwise. Whoever has the money tends to have the leverage, competition-wise.

Also, from what I gather there isn't really any greater void now than there has been already, in terms of quality games... only, apparently, a lot of laid-off workers who want to keep on producing games.

Naturally one might think that this should lead to a lot of startups, except that I believe it takes a lot of time, effort and money to start your own production company . . . and you don't get paid for your trouble until the final product is out (and for hell's sake, everyone just wants to get paid . . . we just want to be able to make a living). And... these increasingly growing companies inevitably end up dominating the market and therefore not only push the smaller (weaker) competition out of stores but also saturate the airwaves and magazines and the internet with advertisements and in the end set the expectations of the audience so that the audience automatically rejects products -- like the ones coming out of Basilisk Games and Spiderweb Software -- that could not compete with those standards if they wanted to.

What might be seen as a gamble, when successful companies have money to burn, aren't necessarily so much of a gamble. Money can sell an awful lot of crap . . . especially once company executives learn two things: 1. that gimmicks, whose shape can be realized through focus groups, go a long way in selling a product (lots of gore, for example), and 2. that saturation advertising dictates public appetite.

I realize that sometimes groups of laid-off workers start their own companies... but again this takes resources and occasionally the upstart company, if successful, ends up becoming the same corporation they've escaped from. Businesses, after all, like the saying goes, are like sharks: in order to stay alive they need to keep moving. I'm not completely sure it's so common for developers to settle for just getting by, like BW & Jeff Vogel have, for the sake of putting out "niche" works that feel consistently honest and pleasing.

As corporate entertainment inevitably grows and as a result swallows up and even blocks competition coming from smaller developers (in games), smaller presses (in literature), smaller labels (in music), smaller film distributors, and so forth, there is nevertheless always the opportunity for the smaller fish to thrive, but ONLY if they recognize effective strategy and opportunity and seize it. I've always contended that extensive and tight organization is the best way to combat these problems and ensure that the world still has access to true art and true culture.

Unfortunately -- at least in the realm of literature -- my efforts with the Gone Lawn project have been highly unsuccessful. It seems that the editors of small presses have become resigned to their "fate": this is the closest I've come to trying to wrap my head around their refusal to cooperate and even, at times, their sarcastic dismissal of the project. Maybe another reason for their reaction is that Gone Lawn is small and privately run and, therefore, "illegitimate" and "unprofessional".

So.... I just want to warn people against simply waiting for small indy developers to "fill the void". Sure, in many media we can always count on Amazon and their "long tail" strategy, but in the broad scheme: large corporations have a habit of keeping the power and reach of their competitors at a minimum. That's business. I don't blame the corporations for that -- they're only doing their job -- I only blame the acquiescence of the smaller fish.

In other words: I believe that those who care about these things should take action as soon as they can, to organize and thus counteract the problems.


I REALIZE that gaming is different from, say literature, in that it has developed, by its very nature, much more of an internet base . . . but I'm not sure it's enough. I want all art to be able to thrive on its own terms, and thrive well. There is a way to do this. There is a way not exactly to overthrow the surface market but to make it irrelevant to those who are looking for something artistically more substantive and stimulating. There are ways to find people who've given up. (Again, I realize that this is a problem much less for gaming than for other artistic media. I only wish people would pay attention when I bring these ideas up.)


Finally: I also realize that the thoughts expressed here are not really fully formed, but maybe some of it will prove useful . . . and I hope that people will take this and either fill in the spaces or else put me straight wherever they see that I'm mistaken.

(And sorry for the long post . . . I've put a lot of thought into these problems and still haven't quite figured it out in a way that can be communicated in a concise way . . . more thought, in this case, seems to cloud my head more and more. In order to get to the heart of these matters I'd have to do an awful lot of research, and, well, I have other things to do, fiction to write . . . and I've even been unsuccessful, there, sigh... .)

(Life sucks.)

[Evnissyen]

...Sigh... Did I just inadvertently kill another thread?

I think I have a habit of making overblown speeches. Maybe I need to see a therapist about that.