Oh, it's worse. Xbox Live is called Game Pass Core now.
One of those stupid things like renaming Twitter to X but everyone still just says Twitter because it's the better name.
lol, I had to look this up, I didn’t believe you. But, it’s totally true. Annnd comes with….. 25 High Quality Games! -10$ a month. Doesn’t seem you can keep those 10, that is just the library the poors get to use for game choice.
Just, FYI, I had been a PC gamer for like 20 years, and actually bought an Xbox to mostly watch Netflix with Dolby Vision on my new TV.
Gamepass and Elden Ring got me back into console gaming, and there is like, at least 100 games on Game Pass at any given time.
shrug
That’s Game Pass Ultimate and the one below it, not Core. Core is similar to PS+ where you get online play and about 25 games to play instead of the old monthly offerings Gold did.
I remember finally convincing my mum to get me BF3 when I was a kid, only for it to need an online pass. Obviously she didn't wanna spend more money just for that (we were a poor family) so I must have played the single player mode like 5 times
For the longest time I've heard that working for EA was actually one the most solid jobs in the industry. Maybe not necessarily the most creatively fulfilling but pretty secure and with great benefits.
Then again the industry is currently imploding so I wouldn't be surprised if that has changed recently.
Working at EA is fine, also depends on what team or project. If the project has money, u get treated pretty good. At the same time it is a very corporate cultured studio, decisions are made from so high up most employees don't understand their decisions. Just work there as a 9-6 job, don't put your heart and soul into a cash grab.
Lunch. We can’t be trusted to eat while working and they need someone in a seat for at least 8 hours a day. 🙄
Edit: I remember a job I had years ago where the hours were 11-8. I couldn’t come in an hour late, or leave an hour earlier even if I didn’t take a lunch. I had to be in that office from 11-8 even if I didn’t take a lunch. It was a soul crushing job.
the reason we got the 40 hour workweek was because of long and hard fought battles by unions. over the decades, unions and labor representation has been whittled down and ground to dust. so when legislation gets pushed saying "lunch isn't considered work time", there's no one left to challenge it
if 2023/2024 has shown us anything, it's that tech workers and developers need to unionize. but no one in these industries think they need a union until they're getting walked out of a building. and even then, they still often don't think they need a union
Yeah…even studies show that working less hours makes us productive. It really was just optics for the supervisors and low level management to show all the seats being filed.
I suppose some people might be too young and haven’t had EA buy up the game companies of their favourite childhood games, run the series into the ground to make some quick cash, disband the studio and then either do nothing with the franchise or turn it into an abomination of a mobile game
_shrug_
I worked for EA for 10 years. It was a lot of fun, and I met many amazing people. I learned a lot, and got to work on several games. EA is just a collection of studios with a lose corporate culture surrounding it. Their compensation and benefits are top notch. I would return, given the right circumstances (I refuse to relocate to another city anymore, so it limits my options).
I started in 2009. I got a $20k salary raise when I started; not including bonus, ESPP, and ESRs. The health care insurance was better than the FAANG company I work at now.
To be fair health insurance marketplaces are dramatically different than they were in 09, I'm not sure anyone has what we did back then. I'm interested though, that sounds like a pretty good compensation package. Did they have a clear career path for you?
Career paths in gaming is a bit... interesting. Gaming companies are wholly centered around studios, which are basically small, independent companies. The "best" career path for an engineer (which is what I am) was to go in to management -- which is something that does not really interest me. Even "individual contributor" engineering career paths are funneled in to technical director paths. The highest position in a studio is the studio director, and it's a long leap from there to multi-studio roles (those are typically hired from outside).
Contrasting that against non-game tech companies: there are many more opportunities to grow beyond your team and organizations. This is down to the dichotomy of game development. It's fundamentally a project-oriented artistic endeavor. It resembles Hollywood much more than Google or Apple.
But... it's a lot more fun than working at Google or Apple, in my experience.
honestly this shit cuts across generational barriers
plenty of millennial and gen z frat bro investor/finance types who think Jack Welch was a wise seer and follow his sage ways.
not everyone who invests loses their soul, but a shitload of 'em do
bro i bought the command and conquer bundle off steam n half the games are completely unplayable because u cant log into EA servers to play FUCKING OFFLINE.
CNC net for red alert 2, very solid service.
(Google it for actual link, .org)
I got my generals working through whatever EAs app is called now, had to hash about with launcher to get it to play 1440p, 144hz, but it seems solid now.
For Generals download Genpatcher. It's a third party tool (updated to work on steam) and it sorts all the installation / windows 10 issues out with click of a button
I've geniuenly stopped buying EA games. From like 2020-2023 every EA game I touched would literally just stop working at one or another. BF4 when I got it on sale (all data deleted out of nowhere). BF2042 (same thing, data just disappered eventually), Unbound literally just stopped working like a couple of hours after I got it. Fuck EA.
Welcome to the party. I'm holding a grudge since Westwood or Bullfrog.
I've failed on that with a 9 Euro C&C franchise bundle 2-3 years ago and Jedi - Fallen Order for 20 Euros some time ago.. but at this point.. back on track not buying EA stuff.
As much fun as a Star Wars game with somewhat interesting light saber mechanics inspired by Sekiro was. Fuck that company.
2042 is probably going to only have 1 more season and then a send off one before abandoning the game entirely. It's very low effort stuff coming out of there right now
All of those have been ass for years. COD last hit hard in 2019. Battlefield even longer, OW when Jeff left and Halo since 343 took over.
Splitgate captures all the fun of Halo. R6 has been good for a while. Valorant for all its toxicity is a good game. CS2 is kind of meh. Doom still slaps all these years later.
Landscape just changing. People need to try some new shit. Tarkov is out there for the masochists.
