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gaming EA/Activision


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It is no secret that EA and Activision are currently the most hated publishers in the industry. Theit greedy tactics, monetizations of their games, predatory schemes of developing games and utter disrespect towards their communities are an absolute outrage and by now visible with naked eye.

There's plenty of evidence of how dirty and soulless these companies are:

  • EA abandoning Star Wars BF after its primary source of revenue has been cut off, with profits no longer being worth the hassle. Even after outright, as it seems, lying to community that SW:BF is a long-term project.
  • EA getting in outright conflict with Belgium law, which banned Lootboxes, stating they will push forward with those in spite of imprisonment threat and massive fines for doing so.
  • Activision lying to their userbase, stating that COD:WW II Lootboxes would be cosmetic only, however adding exclusive weapons available only through them later on.
  • Activision finally showing they no longer care about non-profitable BO Single Player mode and ditching it completely in favor of Battle Royale mode, which has shown to grant massive profits with PUBG and Fortnite. Ergo, abandoning COD identity in exchange for bandwagon money making.
  • Both companies promising their games and mechanics are absolutely transparent, yet not providing any details on their lootbox 'gamble' chances.
  • Both companies delivering unfinished products in order to implement paid DLCs which contain content that could usually have been found in previous titles base releases, or is considered widely to should have been included in base release from get-go.

While both companies have similar tactics, EA gets the worst of it due to their FIFA and Sims. Activison had its hand with a few minor titles too, and lately with Destiny 2, though a lot of the latter was also Bungee's fault.

Now my question is: Do you own any of their online games? Are you happy with them? Do you have faith and trust these companies? Would you buy any further titles from these publishers?

If you own the games, do you regret trusting the companies in light of the above?

 

I do not have a lot to say here. I bought only Destiny and I am not trusting Activision again. And I never trusted EA in the first place, so I never bought anything related to them.

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I am going to share a view I have always held and this is gonna be long: I think Activision is DRASTICALLY worse than EA. EA is guilty of tons of bad shit in gaming, that's obvious. They are the ones that made season passes a common thing and their treatment of some of their own franchises like The Sims and Simcity has been rather terrible, even if I think Sims 4 is alright. Unlike Activision though, at least in the modern era, EA still has a decent variety of titles. Activision now is focused on only two games: Call of Duty and Destiny, two generic as hell shooters.

Speaking of, Activision has another thing that EA doesn't: An annual game that has both microtransactions AND a season pass. Every. Year. That is of course Call of Duty. Every single year, it is the same trash but they charge the same for all of it now. The same trashy engine, lacking beyond their competition in every aspect and yet they keep churning them out year after year with no regards to quality or customer satisfaction. Each year it is lie after lie. I remember when they said that the new Call of Duty would have 'dedicated servers' and it ended up not actually have that. They did that for at least 3 or 4 years. Activision will never abandon the tired, old engine they have because it is probably extremely cheap to produce a game with. It is so outdated, that Call of Duty WW2 in NATIVE 4K on Xbox One, looks WORSE than Battlefield 4 on Xbox One. A game from over 4 years ago, in only 1080p, that has massive maps, 64 players and destruction, looks BETTER than the latest Call of Duty title, which has none of those things, despite it being in native 4K. Call of Duty ages horribly because of this, while BF4 is still a lot of fun to this day and has a good following, not to mention EA eventually made ALL DLC free for Battlefield 4, something Activision will NEVER do with their own games.

Of course there is the Destiny situation too that Activision has created. Destiny is an example on how to do greed in this industry. Twice in a row, they have released an unfinished pile of garbage for $60, releasing two bare bones expansions for $20 each and then hopes to bring everyone back with a $40 expansion in September, all the while locking off base game content if you do not own the overpriced DLC. They did this exact thing with Destiny 1 and it is repeating in Destiny 2. Somehow, people are surprised by this. I saw it from 100 miles away. This is Activision. They never back down despite extreme backlash. EA at least has the decency to surrender to sheer outrage, at least to some extent, but Activision holds their own greed up like a flag. They wave it around with pride, knowing that people will buy their worthless shit anyways. Battlefront 2 is at least a game that is quality underneath its design problems. Neither COD or Destiny can say that. Let's also not forget that with Destiny, Activision actively looked into ways to make people get the same feeling as if they were at a casino gambling, so then they would keep playing the same worthless content over and over for the hopes of some awesome loot.

