So, SimCity has been released - the fifth instalment in this venerable series of fantastic games. However, just as everyone suspected, the game has been completely ruined by the always-online DRM. So much so, in fact, that Amazon has ceased selling the game. Update: and it's only getting worse - EA has suspended all marketing efforts for SimCity, and has asked third parties to do the same. Wow.
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Member since:2010-05-21
No. This is ye olde conventional wisdom and it's bullshit. The big-wigs at EA will try and screw you, and if you don't pay for their stuff, the shareholders will lose out but the board will still get nice bonuses. In the absolute worst case that the company folds or even looks like it's going south, those same people will leave and get a job at Activision or some other publisher and do exactly the same thing again.
Look at Zynga. It's doing so badly now. Any lessons learnt at EA? Nope!
OTOH, budding nerd comedians can start their set with two words:
Sim City.
Member since:2011-01-26
Maybe they'll still pay the bonuses if we pull the rug from under them but that'd speed up their demise.
EA will keep swallowing up all we know and love (game wise that is) and turn it into an online only, pay to progress, DLC which should be part of the thing you paid for but is strangely ready at release crapfest... unless we stop feeding them with cash.
Here's the list of online services EA have shut down
http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates
Some of these games are two years old, they were fleecing second hand buyers with charges to activate online play just weeks before they shut down FIFA 11 (even when challenged about the EU ruling which said they should transfer the licence, it was only talking to someone who still had their soul to sort it).
With EA you pay them for two years and then they want paying again for the next release whether you like it or not.
I'm not going to be mugged by them again, hopefully others don't either.
Edited 2013-03-07 23:34 UTC
Member since:2007-03-26
Look at Zynga. It's doing so badly now. Any lessons learnt at EA? Nope!
They either jump ship or turn to litigation to further punish their users.
Member since:2005-07-12
Member since:2006-09-16
"they'll just blame declining sales on piracy"
I don't care if they blame declining sales on the Easter Bunny. If people reject DRM and refuse to buy, someone will notice. If people reject buggy software and refuse to buy, someone will notice. It might not be EA, but others will notice.
The problem isn't EA; EA is showing that crippled games can make money. If we don't want DRM, we need to show that it hurts sales. EA has no reason to change if we keep giving them our money. If we don't change our behavior, they won't change theirs.
Member since:2006-09-21
It does not work that way.
Let's assume that a stunt like this reduces game sales by 50%, but people end up purchasing the game and its successors every 2 years instead of every 10 years (because the vendor is making minor tweaks to the server to entice people to upgrade, while dropping support for the old versions). The publisher now has a massively more profitable product, with a fraction of the sales.
If you look at past history, you'll find that the hypothetical 50% will be a moot point anyway. Many of those people will end up accepting the changes as more and more vendors adopt them. The people who don't end up accepting those changes won't matter anyway since they will end up aging outside of the games target demographic, while more naive customers age into the target demographic.
And all of that assumes that the company listens to their customers and shrug off the comments for business reasons.
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"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance."According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow."During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.
Member since:
2006-03-20
The only thing, and I mean the only thing, companies will listen to is people spending money elsewhere.
If people keep paying for it - they feel like the sh** it tolerable, live DVD region coding, or the CD I bought kwhich doesn't play on my kitchen cd player because of anti-piracy damage (looking at you Sony).
Edited 2013-03-07 22:55 UTC