EA Cancels Black Panther Game, Closes Cliffhanger Games - IGN (www.ign.com)
from simple@lemm.ee to games@lemmy.world on 28 May 19:06
https://lemm.ee/post/65251653

#games

threaded - newest

MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social on 28 May 19:36 next collapse

On the one hand I hate hearing about people losing their jobs. I dislike people not being able to have an opportunity to support themselves. On the other hand any and all trouble for EA makes me happy. I long for the day they have to sell off their studios and their CEO has to try and not be remembered as the guy that killed the golden goose for investor capitol.

It’s time that investors stop looking at video games as a get rich quick opportunity. And trying to turn it into the new cubicle farm. Sandfall and a lot of other smaller devs are proving that a small team of generalists are able to do better work than these huge and bloated monstrosities that EA and its kind have become.

Also they pretty much show with this and several other cancellations that they cannot fathom a business model that doesn’t rely on predator monetization.

HuskerNation@lemmy.zip on 28 May 19:47 next collapse

Damn I was looking forward to this, Marc Bernardin was a writer for it, in fact I believe the lead writer. Love his stuff, found him by following Kevin Smith

Thassodar@lemm.ee on 28 May 22:00 collapse

Yeah and the trailer they put out, if this is the same game, looked like a mostly complete game. And it looked good!

Katana314@lemmy.world on 28 May 20:24 next collapse

I’d really rather gamers focused their energy into showing support for the developer groups making cool projects, than specifically deriding any works made under publishers they dislike.

Once every few years, EA and Ubisoft produce something that’s really cool; and much as we’d rather the publishers were replaced with better ones, at the least we can be happy that developers got to put out one or two good games through them.

Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world on 28 May 21:18 collapse

I’d really rather gamers focused their energy into showing support for the developer groups making cool projects, than specifically deriding any works made under publishers they dislike.

The thing about EA is they have a long history of acquiring the developer groups you’re talking about, then mismanaging them into the ground before dissolving them entirely. I know just as many if not more only exist because of EA and their funding, but it’s hard not to feel bitter when many of my favorite studios no longer exist due to their incompetence and greed.

DeathsEmbrace@lemm.ee on 28 May 21:38 collapse

You underestimate just how much they treat this like a business and take advantage of passionate people. Nobody does game dev for a career without a passion.

MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social on 28 May 22:17 collapse

Devs, yes. Publishers, not so much.

DeathsEmbrace@lemm.ee on 29 May 00:41 collapse

Nobody talks about the corporate shills called publishers. They just steal the credit of the devs and money.

thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works on 29 May 02:12 next collapse

I really wish gamers could unite in a way that they buy out sufficient ownership stakes in these terrible publishers that they force them to treat development studios better, and not push out half-finished slop filled to the brim with predatory monetisation.

EA, Konami, Ubisoft would all be ripe for a renaissance if that were to pass.

SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one on 29 May 03:34 next collapse

EA and Ubisoft I can see happening in theory.

Konami is an entirely different beast. The Japanese industry is so ingrained in a different ethos altogether, I just don’t see any public-backed push for change working the way it would with a Western publisher.

Just look at the direction Nintendo is heading. Do we have any actual chance of stopping that train?

haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com on 29 May 06:28 next collapse

Its capitalism. Individuals will not change this. Systemic problems need systemic solutions. First step is outlawing centralization of capital and putting back legislation against large corporations. But good luck doing that in the US.

TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world on 29 May 18:24 next collapse

I’ve been hearing it for years, the same as outright boycotts. It’s not that people don’t care, it’s that not enough people care for it to make a difference. For every person pissed about getting burned on a $60+ purchase for a dogshit game, there are 99 more who’ll eat it and move on without caring all that much. You’ve got to improve the content at home, where it counts without worrying about the drek getting turned out by large companies/studios. Invest in indie, or shop around is the best bet IMO.

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3ba5de57-8371-43d4-b541-2475f6ce45e9.gif">

thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works on 30 May 01:33 collapse

Realistically yes, you are correct.

I’m sure we all (at least those old enough) to remember that Boycott Modern Warfare II Steam group screenshot.

Idealistically, imagine that for every release - instead of giving EA that $80 dollars, 10% of gamers put that money towards a share instead.

So that would work out to be ~$200m in lost upfront sales, and up to $540m in lost recurring spend (microtransactions, battle passes etc.).

That would only be enough for gamers to own 0.5% of the company after the first year, but keeping this up for multiple years could have a downward pressure on EA’s stock price long-term as they miss their financial forecasts - increasing gamer’s buying power on shares.

Within a few years, these “Gamers United” would begin to have sufficient stake to influence board decisions (for the better).

The best part being that, the entire time, EA would continue to pay dividends to them (currently at a rate of ~$3.10 per share, per year), while they still technically own that money - almost like a corporate savings account.

*Edit: out of the three companies I randomly picked, Ubisoft would actually be the softest target - as their market cap is only $1.38b, so gamers would only need to acquire ~$700m of shares to wrestle control of the company!

Korhaka@sopuli.xyz on 30 May 09:39 collapse

I don’t want to own EA. I want EA to fail.

thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works on 30 May 10:51 collapse

I don’t want the current iteration of EA to succeed; but I do want them to return to form and help* nurture quality releases of Command and Conquer, Mass Effect, Dead Space, Burn Out, Need for Speed, Road Rash, Theme X, Sim City and about a dozen other dormant (or mismanaged) franchises.

Could I get similar experiences from other publishers and developers? Absolutely — but I’d much rather we as gamers have a broader choice in the future of our hobby, rather than continually whittling down our options as quality developers get swallowed up and spat out by the current industrial machine.

atlien51@lemm.ee on 29 May 11:51 next collapse

Fuck black panther make another game like battlefield 4 or nfs most wanted

mriormro@lemm.ee on 29 May 12:57 collapse

Oh yeah, let’s make another shitty battlefield game cause there aren’t a million of those in the bloated and fetted catalog of shooters.

atlien51@lemm.ee on 29 May 13:09 collapse

Battlefield 4 isn’t shitty lil boi

LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org on 30 May 08:44 collapse

Then why do you need a new one?

atlien51@lemm.ee on 30 May 09:53 collapse

Why would you want to stay stuck playing the same game forever? No matter how good

RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world on 29 May 20:08 collapse

Damn, was this the Christopher Judge project?