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Jimquisition (March 9th) - Unicronic Arts
- Thread starter L~A
- Start date
boredandlazy
Member
If Jim Sterling doesn't work at Maxis then he literally has no idea what he's talking about.
iunderstoodthatreference.gif
Jim Sterling
Member
It's the victory of hope (and money) over experience.
Many of the companies needed money to continue making games when they got bought by EA.
Maxis for example was basiclly broke by the time EA bought it.
Hi Jim!
It's fairly obvious why they keep selling up to EA, the publicity and money potential in your game gets upped a fair amount.
Also as far as backing is concerned you're in a way more free to make the game you want to, the cost of that being if your vision then fails, you're in trouble.
I do fully believe that EA isn't the entire problem with these studios closing.
It's fairly obvious why they keep selling up to EA, the publicity and money potential in your game gets upped a fair amount.
Also as far as backing is concerned you're in a way more free to make the game you want to, the cost of that being if your vision then fails, you're in trouble.
I do fully believe that EA isn't the entire problem with these studios closing.
GlamFM
Banned
Right, that´s what I thought. I think that´s at least one aspect you have to keep in mind.
EA did keep a few of these Devs on life support for a while.
AnthonypUK
Member
it was broke after sim city? :O
I think Jim's missing a key difference here.
Electronic Arts is given voice by Andrew Wilson, a man with the posture and demeanour of a used car salesman out of his depth.
Unicron is given voice by Orson Welles.
Edit: Also, I have to stop reading the thread title as "Unironic Arts".
Electronic Arts is given voice by Andrew Wilson, a man with the posture and demeanour of a used car salesman out of his depth.
Unicron is given voice by Orson Welles.
Edit: Also, I have to stop reading the thread title as "Unironic Arts".
Maxis got bought out during 1997, The Sims released on 2000.
They basiclly went broke developing Simcity 3000, because they had a bunch of dud games right before.
EA bought them -> they finished 3000 with EA money -> most switched over to developing The Sims.
Yeah, worried about Visceral since Dead Space 3. EA doesn't give many second chances, despite the fuck up often being caused by their interference.
Maxis closing down is really sad, because I thought the visual design and presentation of the new sim city was pretty amazing. Remove the small cities, let players play offline and you'd have a fantastic, easily accessible, city builder game.
Maxis closing down is really sad, because I thought the visual design and presentation of the new sim city was pretty amazing. Remove the small cities, let players play offline and you'd have a fantastic, easily accessible, city builder game.
UpDownLeftRight
Banned
Wait, this is for real? EA have killed off Maxis too now? So the Sims is over? Wow that sucks, that's my gf's favorite game.
Aces&Eights
Member
What scares me the most is that they will first pre-date the death warrant and have Visceral churn out some godawful FTP mobile stuff and in the death rattle that follows simply lay the body in a back alley when no one is looking. If you are going to cut jobs and lives at least have the decency to do it up front and in public. Allow the devs to see it coming so they can start looking for work elsewhere.
EDIT: It just makes me sick. I remember the Press Sneaky Fuck link that had the stories of developers and how they had to adapt to no job security and moving constantly with no real safety net that allowed them to plant roots. http://kotaku.com/video-game-layoff-stories-1593420342
I get that businesses need to be restructured at times but the gaming industry simply cannibalizes itself on a daily basis and the carnage that comes from it are real people losing real livelyhoods. Just sucks.
UnluckyKate
Member
Good news for you, Sims 3 is complete.
Sims 4 was just the same with less anyway.
Only the Simcity side of Maxis is dead.
The Sims half is still there and will continue for now.
They were seperated into two different studios with the Maxis name.
Silly you. The Sims will continue. Sims 4 was already not created by Maxis.
Jim Sterling
Member
For sure, I made a point not to question WHY a company would sell itself to EA. The resources, publicity, and handing off of responsibility are all very tempting things, and I don't doubt EA makes attractive offers.
If you're cool with the very real possibility that selling your studio will lead to it going out with a sad little whimper one day, then sure, sell away. My only point with that part of the video is that you ought to be pretty comfortable with that idea.
As for EA not being the only problem - you may of course be absolutely right. Big budget games make for a cloak-and-dagger industry, however, so we can only go with what we see, and it's clear that EA is a driving factor, given its near-legendary propensity for doing this with companies.
Lady Siara
Member
What would you call the situation with Pandemic?
SolidSnakex
Member
Hardline will still sell well. Obviously not as much as a mainline BF entry, but it'll put up solid numbers. And Visceral still has Amy Hennig's Star Wars game in the pipeline. So they should be fine.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Poor Visceral 
UpDownLeftRight
Banned
Lol true, if only The Sims 3 actually ran well on my £1500 rig let alone her laptop :/
Ohhh ok. Well I mean that's kind of good news for her then. Sounds like the EA/Maxis situation has been pretty jumbled for a while. Odd that this is the main studio and they didnt throw Sims 4 at them to make.
Big fan, Jim! I'll just point that out pointlessly on some off chance that you see that I said that.
Also, regarding why studios still sell to EA: Each studio likely thinks they are incapable of failure because at the time they sell they are on top of the world.
