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Community => Entertainment and Television => Topic started by: CaseAgainstFaith on August 16, 2012, 11:37:30 am

Title: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: CaseAgainstFaith on August 16, 2012, 11:37:30 am
Publishing giant Electronic Arts has put itself up for sale, according to a report.

Sources speaking to The New York Post has claimed that the company has been approached by a number of private equity firms over a potential acquisition, but stressed it was early days.

EA is allegedly valuing the company at $20 a share.

One interested party, Providence, currently also owns another publishing giant, Bethesda, responsible for blockbuster hits such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

EA has declined to comment when contacted by Develop.

The publishing giant recently reported earnings for Q1 2013 of $955million, down from almost $1billiion during the same period last year.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/41742/Report-EA-up-for-sale (http://www.develop-online.net/news/41742/Report-EA-up-for-sale)

I knew EA was hurting, especially after SWTOR MMO going bust and going F2P but I didn't expect them to be going up for sale.  Hopefully whoever buys them will run EA right and not the crap stain it has become.
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: The Illusive Man on August 17, 2012, 11:39:44 pm
I knew EA was hurting, especially after SWTOR MMO going bust and going F2P but I didn't expect them to be going up for sale.  Hopefully whoever buys them will run EA right and not the crap stain it has become.

Oh good old SWTOR how I remember the fail that it was. The SWTOR MMO go free to play after 1 year. Even StarTreck online lasted 2 years!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P2zkzXX3XE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-2c1cz63-E

u jeddy?


One interested party, Providence, currently also owns another publishing giant, Bethesda, responsible for blockbuster hits such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

OH GOD keep the people who own Bethesda away from Bioware! We don't need a shitty engine development in addition to already shitty writing.
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: Cerim Treascair on August 18, 2012, 01:05:58 am
hey, I like Skyrim...
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: The Illusive Man on August 18, 2012, 03:16:53 am
hey, I like Skyrim...

You are not thinking with “business sense” and the consequences of it. Why would Providence spend more money to license another engine when they own Bethesda whom owns GameBryo as an “in-house” tool? Suits don’t care about developers, only the bottom line. When Suits control the budget, what they say is law.

Secondly, Providence still funding Bethesda while they still use GameBryo demonstrates incompetence. Son, let me enlighten you to facts about Bethesda. They do not develop or license game engines well and they do not learn from their mistakes.



Part A: They are still using GameBryo, in the year 2012.

Now you might be saying: “But Skyrim uses the Creation engine!”

*pats you on the head* Aaawww that’s cute. Open up the Skyrim executable in notepad, search for GameBryo, shit bricks. Congratulations you discovered that Creation is GameBryo!

Renaming the engine was a PR move because GameBryo gained infamy due to the buggyness of Fallout 3, even greater buggyness of Fallout: New Vegas and bankrupting the parent company that originally developed it! (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/13/emergent-to-sell-gamebryo-and-the-rest-of-its-assets/)



Part B: They are still using GameBryo poorly, in the year 2012.

OH the examples, the examples of how the engine burned Bethesda over and over again. I will show you my favorite:

New Vegas Uncut: Freeside Open (http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/46355)
(http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/images/46355-1-1337968434.jpg)

Ladies and gents, it quite insane to develop an open world game when your engine struggles to handle 10+ NPCs at a time or render far distances. God help you if they have an AI more complex that move from point A to B and have to render far distances. This is no more of a tragic example than what Freeside was supposed to be.

Quote
Restored: Gamblers will now constantly stream into Freeside on their way to the Strip and its casinos (some will also stop off at the Atomic Wrangler) as they were always meant to. They are of course easy picking for thugs or even the player, so some have hired bodyguards to protect them.

Depending on the in game time of day there usually are 5+ npcs moving from one gate to the other, only the guards have combat AI. Just going near them drops your frame rate noticeably, running with the will cause a CTD because…

Quote
Freeside is now one coherent world space. NPCs can now go everywhere in the city with obvious dramatic improvements to gameplay/immersion.

No gated, small loading zones mean far distances have to be loaded. I am not just talking about rendering, level geometry alone can cause the engine to choke and die. If you have the sprint mod do not spring across open freeside because that would be overkill for the engine. CTD before you even get halfway.


