Electronic Arts is the focus of attention for both analysts and gamers as 2008 is closing. The publisher, which is already facing stiff competition from Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft, has seen worse than expected results in the last month, deciding to lay off more than 1,000 people, about 10% of its workforce, while also closing down or consolidating a lot of studios, including Need for Speed: Undercover developer Black Box. New intellectual properties like Dead Space, a space based horror shooter, and Mirror's Edge, the free running DICE developed title, have failed to make the impact that the company had hoped for.
Some analysts believe that the recent news shows how the publisher missed the start of this console cycle and needs to rethink its strategy in order to create successful titles.
Former Visceral Games devs reveal Dead Space's marketing budget was cut in favor of Mirror's Edge because of mock review scores.
I wish EA would just release a DS2 remake. DS is my favorite horror game and DS2 is the best one in the franchise. But because DS1 failed to meet certain numbers EA scrapped the DS2 remake. SH2 remake was great rumors are Konami might be asking for another SH remake. The RE2 remake was great EA just needs to give it another try. But all they seem to do is shitty sports games that are no different from the year before. Change a few players, add different uniform colours, maybe change a team logo. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Agreed. DS was great. But DS2 was even better. Would love to see a DS2 remake, though I would love to see a DS4 even more.
The problem with EA is they make easy $ from the slight changes to their sports titles like football FC games (whatever it’s called nowadays). People just lap that sh1t up.
Comparatively, games like DS which don’t sell 10s of millions, can’t sell them team player add ons and all the like, would seem a hassle to make and unappealing comparatively. Especially when you consider that most EA non sport titles haven’t actually performed well recently.
Dark Souls 2, Darksiders 2, Dead Space 2, Death Stranding 2, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
The Dead space remake was so good. Better than the original. Shame they won't remake 2.
I loved the original dead space but the remake I just found boring. Game design has moved on and the game really showed its age, just small area encounters repeated again and again.
I bought Dead Space during launch window and I never bought a Mirror's Edge game .
All playable from October 1.
An executive of Electronic Arts Japan has criticised the Japanese video game ratings board for allowing upcoming action game Stellar Blade to be released uncensored while EA's own Dead Space was banned in the country.
He’s got a point. If a game is M-Rated, which is the equivalent of an R rating, I don’t get why you need to censor anything. The rating is the indicator of the content and the age appropriate. If it’s appropriate for adults… why treat them like children? 🤷♂️
This is about gore... not about anything sexual. And specifically I think it is about the realistic depiction of gore. Unfortunately I don't know the nuance of the CERO board or how it is relevant their specific culture (as a prohibition on gore may transcend age) so I hesitate to make a statement. Can anyone else provide insight to what kind of gore is considered unacceptable?
Yea, I know this is about gore, but thanks for pointing that out.
My point still stands, if a game is essentially rated for a mature audience then why censor for them as if they’re too young to view it? Makes no sense.
To answer your question: Decapitation, dismemberment, like… anything gore. They have been censoring that since CERO was established. Look up RE4 chainsaw decapitation or any MK games that made it there.
Yet, the Oneechanbara series (y'know, the game with half-naked samurai females slicing up zombies to bloody pieces) get released in Japan uncensored.
The CERO ratings board is an equilibrium.
This confuses me since I've seen so many gory Japanese movies and anime. For example, Battle Royale.
I don't know if the EA executive is going off the one close up of an arm being cut off in the demo. Maybe it's uncensored because it's the arm of a cyborg or it doesn't happen that often (didn’t see EVE dismemberment when killed in the demo) .
In the states there's a certain amount of swear words allowed to a PG13 movie before it is deemed R. So maybe it's the same in Japan for gore?
Yes I think you may be on to something. The violence is gory but I wouldn't call it gruesome.
Does EA Japan actually make games at all? Or are they just a regional publisher?
I wish they'd done a new SSX game for this gen. I loved that series. :(
I don't know what EA is doing, but they've released some great titles recently.
NHL09 was pretty good this year, even better than 06/07and08.
and it just passed me by like some other random game.
Spore messed up because of DRM.Let that be a lesson to all publishers.
Dead Space and Mirrors Edge were great.Just give those two some time and I'm sure they will sell.
Need for Speed sucked.
However I think EA just snagged a good strategy which is releasing games in January.
Skate 2 will have the same good sales impact that burnout:paradise had in the beginning of last year