Yet it is very convenient that the only ones to stay,are the higher ups that constantly have done a mediocre job at best. Seriously,I thought part of being a CEO is to listen to your demographic to sell better,not only to the investors who most surely are other business or people who barely know what a videogame is
When the company is publicly traded, then investors is who you have to keep happy. They don’t care how bad the games are as long as they get their slice of a profit and the company continues to show growth
@@hippieash2799 Being publicly traded is not an excuse for CEOs not knowing their trade. A lot of AAA publisher CEOs are definitely disconnected from gaming, despite being in the business of selling gaming. Conversely, you have companies like Nintendo. I don't know how Nintendo rates on the 'brutal downsizing chart', but I imagine they're the outlier.
There is no reason for executives to care. They are beholden to shareholders to provide infinite growth. That doesn't work obviously. So eventually they will have to find ways to cut costs even if it will hurt in the long run. And of course anyone that has reached that sort of position is very unlikely to fire themselves or their immediate collegues. They'll eventually leave for another company or retire with a fat golden parachute. Literally no reason to care.
Don't pre-order. We live in an almost always digital era - there is no shortage of downloads. Expiration dates and delistings, yeah, but no need to pre-order anything.
You know what else would make them more money? Shipping completed games, from studios who know what they're doing rather than shoving uncooked games out of theoven then firing a huge swathe of people because it didn't go well
This isn't the market crash people are hoping for. They are literally cutting back on anything that isn't a sure bet. This just means even more rehashes and brutal monetization.
Which means remakes galore, and for games that nobody asked for. It'll be like Naughty Dog remaking the same damn thing over and over for The Last of Us
Nope, this is business as usual. They’ll buy a bunch of properties and teams because they still make tons of money and will roll many roles into one. Keeping wages down and workloads large. Keeps new hires complacent for fear of the consequences and lets execs take huge bonuses home because the line jumped up real nice. They haven’t pioneered anything here they learnt from other industries This isn’t accountability to those responsible, it’s just further entrenching what we’ve already had, the yacht havers aren’t sweating at all, trust me
@@rumblepuss8848That very well might lead to the market crash people are hoping for. I'm not so sure the AAA industry knows what a 'sure bet' is, or if it's even feasible in a market where everyone does the same.
The fact that EA cancelled yet another star wars game shows they don't give a damn, we've had like 4 or 5 Star wars games in the last decade when in the golden era we got possible a hundred games an a few dozen all time classics if not great games.
@@iller3 Witch game is more fun is very subjective since kicking a can with the boys is fun, as to the franchise, name any genre of games for the time an their was at least a few to choose from. Now you don't have options because only EA can make stars games, while back in the day you had dozens of completely unrelated studios working on games.
Nah, they’re just min/maxxing the profits for the few. Seems alien to us but this is very sustainable for the execs. They can always throw their wallet at whatever they need in the future
Why would they? They make billions from idiots that buy live service shit , why waste money and effort on big game when people spend money on cosmetics and service crap , just goin to get worse across the industries as we keep feeding live service, free to play etc, makes standard games look more and more not worth the investment to the suits
@@Miranox2 It's true most people who are just use to a cushy paycheck guarantee no matter how they were treated will just apply at other studios as opposed to going indie. But plenty of people have gone onto being freelance or starting small businesses after a firing. Many people who were layed off during the pandem!c went the way of freelance type work.
Most of them are likely to leave the industry altogether. Making an indie game is no guarantee of success whatsoever, especially considering the THOUSANDS that are released each year just on Steam alone.
EA does what EA does. I have had zero confidence in them since they managed to obliterate Bullfrog within a couple of years. Some things just makes developers worse. In Bullfrog's case, likely an EA approved HR department.
@@Spaz740 Exactly dude. These people who complain about poor products who say things like “that’s the last time I pre order”, or “I’ll be careful who I pre order from in future” are absolutely the problem.
@@stanettiels7367Yeah, it's totally not because of fake videos from the developers, completely bogus feature lists, or shady studios relying on their former reputation to hide nefarious intent. People who make hollow excuses for companies that pull stunts like this and "victim blame" like some kind of white-knight of corporate spin are absolutely the problem. 🙄
Not really surprised, AAA is reaping what they sowed really but it's sucks that it's the devs that have to suffer and not the CEOs and other corporate executives that make these idiotic decisions.
The standard corporate model. Profits not high enough? Cut staff. Profit margin not high enough? Cut staff. CEO told the team to do stupid things in a game that would not fit inside the budget or timeline. Cut staff.
Looks like EA Games are trying to focus on Live Service Games. Which means Sims 4 and their Future Sims Game is likely Another Live Service Game just like their other live service games.
All the suits chasing live service and always online games still haven't caught on that the general community isn't wanting that for every game. They'll learn the hard way though, assuming whales and idiots start learning to not buy into live service crap with shiny cosmetics.
@@_Arakiel I had heard some news of their next Sims game and well judging from the articles it feels like its going to the be like live services game. dont forget Sims 4 is now on Steam for free. The only thing not Free are the expansions..
@@marcogenovesi8570 I'm gonna be honest I only became a fan of mass effect due to the legendary edition so I don't really know the disappointment of adromada.
Think you are bang on that this happening two months before they report Q4 results and start the new fiscal year makes perfect sense. They can eat the loss this Q4 so that next Q4 they can report a year over year growth.
