how ea is protecting innovation

there's an article at 1up on the 'new ea.'

basically, the article talks about john riccitiello's return to ea as ceo in 2007 and the new approach he's been implementing since to try and preserve innovation in gaming. mainly the two new approaches are:

(1) dividing the company into 4 sections (ea sports, the sims, casual entertainment, and ea games); and

(2) rewarding (compensation, bonuses) dev teams based on their respective performance, rather than rewarding all equally based on how ea as a whole does.

basically, what john riccitiello is doing is keeping the dev teams small and separated from each other to a certain point while shielding them under the protective ea umbrella; essentially, his thinking is that "smaller teams with strong creative cultures make better games than large, top-down systems," and he's doing his darnest to keep teams small (while at the same time swallowing up emerging and promising dev teams).

this all sounds fine and well, but does this justify ea eating up any and every dev team that shows promise and innovative thinking? is this ultimately going to protect innovation? and how will this impact pc gaming? what do you guys think?

link to the article: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3167476

hey, stony responded to one of my threads; i think that's a first. i will go celebrate with some schnapps and a 50-cent cigar.

hi stony! gs-ps2stony=chocolate? i don't get it. chocolate is a good thing, isn't it? are you saying that gs without stony is a good thing? cuz i object!

No, uh... I... I said pie... Not choolate...

Hi fireandcloud! Hey you have almost 3K posts!

Haha pumpkins are so silly! You're being silly too! 300 000?? Hahahahaha! Good luck!

But seriously... On a scale of 1-10 how coooool do you think I am?

Ps2stony

i think you're an 11! ;)

EA making BF heroes is good

EA letting Crytek make Crysis without too much pressure

EA making Spore free and letting us have the creature creator

Just seems of late they aren't doing so bad.

Ohohohoho! Oho! I know what you're doing! No way, man! No way!

Bust seriously, put tht in your sig so people like mfsa can see it. And by people like mfsa I mean anti-Stonys.

Ohohohoho! Oho! I know what you're doing! No way, man! No way!

Bust seriously, put tht in your sig so people like mfsa can see it. And by people like mfsa I mean anti-Stonys.

Ps2stony

the anti-stonys be damned!

Ohohohoho! Oho! I know what you're doing! No way, man! No way!

Bust seriously, put tht in your sig so people like mfsa can see it. And by people like mfsa I mean anti-Stonys.

Ps2stony

Unfortunately, mfsa has been banninated.

Unfortunately, mfsa has been banninated.

aliblabla2007

hmm... that's kind of surprising and unfortunate. i guess his style could have rubbed some people the wrong way. where will i get my reviews from? i hope he continues to post them on youtube...

So are they going to punish the teams that make ****ty games or are they going to punish the teams that don't sell lots of copies of their games?foxhound_fox

yeah, good point. the article reads:

Under the new, still-emerging compensation structure, labels are given much more freedom to reward a team that blows the doors off expectations. "I mean, if you were working on BioShock 2 for EA, and you had to worry about Club Pogo or whether Madden slips, that would be a bit of a drag," explains Janco's Hickey. "It's going to take time to blossom, but John is the guy to do it."

-

so it's not clear. i'm thinking they reward games that sell well. but they'll spin it positively. they'll probably say that, in general, innovative games sell well while those that aren't do not, meaning that ultimately the system works and innovation and sales, oftentimes, go hand in hand. but, of course, who can believe that; i'm sure had crysis bombed (and clearly crysis is an innovative game), crytek would have suffered as a result under their new system. there are, after all, there are many games that are innovative (and good) and don't sell well, like psychonauts, so it might keep devs from truly being innovative.

Woah what happened to mfsa??Ps2stony

don't know. a damn shame, that.

Uh... NO!! You said it yourself, "anti-stonys be damned"! Right???Ps2stony

lol. i meant i'm going to miss his reviews and his perspective on games. anti-stonys are still to be damned. which, incidentally, may be what happened to mfsa. ;)

Yes fireandcloud... I understand... Can I call you sir?Ps2stony

you do what you want, which is essentially what you're doing anyhow. barring terms of use violations, of course.

[QUOTE="Ps2stony"]Yes fireandcloud... I understand... Can I call you sir?fireandcloud

you do what you want, which is essentially what you're doing anyhow. barring terms of use violations, of course.

Just kidding, but seriously I want to go watch some Pokemon right now...

EA are just trying to get even in my book, after all they DESTROYED Bullfrog studios.. A dev that made the Dungeon Keeper series, Populous and numerous other series.sSubZerOo

yeah, they have a lot to make up for. starting with the pc sports games. bastards!

[QUOTE="fireandcloud"]

[QUOTE="Ps2stony"]Yes fireandcloud... I understand... Can I call you sir?Ps2stony

you do what you want, which is essentially what you're doing anyhow. barring terms of use violations, of course.