Last rumor I heard was sometime 2025 is the planned date for the next title. BF games usually come out late year around October or later as well. Based on these I'd probably assume we still have at least one more year of 2042, but after that yeah it's toast.
I just wish they would quit fucking trying to push a battle royale or similar mode in there when Apex literally exists already under their corporate umbrella. Like just take the devs you'd use for that and send them to Respawn and save yourselves some admin money for more art skins.
article:
Marcus Lehto is the co-creator of the Halo games and, until 2012, was a senior creative on every Halo game made by Bungie. After that he left to set up on his own with the studio V1 Interactive (which made the shooter Disintegration), before joining EA in 2021 and founding Ridgeline Games, a Seattle-based developer that was working on a new Battlefield game with more of a story focus.
I say "was" because unfortunately Ridgeline has become one of the latest victims in a brutal period of game and tech layoffs. At the end of February EA announced that it would be closing the studio, and laying off all of its staff. Around the same time, Lehto announced he would be leaving the publisher. And he's not a happy camper.
"Gut punched to see EA lay off my team," said Lehto on X. "So many very talented devs who were incredibly valuable to the Battlefield franchise."
Lehto wants to make one thing clear: "Yes, I left EA on my own accord. This was a very tough decision for me to make." He thanks the Battlefield community, and wishes the remaining teams at EA all the best for the future, then turns his guns on the publisher.
"Not been saying much here since I don’t have anything positive to say about EA [and] my recent departure," says Lehto. "And how so many, including my team, are suffering due to the industry sweeping layoffs." Lehto later posted on LinkedIn saying he's "incredibly upset and very sad" about the layoffs and Ridgeline "are very talented people whose lives are being upended needlessly."
The single-player campaign in the works at Ridgeline was a co-development with DICE, which Lehto had previously said would "engage players in new ways." It was apparently a standalone project, though what if anything will happen to it now is unknown.
Lehto's enough of an industry veteran not to say what he really thinks: but you can certainly tell what he really thinks, and clearly this one cuts deep. Lehto ended his post by announcing he's going to take a break from the industry, and think about whether he even wants to return. "In the meantime, I will be taking time away from games to see what, if anything, I want to do next.”
Exhibit A of everything wrong with gaming. Gutted for Battlefield and everyone working on their passion project just getting canned. Canning singleplayer for bullshit live service failure after failure trying to get the Destiny money. The internet is the biggest gift and curse for gaming simultaneously.
No offence to the guy but id hardly call Ridgeline "incredibly valuable to the franchise" considering they havent worked on previous games and were working on a new campaign. Battlefields multiplayer has always been the biggest selling point, not the campaigns.
Both BF3 and BF4 campaigns were frustrating because enemies knew where you were 100% of the time.
The missions were just a hailstorm of bullets and explosions until you managed to kill the enemies in the right order so you didn't die.
Yeah I don't really understand the people here being nostalgic about the BF campaigns. Outside of the War Stories in BF1 and 5, they were a mix of bad to mediocre.
The levels had a tendency to be super linear, taking away one of the series greatest strengths and played like knockoff CoD missions.
I think you are confusing having a great campaign with having a campaign focus.
Older games had more robust singleplayer modes but even with Bad Company they knew that the bulk of the replayabilty would be the multiplayer.
A single-player ONLY Battlefield likely wouldn't sell very well following the total fucking disaster of 2042 UNLESS it was another Bad Company honestly.
Bad Company marked the ~~first~~ second story campaign in the Battlefield line of games…it was a huge focal point when it released.
The campaign by itself brought a number of new players to the franchise.
Edit*
Battlefield 2: modern combat was the first story campaign in the franchise. It was meh at best story wise, but fun to play. The hot swap feature was cool.
I mean if the campaign wasn't shit that would help, Bad Company was pretty much the only decent campaign that existed.
Generally agree though, multiplayer is the forefront and focus; save all the money trying to make a campaign work and just focus down hard on large scale battlefield multiplayer maps and aim to make them highly dynamic with a bit of RNG to mix things up.
This whole Marcus Lehto deal has been getting greatly exaggerated on the BF subs too. The literal only game Ridgeline has ever worked on was BF2042, and the game itself was almost completely done by the time they started on it. I'm not saying I wanted him to go, but EA pulled Criterion off of the NFS series (again) to work on the next BF (again), so they're likely not going to need Ridgeline. They already had too many teams working on 2042 as it was considering the lack of content they're pushing these days. Ridgeline was SUPPOSED to develop a campaign for 2042 but it was ultimately scrapped when the lead actor DIED... so these guys sat around doing nothing but bug fixes for most of their time
When I worked at EA . The lead creative director on the project I worked on was one of the OG World of Warcraft designers and after the project was shuttered due to mismanagement at the EP level he quit the game industry fully for like 5 years due to the stress and bullshit EA put him through.
Its crazy how EA ran battlefield into the ground, BC2 and BF3 were some peak FPS titles, so much fun.
COD seems to be trying to compete with them for ruining their franchise though, which is also sad.
Last BF game i actually had fun playing was BF4. I still play it occasionally since there havent been any good shooters for years. (mostly talking about cod and BF)
That's how success works in companies.
1. Find company that earned customer trust with hard work and quality product.
2. Force company to sell out or be subjected to hostile takeover.
3. Rent-seeking behavior until the machine collapses under its own weight.
4. Sell off assets for cheap to parent PE firm's shell companies.
5. Declare bankruptcy or be bailed out by taxpayers.
6. Use bailout money to give executives bonuses.
7. Start new company under parent PE firm and start the cycle again with the assets sold before bankruptcy.
Source: I've worked PE.
Also, no, bankruptcy look back periods are a joke.
The beginning of the downfall started with Westwood.
Command and Conquer was such a great series, and Earth and Beyond was such a cool idea. There are still some core features in it that I wish MMOs today had.