Is it more efficient though, really? They keep gambling big, and usually losing big on massive Live Service titles; compared to the smaller but more reliable revenue a steady stream of AA single player games can provide. They just never learn the lesson.
I remember playing Tie Fighter in the early 1990’s but I don’t think anything since has been as good. It was awesome being a Tie Fighter officer and calling your Star Destroyer for more Tie Fighters to back you up, and having the Destroyer exchange audio messages with you on comms. That feeling was amazing.
@@Hedgehobbit Yes, I agree - it's a great pity. I really enjoyed playing as an Imperial Officer. The Old Republic MMORPG isn't nearly as good because there are too many idiotic trash mobs that make it boring and completely unrealistic.
@@Hedgehobbityou have not been paying attention. they sold their Thema Park by telling you you can rat out Chewie to the FO. They will whatever they think makes money.
Here’s a topic, the Starwars Battlefront “classic collection” releasing in a few days, is it a desperate low friction cash grab during these tight times? Or is it the same playbook as the Halo Masterchief collection, which could be said to have financed Halo infinite, does the Battlefront classic collection allude to a follow up Battlefront 3 reboot. Perhaps coinciding with some reworkings of the Starwars Ip over at Disney. Co-ordination between EA and Disney would help stimulate interest in both.
Thats not whats happening though. All these tech layoffs the past year or 2 will only continue, as the companies realize they can continue to churn out profits at the cost of everything - but get even more out due to AI.
@@0ldarWhat I'm saying and what you're saying are mutually exclusive. You're not wrong but I'm also not referring to cost-cutting/downsizing. I'm referring to the outcome of said cost-cutting/downsizing.
@@SirFenV yea I got you. I don't see it as a good thing in anyway though is all I'm saying because even though this looks like a situation of a company about to go bellyup... in actuality its just more cold, callous profiteering at the cost of humanity once again
In fairness to EA - who I owe no fairness to - when it comes to licenced IP, the current state of Hollywood and the year of the flopbusters means many of those brands are dead, such as Star Wars for which there's no interest in. This might also be viewed as a positive since it forces EA's development studios to come up with original IPs of their own, something we desperately need in this creatively bankrupt era we're in.
From my own experience working in large companies (not related to game dev), the development pipeline cost to develop a double A game is probably not too much less than a Triple A title.
EA actually wanted to keep the deal but FIFA wanted so much more money that EA wasn't willing to play also think FIFA wanted to branch out into more different types of football games
I hope the truly talented and passionate of those let go are able to find or even start a studio of their own that will appreciate their work and allow them to shine by making games that we the players can enjoy for years to come.
Experienced Devs and QA that cost low six figures? AX. CEOs worth seven figures? Give them a bonus! Ridiculous... But that's what is done, essentially.
Bigger the company the less interest they have in small wins. They only care about high risk/high reward projects. They could produce 5 good profitable games for 40 million or they could dump 200 million on a big IP that they can market the hell out of. Those smaller projects could be profitable but be considered a failure because that big budget title selling poorly would still make more money in the end. It's brute force profitability.
@@mkuhnactual In gamer terms it's akin to not bothering to loot lower level items because you have limited bag space. They rather make a few big bets than dozens of small ones because its faster.
Usually I wouldn’t bother subscribing to channels like this, the money aspect that is but you guys put in so much work I’ll be purchasing a monthly package.
Why? Black Panther hasn't had any games, whereas they're on their 3rd Jedi game. EA's history with SW games has been kinda hit and miss as it is. Why do you think keeping Black Panther over yet another SW game is such a poor move? I'm not really defending EA but I'm curious about your reasoning.
The current crop of C-Suite managers at the large AAA game publishers are terrible at their job. Imagine continuing to invest with confidence in such a flimsy enterprise?
Regardless of EA's alleged focus on bigger titles, this does NOT bode well for the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series... I was already less than excited about DA:D, but now my interest is in the negatives.
Yeah, lol. Like I have high hopes for a good Dragon Age or Mass Effect game when EA fires the top people and leave the bench warmers in charge. Forget Bioware. Best to just wait for the next Larian RPG.
I'm curious what EA's plans are regarding having a future supply of established low-risk bets. Is that just not a Q4 problem so it doesn't matter? Is just continuing the release cadence of each of the surviving franchises believed to be enough games for their purposes for the foreseeable future? Do they think that they'll be able to acquire future sources of sure bets without paying a crippling premium because whatever it is they are buying has had a hit and eliminated the perceived risk? Especially when they have concrete examples of reliables wobbling: Apex Legends requiring more squeeze per unit juice of late; Modern Warfare 3(while presumably somewhat lower cost) getting the reaction you'd expect for a warmed-over DLC being shoved out the door dressed as a full game; along with some older examples: if they get a really successful Dragon Age or Mass Effect out the door at this point it will be a comeback story rather than a continuation of a successful series. Not a huge surprise that they don't want to go gambling on new IP, or low-margins-assured on expensive licenses; but it seems like someone should be worried about the pipeline if the company is incapable of doing something to throw things at the wall relatively cheaply in order to have at least a couple that stick and can then be mined for sequels; whether that's by using small internal teams(perhaps trying to do some exploitation of reusable assets anywhere that doing so wouldn't risk tainting the games they are pulled from) or by using their publishing arm to obtain options with relatively low outlay to a bunch of indie things that seem potentially interesting. Maybe this is less true in games; but in hardware and software it's usually a bad sign(in the medium term and longer; it's often quite rational in the short term) when a company announces that they'll be killing or spinning off everything non-core or trying to retreat upmarket to their most reliable customers.