Anyone remember Modern Warfare Remastered? They remastered Call of Duty 4, a game loved by millions (even though it has aged like milk on the Sun) and shoved MICROTRANSACTIONS into it. A game that never had them and they put them in there. Even better, instead of including the one map pack the game got back in 2008 into this remaster, they instead release it separately and charge MORE for it now than it was a decade ago. This is just to squeeze more money out of fans who hold the game close. Compare this to Burnout Paradise Remastered, an EA product, that is the same price as MWR. It includes ALL DLC from the original game, and that is a lot of content. Activision, they do nothing for the fans, they only want their money. That is why they remake fan favorite maps from past games and lock them beyond a season pass for the first 6 months of the game's life and by then when they release it to everyone, the new game is already confirmed. The cycle endlessly repeats. In the latest game, Call of Duty WWII, the developers were so lazy as a result of Activision wanting them to churn worthless shit out, that in their loot boxes, they reused the same emotes over and over again and simply gave them different names. Seriously. There is a simple emote of the character doing a boring handwave gesture and that is reused 8 TIMES. Another emote, the 'shoulder dust', is reused 5 times. They are actually copy and pasting EMOTES and giving them different names to trick idiots into thinking they are different. Some even have different rarities even though they are exactly the same. Call of Duty WW2 also introduces the mechanic of opening up your loot boxes in front of other people in a lobby. This exists for the sole purpose of other people seeing you get something 'super rare' and wanting to spend money to buy boxes themselves. That is using microtransactions in AAA gaming in the worst possible way, in my opinion even worse than Battlefront 2. Battlefront 2 at least has no season pass to speak of.

All of these terrible things will happen every single time. Destiny 3 will be a repeat of Destiny 1 and 2. Call of Duty #56,000,000 will have the exact same problems as all of the others. Nothing will ever change. Activision is even going so far to milk the ever living hell out of the Black Ops name, WITHIN a milked to death series. They usually only do trilogies in terms of COD subtitles, but nope. Gotta keep that Black Ops money train going and now, they are getting rid of single player in favor of a cash grab, bandwagon battle royal mode. I cannot wait to see that be a disaster. The worthless puppets that work for Activision deserve no less than a disaster. EA at least now has fear within them and if Battlefront 3 is made, there is at least a chance it will start off way better, plus EA is at least trying to gain goodwill back with BF2.

All of this on top of Activision churning out TERRIBLE movie and TV show tie-in games in the past, them literally killing the music genre by spamming Guitar Hero into the ground, killing off the Tony Hawk series only to reboot it with the worst game in the series by far and thinking it was okay for release, the list goes on and on.

In summary: While EA has many bad parts to them that need to be addressed, Activision is a literal cancer on this industry. One that I hope dies off. If Activision falls, the gaming industry would be a better place. Everyone focuses on EA as the worst thing in the universe, but at this point I think that is simply people mindlessly bandwagoning on memes, because there is no way in hell that EA is worse than Activision.

For the record, I don't even own Battlefront 2, I just think it is a good point of comparison.

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I think what makes EA worse to me is their half hearted apologies and claims they'll change for the better, and when they're criticized directly they literally put their fingers in their ears and feign ignorance.

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 Honestly I ONLY care about Blizzard from Activision, I can't say there is ANYTHING by EA currently that I care about. That being said... At this point they are both so shitty that you may as well be comparing cow piles. I mean honestly... I feel like they are in competition for the shittiest company. Activision gives us CoD:WW2, then Destiny 2, but then EA gives us SW:BF2 and now EA is trying to fight against the law claiming their lootboxes are illegal in some countries.

It's sort of like watching two children pelt each other with their own feces really.

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@Kyoshi

I ain't going to debate that Activision is an awful publisher, however I'm not sure we are able to freely compare EA and Activision in this regard.

EA might have pulled a few things towards parts of their community, but it is nothing really major. The titles you have mentioned are nowhere close to what SW:BF was or their European flagship, FIFA series. Along with The Sims as well. The titles mentioned did not have a substantial impact on their total income, so the deeds they've done would have had little financial consequence, HOWEVER they are great from PR perspective. They can be used as a leverage to show "we ain't that bad in end!". And that's what worries me and, joined with my distrust to them, makes me belive it's actually a well planned image improvement.

So far, EA has not made any substantial moves to better the games that bring them the highest income, quite the contrary, they are actually fighting the law to keep these games afloat and keep the users scammed and addicted. We yet have to see how Activision will react, as they have not yet come under any real fire. But it seems this might be a subject to change in the future.

 

I feel at freedom to state that both companies are worth each other, however they operate on different scale. Activision is milking the only cow that they can milk, which brings them the highest profits. EA is spreading the predatory systems across multiple games. And, on an example of BF2, once the game stops being profitable, they ditch it. Dice is the only studio now responsible for developing BF2. Other 2 studios have already been moved away from the project, as EA recognized that with all the negative attention it gathered, it is no longer vital for their finance to keep it afloat.

