These players – and consumers in general – are well within their rights to ask whether Electronic Arts showed the proper amount of commitment not only to these titles, but to the players themselves.
At the same time, we are talking about games that have literally hundreds of thousands of players – players who have sunk quite a lot of time and, in some cases, money into these titles. Popularity doesn’t pay the rent in and of itself. They are a business entity, their goal is to make money, and if a game is very popular yet not earning its keep, well… at the very least you cannot maintain the status quo. Of course, I say all this while understanding why EA could conceivably take the axe to these three games. At this point I half expect Madden 25’s cover to be Joe Montana scowling and flipping a middle finger, flanked by a couple of EA executives mooning the player. But it’s acts like these – and this is just the latest questionable act EA has taken towards its consumers – that give the impression of a company that not only couldn’t care less about the people playing their games, but on a certain level actually loathe them. After all, surely there are companies out there which are more heinous or offensive – I’m sure there’s an existing business whose gross profit margins come largely from sales of lead-painted pacifiers to war orphans or something along those lines. Now, Electronic Arts’ “Worst Company of 2013” win has been controversial to say the least. Then again, since a large part of the point of purchases in these games is to have something to play with and show off to your friends over time, the planned plug-pulling would seem to make any acquisitions rather moot. Just be sure to spend it before the chopping date rolls around. If you’ve purchased in-game currency for these titles recently, well… don’t count on a refund.
When I say ‘popular’, I don’t mean among a few dozen people – we’re talking about games which still log millions of monthly players collectively, and hundreds of thousands of daily players according to the available statistics. Popular but apparently not sufficiently profitable Facebook games The Sims Social, Simcity Social and Pet Society are all getting the axe in June according to online industry mag Develop. Hot on the heels of winning the infamous Worst Company of 2013 title from the Consumerist, Electronic Arts has decided to break into an early lead for the 2014 race.
0 kommentar(er)