Most of the "safe bets" the industry does are trying to make a copy of something popular wait 4-10 years when the market is bloated and hope everyone on earth will buy the game. Säger bets would be lots of small and middle bets to find something new, then milk it for a couple of years then pause it for the same time then rinse and repeat. That will never happen today. Other than Nintendo.
After years of this kind of shit, why would anyone sell their company to EA? Why would anyone choose to work there? I really don't get it. Money? How much money would you take to ruin your legacy?
those that want millions on top of early retirement, i would not blame anyone for cashing out their golden goose. No guaranty that a sequel would do better either.
The cycle is repeating. EA, ActiBlizz and the other AAA publishers are exactly where Atari was in the early '80s. Bloated from record profits, shoveling subpar shit onto the market and about to crash and burn under their own weight. Thankfully there are enough super-talented Indies out there, often staffed by the people who left or got fired from those AAAbehemoths, making just great games.
I honestly cant think of anything EA has done that has been a slam dunk. EA doesn't create winners anymore. Everything EA puts out is yearly game. EA hasn't done anything in a long time
It may be ok for them to let people go, but they haven't prepared for thos bubble to burst and so as a result so many people have had to be let go and that is what's not ok
of course its unfortunate and upsetting for those that will lose their jobs, however people aren't looking at this objectively. No matter if you're a AAA studio or an indie, bleeding money after multiple failures and a rising cost of production isn't healthy for long term company operations. On a personal level when you're getting tight on money you get rid of the things you deem either unnecessary or just plain bad for money, why can't we apply that same logic to the industry?
Sure but this is not an example of that, they had profits of 5.8 billion dollars last year and have over 2 billion in cash on hand right now. When you cut your experienced devs that means your product will suffer and this is leading to a future where EA wont be able to make some of the games even if they want to.
Given what happend wtih Square 'all of our smaller games would have kept us profitable if not for the big game Avengers weighing us down', I cannot believe that smaller games are the problem. I mean the massive mess that was the Battlefields AIUI can't be helping....
Not interested in smaller projects.. Yeah.. they should look into what happened with pal world. Maybe learn something for once instead of repeating the same stupid mistakes over and over again 🤷♂️
EA mocked single player games some years back, then tries to do a few SP games and they hit/miss with some, but they still decide "fuck it" and now wanna go back to doing multiplayer, always online only stuff again, which isn't at all surprising. They won't be doing well by completely alienating the SP/offline folks who will be going out and buying other games not made by EA instead, so that's their total loss of a whole market.
Why innovate if you can just milk your cash cows, then buy up the innovators, milk them dry, and kick them to the curb? Those locusts have killed so many studios and franchises over the years. It's honestly tragic.
The layoffs happening in the industry are due to AI. Everything related to programming and the audiovisual part is evolving by leaps and bounds, which is why unfortunately there will still be many more layoffs; this is just beginning. Just look at SORA's video creation program, EMU with its speaking portraits that express realistic emotions, and GENIE with its first steps in creating games from an image and a prompt, to realize how it's transforming the audiovisual industry. But most importantly, is how rapidly artificial intelligence is improving this year. We are at a turning point.
I'm usually big on second chances and not judging a product based on unrelated failures; however, I think I'm not alone in refusing to buy games from EA nowadays. I don't even do free alphas anymore from them just because I know their products will be such a waste of my time. EA would honestly need to hit a BG3 level home run before I'd even consider buying a product from them again.
This is the movie studio affect. Movie studios have been dropping mid range movies and they only focus on big budget blockbusters.. and letting the little indie studios make indie movies. But it's clearly not working, Hollywood is in serious trouble. Game studios should read the writing on the wall and get back into making good games with mid-budgets and aim or low profits. I mean as long as the game pays for itself and pays for all the marketing etc... then that's a success in my books and keeps game studios developing needed skills so they can properly make the AAA titles.
I dont get the industry and biz .. If you can make something with a profit or just break even, its worthwhile. The hunt for maximized profits is what kills your brand in the long term .. Customers are tired of 'big projects' that simply can't deliver fun anymore. Am I really so delusional here? Xx
No Battle Royale has never been a normal thing in battlefield it's just some stupid game mode that was never asked for by the battlefield community, unlike Rush which was a beloved game mode that EA did try to take away
"safe bets, proven track record" but cancelling a Star Wars FPS by Respawn? such a wild decision... seems like a surefire formula for a great game and big sales
Edit: I'll say, I feel bad for the humans... I don't feel bad for the billion dollar corporations. The gaming industry has been dead for 5 years at least. If a game can't take infinite money from players then it's a failure. A game can be the best seller that year and the publisher will still say "that's not good enough" Hogwarts legacy... Loved that game, regret paying for it because the publisher.
Loved the first jedi, finished it on hardest difficulty. Enjoyed the second Jedi but did not finish it, as I got bored. I will not purchase a third Jedi game for $100.