Part C: ME1’s ENGINE DID BETTER
How many NPCs with combat AI were on screen at a time?
How many particle effects were going on then?
How far was the render distance?


The worst version of Bioware’s game engine could do more, faster than the engine that Bethesda licensed and later developed themselves for years. First let that sink in a bit, second knowing this why would you want them to develop a Mass Effect game?
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: Cerim Treascair on August 18, 2012, 12:12:42 pm
Let me make two things EXCEEDINGLY clear, bucky.

One, don't you dare fucking condescend to me.  I said that I like Skyrim, and, as a gamer, I thoroughly enjoy it, and what it does for a game.  I'm no programmer and I'm no coder.  That stuff has no bearing upon me and my enjoyment beyond something breaking the game so completely that I can no longer either enjoy it, or makes the game unplayable.  Everything else, I'll deal with.

Two, I've never played Fallout 3, or New Vegas.  The last time I played a Fallout game was the original, a few years after it first came out.  How am I supposed to know all this bullshit about a game engine I've never experienced? And, y'know? FUNNY THING! Three of my brothers have no complaints about the game, after it was nicely patched.  Sure, it was a trainwreck at launch.  So was Diablo 3.  You don't see me bitching at Blizzard.
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: The Illusive Man on August 18, 2012, 01:05:03 pm
I said that I like Skyrim, and, as a gamer, I thoroughly enjoy it, and what it does for a game.  I'm no programmer and I'm no coder.  That stuff has no bearing upon me and my enjoyment beyond something breaking the game so completely that I can no longer either enjoy it, or makes the game unplayable.  Everything else, I'll deal with. Two, I've never played Fallout 3, or New Vegas.

You do not need to be a programmer, have any experience with programming and/or have played more than one game to recolonize patterns. Look at the notes for/info about official patches and fan made patches/mods. A pattern will emerge, the same problems are present throughout various GameBryo games developed by Bethesda for years now. Even when Bethesda legally owned and can develop the engine itself. The purpose of mistakes is that they are to be learned from not repeated.

If "something breaking the game so completely that I can no longer either enjoy it, or makes the game unplayable" is important to be given focus then, by recognizing patterns, you will be able to reasonably predict those same problem when a new game is released.


The last time I played a Fallout game was the original, a few years after it first came out.  How am I supposed to know all this bullshit about a game engine I've never experienced? And, y'know? FUNNY THING! Three of my brothers have no complaints about the game, after it was nicely patched.  Sure, it was a trainwreck at launch.  So was Diablo 3.  You don't see me bitching at Blizzard.

You have missed the bigger picture here. It is not about weather a game is good or bad, it is about how and why Bethesda  does not learn from their mistakes. By not learning from their mistakes they demonstrate incompetence. Incompetence can not be tolerated, especially if they vie for an IP that require ambition.
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: Distind on August 18, 2012, 02:51:47 pm
You have missed the bigger picture here. It is not about weather a game is good or bad, it is about how and why Bethesda  does not learn from their mistakes. By not learning from their mistakes they demonstrate incompetence. Incompetence can not be tolerated, especially if they vie for an IP that require ambition.

There's also the matter of management letting you take the time to fix things. Which is something I know quite well from my experiences programming.

If the hate hardon continues I'm going to file it under being a dick, because I swear I see something waving around right now.
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: RavynousHunter on August 18, 2012, 04:05:44 pm
I learned to pretty much never buy games at release, no matter who made them.  Its a general trend in the industry as a whole, the publishers want faster turnaround, so they skimp on development time and QA testing, and this will mean a generally buggy release.  Give it about a month or so, until the first patch or two comes out, then buy it.  Sure, you won't get the initial "playing a brand-spanking-new game" rush that you would if you'd gotten it during its midnight release, but you'll have more fun playing, because there will be fewer bugs.
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: The Illusive Man on August 18, 2012, 04:50:18 pm
There's also the matter of management letting you take the time to fix things. Which is something I know quite well from my experiences programming.

