Over the past few years, EA has managed to sneak in its online pass code into a few of its games. Is this really justified?
Today Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson provided a look into his ideas for the use of generative AI in the company's development processes.
I wonder what the next buzz word they'll slap in front of AI to make it sound exciting next? "Generative" as if it's creating its own content. Lol.
i have a better idea .. why the whole exec team doesn't get replaced by chat bots ?
Though i agree the ai thing is already in other forms of media there have been ai translations/scripts/voice over and even full ai commercials aired on tv. Ubisoft has created a ai game creator story/vo/music except the building of the game
The new unreal engine has auto terrain creation tools
In the world of greed in which it is winning without any major blow back ai is our future.
everyone want's biden dead on the mic or a criminal instead of a woman and now we are getting ai everything because no one will stop watching/playing ai created media.
Exactly EA are just pure evil. When they are beating Bank of America to be voted the worst company to work for that’s saying a lot
Good thing I don’t buy their games day one and wait for deep deep sale years after launch (the select few games I am actually interested in)
Gaming is making so much money yet the greed of these companies is never ending
CEO’s and people on board making millions yet cutting jobs to those who are actually making the products
EA is still a shady shitty company even with or without the help of Skynet. All they will use AI for is new ways to milk loot boxes and come up with the same sports title with a different year on the label. They are one company I truly do hate with a passion. They single handedly ruined some great franchise with their death touch. ME, Dead Space, Alice Returns, Dante's Inferno.
All that is already been happening
https://www.gamespot.com/ar...
https://mobilesyrup.com/201...
https://www.ign.com/article...
https://www.spglobal.com/ma...
EA layoffs followed by 'Generative AI to Drive Monetization'
I knew it. Wonder what AI salary looks like? Nothing.
I having a feeling that most of the layoffs in the industry are based on the idea that AI will do the same job for less.
Very likely, yes.
Made worse by the fact that the execs aren't changing their compensations.
My deepest fear at this point is that we are now in the capitalism endgame.
At this point, we really should just burn AI to the ground. Executives cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
How are those people expected to support families if everything gets automated?
And take away creativity, and people's jobs as we've been seeing. Got it.
No thanks. I want my games created by people, not AI.
Exactly. If or when games start becoming more AI than people, im done with gaming. AI and companies like EA can suck donkey d***k.
Though i agree remember this is no ps3/360 era were we got up to 3 games in one generation from on developer like gears/halo/bioware/sony/ms
The people today are pro esg/sweet baby for the most part AAA gaming is imploding right now.
We should be stepping back re evaluate everything as a whole this year xmen 97 written/directed by a woman that is nuts and its also being made by a group reshaping bodies to be less sexual like wtf. A dam famous cartoon from the 90's is being rebuilt with millions spent to be worse in everyway.
Gaming/movies/tv shows made today are worse than what we had 7years ago ai won't change this but that ai is also being made by these groups so either way we are screwed.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Don't be of afraid of women. Sexy characters in games and movies still exist. Got my Stellar Blade on preorder!!! Everything all the time doesn't need to be sexual...that's stupid, childish and dull.
EA doesn't want to lose their title of worst gaming company ever, always trying their best to remain the champs!
What's sad is that they have so much potential to be a decent publisher.
SSX Tricky / SSX 3
Def Jam Vendetta / Fight for New York
NBA Street
NFL Steet
Mirror's Edge
Bad Company
Burnout 3 / 4 / 5
Remember when EA used to be awesome? It's all over with now. Unpolished, if not out-right broken games these days. Endless monetization and gambling in their sports games, and let's not forget wasting hours of your life trying to unlock characters or equipment using "surprise boxes!"
Gareth, Justin, and JoeyZ look at Layoff news for EA and Sony and reasons behind the downturn in the industry and more.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson writes: "In this time of change, we expect these decisions to impact approximately 5 percent of our workforce. I understand this will create uncertainty and be challenging for many who have worked with such dedication and passion and have made important contributions to our company. While not every team will be impacted, this is the hardest part of these changes, and we have deeply considered every option to try and limit impacts to our teams. Our primary goal is to provide team members with opportunities to find new roles and paths to transition onto other projects. Where that’s not possible, we will support and work with each colleague with the utmost attention, care, and respect. Communicating these impacts has already begun and will be largely completed by early next quarter."
All the big ones doing the same stuff. Terrible. I just hope that all these people are able to get a new job as soon as possible, God know that it is horrible to be left jobless when you have your kids or your parents depending on your financial help
2024 so far.
Feb ’28 Electronic Arts (EA) 670 (5%)
Feb ’24 PlayStation 900 (8%)
Feb ’24 Vice Media Group Several hundred
Feb ’24 Buzzfeed 16%
Feb ’24 NowThis 26 (50%)
Feb ’24 Paramount Global 800 (3%)
Feb ’24 SiriusXM 160 (3%)
Feb ’24 Snapchat 10%
Jan ’24 TechCrunch 8 + subscription product
Jan ’24 U.K.’s Channel 4 200
Jan ’24 Business Insider 8%
Jan ’24 Microsoft Gaming 1,900
Jan ’24 Riot Games 530
Jan ’24 Sports Illustrated Possibly all
Jan ’24 YouTube 100
Jan ’24 Pitchfork (Conde Nast) Undisclosed
Jan ’24 Universal Music Group Hundreds
Jan ’24 Discord 17%
Jan ’24 NBC News 50-100
Jan ’24 Audible 5%
Jan ’24 Google Hundreds
Jan ’24 Amazon Hundreds
Jan ’24 Duolingo 10%
Jan ’24 VideoAmp 20%
DATA AS OF FEB. 28, 2024
Another long list that skips over UPS cutting 12,000 jobs those workers as we know work without ac low pay and old box trucks but that company had to cut 12k jobs do too loosing billions of dollars year 2 year.
https://edition.cnn.com/202...