I feel that a lot of problems with the games industry is down to the exponential growth that studios have gone through over the years in order to match the ever growing march for increased visual quality and having each studio essentially a bubble unto themselves rather than having anything like a partnership or other group relationship, even when a bunch of studios are owned by a single publisher like EA. If certain studios under a brand like EA were to specialise on certain elements of the games creation business (engine development & support, level design, bug testing, etc) they would have a greater overall efficiency since each team would essentially be focussed on a single job rather than running around and trying to do everything at the same time.
Oh good, EA got rid of more QA, not like any of their games from last years would have benfited from that. Looking at you Star Wars: Jedy Survivor, a game that the QA probably was "If it starts most of the times that is good enough". No more EA games until they start actually testing their shit.
Battlefield 4-2 would be a safe bet. Bad Company 3 would be a safe bet. Putting battle royale into the next BF is incompetent and out of touch. And I predict Mass Effect will be officially discontinued once Dreadwolf fails.
Here's where business is at.... 2022 saw record profits, record revenue, and record growth. 2023 numbers, had they occurred in 2022 also would have shown record profits, record revenue, record growth. The idiots in executive leadership, rather than recognizing that 2022 had outside factors at play, 2023 was still good but in line with reality, and the strategies they were pursuing in 2022 were working, think they need to manage expenses. They're going to tank the economy and tank their businesses, because they didn't see 40% growth 2 years in a row. What's worse, the trend is to taking ownership of distribution. So the 2023 numbers probably weren't even that bad. But, you don't get to claim revenue, until the consumer makes the purchase.
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Weird that no one made this kind of video when micro$oft laid off 16K people last year, and laid off 1900 employees at the beginning of this year
Currently playing Darkforces Remastered on the Steamdeck and it's sooo nostalgic..... Do shooter games still have an exploarable map?
@@TremereTT... yes? of course. Widen your perspective
Yet it is very convenient that the only ones to stay,are the higher ups that constantly have done a mediocre job at best. Seriously,I thought part of being a CEO is to listen to your demographic to sell better,not only to the investors who most surely are other business or people who barely know what a videogame is
When the company is publicly traded, then investors is who you have to keep happy. They don’t care how bad the games are as long as they get their slice of a profit and the company continues to show growth
The only game these people are into is being a CEO.
@@hippieash2799 yeah pretty much the root of the problem, videogame companies should be abolished from being publicly traded
@@hippieash2799 Being publicly traded is not an excuse for CEOs not knowing their trade. A lot of AAA publisher CEOs are definitely disconnected from gaming, despite being in the business of selling gaming.
Conversely, you have companies like Nintendo. I don't know how Nintendo rates on the 'brutal downsizing chart', but I imagine they're the outlier.
There is no reason for executives to care. They are beholden to shareholders to provide infinite growth. That doesn't work obviously. So eventually they will have to find ways to cut costs even if it will hurt in the long run. And of course anyone that has reached that sort of position is very unlikely to fire themselves or their immediate collegues. They'll eventually leave for another company or retire with a fat golden parachute. Literally no reason to care.
Every game after Mass Effect 3, if I see EA on the front of it then I pretty much ignore it.
Reminder to vote with your wallet, not with your hopes and dreams. Don't pre-order games from these companies.
don't buy from*
@@drwilyecoyote5357shut up doc.😂
Any company.
Don't pre-order. We live in an almost always digital era - there is no shortage of downloads. Expiration dates and delistings, yeah, but no need to pre-order anything.
Don't pre-order. Don't buy. Sail the seas as much as you can
They also added a throbbing shopping cart icon In Game in the Sims 4 that you can't get rid of unless of course you but all their crap.
You know what else would make them more money? Shipping completed games, from studios who know what they're doing rather than shoving uncooked games out of theoven then firing a huge swathe of people because it didn't go well
Gaming industry experiencing a hard reset..
A long overdue one, since 2014 at least.
This isn't the market crash people are hoping for. They are literally cutting back on anything that isn't a sure bet. This just means even more rehashes and brutal monetization.
Which means remakes galore, and for games that nobody asked for. It'll be like Naughty Dog remaking the same damn thing over and over for The Last of Us
Nope, this is business as usual. They’ll buy a bunch of properties and teams because they still make tons of money and will roll many roles into one. Keeping wages down and workloads large. Keeps new hires complacent for fear of the consequences and lets execs take huge bonuses home because the line jumped up real nice. They haven’t pioneered anything here they learnt from other industries
This isn’t accountability to those responsible, it’s just further entrenching what we’ve already had, the yacht havers aren’t sweating at all, trust me
@@rumblepuss8848That very well might lead to the market crash people are hoping for. I'm not so sure the AAA industry knows what a 'sure bet' is, or if it's even feasible in a market where everyone does the same.
The fact that EA cancelled yet another star wars game shows they don't give a damn, we've had like 4 or 5 Star wars games in the last decade when in the golden era we got possible a hundred games an a few dozen all time classics if not great games.
That just proves it was always an overrated oversaturated franchise. Helldivers alone is overall more fun than even the best BattleFront was
@@iller3 Witch game is more fun is very subjective since kicking a can with the boys is fun, as to the franchise, name any genre of games for the time an their was at least a few to choose from.