Example: Bioware. In 2007 they could do no wrong, and had not one, but two very promising new franchises on the horizon, after years of absolute success and critical acclaim. Selling to EA made sense because EA could provide them with 'sky's the limit' budgets and help with securing talent.
EDIT: Basically ninja'd
Closing a studio doesn't mean deleting an IP. Why would you even think that?
I think EA's sales target for Hardline was ~1/3 of BF4's sales (I don't remember where I heard this from, think it was from a Gaffer)
BF4 has moved a little over 7M since May 2014, so I'm guessing EA is looking for ~2 - 2.5M for Hardline.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
One thing of note is Jim's pointing out of games changed to exacting publisher expectations and "didn't know what to do with". It's not that EA personell or EA's stock doesn't get dinged for this, it's that it comes after these developers get tone-deafly changed and then thrown under a bus when that doesn't work.
Ding ding ding ding.
Desperate people do things non-desperate people would not.
Bioware was in a holding company with Pandemic (which, IIRC, was headed by John "I LOVE TO TUSSLE" Riccitello).
Ding ding ding ding.
Desperate people do things non-desperate people would not.
Bioware was in a holding company with Pandemic (which, IIRC, was headed by John "I LOVE TO TUSSLE" Riccitello).
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
Very simple reason: If you have a "studio" which is made up mainly of permanently contracted employees you have a constant drain on your finances. Taking 6 months to get a new project signed/greenlit and you can find the coffers drained, putting yourself in the position where you are reliant on advances to make the initial milestone on your next thing.
The bigger the headcount, the higher the burn-rate. So naturally studios which have accumulated a large staff from previous high-profile projects are the most at risk of this.
Once you sell-out to a big publisher, you are entirely at the mercy of your owners because any project you may come up with can no longer be shopped around. So, if your last project underperformed and they don't see any merit in what ideas you come up with next (or have anything of their own they want you to do), its goodnight sweet prince.
The reality is that studios are rarely bought for their staff or expertise, its typically because they have an IP that is seen to offer sufficient value up-front to justify the acquisition. This is why a high-profile franchise entry failing can be such a terminal event. The corporate perspective is not just that you may have lost money on that single entry, but you also have devalued the franchise making your existence moot.
SolidSnakex
Member
If it really is just around 2.5m, then it'll hit that easily. Especially since I fully expect it to be a great game since it's Visceral. The single player alone will be a huge step up over DICE's non-BC BF campaigns. I still don't understand how they went from the awesome campaigns in the Bad Company games to what they did with BF3 and 4.
tkscz
Member
Oh God, he might be right. Visceral could be next.
And I'd hate to see them go. I loved the first two Dead Space games, with Dead Space 2 being the better of the two. Sure, it wasn't scary or much of a survival horror, but as a TPS, I count it up there with RE4 in just how much fun I had with it. DS3 was just so disappointing in almost every way imaginable. The pacing was just awful with loads of enemies coming all the time, the gun play focused too much on what other TPS were doing at the time, instead of focusing on what made the gunplay in DS2 so fun. The way they downgraded Ellie from badass partner to background chick was just shitty, and the story, less said the better. I can't comment on the micro-transactions as I did not purchase or made any attempt to purchase anything.
MoH: HL is already not looking too great, but who knows, maybe it'll sale enough for EA to let Visceral do a Dead Space their way.
UpDownLeftRight
Banned
When I first caught it I kind of guessed it was due to the gentle fart into the wind that Sims 4 made when it released. I mean it usually generates a bit more of a buzz than the last entry did. I guess I tied over a series in decline to the devs and put 2+2 together and got 5. Never even occurred to me at first that it was related to SimCity instead.
Jim Sterling
Member
They go up two hours earlier than they did on The Escapist (or at least around that time). I switched to 9am Central as a target time because, well, I could.
Probably it's now more possible then ever to go independent or go with a smaller publisher then in the past, which consisted of 1. Be a massive got that allows you to stay solo or 2. Work(Sell yourself) to one of the big publishers.
You needed a big publisher to produce the physical product, now we have digital distribution.
GlamFM
Banned
Thanks. Yes, that´s probably it.
Oh God, he might be right. Visceral could be next.
This would be tragic.
But they passed Army of Two: Devil's Cartel to Visceral (I loved that entry by the by), and that seemed odd to me after their mega hit of Dead Space. Now the passed a Battleifield spinoff to them, and what I'm getting at is it seems like they're "phasing them out" to me by giving them more "B Projects" after taking the risk with their new IP. Like they're giving them less to work with but expecting more, which is a recipe for failure.
And Hardline isn't exactly setting the world on fire, while Army of Two: Devil's Cartel was practically a stealth release.
I hope both Jim and I are wrong though.
Writing is on the wall, I think they're gone next.
After the disaster that was the BF4 launch, plus the nearly non-existent hype the game is generating (and what will likely be middling reviews), I would be surprised if Hardline sold well.
They'll be gone in the summer. Good studio, too.
dukeoflegs
Member
I'm more worried for Popcap than Visceral. Their games have been less about their passion and more about meeting corporate design demands.