In recent years, Electronic Arts hereinafter referred to as “EA” has lost a lot of ground. And while, for example, Ubisoft is still trying to do something and return to the game, “EA“, on the contrary, seems to have dissolved. Let’s take a look at exactly what electronics have lost and why they’re not trying to change things. Useless licenses
Let’s start with a simple one. From an aperitif, so to speak. After Disney acquired the rights to such a giant (in terms of the fanbase) franchise as Star Wars, EA got a tidbit – exclusive rights to release games under the franchise. Before, Star Wars games have always been quite popular. I remember how my friends and I would go home after school to quickly play Jedi Academy or Empire at War or other equally and sometimes more cult titles. But, having got the license, released only one really good game and a few online services, getting into a very big scandal along the way. As a result, at the end of 2020 the beginning of 2021, these rights ceased to be exclusive.
Racing is our everything
However, let’s go to EA itself and their inner kitchen. The once-great maybe I’m exaggerating racing game series is known as “Need for Speed“. In the best years, games in this series came out regularly. Sometimes even too regularly. Addictive gameplay. Cool costuming. And the music. Music still lives in the playlists of many players and is unlikely to ever leave them.
However, such a frequent release could not but affect the quality of the released games. And in such circumstances – reducing the frequency of releases, and increasing the quality of the games themselves, would be a completely logical move. And so they did. Apart from online games, mobile phones, and remasters, over the past 7 years, only 3 projects have been released in the series. And everything would be fine, but the quality of the projects remained the same. According to rumors, the new part of “NFS” will be released this fall. Also, I question that there will be a lot of progress.
RPGs are no longer needed.
But racing and licenses are not so bad. One is a very niche genre, the other may come and go. Let’s see what’s up with the RPG. One of EA’s biggest hopes is BioWare. These guys were previously known as masters of the genre. Connoisseurs – role players. And indeed, it was. The Mass Effect series is nothing less than a truly great series. A space opera is worthy of comparison with such giants as Star Wars and Star Trek. And the Dragon Age series settled in the hearts of many fans of the genre and lives there to this day.
But time goes by and BioWare is no longer BioWare. People have been gone for a long time, and the last project, not counting the Mass Effect remaster trilogy (for which many thanks to them, no kidding), was the stillborn Anthem. Of course, the newly announced parts of “Mass Effect” and “Dragon Age” leave the faith in BioVars, but only slightly. No one even remembers when the last time new RPGs from electronics came out. Sad.
Shooters, shooters, and more shooters
Finally, we come to those series that make both a name and a box office for the whole of EA. Let’s start with shooters. If everything is more or less normal with Apex Legends from Respawn, even though it has already fallen out of the information field, then another such title and much more significant for the company itself can safely be called the Battlefield series, produced by the DICE studio. I will no longer talk about how everything was good before, and how bad it has become now. I think I have already exceeded the limit of such whining. Instead, we will briefly discuss only the last parts of the series.
Battlefield 2042 is out. I think it’s worth giving this game a separate paragraph. Oh, what an announcement. I think many of you have seen this trailer. And then, the subsequent details impressed. And how. Huge maps, 128 people, random natural disasters, and everything. What’s up? Huge maps became empty and extremely ill-conceived, and all 128 people huddled in a small area, creating a hopeless hail of bullets. Came out-shot-died. That’s the whole point of the game. Of the cataclysms, only a tornado remained, which set the teeth on edge already after 8 hours of play. As a result, a dead game for $5, around which one Moscow necromancer is dancing. Although, you know, Battlefield 2042 is still alive. In any case, in terms of the information field. I think I should return to this topic a little later.
EA and FIFA
Well, now, we got to the most important thing. The locomotive of the entire “Electronic Arts”. To a series that annually generates billions in revenue. To a series that became a legend (no) To the FIFA series. In general, there is also Madden NFL, but it is not at all popular with us, so we will omit it. So. Speaking of FIFA, I again recall my analysis of Ubisoft. There, the Assassin’s Creed series became the main measure of the state and path of the entire company. In the case of EA, this certainly is this sports simulator. It’s funny, but “FIFA” has collected almost all the problems from the above points.
Questions and results
With monstrous profits from the gacha, EA lost everything else. Why try and strain? Why try to recover the “BioWare” name? Why create a strong competitor for Call of Duty? Why does anything in principle, if, with little or no effort, you can earn billions? And it would be nice if it only affected the quality of FIFA itself, but no. This affects the entire company in general. Have they forgotten how to make games? They do not know what and how to do with their franchises?
