EA - it's a management problem

[Foddzy]

Bashing or constructive criticisim?

I agree that most, if not all, of the glaring problems with EA Sports titles can be traced to management issues. The PA announcer identifying the wrong player on every play is just emblematic of the topsy turvy priorities at EA.

Really though, I think that EA Sports has pretty much isolated itself from any type of criticisim, constructive or not. In the long run, it would probably serve all of us fans better to bring any concerns directly to the NFL / PLAYERS INC. authorities, who actually do have some leverage with EA. Anyone got some contacts?

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by donkeydrop

Agreed, it seems to be common across the game development industry. However, as by far the largest developer you would think that EA would have the most to gain by managing the company efficiently, instead of behaving like a small mom and pop developer.

Why would they have the most to gain? People are going to buy their games on name recognition alone. It seems to me, it's up to their competitors to catch up to them when it comes to these things in order to take market share away from them. Until then, considering their market share (and we're not just talking football games), they have nothing to gain.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by mazhirui

I get tired of people coming in here each time a game is released just so they can bash it over the course of 30-50 posts, then leaving and never posting again. While I'll admit I'm not the most active poster, I've been posting here for 3-4 years now and see the same thing every year.

I think his post had valid points. My issue is, people seem to think this is an EA problem, or only EA has these kinds of issues. I mean seriously, as great as 2k was, the thought it didn't have it's own set of curious bugs is laughable. Or MLB2k6 or NBA 2k6, or any sports game released by SCEA not named MLB..

To me the bottom line is the ridiculously short devleopment cylces. I mean do we really need an NCAA game in early July? The reason it's released now is so it won't eat Madden sales.

[donkeydrop]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

I think his post had valid points. My issue is, people seem to think this is an EA problem, or only EA has these kinds of issues. I mean seriously, as great as 2k was, the thought it didn't have it's own set of curious bugs is laughable. Or MLB2k6 or NBA 2k6, or any sports game released by SCEA not named MLB.. To me the bottom line is the ridiculously short devleopment cylces. I mean do we really need an NCAA game in early July? The reason it's released now is so it won't eat Madden sales.

I agree about the development cycle. Major changes take time no matter how many people you have, and it would be good if other areas didn't have to be sacrificed to meet the timeline. Right now I would say that every sports game that is released annually has the kind of careless mistake that could easily be avoided. With another month I'm sure all of these things would have been fixed; it's not that the programming team are idiots, the problem is they're being rushed.

[rolltide1017]

Quote: Originally Posted by Foddzy

it would probably serve all of us fans better to bring any concerns directly to the NFL / PLAYERS INC. authorities

LOL! I'm sorry but, the NFL could care less as long as they get that check from EA. The only thing that would work would be to hit them were it counts, there bottom line (which will never happen). If people stop buying the games like crazy, maybe they would fix some of the problems but, as long as they sell like hot cakes, they will not see the need in spending the time and money to fix issues that the average joe may not notice. There are many people that complain about EA on this board and others yet; they buy the games year in and year out. So, who's more foolish, the fool or the fool who buys a game every year that they are unhappy with?

[jwhite1347]

Just one quick note -- Monopolistic market share and innovation in the software industry is almost always inversely proportional. In fact almost a universal truth across all industries.

Look at Microsoft - Not many options to their products and now that the competition is almost non existant for EA the market share is not threatened by nimble, innovation driven competitors - so their goal - and really their obligation to their shareholders is to maintain the top line while attacking costs. They can and are doing this -- So shareholders continue to reward management and customers continue to suffer with no alternatives..

Nice....

[TeeDogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

Why would they have the most to gain? People are going to buy their games on name recognition alone. It seems to me, it's up to their competitors to catch up to them when it comes to these things in order to take market share away from them. Until then, considering their market share (and we're not just talking football games), they have nothing to gain.

This post sums it up. EA is in crusie control with no insentive to step up their game. they can put out unpolished, stripped down, incomplete games and they will still sell through the roof, and no im not saying all their games are unpolished and incomplete, but they tend to do it more than other franchise titles in all genre's.