EA Flip-Flops on Single-Player Video Gaming
EA labels president redefines the word "clarify"
Frank Gibeau, President of EA Labels at Electronic Arts has decided to reimagine the word 'clarify' and the word 'all" when it comes to how many single-player gaming.
In July we reported Mr Gibeau stating, quite straightforwardly that:
"We are very proud of the way EA evolved with consumers. I have not green lit one game to be developed as a single player experience. Today, all of our games include online applications and digital services that make them live 24/7/365."
This seems straightforward enough a thing to say at a Cloud Gaming conference aimed at bigging up your company to Cloud Gaming people. But no, you idiot! Mr Gibeau has clarified what he actually meant.
Speaking to Kotaku he says, "Let me clarify..."
Let's look at that from all angles. Mr Gibeau is clarifying things, not making things more obscure. Not back-tracking or utterly changing the sense of what he last said. Unless someone comes along in the future and reimagines or reboots the word "clarify" then this next set of statements are definitive. Let's go, let's see what he has to say about greenlighting single-player gaming:
"What I said was anything that (doesn't have) an online service. You can have a very deep single-player game but it has to have an ongoing content plan for keeping customers engaged beyond what's on the initial disc. I'm not saying deathmatch must come to Mirror's Edge." Clear? Nope, nor are we. The brackets are placed there by Kotaku's Evan Narcisse. Let's see if things get any clearer at all.
"What I'm saying is if you're going do it, do it with an open-world game that's a connected experience where you can actually see other players, you can co-operate, you can compete and it can be social. Everything that we do, we see the telemetry coming in telling us that's the best way to build our business and that's the best way to build these experiences and be differentiated from others. Yeah, I'm not suggesting deathmatch must be in Bejeweled. It's just… You need to have a connected social experience where you're part of a large community"
Clear? Nope, sounds like waffle. But there is more:
"I still passionately believe in single-player games and think we should build them. What I was trying to suggest with my comments was that as we move our company from being a packaged goods, fire-and-forget business to a digital business that has a service component to it. That's business-speak for ‘I want to have a business that's alive and evolves and changes over time'"
Fair enough. We all want that. But let's be honest here: single-player "experiences" are not as profitable as social, community... microtransactional experiences. Bringing your family to the all-you-can-eat buffet is always going to make more money for the vendor than you pigging out to your heart's content on your own.
In July we reported Mr Gibeau stating, quite straightforwardly that:
"We are very proud of the way EA evolved with consumers. I have not green lit one game to be developed as a single player experience. Today, all of our games include online applications and digital services that make them live 24/7/365."
This seems straightforward enough a thing to say at a Cloud Gaming conference aimed at bigging up your company to Cloud Gaming people. But no, you idiot! Mr Gibeau has clarified what he actually meant.
Speaking to Kotaku he says, "Let me clarify..."
Let's look at that from all angles. Mr Gibeau is clarifying things, not making things more obscure. Not back-tracking or utterly changing the sense of what he last said. Unless someone comes along in the future and reimagines or reboots the word "clarify" then this next set of statements are definitive. Let's go, let's see what he has to say about greenlighting single-player gaming:
"What I said was anything that (doesn't have) an online service. You can have a very deep single-player game but it has to have an ongoing content plan for keeping customers engaged beyond what's on the initial disc. I'm not saying deathmatch must come to Mirror's Edge." Clear? Nope, nor are we. The brackets are placed there by Kotaku's Evan Narcisse. Let's see if things get any clearer at all.
"What I'm saying is if you're going do it, do it with an open-world game that's a connected experience where you can actually see other players, you can co-operate, you can compete and it can be social. Everything that we do, we see the telemetry coming in telling us that's the best way to build our business and that's the best way to build these experiences and be differentiated from others. Yeah, I'm not suggesting deathmatch must be in Bejeweled. It's just… You need to have a connected social experience where you're part of a large community"
Clear? Nope, sounds like waffle. But there is more:
"I still passionately believe in single-player games and think we should build them. What I was trying to suggest with my comments was that as we move our company from being a packaged goods, fire-and-forget business to a digital business that has a service component to it. That's business-speak for ‘I want to have a business that's alive and evolves and changes over time'"
Fair enough. We all want that. But let's be honest here: single-player "experiences" are not as profitable as social, community... microtransactional experiences. Bringing your family to the all-you-can-eat buffet is always going to make more money for the vendor than you pigging out to your heart's content on your own.
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