Verno wrote on Mar 19, 2013, 15:58:

netnerd85 wrote on Mar 19, 2013, 09:36:
Are you kidding? Have you seen gamers comments and game reviews? If you don't up the ante, you get no sales and a very bad review.

I would ask you the same question. The companies largely ignore user comments and buy up a good portion of their reviews with advertising dollars anyway. Have you seen what development costs have become? It's not sustainable at its current rate of growth, there is no math to support it other than titles moving unrealistic numbers on each platform. That's why the industry is trying to wring every last penny out of DLC and etc.

netnerd85 wrote on Mar 19, 2013, 09:36:
Are you kidding? Have you seen gamers comments and game reviews? If you don't up the ante, you get no sales and a very bad review.

Verno wrote on Mar 19, 2013, 08:46:
EA really needs to change their overall structure, they can't really continue the way they've been going, continually upping the ante with every release.

Dev wrote on Mar 19, 2013, 04:37:
Also, its unlikely that simcity sold poorly. Its been selling too well (apparently no one bothered to check pre-order numbers before counting servers) that caused much of their problems. On bluesnews alone, you have several people who bought it, despite everything known beforehand. Now think about clueless people who hear the name "simcity" and run out to buy it on that alone.

Dev wrote on Mar 19, 2013, 04:37:
Yeah, I highly doubt simcity had anything to do with this. Simcity only just came out, his leaving has likely been in the works for a while.

Also, its unlikely that simcity sold poorly. Its been selling too well (apparently no one bothered to check pre-order numbers before counting servers) that caused much of their problems. On bluesnews alone, you have several people who bought it, despite everything known beforehand. Now think about clueless people who hear the name "simcity" and run out to buy it on that alone.

Silicon Avatar wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 20:01:
EA actually has a lot of good properties that they are sitting on. I wish they would get an awesome CEO and turn things around.

Redmask wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 20:12:
Why can't a company make money by giving it what its consumers want? Gaming companies thrived doing this for decades before publishers decided to turn themselves into conglomerates. They didn't have to make every game sell like Call of Duty or have a marketing campaign that involved the Superbowl.

Quboid wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 18:51:
Perhaps it's yet to make it's mark; hopefully when SimCity's sales figures are released they will be well below expectations and the share price will then be hit.

Redmask wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 22:39:
He stewarded some worthy projects at EA but he also directed plenty of anti-consumer shenanigans too, I'm not really sure where to land on this.

Total-Khaos wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 19:07:

Beamer wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 17:09:
Ok, he's getting 2 years salary as severance, plus "benefits." All in all not a huge parachute. He was making something like $5-$7 million per year, approximately, but the severance is just salary, so that's about $750,000 per year.

2 years salary, and $1.7MM, isn't enough to make me angry. I mean, it's not like I'm sitting here feeling extremely sorry for him, or thinking employees fighting tooth-and-nail for an extra half a percent raise should, but this isn't one of those deals where a guy is walking away with something ridiculous, especially relative to what he was earning.

His base salary, according to SEC filings dated 02/21/2007, was $750,000 plus a target bonus percentage of 100% of his annual salary. That means his total income per year, if EA met their targets, would be $1.5 million. That doesn't include stock options, etc.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/712515/000119312507039826/d8k.htm

ASeven wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 18:11:
Unfortunately I have no hope that the next guy to take his seat will change the policy of fucking the customers left and right and center.

NKD wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 19:56:
But here's the thing: pleasing you and me isn't going to make them anymore money. In fact, if EA did what I want them to do, I can guarantee they'd make a lot less money.

Tumbler wrote on Mar 18, 2013, 17:38:
Meh, I'd be excited but I have a tough time believing that the culture inside this company is going to change.