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Project Cars CEO talks about EA attempting to sabotage his company

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).

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

A 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.
https://youtu.be/uS2OKUrbh-w?t=22716

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
 
Wow.

EA is the devil.

The CEO in the video mentioned Robert "Patrick" Söderlund (EA VP) by name as the main devil behind it all.

Electronic+Arts+Debuts+New+Games+E3+Conference+EFMJGu3mQ-Fx.jpg


Wasn't he the asshole doing the EA press conference at E3 this year?
 
These big publishers are messed up. We don’t get to see or hear much about this side. But when we do, it’s always fucked up.
 

FrankCanada97

Roughly the size of a baaaaaarge
I'm glad Ian Bell and SMS broke away from EA. Bandai Namco seems to allow them to do their own thing. I don't think something like Project Cars would've existed under EA, they probably would've have tried to make it as mainstream and casual as possible. I appreciate SMS for making a "motorsports game" rather than simply a racing game.
 
EA Corporate monster - the worst of them, according to SMS:

patrick-soderlund.jpg


he founded DICE and owns a large amount of EA shares.

It looks like he was actually on a mission to bring talent in-house for NFS:

Need for Speed games have been inconsistent in quality. The games made by UK studio Criterion have been great, but the others have been a mixed bag. Is that why you set up this new Need for Speed developer Ghost Games?

Ghost in Gothanberg was created with not just Need for Speed, but driving games in mind. There's a lot of car nuts there, a lot of people who have built racing games in the past. And I'm surprised at how quickly they have established themselves. We have taken some senior people, Craig Sullivan from Criterion has moved to Gothenberg, Jamie Keen who was a key design person on Far Cry 3 has moved there. We have assembled an experienced team, with some former DICE employees, as well.

But if I tell a studio that they are going to make a Need for Speed game every year for the foreseeable future, that might seem daunting. People need breathing room. I don't believe you can make a great game in eight months. You have to give enough time to people to be creative and express themselves. We have always had two teams working on Need for Speed. So it was a natural step to start a new studio.

We looked all over the world. We looked at the UK. But it boiled down to Gothenberg strangely enough, and it seems to be the right choice.
 

strafer

member
You are telling me we could have gotten Shift 3? Oh hell no EA, you suck.

You probably killed Dead Space 4 as well.

Monsters. :(
 
hm.. What's the last EA game I bought? I think it's FIFA 17.

I'll skip 18 this year. Publishers pulling this kind of stunt made me reluctant to purchase their products.
 

mrqs

Member
Let's not forget that Mirror's Edge Catalyst had a villain that looked exactly like Andrew Wilson.

JQSzOHT.jpg


Later they changed it.

25174118546_2ee595a152_o.png
 

bitbydeath

Member
I'm old school hating EA, ever since they bought and killed Bullfrog, no sim has come close to the perfection of the theme games ever.
 
Let's not forget that Mirror's Edge Catalyst had a villain that looked exactly like Andrew Wilson.

JQSzOHT.jpg

Dude looks like a bond villain.

hm.. What's the last EA game I bought? I think it's FIFA 17.

I'll skip 18 this year. Publishers pulling this kind of stunt made me reluctant to purchase their products.

Bought Titanfall 2, not supporting the best "fast" multiplayer shooter in a decade and the best single player campaign in an FPS game since Half-Life 2 is a bigger crime than supporting EA.
 

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Damn, great stuff. I could listen to that guy all day. Very Honest. He even says EA can go fuck themselves lol.
 

Sini

Member
I'm old school hating EA, ever since they bought and killed Bullfrog, no sim has come close to the perfection of the theme games ever.

Last EA game I bought was Dead Space 2, after that I realized I shouldn't really support such scum.
 

smurfx

get some go again
wish the streamer wasn't blaring the game in the background at the same volume as the guy he was interviewing. hope other companies dealing with ea learn from this guy and avoid ea or make sure to give themselves a bunch of outs when ea decides to screw them over.
 
That’s awful. Fucking EA man, why do they have to be such scumbags?

Ugh and I really wanted to play the new NFS later this year as well. Guess I’ll have to rethink that.
 

Lord Panda

The Sea is Always Right
I'm old school hating EA, ever since they bought and killed Bullfrog, no sim has come close to the perfection of the theme games ever.

Old school hatred of EA is best type of hatred. Origin Systems, Bullfrog, Westwood, Bioware, Maxis. I will always remember you guys before the corruption.
 
Damn, now I feel bad for Respawn and Bioware.

Freaking disgusting.

Fortunately Respawn still owns the Titanfall IP.... Which makes the future of the series all the more exciting. Valve should just publish their games (and collaborate/outsource with them on projects like Half-Life 2 Episode 3 given their experience with the Source Engine)
https://www.giantbomb.com/titanfall...that-they-might-not-be-happy-with-ea-1804284/

Will you make another Titanfall game?

We don't know yet. The game is, critically, a huge success. We're really happy with all the reviews and the positive sentiment. Sales, it's too early to tell. We'd definitely like to tell more of the story and the universe. I think it's pretty safe to assume that we'll explore more of it. EA might have announced more. Devin?

[Devin Bennett, a publicist for Electronic Arts, interjects, "What we've said is we're committed to the franchise."]

Zampella: So, whatever the fuck that means.
 
WTF! I was planning to get the new NFS game but nope! Not after this.

They also fucked Titanfall 2!

It puts things into perspective. Just how shitty EA is compared to how Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot cares about his employees and studios.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Triple check your contract before signing with EA or Microsoft Studios.

I just hope Coldwood have one of the better partnerships with EA.
 

Renekton

Member
WTF EA doesn't even need the tech since FB has a great driving and physics model, so that's a weird shenanigan to pull.
 
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