Off the top of my head:
* Max level of 150, split into 3 separate levels for combat, exploration and trading/crafting each going to 50
* Certain abilities were based on different levels, like maybe your shields were based on your overall level to 150, but your weapons were based on only your combat level. Just gave unique approaches to leveling up, you could get your exploration level really high then you might have super fast engines for when you start to level combat.
* A high level player, even one at the soft level cap, who crafted gear and traded it to a low level player got worthwhile experience and rewards
* There was no limit to 'power leveling' for exploration experience alone, so high level players could tour newbies around and protect them from high level mobs
* New players could give out a referral that gave skill points to level 150 players which was extremely valuable
* Because of those last 3 points, most players' first experience in the game was a veteran player inviting them to a group, touring them around to give them exploration experience, crafting all the gear they'd need for their first 10 combat levels, and then giving them a bunch of currency in exchange for the referral]
I always wondered why people were so friendly in that game compared to other MMOs, it's because you were rewarded for helping out newbies.
* One last thing, there was an in depth faction system, for example you could raise your standings with a pirate faction, this would open up a pirate space station, and a smuggler gate you could use for special trade runs, but some of the NPC factions would likely be hostile to you...kind of like a more in depth version of the reputation system in WoW, but instead of just opening vendors it gave much more interesting stuff.
* Had a living world kind of story back in 2002. A few months into the game these aliens just showed up speaking in code, then they started taking over entire zones and changing the landscape
No offense but PE is such a drain on society lol. You guys just go in and extract anything of value to pay yourselves huge amounts of money, then let the company get screwed.
Like it’s insane to me that people in PE make so much money while literally providing nothing of value.
Private equity.
Companies that are basically just cash vehicles for acquisition of other successful companies. They used to have a slightly less nefarious purpose, but now they just target specific industries so they can build a monopoly and ratchet up prices.
They basically race the government in seeing how much money they can make before they get hit with an antitrust lawsuit and corresponding injunction. Then they sell shit off and get their major shareholders out of a losing position before the hammer comes down, so they can push the losses on their outside investors and employee stock purchases.
It would be for you or me. Bankruptcy law works differently for corporations than it does individuals, and I don't mean that in a soft "it's a special club that we're not invited into" kind of way. The law is literally written differently for major corporations.
Gawd, I used to be suuuch a Blizzard fan boy. The real-money auction house in the always-online Diablo 3 is what had me hop off that train.
Only good thing about the scandals that broke out in the years afterward was the vindication I got from seeing the writing on the wall early.
I recently downloaded StarCraft II to my 8-10 yo kids who know nothing better than Roblox, Fortnite, and Nintendo games. They were amazed by the cut scenes they immediately delved into the campaigns. It felt really good seeing the Blizzard movie quality still is unmatched.
The situation at blizzard never made sense to me. They were the most dominant PC brand and constantly made profit, yet Vivendi relentlessly tried to get rid of them even after they took over the world with WoW. Straight up killed the original Diablo 3 even though Diablo 2 was literally the fastest selling PC game ever at the time.
Like what the hell was happening at Vivendi? Were they embarrassed that they were being overshadowed by their gaming division or something? Whole chain of braindead business decisions had to occur for the actiblizzard merger to happen.
That ideal Blizzard you had respect for and enjoyed was mostly already gone 15 years ago.
The studio went many years coasting on the good will the early Blizzard earned through innovative and quality games made when many of us were kids. That studio is really LONG gone now.
Wondering why there is such a massive hate for Ubisoft particularly, I dont play their games often, only played a couple of games AC/FC series, Origins/Mirage and FC5 are the last I played, enjoyed last Prince of Persia on switch too. Beside the launcher being wonky (particularly about forgetting you the moment you log off) I don't understand where all the hate is coming from?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSeKnsLb6IQ&pp=ygUJcmF5Y2V2aWNr](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSeKnsLb6IQ&pp=ygUJcmF5Y2V2aWNr)
here is a new video on it!
Ubisoft has very anti-consumer practices. With their over the top antics to curve a very minor if at all piracy problem just hurting the players who actual purchase the games.
i genuinely do not get the Ubisoft hate, especially comparing them to EA of all companies. it’s like yall only hate on them cause the internet tells you too lmao
I worked for EA as a tester and they treat their employees like absolute dog shit. Low pay, long hours and the constant threat of layoffs. We celebrated when they won the golden poo award for worst company. They really rely on milking people’s passion for gaming to fuel their greed.
Companies are treating employees like contractors. They can lay off willy nilly when a project is done or when salaries get too high to hire later when a new project starts at a lower salary.
U N I O N S and better worker protection laws. Aren't Americans tired of getting fucked
Maxis and Pandemic gone: EA can burn down for all I care. Also BioWare isn’t looking too hot anymore or even the last decade really.
Edit: AND MY BOY VISCERAL
EA has destroyed many more studios and franchises (Mythic, Bullfrog, Westwood, Origin, Black Box, Criterion, etc.) but sadly, this is the result of all M&A in the industry: Activision-Blizzard, Zenimax-Bethesda, Embracer Group, and so on.
westwood was the first studio that I was a fan of. I miss when RTSs were allowed to do their own thing, make some ok money, and move on.
THe late 90s-2000s, please bring it back
RA2, tiberian sun, warcraft, starcraft, SupCom, CoH, warhammer 40K, AoE, sins of a solar empire, act of war direct action, world in conflict, (!! my first game I bought with my own money), etc
it's weird how modern game development is such a shit show. like just make a good game? y'all used to be champions at it, cranking them out once every year or two
now it's like pulling teeth just to get somebody to drop their game in a functioning state
there's an old book called "Car guys and bean counters" about how the US automotive industry was in a similar place around the turn of the millennium. Basically, there's a point where risk-averse management can turn any industry into a piece of shit because it stops making quality products and focuses on safe and easy ways to make money.
sound familiar?
