Prez wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 21:22:

dimsum98 wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 05:31:

WitcherOntheProwl wrote on Apr 29, 2025, 19:01:
Well, I think, Respawn, Needs to, jump ship and find another home. EA is destroying another useful and amazing IP.

I don't think it's possible to blame EA solely anymore. Payroll has to be at an all-time high, and I don't think you can keep employees around between games or with questionable projects. It's probably time for developers to go alone and hire programmers as needed. The days of AAA devs like ID keeping the team around are no longer possible.

They're being forced to lay in the bed they made. This is how they intended their business to work. I say blame them. Truthfully, EA has taken more risks in the past several years than I had ever expected them to; obviously they were going to rein that shit in eventually.

The day I don't hold companies accountable for their own poor planning and decisions is the day I die. Companies are not some poor kid getting jerked around by drug-addled divorced parents. They make decisions to make money because they are in business for that express purpose. If they planned better, they wouldn't be a revolving door for employees. They don't plan better because they get away with repeatedly hiring and firing, and thus do not have to give performance or cost-of-living raises. (among other benefits of constantly turning over your staff) The concept that they are just a victim of the times is ridiculous. If that's true, then those executive salaries are even more inflated and worthless than I already believed....because if they can't be held accountable for poor decisions...hell...anybody can fail at that stuff. I would/could do it for far less than millions of dollars.

This comment was edited on May 1, 2025, 18:57.

dimsum98 wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 05:31:

WitcherOntheProwl wrote on Apr 29, 2025, 19:01:
Well, I think, Respawn, Needs to, jump ship and find another home. EA is destroying another useful and amazing IP.

I don't think it's possible to blame EA solely anymore. Payroll has to be at an all-time high, and I don't think you can keep employees around between games or with questionable projects. It's probably time for developers to go alone and hire programmers as needed. The days of AAA devs like ID keeping the team around are no longer possible.

They're being forced to lay in the bed they made. This is how they intended their business to work. I say blame them. Truthfully, EA has taken more risks in the past several years than I had ever expected them to; obviously they were going to rein that shit in eventually.

Beamer wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 12:23:
Sirs, have you heard the good word of Star Citizen?

Damn you, Beamer, now I gotta clean my keyboard and monitor as I was drinking something when I read that! Funny as Hell, though. Well done!

Beamer wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 12:23:

Jivaro wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 12:20:

Burrito of Peace wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 09:21:
You know what I would like to see? A Privateer game with a massive, open world. Multiple ships, upgrades, missions, factions, etc without mining and scavenging grind.

Yes. Yes to all of it.

Sirs, have you heard the good word of Star Citizen?

now that's funny..lol

I did, and I kicked in for the Bounty Hunter ship when it was kickstarting. At this rate, I am pretty sure a trilogy of open-world Privateer games could be finished and played before I see the results of that.

Jivaro wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 12:20:

Burrito of Peace wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 09:21:
You know what I would like to see? A Privateer game with a massive, open world. Multiple ships, upgrades, missions, factions, etc without mining and scavenging grind.

Yes. Yes to all of it.

Sirs, have you heard the good word of Star Citizen?

Burrito of Peace wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 09:21:
You know what I would like to see? A Privateer game with a massive, open world. Multiple ships, upgrades, missions, factions, etc without mining and scavenging grind.

Yes. Yes to all of it.

This is just another reinforcement that the larger gaming companies are too scared to take big risks. Honestly at this point I don't really blame them anymore. Look at Sony going all in on their live service games which were once thought to be limitless gold mines. Of course the obvious fact that the games need to be at least decent continues to elude the bean counting mega corp, "gaming" companies. Thankfully the indie dev community has picked up the banner and continues to move forward with it.

LordSteev wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 09:35:
As we sharpen our focus for the future, we grind our creative pencil to a nub.

Exactly this!

As we sharpen our focus for the future, we grind our creative pencil to a nub.

I enjoyed Titanfall 2's campaign, but man was it ridiculously short. MP doesn't hold any interest for me. So a TF3 isn't something I am going to lose sleep over.

You know what I would like to see? A Privateer game with a massive, open world. Multiple ships, upgrades, missions, factions, etc without mining and scavenging grind.

Zerg wrote on Apr 30, 2025, 02:12:
I'm one of those dozen people who own and passionately played both games' multiplayer (and I come back like every two months or so). And if you can find one on a small forum like this, you can bet it was way more than a dozen.

Titanfall 1 was somewhat niche, but Titanfall 2 was pretty popular owing to its awesome single-player campaign.

I played both as well, obviously 'a dozen' was hyperbole. But the games simply didn't do well enough to warrant another sequel. EA got lucky as hell with their spinoff pubg thing, but the main Titanfall games, only sold a lot when they were bargain bin games for $5. Titanfall 2's multiplayer, while fun, had a gigantic learning curve that scared off the major audience the game would have needed to be 'successful ' and studios still don't want to focus on single player.

Maybe the developers will do some cool shit on their own once EA fully kills off more studios.

What goes up, must come down. EA have scaled up significantly in recent years (from under 10K in 2020 to 13.7K in 2024). Now there is a phase of consolidation. Literally business as usual.

WitcherOntheProwl wrote on Apr 29, 2025, 19:01:
Well, I think, Respawn, Needs to, jump ship and find another home. EA is destroying another useful and amazing IP.

I don't think it's possible to blame EA solely anymore. Payroll has to be at an all-time high, and I don't think you can keep employees around between games or with questionable projects. It's probably time for developers to go alone and hire programmers as needed. The days of AAA devs like ID keeping the team around are no longer possible.

I feel sorry for the staff laid off, but EA just aren't making titles people want. Remaking the same FIFA / NFL / SIMS game every damn year is no longer enough to keep the books in the black.

Killing off the development of new titles (or relatively new IPs) is not going to help long-term. Just offer short-term savings.

I'm one of those dozen people who own and passionately played both games' multiplayer (and I come back like every two months or so). And if you can find one on a small forum like this, you can bet it was way more than a dozen.

Titanfall 1 was somewhat niche, but Titanfall 2 was pretty popular owing to its awesome single-player campaign.

It sucks, but it wasn't going to be Titanfall 3, it was going to be some extraction shooter in the Titanfall universe. Not the biggest loss, in my opinion.

Besides, like a dozen people played Titanfall 1 and 2, it's a little late.

Being replaced with AI.

I mean, I get the bottom line....a Star Wars project is definitely worth more money than a Titanfall project to EA. Titanfall is one of those franchises that gets great critical reviews but the sales are unremarkable. I suspect that there will be a third Titanfall game eventually, though. It's a great concept with a built-in core group of players. The FPS market is pretty full right now, so provided they do come back to it, I understand why the shift to Star Wars in this moment.

I am sorry for the people losing their jobs, though. This industry is not somewhere I would want to work. Specifically for a development studio owned by a publicly traded publisher. Unless it was my first job in the industry, where I am trying to get my resume to have something on it besides my education, there is ZERO chance I would work in a publicly traded software company, let alone a gaming company. They will move you across the country for a project and then fire you a year after the project comes out...even when it's profitable. Moved the wife and kids to come out to Austin? Fuck you, the stockholders don't care. Sold your home in Marin? Fuck you, you are fired. Even if unions become more common, this industry is just straight up toxic for any career.

Aw fuck, man...I'm partway through TF2 re-play-through, and this HURTS to see.

Sooooo DDOS attacks inbound from Titanfall fanatics?