 

What I loved the most from EA so far, was the "Single player games are dead." statement. With Witcher 3, NieR: Automata, Uncharted, God of War, Prey, Resident Evil, Divinity and Breath of the Wild on the not far away horizon behind.

 

In conclusion, I think that both companies are worth each other, but due to their scale and marketing titles they simply employ different dirty tactics. Yet the outcome is the same: disappointed and cheated community being stripped away from their funds.

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21 minutes ago, Khajiit said:

@Kyoshi

I ain't going to debate that Activision is an awful publisher, however I'm not sure we are able to freely compare EA and Activision in this regard.

EA might have pulled a few things towards parts of their community, but it is nothing really major. The titles you have mentioned are nowhere close to what SW:BF was or their European flagship, FIFA series. Along with The Sims as well. The titles mentioned did not have a substantial impact on their total income, so the deeds they've done would have had little financial consequence, HOWEVER they are great from PR perspective. They can be used as a leverage to show "we ain't that bad in end!". And that's what worries me and, joined with my distrust to them, makes me belive it's actually a well planned image improvement.

So far, EA has not made any substantial moves to better the games that bring them the highest income, quite the contrary, they are actually fighting the law to keep these games afloat and keep the users scammed and addicted. We yet have to see how Activision will react, as they have not yet come under any real fire. But it seems this might be a subject to change in the future.

 

I feel at freedom to state that both companies are worth each other, however they operate on different scale. Activision is milking the only cow that they can milk, which brings them the highest profits. EA is spreading the predatory systems across multiple games. And, on an example of BF2, once the game stops being profitable, they ditch it. Dice is the only studio now responsible for developing BF2. Other 2 studios have already been moved away from the project, as EA recognized that with all the negative attention it gathered, it is no longer vital for their finance to keep it afloat.

 

What I loved the most from EA so far, was the "Single player games are dead." statement. With Witcher 3, NieR: Automata, Uncharted, God of War, Prey, Resident Evil, Divinity and Breath of the Wild on the not far away horizon behind.

 

In conclusion, I think that both companies are worth each other, but due to their scale and marketing titles they simply employ different dirty tactics. Yet the outcome is the same: disappointed and cheated community being stripped away from their funds.

That cannot be said about every new EA game though. Games like Unravel and A Way Out, both very good games that are unique, published by EA. Those are both single player-esque experiences (A way out is local co op but it is ONLY local co op), and both are good. Unravel in particular, while not perfect on a gameplay stance, is fucking BEAUTIFUL on an artistic level. Seriously, it is amazing in that regard. I cannot think of a single title that Activision has put significant money into in the past several years that isn't the same old Call of Duty and Destiny trash. Unless we count Activision Blizzard but they apparently operate differently than just 'Activision' so go figure. Activision would never risk any of their money for the sake of something new or artistic. EA at least has done that this gen. It is like when child of Light was released by Ubisoft. That game was along beautiful and it was my favorite game of 2014, but people are so wrapped in hating Ubisoft that they ignore some of the good games they have. Activision, I can't think of any good games they have now. So regardless of how either company handles their marketing and PR, EA at least has some good games on their belt and some risks. Activision? Nah. Yet, Activision gets less flak. The gaming community makes no sense to me.

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1 minute ago, Kyoshi said:

That cannot be said about every new EA game though. Games like Unravel and A Way Out, both very good games that are unique, published by EA.

You have a point there... EA can sometimes let a decent game through the cracks (I say decent because I seldom see a GREAT GAME), and with Activision... Unless it says Blizzard on the box or it's a remaster of game from when they weren't shitty (like 1990s-early 2000s) it's 99.9% chance trash. So that is a decent point.

2 minutes ago, Kyoshi said:

Unless we count Activision Blizzard but they apparently operate differently than just 'Activision' so go figure.

To this day I still don't understand why they don't see how much people love Blizzard and go "yeah we should run the rest of our company like that"...

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(edited)

I wouldn't even classify Electronic Arts as a game company now a days. It's more like a giant red blob swallowing smaller development studios and acquiring their assets left and right.

Edited by Guest
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2 minutes ago, Royce said:

I wouldn't even classify Electronic Arts as a game company now a days. It's more like a giant red blob swallowing smaller development studios and acquiring their assets left and right.

Ironically, Electronic Arts was founded by people who wanted to give video game artists the freedom of not being held back by publishers... A greater amount of irony can not be had.

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Just now, Key Sharkz said:

Ironically, Electronic Arts was founded by people who wanted to give video game artists the freedom of not being held back by publishers... A greater amount of irony can not be had.

That's EA for you. Poor consumer friendly business practices but great stock and shareholder business tactics in a industry that tends to have the most vocal yet non action oriented members.