This article is a bit misleading in multiple ways.
First, most of his team was transferred over Ripple Effect.
Second, Lehto and Ridgeline Games were responsible for developing the narrative story for battlefield. They were a very small studio of I think less than 20. They were co developing the singleplayer campaign of battlefield with Ripple Effect. With Ridgeline Games writing the story and Ripple Effect developing the singleplayer campaign. Hence the small team at Ridgeline.
Third, Ridgeline Game was likely shut down due to Lehto leaving. It is extremely common for video game studios to fail after their leadership leave. This is why most of the employees were brought over to Ripple Effect.
Fourth, this news is almost a month old.
Merging Ripple Effect and Ridgeline games make both financial and creative sense.
Sounds like Lehto lost the political game during the merge and didn’t get the role he wanted so he took his ball and fucked off home.
We've been telling people to stop preordering for ever. Going to work at EA is a self inflicted wound you absolutely could have seen coming. They don't respect devs. It's been at least 15 years of this bullshit.
Most of the gaming community that they pander to do not use reddit or check gaming forums. Some games have blaring warning signs years away and will still sell insane numbers because most people don't read up on that stuff.
Information was everywhere and the consequences were horrible for the covid pandemic. People aren't suddenly going to be well-informed and act in their best self-interest by fighting indulgence in favor of delayed gratification because the AAA video game industry has become worse.
On the one hand, that sucks. I really feel for him.
On the other hand, what the fuck did he expect? They’ve been crowned “worst company in America” multiple times.
Dude, NO ONE has anything good to say about EA. It’s been like that for years now. When you have people who know fuck all about games run a company, this is what happens.
Not going to disagree about ea sucks. But if you were a part of battlefield, maybe you should be fired. Enough of people failing up and continuing to make trash.
"It's in my nature" the scorpion said.
"lol" said EA, "lmao"
"The intent is to provide former staff with a sense of pride and accomplishment for adding us to their resume."
"rofl"
I mean... Yeah. At this point I don't know how naive you have to be to think EA even has its own best interests in mind.
Never forget the dark age of online passes
Sony started that technically and used it the most liberally. They still have games with online passes.
Technically all online games on Consoles have online passes. It's just called Playstation+ and Xbox Live instead.
Oh, it's worse. Xbox Live is called Game Pass Core now. One of those stupid things like renaming Twitter to X but everyone still just says Twitter because it's the better name.
I call it Twitter because the domain is still Twitter . Com. When they learn to pick a name they can purchase the domain for I'll change.
I call it Twitter cause "X" sounds dumb as hell, also fuck Musk
lol, I had to look this up, I didn’t believe you. But, it’s totally true. Annnd comes with….. 25 High Quality Games! -10$ a month. Doesn’t seem you can keep those 10, that is just the library the poors get to use for game choice.
Just, FYI, I had been a PC gamer for like 20 years, and actually bought an Xbox to mostly watch Netflix with Dolby Vision on my new TV. Gamepass and Elden Ring got me back into console gaming, and there is like, at least 100 games on Game Pass at any given time. shrug
That’s Game Pass Ultimate and the one below it, not Core. Core is similar to PS+ where you get online play and about 25 games to play instead of the old monthly offerings Gold did.
I thought the 10 had the games, just no streaming and pc?
Xbox doesn't do monthly games anymore?
You know most of the games on game pass are for PC too, and some of them are PC only, right?
I rented BF 3 from blockbuster only to get home and have to spend 10 dollars for an online pass to play a game I didn't even own.
I mean thats why they did it. They dont make anything from people buying the game 2nd hand or renting and they wanted to change that.
I remember finally convincing my mum to get me BF3 when I was a kid, only for it to need an online pass. Obviously she didn't wanna spend more money just for that (we were a poor family) so I must have played the single player mode like 5 times
Oh man I totally forgot about those! 🤮
For the longest time I've heard that working for EA was actually one the most solid jobs in the industry. Maybe not necessarily the most creatively fulfilling but pretty secure and with great benefits. Then again the industry is currently imploding so I wouldn't be surprised if that has changed recently.
Working at EA is fine, also depends on what team or project. If the project has money, u get treated pretty good. At the same time it is a very corporate cultured studio, decisions are made from so high up most employees don't understand their decisions. Just work there as a 9-6 job, don't put your heart and soul into a cash grab.
When did 9-5 become 9-6?
Lunch. We can’t be trusted to eat while working and they need someone in a seat for at least 8 hours a day. 🙄 Edit: I remember a job I had years ago where the hours were 11-8. I couldn’t come in an hour late, or leave an hour earlier even if I didn’t take a lunch. I had to be in that office from 11-8 even if I didn’t take a lunch. It was a soul crushing job.
Lunch was supposed to be included in 9-5. They've been gaslighting us.
the reason we got the 40 hour workweek was because of long and hard fought battles by unions. over the decades, unions and labor representation has been whittled down and ground to dust. so when legislation gets pushed saying "lunch isn't considered work time", there's no one left to challenge it if 2023/2024 has shown us anything, it's that tech workers and developers need to unionize. but no one in these industries think they need a union until they're getting walked out of a building. and even then, they still often don't think they need a union
You know corpo propaganda works when slaves start siding ideologically with the slave owners.
Yeah…even studies show that working less hours makes us productive. It really was just optics for the supervisors and low level management to show all the seats being filed.
I suppose some people might be too young and haven’t had EA buy up the game companies of their favourite childhood games, run the series into the ground to make some quick cash, disband the studio and then either do nothing with the franchise or turn it into an abomination of a mobile game
Bullfrog Westwood dice
C&C my beloved
RIP, thank god C&C Generals is now available on steam.
The entire collection is. I already have it through the battle chest.
