PCG Article No one likes EA's joke about singleplayer games, even EA

[ZedClampet]

The publisher's careless meme format Mad Libs led to a tweet that was taken as an attack on fans of singleplayer games and the developers who make them. Current and ex-employees of the company, including Respawn head Vince Zampella, responded publicly.

The tweet in question said, "They're a 10 but they only like playing single-player games."

It's really just a social media employee making a dumb joke, but I'm pleased that everyone felt so passionate about it. Also, as I've sort of mentioned in another thread, when can we just make Vince Zampella the CEO of EA?

 

[DXCHASE]

Should've read "they're a 10 but they only like playing multiplayer games".

 

[mainer]

Yeah, I think it was just one individual not thinking before he posted, though it does kind of reflect on how EA has operated, at least in the past, about stressing the "live service" type games and ignoring the single player. I'm hopeful that "strategy" has changed recently as I mentioned in your other post about EA.

One really positive thing from that article was the immediate outrage by players and developers, showing, to me at least, that there is still a lot of interest in the single player PC game. There were a couple of statements that I really liked:

"As usual, EA jumps on a trend, misses the point, punches itself in the face," said Dragon Age writer David Gaider, and former Dragon Age designer Mike Laidlaw called the tweet(opens in new tab) "tone deaf."

"This is the company that shut down my studio and laid off ~100 great developers because we were making a single player game," wrote Mumbach(opens in new tab). "Also, if you break game rating scores down to a 10 point scale most EA games are a solid 6 or 7. Not because the developers are bad but because EA the corporation forces them to rush games out. EA corporate leadership wouldn’t know what a '10' looks like in terms of video games."

 

[ZedClampet]

Yeah, I think it was just one individual not thinking before he posted, though it does kind of reflect on how EA has operated, at least in the past, about stressing the "live service" type games and ignoring the single player. I'm hopeful that "strategy" has changed recently as I mentioned in your other post about EA.

One really positive thing from that article was the immediate outrage by players and developers, showing, to me at least, that there is still a lot of interest in the single player PC game. There were a couple of statements that I really liked:

"As usual, EA jumps on a trend, misses the point, punches itself in the face," said Dragon Age writer David Gaider, and former Dragon Age designer Mike Laidlaw called the tweet(opens in new tab) "tone deaf."

"This is the company that shut down my studio and laid off ~100 great developers because we were making a single player game," wrote Mumbach(opens in new tab). "Also, if you break game rating scores down to a 10 point scale most EA games are a solid 6 or 7. Not because the developers are bad but because EA the corporation forces them to rush games out. EA corporate leadership wouldn’t know what a '10' looks like in terms of video games."

A combination of singleplayer successes and multiplayer failures does seem to have righted the ship a little. Plus, I think, a bit of Zampella's influence. We'll see what they do to the new studios they've purchased recently which were both known as mostly SP developers (even though their games did incorporate MP in some cases). But I think it's safe to say that the new Bioware games are going to be SP focused, as is the new Star Wars game, which you would think would be too far into development to change, but Wilson has done stranger and worse things in the past..

 

[Brian Boru]

when can we just make Vince Zampella the CEO of EA?

Shouldn't take long—when CEO dies, se Respawns.

EA corporate leadership wouldn’t know what a '10' looks like in terms of video games

Love it

just one individual not thinking before he posted

Very likely. Doesn't seem to matter much these days though—think or not think, there are a hefty bunch of just waiting for you

 

[Zloth]

New job posting from EA

Wanted: Cool and with-it comedian that can make meme jokes without insulting potential customers. Must have 40 years of experience.