Now you don't have options because only EA can make stars games, while back in the day you had dozens of completely unrelated studios working on games.
a well made mandolorian fps would sell like crazy too
Cringe ragebait@@iller3
yeah and I dont get it, people are craving star wars games only the disney trilogy stuff failed, not the entire IP
It’s ashame that Andrew Wilson isn’t one of them then everyone would have rejoiced if he was amongst those who were laid off .
We're going to have a video game crash sometime in the future.
I can see it, with all these low-quality "live-service" games being hashed out.
@@z28yeti it's a triumph, really. The big corpos are gonna lose so much money
Considering EA has such a history of these lay-offs that they literally have a development graveyard, it's not really that surprising.
EA is in the same boat as Activision in my eyes. They might as well not exist because im not buying anything from them.
Same
Looks like EA is going for a self-delete speedrun.
Nah, they’re just min/maxxing the profits for the few. Seems alien to us but this is very sustainable for the execs. They can always throw their wallet at whatever they need in the future
We could only be so lucky...
Nice wish.....
They don't care. They outright states they sideline gaming in favor of real estate focus.
Unfortunately, sports and europeans keep EA going. Ultimate teams.
Why would they? They make billions from idiots that buy live service shit , why waste money and effort on big game when people spend money on cosmetics and service crap , just goin to get worse across the industries as we keep feeding live service, free to play etc, makes standard games look more and more not worth the investment to the suits
Maybe layoffs will be good for us players?
Some of these people might start independent studios and release good games free of corpo suits meddling.
The people who start their own businesses leave their jobs voluntarily like the Hello Games devs, not by being fired.
Just like the OG Dice devs...@@Miranox2
@@Miranox2 It's true most people who are just use to a cushy paycheck guarantee no matter how they were treated will just apply at other studios as opposed to going indie. But plenty of people have gone onto being freelance or starting small businesses after a firing. Many people who were layed off during the pandem!c went the way of freelance type work.
Most of them are likely to leave the industry altogether. Making an indie game is no guarantee of success whatsoever, especially considering the THOUSANDS that are released each year just on Steam alone.
@@lycanwarrior2137 I mean being on comiket isnt a guarantee the games found there would be on steam
EA does what EA does.
I have had zero confidence in them since they managed to obliterate Bullfrog within a couple of years.
Some things just makes developers worse. In Bullfrog's case, likely an EA approved HR department.
They trashed the reputation of BioWare after the Anthem cashgrab too. That was the last time I ever pre-ordered a game -- never again.
@@olencone4005 Bioware's reputation was destroyed by Anthem's point. If you pre-ordered Anthem, that mistake is squarely on you.
@@olencone4005
You shouldn’t ever pre-order games. EVER.
@@Spaz740
Exactly dude. These people who complain about poor products who say things like “that’s the last time I pre order”, or “I’ll be careful who I pre order from in future” are absolutely the problem.
@@stanettiels7367Yeah, it's totally not because of fake videos from the developers, completely bogus feature lists, or shady studios relying on their former reputation to hide nefarious intent. People who make hollow excuses for companies that pull stunts like this and "victim blame" like some kind of white-knight of corporate spin are absolutely the problem. 🙄
Not really surprised, AAA is reaping what they sowed really but it's sucks that it's the devs that have to suffer and not the CEOs and other corporate executives that make these idiotic decisions.
god I wish they would have cut dragon age I don't want to see them destroy it anymore than they already have.
The standard corporate model. Profits not high enough? Cut staff. Profit margin not high enough? Cut staff. CEO told the team to do stupid things in a game that would not fit inside the budget or timeline. Cut staff.
Ceo doesn't direct games.
Looks like EA Games are trying to focus on Live Service Games.
Which means Sims 4 and their Future Sims Game is likely Another Live Service Game just like their other live service games.
All the suits chasing live service and always online games still haven't caught on that the general community isn't wanting that for every game.
They'll learn the hard way though, assuming whales and idiots start learning to not buy into live service crap with shiny cosmetics.
what? sims 4 is not live service lmao. updating and making content isnt what live service is.
@@_Arakiel I had heard some news of their next Sims game and well judging from the articles it feels like its going to the be like live services game.
dont forget Sims 4 is now on Steam for free. The only thing not Free are the expansions..
Pretty sure that's the definition of live service
Betcha a dollar they decided their future is sports and live service games.
Because these game corp guys never learn.
They said they wanted to focus on non licensed ip.
I mean the sports games makes them a boat load of money for some stupid reason.
I don’t get how half-baked live services are a “safe bet”
@@mkuhnactualbecause weirdos keep buying soccer games that are the same game every year for $60.
Welp RIP Mass Effect 4, I had hesitant hope before but after hearing they let go a bunch of Bioware's experienced staff then I have little hope left.
dude how could you have any hope after Mass Effect Androgynous? Bioware is done, they have been done since Mass Effect 3
Dude Biowares "experienced staff" has been gone for almost a decade at this point lol
I lost all hope after ME3. Even with the new ending it was AIDS
It was never going to happen. Bioware hires based on politics not programming. Crazy how people hype the trailers with zero substance.
@@marcogenovesi8570 I'm gonna be honest I only became a fan of mass effect due to the legendary edition so I don't really know the disappointment of adromada.
Think you are bang on that this happening two months before they report Q4 results and start the new fiscal year makes perfect sense. They can eat the loss this Q4 so that next Q4 they can report a year over year growth.