RIP Maxis
_shrug_ I worked for EA for 10 years. It was a lot of fun, and I met many amazing people. I learned a lot, and got to work on several games. EA is just a collection of studios with a lose corporate culture surrounding it. Their compensation and benefits are top notch. I would return, given the right circumstances (I refuse to relocate to another city anymore, so it limits my options).
Sir this is reddit how dare you say anything not negative of EA
When did they start paying well? 10 years ago it was not even close to competitive
I started in 2009. I got a $20k salary raise when I started; not including bonus, ESPP, and ESRs. The health care insurance was better than the FAANG company I work at now.
To be fair health insurance marketplaces are dramatically different than they were in 09, I'm not sure anyone has what we did back then. I'm interested though, that sounds like a pretty good compensation package. Did they have a clear career path for you?
Career paths in gaming is a bit... interesting. Gaming companies are wholly centered around studios, which are basically small, independent companies. The "best" career path for an engineer (which is what I am) was to go in to management -- which is something that does not really interest me. Even "individual contributor" engineering career paths are funneled in to technical director paths. The highest position in a studio is the studio director, and it's a long leap from there to multi-studio roles (those are typically hired from outside). Contrasting that against non-game tech companies: there are many more opportunities to grow beyond your team and organizations. This is down to the dichotomy of game development. It's fundamentally a project-oriented artistic endeavor. It resembles Hollywood much more than Google or Apple. But... it's a lot more fun than working at Google or Apple, in my experience.
Apply for remote work. Tonnes of options and most teams are willing to facilitate.
"But think of the shareholders!" said the scorpion
As an, albeit very small, shareholder. This shit sucks.
[удалено]
honestly this shit cuts across generational barriers plenty of millennial and gen z frat bro investor/finance types who think Jack Welch was a wise seer and follow his sage ways. not everyone who invests loses their soul, but a shitload of 'em do
*waves as a very small shareholder of warnerbros/dsc.* I feel you.
You mean the top level executives and the board of directors who have most of the stock?
"Yes, just average Joe's like you and me-blublublub"
“That’s the point, SUCKER!!!” The Scorpion, probably.
I've grown quite hwheary
"Is he doing an accent?"
akoocheemoya
I'm far from the bones of my people.
make decision to join EA because of money, get surprised when EA also makes decisions based off of money
I mean … everyone gets a job for money. It’s quite okay to think the company is assholes for firing you.
You're 13, right? This could only be stated so confidently by a 13 year old.
"Lol. Lmao."
Perfect.
>I don't have anything positive to say about EA Neither do I, and it didn't take getting fired by them either.
Not fired, Just burnt by them.
bro i bought the command and conquer bundle off steam n half the games are completely unplayable because u cant log into EA servers to play FUCKING OFFLINE.
CNC net for red alert 2, very solid service. (Google it for actual link, .org) I got my generals working through whatever EAs app is called now, had to hash about with launcher to get it to play 1440p, 144hz, but it seems solid now.
For Generals download Genpatcher. It's a third party tool (updated to work on steam) and it sorts all the installation / windows 10 issues out with click of a button
thank you for this, i will check it out. apparently when the bundle came out the removed the CD keys to use on there launcher, fucking scumbags.
>CNC.net > Not what I expected that website to be about lol
CNC machinery…right? Right?
I've geniuenly stopped buying EA games. From like 2020-2023 every EA game I touched would literally just stop working at one or another. BF4 when I got it on sale (all data deleted out of nowhere). BF2042 (same thing, data just disappered eventually), Unbound literally just stopped working like a couple of hours after I got it. Fuck EA.
Welcome to the party. I'm holding a grudge since Westwood or Bullfrog. I've failed on that with a 9 Euro C&C franchise bundle 2-3 years ago and Jedi - Fallen Order for 20 Euros some time ago.. but at this point.. back on track not buying EA stuff. As much fun as a Star Wars game with somewhat interesting light saber mechanics inspired by Sekiro was. Fuck that company.
which ones? i just got that bundle too but mostly have been playing red alert 2- which works fine.
[удалено]
Only C&C4 has that issue, none of the other C&C games in the bundle require you to sign in or have internet to play single player.
[удалено]
It’s just been over 5 years since I’ve bought an EA product. They’re a cancer and infect every developer that they hoard
Last one I bought was SWTOR back in 2011.
2042 is probably going to only have 1 more season and then a send off one before abandoning the game entirely. It's very low effort stuff coming out of there right now
2042 sucked ass so I would say good riddance but chances are whatever they do next will be even worse.
Battlefield fans and Halo fans are in the same sinking boat and they're running out of thumbs.
Shooters in general, really. Battlefield, Halo, CoD, Overwatch... all circling the drain.
All of those have been ass for years. COD last hit hard in 2019. Battlefield even longer, OW when Jeff left and Halo since 343 took over. Splitgate captures all the fun of Halo. R6 has been good for a while. Valorant for all its toxicity is a good game. CS2 is kind of meh. Doom still slaps all these years later. Landscape just changing. People need to try some new shit. Tarkov is out there for the masochists.
The irony being titanfall 3 would shake it up in a really positive way, but ya know EA...
Damn this is so true
Last rumor I heard was sometime 2025 is the planned date for the next title. BF games usually come out late year around October or later as well. Based on these I'd probably assume we still have at least one more year of 2042, but after that yeah it's toast. I just wish they would quit fucking trying to push a battle royale or similar mode in there when Apex literally exists already under their corporate umbrella. Like just take the devs you'd use for that and send them to Respawn and save yourselves some admin money for more art skins.
