EA gets the wrong idea why Anthem failed, and meanwhile Capcom is rolling in the cash - by Bucky Seifert
Bucky Seifert on 19/5/2019 at 06:39
This scenario to me really shows how tone deaf the upper management at EA is. They put out Anthem, a live service game that felt extremely barebones and lacking, and assume the game underperformed because they need to change the way they release games, namely by doing the mobile market method of soft launches. What that means essentially is you quietly launch a game to get a few players to try it out, then when things start to get squared away you do the big marketing push.
Meanwhile, you have Capcom who has put out titles such as Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil 2 Remake and Devil May Cry 5 and have had their most profitable financial year ever, and are moving forward to make more games with their RE engine.
Bashing on EA feels so tired now, that drum has been banged for decades now, but it's really amazing how EA doesn't realize if you make quality products that are not egregious and market them right, it will make you a lot of money.
SubJeff on 19/5/2019 at 11:49
Anthem had massive marketing though.
Trance on 19/5/2019 at 12:05
I doubt it's that the upper management actually can't see the problem. I think it's rather that they dare not admit in front of their shareholders that their preferred style of short-term financial gain affecting fundamental game design is starting to not work anymore. All that would accomplish is either a mass exodus of investors and a huge hit to stock prices, or an immediate change to the upper management roster to get someone else in who doesn't say such upsetting things to the poor shareholders.
Keep up the good fight against EA. They're bad enough to be worth the energy.
icemann on 19/5/2019 at 13:07
Anthem failing for once had nothing to do with EA. This one was all Bioware's fault. I'd recommend having a long read of that Kotaku article that came out a month or so ago about it. Goes VERY in depth on all the fuck ups on Bioware's end.
Starker on 19/5/2019 at 14:31
I did read the article and there was plenty of blame left for EA, such as the making the studio use the Frostbite engine to save costs and shifting developers to work on FIFA. And it's tone at the top, more often than not.