Exactly! Innovation, development and the overall quality of GameBryo games released by Bethesda are stifled by the limitations imposed by Providence. Providences actions are constantly the same as the actions taken by EA during the development of Mass Effect 3. The purpose of mistakes are to learn from them, not repeat them. I though people would easily draw such comparisons.


If the hate hardon continues I'm going to file it under being a dick, because I swear I see something waving around right now.

I do not hate Bethesda, in fact I have been impressed by what they try to do despite forces (Providence) outside of their control. Freeside Open was an example of that. Heck  the project director, J.E. Sawyer, of Fallout: New Vegas and Honest Heart DLC went way out of his way to fix things. (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Ramallah/_J.E._Sawyer_releases_his_own_Fallout:_New_Vegas_mod)

In retrospect such situations are tragic because of all the content and potential lost.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6ahNuNrdto



I learned to pretty much never buy games at release, no matter who made them.  Its a general trend in the industry as a whole, the publishers want faster turnaround, so they skimp on development time and QA testing, and this will mean a generally buggy release.  Give it about a month or so, until the first patch or two comes out, then buy it.  Sure, you won't get the initial "playing a brand-spanking-new game" rush that you would if you'd gotten it during its midnight release, but you'll have more fun playing, because there will be fewer bugs.

How I wish it was only that. :(

Instead we have both rushed new game bugs and old, predictably prevalent engine related bugs due to the reasons stated above.
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: kefkaownsall on August 18, 2012, 04:59:57 pm
I will point out that while some games on launch are bug free (me3 for instance on launch) anything openworld first week not so much in fact for me skyrim only recently became playable again.  I will point out though that my fear would be too much power in one publisher.  And also Bethesda's parent company is not bright themselves (Elder Scrolls mmo anyone?)
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: RavynousHunter on August 18, 2012, 05:02:47 pm
Now that I think about it...when did Bethesda get under the bootheel of Providence?  I thought they were a part of ZeniMax.  I must've missed a memo somewhere.
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: The Illusive Man on August 18, 2012, 05:06:54 pm
Now that I think about it...when did Bethesda get under the bootheel of Providence?  I thought they were a part of ZeniMax.  I must've missed a memo somewhere.

Providence owns ZeniMax_Media. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZeniMax_Media)

They were exerting influence as early as 2007. Everyone read this, this is a history lesson of how shit hit the fan. (http://defaultprime.com/2012/08/06/what-you-didnt-know-about-the-elder-scrolls-online-big-bad-bethesda/)
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: RavynousHunter on August 18, 2012, 05:10:48 pm
That's a really fucked up chain of command, then...
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: The Illusive Man on August 18, 2012, 05:30:30 pm
I will point out that while some games on launch are bug free (me3 for instance on launch)...

Please don't say that, its not true. Ask the creator of the ME3 save editor for an overview of all the bugs related to importing a save from ME2 and all the unofficial fixes that had to be made via the save editor.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: ironbite on August 18, 2012, 06:42:42 pm
So you just enjoy crapping on anything people find enjoyable today or something?
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: kefkaownsall on August 18, 2012, 06:43:19 pm
True but crashes etc were rare compared to other games at launch
Title: Re: For Sale: Game Publisher EA
Post by: The Illusive Man on August 19, 2012, 08:13:53 pm
True but crashes etc were rare compared to other games at launch

It is good that you noticed such. The flack Bioware caught for the "black screen of death" bug was undeserved, as their software did not cause it. The software that caused it was Xbox live and GFWL. (http://www.ethicalgamer.com/wp/2012/04/09/resantes-fix-for-mass-effect-3s-black-hole-glitch/)

In case this is not clear, look at the software in the unofficial patch which is linked to in the articled linked in this post. The XDBF Entry Tool is specifically made to edit Xbox live accounts/profile info. This includes achievements, copied saves, ect. TL:DR The fix is you manually removing three corrupted files then redownloading that chunk of the game.

The read me is spoilered below:
(click to show/hide)



So you just enjoy crapping on anything people find enjoyable today or something?

No, you misunderstand what and why I am posting. I did not clearly and concisely state why Providence should be kept far away from the Mass Effect IP. Thus haphazard amounts of information and some anger are present in this thread. On the bright side, at least it was informative.