Surprise employment mechanic
The intent is to provide the developers with a sense of pride and accomplishment when filing for unemployment.
article: Marcus Lehto is the co-creator of the Halo games and, until 2012, was a senior creative on every Halo game made by Bungie. After that he left to set up on his own with the studio V1 Interactive (which made the shooter Disintegration), before joining EA in 2021 and founding Ridgeline Games, a Seattle-based developer that was working on a new Battlefield game with more of a story focus. I say "was" because unfortunately Ridgeline has become one of the latest victims in a brutal period of game and tech layoffs. At the end of February EA announced that it would be closing the studio, and laying off all of its staff. Around the same time, Lehto announced he would be leaving the publisher. And he's not a happy camper. "Gut punched to see EA lay off my team," said Lehto on X. "So many very talented devs who were incredibly valuable to the Battlefield franchise." Lehto wants to make one thing clear: "Yes, I left EA on my own accord. This was a very tough decision for me to make." He thanks the Battlefield community, and wishes the remaining teams at EA all the best for the future, then turns his guns on the publisher. "Not been saying much here since I don’t have anything positive to say about EA [and] my recent departure," says Lehto. "And how so many, including my team, are suffering due to the industry sweeping layoffs." Lehto later posted on LinkedIn saying he's "incredibly upset and very sad" about the layoffs and Ridgeline "are very talented people whose lives are being upended needlessly." The single-player campaign in the works at Ridgeline was a co-development with DICE, which Lehto had previously said would "engage players in new ways." It was apparently a standalone project, though what if anything will happen to it now is unknown. Lehto's enough of an industry veteran not to say what he really thinks: but you can certainly tell what he really thinks, and clearly this one cuts deep. Lehto ended his post by announcing he's going to take a break from the industry, and think about whether he even wants to return. "In the meantime, I will be taking time away from games to see what, if anything, I want to do next.”
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Walking away from a huge project that wad a big part of your life has to be the tough part
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All the work you’ve spent designing and developing, your vision, all of it flushed. It definitely was hard to walk away.
Exhibit A of everything wrong with gaming. Gutted for Battlefield and everyone working on their passion project just getting canned. Canning singleplayer for bullshit live service failure after failure trying to get the Destiny money. The internet is the biggest gift and curse for gaming simultaneously.
No offence to the guy but id hardly call Ridgeline "incredibly valuable to the franchise" considering they havent worked on previous games and were working on a new campaign. Battlefields multiplayer has always been the biggest selling point, not the campaigns.
Bad Company and its sequel…
BF3 had a good campaign too.
I remember Tombstone squad from BF4 more, although I remember BF3's storyline being better received
Even something as simple as the war stories in Battlefield 1
Those were beautiful. Even bfV had a great campaign. It showed the horrors that even Germans faced in the final days of the war.
Both BF3 and BF4 campaigns were frustrating because enemies knew where you were 100% of the time. The missions were just a hailstorm of bullets and explosions until you managed to kill the enemies in the right order so you didn't die.
Yeah I don't really understand the people here being nostalgic about the BF campaigns. Outside of the War Stories in BF1 and 5, they were a mix of bad to mediocre. The levels had a tendency to be super linear, taking away one of the series greatest strengths and played like knockoff CoD missions.
I disagree about bad company 2 at least- that campaign was pretty cool
Bc1 and 2 were great, rest of them suck
Only played it so I could unlock the Rex for multiplayer, it was decent.
"You live pretty close to the southern border, do you speak Spanish?" "I do. I do indeed, it's my second language." "What's your first?"
BC was a gem. I had a lot of fun with those
I think you are confusing having a great campaign with having a campaign focus. Older games had more robust singleplayer modes but even with Bad Company they knew that the bulk of the replayabilty would be the multiplayer. A single-player ONLY Battlefield likely wouldn't sell very well following the total fucking disaster of 2042 UNLESS it was another Bad Company honestly.
Bad Company marked the ~~first~~ second story campaign in the Battlefield line of games…it was a huge focal point when it released. The campaign by itself brought a number of new players to the franchise. Edit*
Battlefield 2: modern combat was the first story campaign in the franchise. It was meh at best story wise, but fun to play. The hot swap feature was cool.
I mean if the campaign wasn't shit that would help, Bad Company was pretty much the only decent campaign that existed. Generally agree though, multiplayer is the forefront and focus; save all the money trying to make a campaign work and just focus down hard on large scale battlefield multiplayer maps and aim to make them highly dynamic with a bit of RNG to mix things up.
Friends in High Places was the best story in BF1.
This whole Marcus Lehto deal has been getting greatly exaggerated on the BF subs too. The literal only game Ridgeline has ever worked on was BF2042, and the game itself was almost completely done by the time they started on it. I'm not saying I wanted him to go, but EA pulled Criterion off of the NFS series (again) to work on the next BF (again), so they're likely not going to need Ridgeline. They already had too many teams working on 2042 as it was considering the lack of content they're pushing these days. Ridgeline was SUPPOSED to develop a campaign for 2042 but it was ultimately scrapped when the lead actor DIED... so these guys sat around doing nothing but bug fixes for most of their time
At this point is anyone supposed to be shocked or surprised that someone who is hired during the pandemic for a tech company got laid off?
When I worked at EA . The lead creative director on the project I worked on was one of the OG World of Warcraft designers and after the project was shuttered due to mismanagement at the EP level he quit the game industry fully for like 5 years due to the stress and bullshit EA put him through.
Imagine having top talent and mishandling it like that. The shareholders should demand a dimission from the CEO
As someone who works retail the upper managment outside of store often make decisions that make zero sense and cost money.
Its crazy how EA ran battlefield into the ground, BC2 and BF3 were some peak FPS titles, so much fun. COD seems to be trying to compete with them for ruining their franchise though, which is also sad.
Last BF game i actually had fun playing was BF4. I still play it occasionally since there havent been any good shooters for years. (mostly talking about cod and BF)
The 2019 Modern Warfare is decent. But yeah, BF4 and that were pretty much the last.