Is it more efficient though, really?
They keep gambling big, and usually losing big on massive Live Service titles; compared to the smaller but more reliable revenue a steady stream of AA single player games can provide.
They just never learn the lesson.
I remember playing Tie Fighter in the early 1990’s but I don’t think anything since has been as good. It was awesome being a Tie Fighter officer and calling your Star Destroyer for more Tie Fighters to back you up, and having the Destroyer exchange audio messages with you on comms. That feeling was amazing.
That was a great game but Disney won't allow players to play as Imperials anymore (unless they defect to the Rebellion three missions in).
@@Hedgehobbit Yes, I agree - it's a great pity. I really enjoyed playing as an Imperial Officer. The Old Republic MMORPG isn't nearly as good because there are too many idiotic trash mobs that make it boring and completely unrealistic.
@@Hedgehobbityou have not been paying attention. they sold their Thema Park by telling you you can rat out Chewie to the FO. They will whatever they think makes money.
Here’s a topic, the Starwars Battlefront “classic collection” releasing in a few days, is it a desperate low friction cash grab during these tight times? Or is it the same playbook as the Halo Masterchief collection, which could be said to have financed Halo infinite, does the Battlefront classic collection allude to a follow up Battlefront 3 reboot. Perhaps coinciding with some reworkings of the Starwars Ip over at Disney. Co-ordination between EA and Disney would help stimulate interest in both.
I can translate: "We are going all in on live services that can be filled with microtransactions."
This might sound kinda weird but I'm genuinely glad this happened! The closer EA is to off'ing itself the happier I am as a person 😊
Thats not whats happening though. All these tech layoffs the past year or 2 will only continue, as the companies realize they can continue to churn out profits at the cost of everything - but get even more out due to AI.
EA of the 80’s top quality games.
EA in the present day micro transactions instead of top quality games.
@@0ldarWhat I'm saying and what you're saying are mutually exclusive. You're not wrong but I'm also not referring to cost-cutting/downsizing. I'm referring to the outcome of said cost-cutting/downsizing.
@@centrevezgaming4862It's actually so funny seeing them double down on it too 😂
@@SirFenV yea I got you. I don't see it as a good thing in anyway though is all I'm saying because even though this looks like a situation of a company about to go bellyup... in actuality its just more cold, callous profiteering at the cost of humanity once again
How is EA being a dick a surprise? That's been their reputation for decades and it's well earned.
10:10 I thought we were getting a title called “Dragon Age: Skate.”
In fairness to EA - who I owe no fairness to - when it comes to licenced IP, the current state of Hollywood and the year of the flopbusters means many of those brands are dead, such as Star Wars for which there's no interest in. This might also be viewed as a positive since it forces EA's development studios to come up with original IPs of their own, something we desperately need in this creatively bankrupt era we're in.
And have those original IPs crash and burn by being forced to be live service that no one wants
They’re already explicit that they don’t want new IP
@@tehbeernerdexactly...maybe the OP didn't watch the vid?..lol
How many of your favorite games last year were third person shooters?
The real thing with sports games is that they appear to be only incremental upgrades (at best) year over year.
From my own experience working in large companies (not related to game dev), the development pipeline cost to develop a double A game is probably not too much less than a Triple A title.
EA actually wanted to keep the deal but FIFA wanted so much more money that EA wasn't willing to play also think FIFA wanted to branch out into more different types of football games
EA just doesn't make a good product anymore sadly
It's just a sense of pride and accomplishment.
I hope the truly talented and passionate of those let go are able to find or even start a studio of their own that will appreciate their work and allow them to shine by making games that we the players can enjoy for years to come.
Problem isn't money. They just don't know how to make good use of the money to make new stuff.
Experienced Devs and QA that cost low six figures? AX. CEOs worth seven figures? Give them a bonus!
Ridiculous... But that's what is done, essentially.
Its funny that they dont think this is going to backfire horribly.
You people still care about EA or Ubisoft?
It’s no wonder they are still in business….
Bigger the company the less interest they have in small wins. They only care about high risk/high reward projects. They could produce 5 good profitable games for 40 million or they could dump 200 million on a big IP that they can market the hell out of. Those smaller projects could be profitable but be considered a failure because that big budget title selling poorly would still make more money in the end. It's brute force profitability.
Except they also don't want high risk projects. They want low risk/high reward, anything else isn't good enough.
@@mkuhnactual In gamer terms it's akin to not bothering to loot lower level items because you have limited bag space. They rather make a few big bets than dozens of small ones because its faster.
The new leaks coming out of Dragon Age Dreadwolf are sounding so awful... this is it. This is the second video game crash, it is happening this year.
Usually I wouldn’t bother subscribing to channels like this, the money aspect that is but you guys put in so much work I’ll be purchasing a monthly package.
"Expectations from the corporate level being too high."
Welcome to what is wrong with the whole of the games industry. Line must go up.
"Apex income drops" looks at zombie player cheat "...man I wonder why"
The fact EA cancels another star wars game but keeps black panther is amazing.
Why? Black Panther hasn't had any games, whereas they're on their 3rd Jedi game. EA's history with SW games has been kinda hit and miss as it is. Why do you think keeping Black Panther over yet another SW game is such a poor move? I'm not really defending EA but I'm curious about your reasoning.