Just kidding, but seriously I want to go watch some Pokemon right now...

hmm... do kenshin and pokemon go hand in hand? i wouldn't have thought so...

[QUOTE="Ps2stony"][QUOTE="fireandcloud"]

[QUOTE="Ps2stony"]Yes fireandcloud... I understand... Can I call you sir?fireandcloud

you do what you want, which is essentially what you're doing anyhow. barring terms of use violations, of course.

Just kidding, but seriously I want to go watch some Pokemon right now...

hmm... do kenshin and pokemon go hand in hand? i wouldn't have thought so...

Jk I know. You should rpobably tell everyone else though, they must be pretty "slow".

[QUOTE="sSubZerOo"]EA are just trying to get even in my book, after all they DESTROYED Bullfrog studios.. A dev that made the Dungeon Keeper series, Populous and numerous other series.fireandcloud

yeah, they have a lot to make up for. starting with the pc sports games. bastards!

[QUOTE="fireandcloud"]

[QUOTE="sSubZerOo"]EA are just trying to get even in my book, after all they DESTROYED Bullfrog studios.. A dev that made the Dungeon Keeper series, Populous and numerous other series.Makari

yeah, they have a lot to make up for. starting with the pc sports games. bastards!

riccitello only came over to ea this past year though, not 2004. before that, he was the ceo of the company that owned Bioware and Pandemic.. before that, we was an exec at EA.

ah, my bad... i mistyped. he left ea in 2004 and came back 2007, as is mentioned in the article. thanks for the heads up.

[QUOTE="Ps2stony"]

Ohohohoho! Oho! I know what you're doing! No way, man! No way!

Bust seriously, put tht in your sig so people like mfsa can see it. And by people like mfsa I mean anti-Stonys.

aliblabla2007

Unfortunately, mfsa has been banninated.

How did that happen?

[QUOTE="aliblabla2007"][QUOTE="Ps2stony"]

Ohohohoho! Oho! I know what you're doing! No way, man! No way!

Bust seriously, put tht in your sig so people like mfsa can see it. And by people like mfsa I mean anti-Stonys.

BlackAlpha666

Unfortunately, mfsa has been banninated.

How did that happen?

No idea. All I know is that he quoted someone else's comment without actually posting anything (AKA spamming), and as far as I can see, that was deleted.

[QUOTE="BlackAlpha666"][QUOTE="aliblabla2007"][QUOTE="Ps2stony"]

Ohohohoho! Oho! I know what you're doing! No way, man! No way!

Bust seriously, put tht in your sig so people like mfsa can see it. And by people like mfsa I mean anti-Stonys.

aliblabla2007

Unfortunately, mfsa has been banninated.

How did that happen?

No idea. All I know is that he quoted someone else's comment without actually posting anything (AKA spamming), and as far as I can see, that was deleted.

You can get banned for that? Uhh... Then I better stop doing that. I always use it as a way of saying "I agree" or "I second that", so I don't have to type a huge story when somebody else has already typed exactly how you feel about the subject.

Funny that somebody as mfsa, who gives intelligent and good replies, can get banned for spamming. While somebody as ps2stony, who is a real spammer, is allowed to spam like crazy. This topic alone proofs that he spams a lot.

[QUOTE="foxhound_fox"]So are they going to punish the teams that make ****ty games or are they going to punish the teams that don't sell lots of copies of their games?fireandcloud

yeah, good point. the article reads:

Under the new, still-emerging compensation structure, labels are given much more freedom to reward a team that blows the doors off expectations. "I mean, if you were working on BioShock 2 for EA, and you had to worry about Club Pogo or whether Madden slips, that would be a bit of a drag," explains Janco's Hickey. "It's going to take time to blossom, but John is the guy to do it."

-

so it's not clear. i'm thinking they reward games that sell well. but they'll spin it positively. they'll probably say that, in general, innovative games sell well while those that aren't do not, meaning that ultimately the system works and innovation and sales, oftentimes, go hand in hand. but, of course, who can believe that; i'm sure had crysis bombed (and clearly crysis is an innovative game), crytek would have suffered as a result under their new system. there are, after all, there are many games that are innovative (and good) and don't sell well, like psychonauts, so it might keep devs from truly being innovative.

Oh God, Ps2Stony is high again...

As long as EA does not interfere with devs' ways of working, like suggesting that Mass Effect should be out by this or that date or Crysis 2 should have more boobs in it, I don't see any problems with them taking over companies, as long as they don't buy them all. Than we're in trouble.

Companies that do not sell well are often the ones that make crappy Diablo clones and go out of business (boho..) or genuinly skilled people that simply lack resourses to get enough attention. That's where EA's PR-department comes in. Psychonauts would have sold a whole lot more copies if there were ad's on sites like GS or a TV-commersial or two about wacky Razputin and his cerebral adventures (or something like that).

