So, yeah. No new blog at all last week. Yeah, I should know better, but it's been crazy for me. Projects and labs and tests and...well, you get the idea.
With tonight being the eve of Valentine's Day, I normally have a rant against such a holiday, but this is a gaming blog. Not an emo blog. That kind of stuff's reserved for MySpace, Facebook, and the like. I CAN, however, rant about EA and their mindless thought processes.
Yeah, yeah, so the gaming populus gave props to EA for defending its game Mass Effect, as we all know. 15 minutes of fame, and that goes to everyone. EA's time as a do-gooder company ended today. A lot of news sprung up in the last 48 hours regarding EA's games for the next few years. And, in typical EA fashion, it's filled with sequels, sequels, and offshoots of sequels. What makes this worse is when EA acquires a new company, in this case, BioWare, and now has a popular title in their control like Mass Effect, you can bet your gaming limbs that EA will milk the franchise to the point where the franchise has WELL served its purpose, can no longer turn profits, but EA will still churn out sequel after sequel, anyway. EA president and ex-Microsoft Xbox VP Peter Moore also announced, in a pathetic attempt to show EA's originality, at least 5 new franchises by 2011. I'm gonna go ahead and put down money that at least all but one franchise will just be an off-shoot of previous franchises, and I don't think I'm far off that prediction.
At this point, all I'm stating is the obvious: EA does sequels, nothing more. But, here's the thing: EA has predicted, by 2011, that it will make $6 billion by the end of the 2011 fiscal year, and, to be honest, they're probably not too far off the mark. The problem with our current gaming society is that we, almost happily, part with $50-60 for every new Madden or Burnout, etc. that comes out almost yearly with no real improvements or changes in gameplay. It's really more of a rut that gamers are in.
Now, while I do like some of the games EA puts out, they get redundant after a while, so it absolutely baffles me that people still buy and play what's really the same game over and over again like they have Alzheimer's. Part of the problem is, due to exclusives licenses, EA's the only company that can make a certain game (like Madden). With no competition, EA can get away with the same game every year with only a roster change, and millions are still sold. And any competition that tries to compete with EA in an area other than football is completely inferior, and their result is so bad that you'd rather play EA's game over the competitor's.
So, what can we do? Outside of hoping that another good company (preferably a Japanese developer) actually steps up to challenge EA, the best thing we can do is simply not buy EA's games, or at least limit ourselves to 1 game of a series once every 3 or so years. If the gaming populus does such a thing, then EA would realize that re-hashing won't work anymore, then just put out downloadable roster patches at very low prices, then only release a new game after they make a number of new changes to whatever series it is. But try explaining that to a frat gamer, and you'll just get a black eye. Trust me, I've seen it happen.
Till next time!
~Red Mage
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