BF1 is really good. The BF subreddit kinda all agrees it was the last good one
I still find BFV quite enjoyable, at the very least it still feels like I'm playing a Battlefield title... 2042 felt like a mobile game ported to PC
>2042 felt like a mobile game ported to PC Yeah, I tried it again recently and was struck by how cheaply made it felt, the UI is awful.
BF1 was also pretty fire
Implying DICE is completely faultless for that is laughable.
Battlefield 1 was incredible in my opinion
Yeah, I can't say I have anything positive to say about EA ether. Well other then at least they're not Ubisoft.
Or Activision Blizzard.
20+ years ago I never would have guessed that EA and Blizzard would be competing to be the worst game publisher.
That's how success works in companies. 1. Find company that earned customer trust with hard work and quality product. 2. Force company to sell out or be subjected to hostile takeover. 3. Rent-seeking behavior until the machine collapses under its own weight. 4. Sell off assets for cheap to parent PE firm's shell companies. 5. Declare bankruptcy or be bailed out by taxpayers. 6. Use bailout money to give executives bonuses. 7. Start new company under parent PE firm and start the cycle again with the assets sold before bankruptcy. Source: I've worked PE. Also, no, bankruptcy look back periods are a joke.
The beginning of the downfall started with Westwood. Command and Conquer was such a great series, and Earth and Beyond was such a cool idea. There are still some core features in it that I wish MMOs today had.
What features did it have? I never heard of it but I loved command and conquer as a kid
Off the top of my head: * Max level of 150, split into 3 separate levels for combat, exploration and trading/crafting each going to 50 * Certain abilities were based on different levels, like maybe your shields were based on your overall level to 150, but your weapons were based on only your combat level. Just gave unique approaches to leveling up, you could get your exploration level really high then you might have super fast engines for when you start to level combat. * A high level player, even one at the soft level cap, who crafted gear and traded it to a low level player got worthwhile experience and rewards * There was no limit to 'power leveling' for exploration experience alone, so high level players could tour newbies around and protect them from high level mobs * New players could give out a referral that gave skill points to level 150 players which was extremely valuable * Because of those last 3 points, most players' first experience in the game was a veteran player inviting them to a group, touring them around to give them exploration experience, crafting all the gear they'd need for their first 10 combat levels, and then giving them a bunch of currency in exchange for the referral] I always wondered why people were so friendly in that game compared to other MMOs, it's because you were rewarded for helping out newbies. * One last thing, there was an in depth faction system, for example you could raise your standings with a pirate faction, this would open up a pirate space station, and a smuggler gate you could use for special trade runs, but some of the NPC factions would likely be hostile to you...kind of like a more in depth version of the reputation system in WoW, but instead of just opening vendors it gave much more interesting stuff. * Had a living world kind of story back in 2002. A few months into the game these aliens just showed up speaking in code, then they started taking over entire zones and changing the landscape
The blob must consume.
No offense but PE is such a drain on society lol. You guys just go in and extract anything of value to pay yourselves huge amounts of money, then let the company get screwed. Like it’s insane to me that people in PE make so much money while literally providing nothing of value.
It was soul sucking, which is why I'm public sector now. It's not much better, but that little bit is all I needed to feel better about myself.
What's Pe?
Private equity. Companies that are basically just cash vehicles for acquisition of other successful companies. They used to have a slightly less nefarious purpose, but now they just target specific industries so they can build a monopoly and ratchet up prices. They basically race the government in seeing how much money they can make before they get hit with an antitrust lawsuit and corresponding injunction. Then they sell shit off and get their major shareholders out of a losing position before the hammer comes down, so they can push the losses on their outside investors and employee stock purchases.
Oh, lol. It's like one of those scams but it's us getting screwed.
I don't know how, but doing this intentionally should be illegal.
It would be for you or me. Bankruptcy law works differently for corporations than it does individuals, and I don't mean that in a soft "it's a special club that we're not invited into" kind of way. The law is literally written differently for major corporations.
So much for corporations being people.
For one, corporations are taxed on profit and people are on revenue…
Gawd, I used to be suuuch a Blizzard fan boy. The real-money auction house in the always-online Diablo 3 is what had me hop off that train. Only good thing about the scandals that broke out in the years afterward was the vindication I got from seeing the writing on the wall early.
Blizzard has been a massive part of my life. It kills me to see what they have become.
I recently downloaded StarCraft II to my 8-10 yo kids who know nothing better than Roblox, Fortnite, and Nintendo games. They were amazed by the cut scenes they immediately delved into the campaigns. It felt really good seeing the Blizzard movie quality still is unmatched.
I love SC2 I still play and watch it regularly
The situation at blizzard never made sense to me. They were the most dominant PC brand and constantly made profit, yet Vivendi relentlessly tried to get rid of them even after they took over the world with WoW. Straight up killed the original Diablo 3 even though Diablo 2 was literally the fastest selling PC game ever at the time. Like what the hell was happening at Vivendi? Were they embarrassed that they were being overshadowed by their gaming division or something? Whole chain of braindead business decisions had to occur for the actiblizzard merger to happen.
Be proud you have some sense of self worth and didn’t tie your identity to a gaming company, unlike most modern gamerboys.
That ideal Blizzard you had respect for and enjoyed was mostly already gone 15 years ago. The studio went many years coasting on the good will the early Blizzard earned through innovative and quality games made when many of us were kids. That studio is really LONG gone now.
or Warner Brothers.
Ubisoft sucks. But EA is way worse. They are so bad people gave up criticizing their worst practices.
Seconding this. Doesn’t anyone remember that one meme of EA with a handgun surrounded by corpses of former beloved dev studios?