Being owned by EA gives you economic shelter and a new way to let people know how awesome your game is, what I'm afraid of is what if some great game underperforms? Will EA shut the team down or will they see the potential and use money to make money. I guess we have to wait and see.

Hope thats actually what they plan to do

and off topic, kinda wish Ps2stoney is ban instead of mfsa

Hope thats actually what they plan to do

and off topic, kinda wish Ps2stoney is ban instead of mfsa

Lonelynight

mfsa is banned?!

why?

[QUOTE="Lonelynight"]

Hope thats actually what they plan to do

and off topic, kinda wish Ps2stoney is ban instead of mfsa

mhello99

mfsa is banned?!

why?

No idea

Companies that do not sell well are often the ones that make crappy Diablo clones and go out of business (boho..) or genuinly skilled people that simply lack resourses to get enough attention. That's where EA's PR-department comes in. Psychonauts would have sold a whole lot more copies if there were ad's on sites like GS or a TV-commersial or two about wacky Razputin and his cerebral adventures (or something like that).

Being owned by EA gives you economic shelter and a new way to let people know how awesome your game is, what I'm afraid of is what if some great game underperforms? Will EA shut the team down or will they see the potential and use money to make money. I guess we have to wait and see.

artur79

it's true that companies like ea are necessary evils. and they do protect small dev teams. but i wish they'd stop eating up teams that are doing fine all by themselves and destroying those that were doing well critically but not so well commercially. and that whole business of trying to take over take 2 was just plain wrong. and they need to repent in dust and ashes for what they did to the pc sports genre. but yeah, can't really complain too much with crysis and spore being developed under their corporate umbrella.

Hope thats actually what they plan to do

and off topic, kinda wish Ps2stoney is ban instead of mfsa

Lonelynight

[QUOTE="Lonelynight"]

Hope thats actually what they plan to do

and off topic, kinda wish Ps2stoney is ban instead of mfsa

Ps2stony

let them stew in their hate. you just be the best stony you can be.

[QUOTE="Ps2stony"][QUOTE="Lonelynight"]

Hope thats actually what they plan to do

and off topic, kinda wish Ps2stoney is ban instead of mfsa

fireandcloud

let them stew in their hate. you just be yourself.

NOT! Hahaha. Did NOT, get it? Get it, fireandcloud?

[QUOTE="fireandcloud"][QUOTE="Ps2stony"][QUOTE="Lonelynight"]

Hope thats actually what they plan to do

and off topic, kinda wish Ps2stoney is ban instead of mfsa

Ps2stony

let them stew in their hate. you just be yourself.

NOT! Hahaha. Did NOT, get it? Get it, fireandcloud?

i actually don't. but that's true 49% of the time. which is probably why i don't despise (thanks, stony - i hate it when i mistype) you like all the others seem to.

[QUOTE="Ps2stony"][QUOTE="fireandcloud"][QUOTE="Ps2stony"][QUOTE="Lonelynight"]

Hope thats actually what they plan to do

and off topic, kinda wish Ps2stoney is ban instead of mfsa

fireandcloud

let them stew in their hate. you just be yourself.

NOT! Hahaha. Did NOT, get it? Get it, fireandcloud?

i actually don't. but that's true 49% of the time. which is probably why i don't despite you like all the others seem to.

And you spelt it despite silly! It's dispete!

Yeah, do you see that lonelynight? I can be myself, right fireandcloud? Hey, do you have any friends? Cuz I sure wish I did...

NOT! Hahaha. Did NOT, get it? Get it, fireandcloud?

Ps2stony

you asked if i got it. which i didn't, so i elaborated by saying i don't get what you're saying 49% of the time.

[QUOTE="Ps2stony"]

Yeah, do you see that lonelynight? I can be myself, right fireandcloud? Hey, do you have any friends? Cuz I sure wish I did...

NOT! Hahaha. Did NOT, get it? Get it, fireandcloud?

fireandcloud

you asked if i got it. which i didn't, so i elaborated by saying i don't get what you're saying 49% of the time.

[QUOTE="fireandcloud"][QUOTE="Ps2stony"]

Yeah, do you see that lonelynight? I can be myself, right fireandcloud? Hey, do you have any friends? Cuz I sure wish I did...

NOT! Hahaha. Did NOT, get it? Get it, fireandcloud?

Ps2stony

you asked if i got it. which i didn't, so i elaborated by saying i don't get what you're saying 49% of the time.

yup, my point exactly.

[QUOTE="fireandcloud"][QUOTE="Ps2stony"][QUOTE="Lonelynight"]

Hope thats actually what they plan to do

and off topic, kinda wish Ps2stoney is ban instead of mfsa

Ps2stony

let them stew in their hate. you just be yourself.

NOT! Hahaha. Did NOT, get it? Get it, fireandcloud?

Please stop spamming