Massive EA Sh*tstorm!
Posted by SpeedfreakCommand and Conquer: Tiberium got cancelled. Gamasutra posted an article about it. In the comments section, developers who worked on the project or at EA in general vented their rage at incompetent management.
Quoted post: oh, I called it! Here it is in a nutshell, the next couple of moves for both EA and ATVI
Tiberium woes:
A Designer who had originally built only 1 mission on Halo was promoted by then manager John Batter, who had a hard on for Hollywoodesque big talent. John poured milliions into James Bond over Medal of Honor. This mean that less experienced personal got bigger salaries than the MOH teams. The designer "Dan Orzlak" experience on 1 mission in Halo was quickly used to calm DANJAQ's butterflies. He was promoted to Design Director. Although very personable, he only understood Halo's systems superficially. Why? Beause he was never a system's designer. Boom, fast forward to the next project.
The Producer pretty boy from marketing (insert his name) and Dan came up with a game called "vertical" that never saw the light of day. Neil young then moved them to Tiberium. While Neil squashed the old guard and created his own kingdom, FEAR fell upon all those working on Tiberuim. In other words no one wanted to make a design decision.
5 years later, Dan and team had changed the weapons 5 times. Hired a myriad of clown hack jr designers, all who wanted to be the "AI designer!" Dan was let go, and in came Tim Coolidge, who left after 2 weeks.
The company tried to hire experienced designers instead they hired a couple of more less than jr designers to save the project, one was let go after 1 week (please post why) I believe they came from now soon defunct Spark Unlimited.
The new lead designer Andre Garcia was left at the helm with 1 month to save the a doomed project full of hacks. BTW Andre was probably the only real working experienced dev on the team.
At the same time, MOH's creative director Jon Paquette who never wanted to be a designer in the first place, left to his long wishes of becoming a wannabe writer. The MOH team for the first time ever, used the same technology to create a prototype. You see every previous MOH game the engineer felt compelled to "refactor" and "redo" the entire engine, those rooks!
So the MOH demo rocked making Tiberuim team look like they've had their amateur thumbs up their nice asses. What are the execs and stock holders to think? James bond gone to ATVI because of a misplaced design director and now millions lost because of a jr team?!
In other news, ATVI is literally violently working on their newest Call of Duty which from what I heard is going to be the most VIOLENT game ever! Not a surprise that HBO wanted the same thing for Band of Brothers Pacific, which was canned.
Will COH PAcific ship at the same time as Speilberg's new BAnd of Brothers Pacific (Which happens to be super violent as well?)
YOU BETCHA!
Will we see cannabilism and toasted people?
YOU BETCHA!
This goes to show you as my predictions said.
-EALA will shut down, the RTS team is great but only sells 1mill units, hardly enough to stay in business for EA
-Tiberuim shuts down, lays off jrs, moves experienced to MOH
-MOH team is moved to Pandemic, keeps same GM as Exec Prod. on new IP.
-EA Casual, which has now hired a horrible ex Brasher SR Prod Trujillo, will also move to Pandemic.
All in all the house that MOH built has fallen to horrible hands of horrible Producers and every worst hiring practices. Hey EA next time check mobygames on the resumes!
This is hilarious, and I do believe most of it is true. A lot of these things specifically I've heard of even in my lowly position. Especially this:
Quoted post: Unfortunately, in EA culture, telling the facts is a NO NO. You must always paint a pretty picture otherwise you are a Naysayer. Talking about the FACTS and the Pink Elephant in the room is a no no as well. IT will Kill your Career.
Posted by BLUNTMASTER Xcompany doesn't want bad publicity, more on this breaking story at 10
seriously, EA are a pretty *****in company that's so big that you can't go 'hurrr tiberium was mismanaged so all of EA is pretty dumb durf hurf'
Posted by Vampiro V. EmpireI was prepared to say something along the lines of it being a ****ty FPS based on C&C, then I saw who the developer was. They actually have a pretty decent record when it comes to games, FPSes included since Airborne was solid. So this is actually kind've a shame.
Posted by Speedfreak[quote=The X;888776]seriously, EA are a pretty *****in company that's so big that you can't go 'hurrr tiberium was mismanaged so all of EA is pretty dumb durf hurf'
No one's saying that, it's being used as further evidence of the larger picture.
Posted by AntAfter reading this story it's all pretty apparent that typical business practices were at play here. And that's the problem with EA that most people don't like and they seem to be almost so gleefully unaware of.
Posted by WillisGreeny[quote=The X;888776]
seriously, EA are a pretty *****in company that's so big that you can't go 'hurrr tiberium was mismanaged so all of EA is pretty dumb durf hurf'
You're right! Big companies shouldn't be held accountable for its own management staff. So, getting leaked info about EA's managment practises not being held by those who qualify in merit, or that the managment is hardly being watched, couldn't possibly be an indication of what might be happening anywhere else in the company.
I don't actually care for EA Golf, so I think it's good EA is geting some bad press. It seems these days everyone wants to suck EA's dick when all they do is buy up companies.
Posted by Big BossI love reading about this stuff. Big companies will always have issues with management interfering with the quality of a product.
Posted by Vampiro V. Empire
Quoted post: I don't actually care for EA Golf, so I think it's good EA is geting some bad press. It seems these days everyone wants to suck EA's dick when all they do is buy up companies.
What? EA has always been getting bad press. Most people ****ing hate them.
Posted by WillisGreenyBy everyone I mean a few fanboys who post a lot.
Posted by Vampiro V. EmpireThat's really no one here. I don't think EA deserves the flack they get when they still fund incredibly good games. They deserve flack for this ****, but you don't hear about to often and that's usually what people aren't complaining about.
Posted by WillisGreenyo rly? hmm, maybe I'm just imagining an EA fanboy army just so I can channel my hate for EA at specific people. The thing is I just have more respect for individual companies EA owns than the conglomerate itself. Extra funding is nice, I'm sure, but I don't like the idea of one company controling so many creative minds.
Posted by Vampiro V. Empire
Quoted post: The thing is I just have more respect for individual companies EA owns than the conglomerate itself.
Obviously.
Posted by WillisGreenyAnd...EA sports sucks, like most sports games.
Posted by Vampiro V. EmpireExcept they actually make pretty good sports game. But okay.
Posted by BLUNTMASTER XWhat was the last EA sports game you played, Willis?
Posted by Speedfreak[quote=Big Boss;889225][FONT=trebuchet ms][COLOR=yellowgreen]I love reading about this stuff. Big companies will always have issues with management interfering with the quality of a product.[/COLOR][/FONT]
Seems EA is disproportionally worse than others, even if they are the largest publisher. Just look at the headcount compared to a company like Nintendo, they certainly don't have management problems of this magnitude.
EA don't make great games for the most part. Anyone who thinks they do seriously needs to distinguish between the greatness of something like COD4 and the "greatness" of Burnout Paradise.
Posted by WillisGreeny[quote=The X;889352]What was the last EA sports game you played, Willis?
I believe it was Madden 06.
Posted by Vampiro V. Empire
Quoted post: EA don't make great games for the most part. Anyone who thinks they do seriously needs to distinguish between the greatness of something like COD4 and the "greatness" of Burnout Paradise.
EA barely even make games. But they have enough developers underneath them that make great games. And thus, great EA games.
Quoted post: I believe it was Madden 06.
So a first-gen HD title? lol
Posted by WillisGreenySports games are awesome? lol
Not my cup of tea, therefore, of the games EA staffers actually make I dislike.
Posted by Prince ShondronaiI've been itching to try out the new Tiger Woods games on the Wii. I don't usually like sports games myself, but golf with Wiimote controls is just fun.