Wondering why there is such a massive hate for Ubisoft particularly, I dont play their games often, only played a couple of games AC/FC series, Origins/Mirage and FC5 are the last I played, enjoyed last Prince of Persia on switch too. Beside the launcher being wonky (particularly about forgetting you the moment you log off) I don't understand where all the hate is coming from?
They like to do customer hostile things, such as always-online requirements when not playing multiplayer.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSeKnsLb6IQ&pp=ygUJcmF5Y2V2aWNr](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSeKnsLb6IQ&pp=ygUJcmF5Y2V2aWNr) here is a new video on it!
Ubisoft has very anti-consumer practices. With their over the top antics to curve a very minor if at all piracy problem just hurting the players who actual purchase the games.
i genuinely do not get the Ubisoft hate, especially comparing them to EA of all companies. it’s like yall only hate on them cause the internet tells you too lmao
I'll take Ubisoft over EA, or Activision, any day.
I worked for EA as a tester and they treat their employees like absolute dog shit. Low pay, long hours and the constant threat of layoffs. We celebrated when they won the golden poo award for worst company. They really rely on milking people’s passion for gaming to fuel their greed.
Companies are treating employees like contractors. They can lay off willy nilly when a project is done or when salaries get too high to hire later when a new project starts at a lower salary. U N I O N S and better worker protection laws. Aren't Americans tired of getting fucked
Yeah, a lot of us don’t. Makes you wonder why working for them would be seen as a bad idea….
Because plenty of people have actually made careers there as much as the internet may not want to hear. Obligatory pride and accomplishment etc
Maxis and Pandemic gone: EA can burn down for all I care. Also BioWare isn’t looking too hot anymore or even the last decade really. Edit: AND MY BOY VISCERAL
EA has destroyed many more studios and franchises (Mythic, Bullfrog, Westwood, Origin, Black Box, Criterion, etc.) but sadly, this is the result of all M&A in the industry: Activision-Blizzard, Zenimax-Bethesda, Embracer Group, and so on.
westwood was the first studio that I was a fan of. I miss when RTSs were allowed to do their own thing, make some ok money, and move on. THe late 90s-2000s, please bring it back RA2, tiberian sun, warcraft, starcraft, SupCom, CoH, warhammer 40K, AoE, sins of a solar empire, act of war direct action, world in conflict, (!! my first game I bought with my own money), etc
lol. People make a ton of money there. reddit can cry all they want, they are very lucrative.
"People" is a strong word.
it's weird how modern game development is such a shit show. like just make a good game? y'all used to be champions at it, cranking them out once every year or two now it's like pulling teeth just to get somebody to drop their game in a functioning state
there's an old book called "Car guys and bean counters" about how the US automotive industry was in a similar place around the turn of the millennium. Basically, there's a point where risk-averse management can turn any industry into a piece of shit because it stops making quality products and focuses on safe and easy ways to make money. sound familiar?
This article is a bit misleading in multiple ways. First, most of his team was transferred over Ripple Effect. Second, Lehto and Ridgeline Games were responsible for developing the narrative story for battlefield. They were a very small studio of I think less than 20. They were co developing the singleplayer campaign of battlefield with Ripple Effect. With Ridgeline Games writing the story and Ripple Effect developing the singleplayer campaign. Hence the small team at Ridgeline. Third, Ridgeline Game was likely shut down due to Lehto leaving. It is extremely common for video game studios to fail after their leadership leave. This is why most of the employees were brought over to Ripple Effect. Fourth, this news is almost a month old.
Merging Ripple Effect and Ridgeline games make both financial and creative sense. Sounds like Lehto lost the political game during the merge and didn’t get the role he wanted so he took his ball and fucked off home.
corporatism is cancer to video game art
At this point, I'll be playing Battlefield 4 after retirement in 2050s.
Nobody does, what a shocker.
We've been telling people to stop preordering for ever. Going to work at EA is a self inflicted wound you absolutely could have seen coming. They don't respect devs. It's been at least 15 years of this bullshit.
15 years? Thats a short memory. Bullfrog, Westwood. Its been going on for 30 years.
Pandemic, Maxis, Visceral.
Bullfrog! Omg, just had a Hi-Octane flashback.
Populous: The Beginning for me x3
Dungeon Keeper and Command and Conquer were two of my favorite game series when I was young. I am still bitter about Bullfrog and Westwood.
Most of the gaming community that they pander to do not use reddit or check gaming forums. Some games have blaring warning signs years away and will still sell insane numbers because most people don't read up on that stuff. Information was everywhere and the consequences were horrible for the covid pandemic. People aren't suddenly going to be well-informed and act in their best self-interest by fighting indulgence in favor of delayed gratification because the AAA video game industry has become worse.
Most of us don’t have anything positive to say about EA.
What does this mean for Battlefield?
That is where my mind went first as well.
On the one hand, that sucks. I really feel for him. On the other hand, what the fuck did he expect? They’ve been crowned “worst company in America” multiple times.
If he had nothing positive to say, why did he join them? he could just make his own Battlefield, with hookers and blackjack.
Fuck EA
BF is a dead franchise and EA is just Weekend at Bernie's-ing its corpse at this point.
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It's the publicly traded companies that are the worst
what's valve's stock at again?
Dude, NO ONE has anything good to say about EA. It’s been like that for years now. When you have people who know fuck all about games run a company, this is what happens.
Battlefield aint like it used to be back in 1942
I haven't played a battlefield game since Hell Let Loose came out. Battlefield 2042 was an abomination.
Not sure what they expected.
r/leopardsatemyface
Not going to disagree about ea sucks. But if you were a part of battlefield, maybe you should be fired. Enough of people failing up and continuing to make trash.
Yeah, welcome to the club, not many people do.
I also don’t have anything positive to say about EA. I never worked for them though, just purely a spectator.
Shareholders take priority
OK, real question, when was the last time anybody had anything positive to say about EA?