Alexander DeLarge
Member
Yesterday Twitch streamer SpotTheOzzie had the CEO behind the Project Cars series on his stream and things got very candid. Talks about DLC, how yearly rehashes kills the lifespan of a game, the competition, his experience in business. He even talks about how they're not using Denuvo in Project Cars 2 because it's too restrictive and annoying to actual customers (hope more publishers take their approach on that issue, including their publisher Bandai Namco).
Time code to the EA fuckery.
https://youtu.be/uS2OKUrbh-w?t=6h14m8s
Glad they weren't successful and were able to use their tech to get back on track with Test Drive and later create the Project Cars series. By the way, Project Cars 2 looks fantastic. Here's a trailer.
https://youtu.be/nsaiLLhN5VQ
We made a game called Need for Speed: Shift, we made a game called Shift 2 and EA came to me and said "We'll give you 1.5 million if you agree not to talk to any other publisher, to agree any other games or work on any other arrangement with any other publisher. And we'll give you 1.5 million and we'll sign Shift 3". So I said OK. That sounds like a good deal. I took the 1.5 million, I paid the guys, lots of bonuses, and two weeks before we were due to start Shift 3 it was cancelled. With no warning. They said "We are not doing that anymore."
”We were in trouble, we had nothing left. We were done. They literally destroyed our company. They tried to kill us, they tried to steal our technology as well. They tried to f*ck us over, there is no other way to put it. That's what they tried to do. And we have no love for EA and this company. They're assholes and corporate monsters."
Time code to the EA fuckery.
https://youtu.be/uS2OKUrbh-w?t=6h14m8s
https://youtu.be/uS2OKUrbh-w?t=22716A few minutes after that in the video, he talks about his savagery towards EA, and gives details on how they "tried" to steal their tech. This is the summary though.
The company knew the deal with EA was shady, and there were signs before they signed. However, they desperately needed to sign a deal, so had to move forwards. In the contract EA wanted them to sign, there was a clause that EA would get to keep all of the tech from the project, with the exception of third-party technology (which makes sense -- obviously EA wouldn't ever expect to own FMOD through this company).
Before the contract was signed though, they created a new company called Middleware Limited, transferred all of their tech to be under that company, and then licensed it from that company and EA had no idea. They then signed the contract. EA later tried to get the tech, but the CEO was able to give them the finger saying it was licensed from a third-party and they couldn't have it.
Fucking savage.
Glad they weren't successful and were able to use their tech to get back on track with Test Drive and later create the Project Cars series. By the way, Project Cars 2 looks fantastic. Here's a trailer.
https://youtu.be/nsaiLLhN5VQ