The greed and lack of transparency/oversight is disgusting.
Ups are still making bang but not enough for a golden boat fleet.
Remember we all use ups at some time even stuff in our stores this is going to be a huge issue gong forward i know in my area they removed half the state ups stores northern half least population got some 3rd party running packages now from minivans.
@just_looken
UPS is a different story altogether.
They are paying the people doing the actual work/ earning the money more and eliminating management.
You do realize around this time this happens all throughout many industries (not just the game industry), right? It has to do with taxes for these major companies, like tax subsidies for downsizing. You want to know a little secret? Around May or so you’ll see a spike in hiring…
It blows my mind that people are oblivious to corporate workings.
So over 25 huge companies cut jobs every year like this and it only got noticed this time?
@Andrew336
Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Google it up if you’re uninformed of how corporations work. Only gamers seem to live in a bubble and when they see things like crunch, acquisitions, and lay-offs they act like this is the only industry it happens to and how shocked they are about it.
Welcome to the real world, kid.
EA CEO Wilson's total compensation was 20 million. Let's take away 19 million (I'm sure he can survive on 1 million.... somehow).
1 million is the salary of an in the chair developer @100,000 for 10 years.
He could earn 1 million a year.
And save the jobs of 15 in the chair devs for A DECADE (plus benefits) with ONE YEAR'S compensation.
Do not worry they will take over 40mill say sorry then get hired by playstation or xbox
I heard Japan does it better, they do layoffs like what's happening with companies in the west. The higher ups also being agreeing to to lower there own salary. These MFs like jim and Phil isnt gonna do that they want that $
The point I feel is problematic about all of this is that focusing on Owned Ip means more sequels, remasters and more of what was selling last year.
... IF they make sure they keep the servers for those games up and running for at least 10 years or whatever.
Now, you see people buy a relatively new game 1-2 years old and read that although it's being advertised as having MP, EA takes the servers down and they are basically missing out on a huge part of the game.
Personally though, I feel the whole Online Pass thing is horrible. What happens when you somehow lose your account for whatever reason, or you want to take the game to a friend's house on a sleep-over, or there are other people in the household who want to take the game online and it only has an online pass for 1 account... etc etc etc.
Not to mention the problem that it pretty much kills the online community for a game much faster, cause certainly not all gamers who buy a game 2nd hand will invest in buying a new online pass, thus you won't see those online ...
I think the industry should stop taking content out of games, and start offering value for money so people will be more inclined to buy their games, and will also want to hang on to them, instead of selling them after a month orso.
If a developer announces FREE DLC-support will follow 3 months after release, many gamers won't be selling their game!
It's as simple as that.
That means those games won't be hitting the 2nd hand market, thus meaning gamers who are interested will have a harder time finding 2nd hand copies, thus more inclined to just buy a new copy, plus free DLC is already an incentive to support a developer/publisher!
I think the online pass is a way to be greedy. They want to make more money off the same title that was already purchased new off the shelf and off a title that has ran its course. I own the game I should be able to sell the game after it brought me joy and fun. So someone who hums and haws about the game their not sure if they want to buy it they rent it at a movie store and they like it chances are they will buy the game. Why be out $60 bucks for an over hyped title that is suppose to be a great title but turns out it has flopped big time. I would rather be out $10 bucks then $60 for a game that trades in at half the value. Some of these companies like EA or Capcom or who ever forget that some of their fans cannot afford a new game off the shelf like everybody else. If a parent can't afford to put their kid in an after school activity a used title for $40 provides a means of entertainment for them. An online pass hurts those people its like EA is turning their backs on those who game on a budget.
Online passes will lead to trouble like hackers hacking the servers then what they shut down the servers. And I can't play online with the online pass I bought with the game waste of cash and the fans will demand someones head on a pole. An online pass hurts people who game honestly because some hacker is pissed off. If you want people to enjoy the games get rid of online passes there nothing but being greedy. Way it works I buy the game I own the game I can do what ever I want with the game if I want to sell the game to some kid who might enjoy it as much as I did i am going to do it. But I can't do it now because of the online passes. And now I try to avoid games with online passes. God I wish we had the SNES and Sega Genesis those were great gaming years when developers actually gave a shit about their fans. And games were actually fun to play and had great stories. Everything now is sequal after sequal shooter after shooter.
Just wait until they charge everyone yearly online subscription fees.
Blame the fact that the majority of gamers now spend most of their time playing MP over SP.
It doesnt matter. They have every right to charge for a online pass as much as microsoft charging for online play.
It's only justified if the consumer is well aware of the cost and the length of support. OnLive tells you that access will last at least a certain amount of time (2 years I believe).
EA can do as they wish, it's their investment. We are only there for the ride so how can we argue against it other than buying the product or not? We as consumers need to educate ourselves on what the online passes represent and that we don't have unlimited access even though we bought the game. We also need to educate ourselves into knowing used merchandise must come with less value. It works with all other things we buy so why should games be exempt? Games don't devalue like cars so they must be devalued in other ways because we want part of the proceeds to go back to those who create the games we want to continue to enjoy. Otherwise it can collapse on itself. Piracy and used games act as one to a publisher in a sense those who play those games are not supporting those who made the game. One could argue it could open up potential customers if they enjoy the game but that's what demo's are for.