The current crop of C-Suite managers at the large AAA game publishers are terrible at their job. Imagine continuing to invest with confidence in such a flimsy enterprise?
Ea doesnt give a damn? Sorry to say but that was old news 10 years ago lol
EA failed on their first remake of Star Wars: Battlefront I....... And just kept bleeding from there on.
My father once said: The staff dies as the bonuses rise.
Imagine thinking EA cares about games.
imagine thinking any company would make a game at a loss. its all about money. bigger companies need more money to keep going.
Regardless of EA's alleged focus on bigger titles, this does NOT bode well for the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series... I was already less than excited about DA:D, but now my interest is in the negatives.
about time the crash is here
Not playing Dragon Age.
Not playing Mass Effect.
They had their chance and invested in Anthem.
Suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer.
Yeah, lol. Like I have high hopes for a good Dragon Age or Mass Effect game when EA fires the top people and leave the bench warmers in charge. Forget Bioware. Best to just wait for the next Larian RPG.
I'm curious what EA's plans are regarding having a future supply of established low-risk bets. Is that just not a Q4 problem so it doesn't matter? Is just continuing the release cadence of each of the surviving franchises believed to be enough games for their purposes for the foreseeable future? Do they think that they'll be able to acquire future sources of sure bets without paying a crippling premium because whatever it is they are buying has had a hit and eliminated the perceived risk?
Especially when they have concrete examples of reliables wobbling: Apex Legends requiring more squeeze per unit juice of late; Modern Warfare 3(while presumably somewhat lower cost) getting the reaction you'd expect for a warmed-over DLC being shoved out the door dressed as a full game; along with some older examples: if they get a really successful Dragon Age or Mass Effect out the door at this point it will be a comeback story rather than a continuation of a successful series.
Not a huge surprise that they don't want to go gambling on new IP, or low-margins-assured on expensive licenses; but it seems like someone should be worried about the pipeline if the company is incapable of doing something to throw things at the wall relatively cheaply in order to have at least a couple that stick and can then be mined for sequels; whether that's by using small internal teams(perhaps trying to do some exploitation of reusable assets anywhere that doing so wouldn't risk tainting the games they are pulled from) or by using their publishing arm to obtain options with relatively low outlay to a bunch of indie things that seem potentially interesting.
Maybe this is less true in games; but in hardware and software it's usually a bad sign(in the medium term and longer; it's often quite rational in the short term) when a company announces that they'll be killing or spinning off everything non-core or trying to retreat upmarket to their most reliable customers.
heaven forbid they cut some of their own obscenely large paychecks to reduce costs
Most of the "safe bets" the industry does are trying to make a copy of something popular wait 4-10 years when the market is bloated and hope everyone on earth will buy the game.
Säger bets would be lots of small and middle bets to find something new, then milk it for a couple of years then pause it for the same time then rinse and repeat. That will never happen today. Other than Nintendo.
I do not care about 95% of 'AAA' games. I do however want to see a Titanfall 3.
After years of this kind of shit, why would anyone sell their company to EA? Why would anyone choose to work there? I really don't get it. Money? How much money would you take to ruin your legacy?
those that want millions on top of early retirement, i would not blame anyone for cashing out their golden goose. No guaranty that a sequel would do better either.
Finally with timestamps! Good on you!
Jedi 3 will be a guaranteed hit?! Well not if they release it in the same state as Jedi 2. Is that game even in a playable state on PC yet ?
The cycle is repeating. EA, ActiBlizz and the other AAA publishers are exactly where Atari was in the early '80s. Bloated from record profits, shoveling subpar shit onto the market and about to crash and burn under their own weight.
Thankfully there are enough super-talented Indies out there, often staffed by the people who left or got fired from those AAAbehemoths, making just great games.
I honestly cant think of anything EA has done that has been a slam dunk. EA doesn't create winners anymore. Everything EA puts out is yearly game. EA hasn't done anything in a long time
It may be ok for them to let people go, but they haven't prepared for thos bubble to burst and so as a result so many people have had to be let go and that is what's not ok
Battlefield and BR DOES.NOT.MIX
Yet mfers keep trying.
of course its unfortunate and upsetting for those that will lose their jobs, however people aren't looking at this objectively. No matter if you're a AAA studio or an indie, bleeding money after multiple failures and a rising cost of production isn't healthy for long term company operations. On a personal level when you're getting tight on money you get rid of the things you deem either unnecessary or just plain bad for money, why can't we apply that same logic to the industry?
Sure but this is not an example of that, they had profits of 5.8 billion dollars last year and have over 2 billion in cash on hand right now. When you cut your experienced devs that means your product will suffer and this is leading to a future where EA wont be able to make some of the games even if they want to.
Given what happend wtih Square 'all of our smaller games would have kept us profitable if not for the big game Avengers weighing us down', I cannot believe that smaller games are the problem. I mean the massive mess that was the Battlefields AIUI can't be helping....
Not interested in smaller projects.. Yeah.. they should look into what happened with pal world. Maybe learn something for once instead of repeating the same stupid mistakes over and over again 🤷♂️
Small studios, feature completes, no MTX. Let's go back to making good games.
Where is muh Bad Company Ee Ay?