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Almost any gaming franchise that EA touches turns to garbage but people keep buying their games for some reason. The sports games are a joke because they never evolve or EA lies about a new innovation for them. Remember years ago when they claimed the new NFL game was going to have interactive sidelines? Wow, that was a huge letdown for fans. Tiny improvements every year.

The Star Wars Battlefront games look amazing but EA wrecked them with the stupid loot box system and micro transactions. 

EA only cares about thief bottom line, not making great games. Thankfully people spoke out with their hate for Battle Front II.

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46 minutes ago, Royce said:

That's EA for you. Poor consumer friendly business practices but great stock and shareholder business tactics in a industry that tends to have the most vocal yet non action oriented members.

Do not forget that gaming is an addiction for many. It is why companies like EA and Activision hire psychologists nowadays. After all, Activision was accused of creating a matchmaking system that would scan your gaming tendencies and style, and then match you against opponnents who had acquired items you might be after from their lootboxes. If the matchmaking did not lead you to buying the item, the system would notify this on the list and would instead search for different target of your potential desire.

And after you bought it, it would match you with people who do not have it so you can parade with it, and they can buy it in place.

 

Edit: Okay now, but what about Destiny 3? It is in production already, even with Destiny 2 fiasco. The reason Destiny 2 is in such poor state, is because development teams were moved to Destiny 3 development. And honestly... how can they even think that people will buy it after what happened with D1 and D2?

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I can never forgive EA for dragging down The Sims. It is a unique franchise that has never picked up any real competition. It is the only franchise in which its games I continuously play for years (I'm even playing The Sims 2 again!). So the dumbing down of the franchise with The Sims 4, and now with focus shifting toward mobile which is just the worst platform ever means the death of a one-of-a-kind franchise.

Despite being money-hungry and glitchy The Sims 3 showed lots of great ideas could still be put into the franchise. I was looking forward to an even more advanced The Sims. But nope. The Sims is now going mobile, a weak platform with limited modding capabilities (correct me if I'm wrong) and soon they'll be expecting you to pay $20 for each RNG pull in hopes of getting something like your favorite dog breed. I'm not even touching it, just like I didn't touch The Sims 4, but it still makes me sad.

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(edited)

I mean, they're both evil as fuck, but I'll still give it to EA that they can at least produce some variety, whereas Activision puts every developer they have make nothing but CoD and Destiny, but then that's where Acti is better because at least they don't completely kill devs for underperforming games, something that EA is really atrocious for. Honestly, I'd like Activision more if they offered more variety, they were responsible for some fantastic licensed games like the Goldeneye Remake, X-Men Legends, Star Wars Jedi Outcast, Ultimate Spiderman, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, the Transformers Cybertron games and Devastation, Incredible Ultimate Destruction, I want that Activision, but I know that's never gonna happen. But yeah comparing these two is like comparing whether or not Heart cancer or lung cancer is worse. Blizzard is the only reason why people give a shit about Activision nowadays

I'd also like to say that I like Call of Duty and would like to pre-emptively apologize for continuing to feed the beast :P

Edited by Whomps
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On 5/16/2018 at 4:39 PM, Twilight Luna said:

Thankfully people spoke out with their hate for Battle Front II.

And people still bought it anyway, which to me is more proof that the consumers are the enablers of their shitty practices.

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10 hours ago, Vulon Bii said:

And people still bought it anyway, which to me is more proof that the consumers are the enablers of their shitty practices.

Whales will be whales. I fully expect people to buy into EA's BS again when they say "we've learned this time, I swear!" and proceed to buy Battlefront 3 when it inevitably comes.

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4 hours ago, Nightmare Terror said:

we should know that none of the video game companies actually care about us,they just care about money.

Technically, you're not wrong, but there are developers out there who actually care about their customers because they want to retain them

 

4 hours ago, Nightmare Terror said:

The only companies  I’ve seen not do anything stupid is Nintendo,and Bethesda.

I've seen both of them do quite a few stupid things.

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(edited)

Uh, I have Battlefield 3 and a hoof full of Call of Duty. I am pleased with the games and would buy the other CODs or BFs too. But yes I agree they are quite shady and half a pay-to-win. So, I'd rather say I'm neutral to them, okay?

Edited by Dust-Shot
Grammar A.K.A. Hell
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3 hours ago, Vulon Bii said:

seen both of them do quite a few stupid things.

Well they're saints compared to EA and Activision. Both still have a passion for making games and bringing experiences to consumers, even if Bethesda has a track record for having buggy games. 

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On 19/5/2018 at 9:01 AM, Nightmare Terror said:

Bethesda

They've fucked up quite a bit. Paid mods? Get outta here.

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