EA mocked single player games some years back, then tries to do a few SP games and they hit/miss with some, but they still decide "fuck it" and now wanna go back to doing multiplayer, always online only stuff again, which isn't at all surprising.
They won't be doing well by completely alienating the SP/offline folks who will be going out and buying other games not made by EA instead, so that's their total loss of a whole market.
Why innovate if you can just milk your cash cows, then buy up the innovators, milk them dry, and kick them to the curb?
Those locusts have killed so many studios and franchises over the years. It's honestly tragic.
The layoffs happening in the industry are due to AI. Everything related to programming and the audiovisual part is evolving by leaps and bounds, which is why unfortunately there will still be many more layoffs; this is just beginning. Just look at SORA's video creation program, EMU with its speaking portraits that express realistic emotions, and GENIE with its first steps in creating games from an image and a prompt, to realize how it's transforming the audiovisual industry. But most importantly, is how rapidly artificial intelligence is improving this year. We are at a turning point.
I'm usually big on second chances and not judging a product based on unrelated failures; however, I think I'm not alone in refusing to buy games from EA nowadays. I don't even do free alphas anymore from them just because I know their products will be such a waste of my time. EA would honestly need to hit a BG3 level home run before I'd even consider buying a product from them again.
Ofcourse we can understand why the cuts are made and still feel bad for the people impacted, those things aren't mutually exclusive things lol
This is the movie studio affect. Movie studios have been dropping mid range movies and they only focus on big budget blockbusters.. and letting the little indie studios make indie movies. But it's clearly not working, Hollywood is in serious trouble. Game studios should read the writing on the wall and get back into making good games with mid-budgets and aim or low profits. I mean as long as the game pays for itself and pays for all the marketing etc... then that's a success in my books and keeps game studios developing needed skills so they can properly make the AAA titles.
They’re own by Vanguard, Sweet Baby inc will own them in about 5 years 😂😂😂
EA just earned some of my respect back.
They don’t discriminate when it comes to disappointing people be it employees or customers.
I'm done spending money on EA. I lost interest when they started adding loot box to story based games
All these big companies failing hard, what a laugh. Who would have thought that 10 years of releasing garbage results in down sizing.
I dont get the industry and biz ..
If you can make something with a profit or just break even, its worthwhile. The hunt for maximized profits is what kills your brand in the long term ..
Customers are tired of 'big projects' that simply can't deliver fun anymore.
Am I really so delusional here? Xx
Stop working for EA and stop buying EA games people!
No Battle Royale has never been a normal thing in battlefield it's just some stupid game mode that was never asked for by the battlefield community, unlike Rush which was a beloved game mode that EA did try to take away
Man....2024 really is a harsh year....oh wait...it's only MARCH
FC 24 is dying though,it's the deadist FIFA I've played ,I doubt it's made as much money as last year
"safe bets, proven track record" but cancelling a Star Wars FPS by Respawn? such a wild decision... seems like a surefire formula for a great game and big sales
Edit: I'll say, I feel bad for the humans... I don't feel bad for the billion dollar corporations.
The gaming industry has been dead for 5 years at least. If a game can't take infinite money from players then it's a failure. A game can be the best seller that year and the publisher will still say "that's not good enough" Hogwarts legacy... Loved that game, regret paying for it because the publisher.
I haven't played since they added monetization to sport games.
Loved the first jedi, finished it on hardest difficulty. Enjoyed the second Jedi but did not finish it, as I got bored. I will not purchase a third Jedi game for $100.
Haven't played an EA game since the 90's.
not my problem
I feel that a lot of problems with the games industry is down to the exponential growth that studios have gone through over the years in order to match the ever growing march for increased visual quality and having each studio essentially a bubble unto themselves rather than having anything like a partnership or other group relationship, even when a bunch of studios are owned by a single publisher like EA. If certain studios under a brand like EA were to specialise on certain elements of the games creation business (engine development & support, level design, bug testing, etc) they would have a greater overall efficiency since each team would essentially be focussed on a single job rather than running around and trying to do everything at the same time.
Oh good, EA got rid of more QA, not like any of their games from last years would have benfited from that. Looking at you Star Wars: Jedy Survivor, a game that the QA probably was "If it starts most of the times that is good enough". No more EA games until they start actually testing their shit.
2:30 Which I find it inexcusable. I just straight up not trusting Electronic Arts. And I especially do not trust that CEO.
Battlefield 4-2 would be a safe bet. Bad Company 3 would be a safe bet. Putting battle royale into the next BF is incompetent and out of touch.
And I predict Mass Effect will be officially discontinued once Dreadwolf fails.
Good. Keep going. The sooner the industry crashes and burns, the sooner we can get back to good games being made.
Here's where business is at.... 2022 saw record profits, record revenue, and record growth.
2023 numbers, had they occurred in 2022 also would have shown record profits, record revenue, record growth.
The idiots in executive leadership, rather than recognizing that 2022 had outside factors at play, 2023 was still good but in line with reality, and the strategies they were pursuing in 2022 were working, think they need to manage expenses.
They're going to tank the economy and tank their businesses, because they didn't see 40% growth 2 years in a row.
What's worse, the trend is to taking ownership of distribution. So the 2023 numbers probably weren't even that bad. But, you don't get to claim revenue, until the consumer makes the purchase.
just means more money to the higher ups and worse games for us