EA: DRM is a failed dead-end strategy

#4564702

h0d

2013-03-28 19:41

^ nice words sir 🙂 You should replace the EA CEO right away haha

#4564718

BarryB

2013-03-28 20:09

PFFT!! EA doing Damage Limitation via BS!!

#4564767

(.)(.)

2013-03-28 21:15

This statement from ea read like a delayed, well thought out piece of damage control. What was said in that article is something that should of been said the moment the issue of sim city being online only was mentioned, it should not have taken as long as it has for a statement of clarification to be published. Though blantantly saying the new sim city was practically going to be an MMO wouldnt of done wonders for pre-orders and first week sales though, right. I call bollocks on this one, imo.

#4564779

PhazeDelta1

2013-03-28 21:34

So DRM is a failed dead end? There's a condensending wonka meme in here somewhere. I just cant think of one rigght now. I think it would be best for the entire industry if EA went the way of THQ.

#4564807

lucidus

2013-03-28 21:59

So DRM is a failed dead end? There's a condensending wonka meme in here somewhere. I just cant think of one rigght now. I think it would be best for the entire industry if EA went the way of THQ.

That would be horrible for the industry considering how large it is. A bloodied nose every now and then would keep them grounded :P

#4564814

EJocys

2013-03-28 22:11

It was the creative people on the team that thought it was best to create a multiplayer collaborative experience"

I can imagine this 🙂. In the meeting, before failure: Creative Person: Let’s take advantage of progress in hardware and make new SimCity game better by improving graphics, making city bigger and economy engine more sophisticated. EA CEO: That’s all good, but how can we take full control over customers and sell them more stuff? Creative Person: We can run half of the game on-line, disable community modding and force them to buy all extras from us only. Of course, it’s a bad idea, because game performance will suffer and people won't like it. EA CEO: Yeah, let’s do it anyway, I am sure that our PR department can brainwash our customers into liking it and we will be laughing all the way to the bank. --- After failure: EA CEO: It is creative peoples' fault.

#4564817

HonoredShadow

2013-03-28 22:17

Now that's funny! And true too! 🙂

#4564873

Alexraptor

2013-03-28 23:27

So full of BS. A true MMORPG cannot be played offline no matter what you do to it, its simply just a client that depends on the servers. In SimCity's case the online dependancy is completely artificial, as its been proven that the core game data and processes are carried out locally, not on an online server like an MMO. SimCity also fails immensly because nobody wanted SimCity to try and be an MMO, people were perfectly content with the singleplayer experience and the ability to create custom content such as with SCURK and BAT.

#4564877

lucidus

2013-03-28 23:29

Any stats of how many are playing now v/s people who were attempting to play at around launch time?

#4565028

The Chubu

2013-03-29 03:05

The "We never forced the dev team to make the game always online!" justifies nothing. I've seen a few of their employees talk, and they're literally EA drones. They probably think its the greatest thing ever so EA doesn't actually needs to force anyone to do anything, they'll just do it out of their own bricked minds. They're lost inside their own bubble, devs, management, marketing, everyone.

#4565049

bryonhowley

2013-03-29 03:38

I just don't understand Maxis at all. While I can understand them trying to innovate SimCity by offering a mulitplayer mode, I cannot understand why they thought it was a good idea to abandon the single player mode completely. That is what they've done essentially by adding the always-online DRM using the server for storing games on and forcing people to play the game differently. SimCity has always been a single player game and that's how it should remain IMO. I have nothing against adding multiplayer modes (even though I have no interest in them) so long as there's a single player component there that hasn't suffered because of it. This new SimCity has clearly suffered from some major compromises as a result of being online: one, you can save locally therefore if everything goes tits up then you cannot revert to an earlier save. Two, the cities are now much smaller because of the forced multiplayer element. Three, the online DRM has resulted in a game where people had to queue up to play it even if they weren't interested in the multiplayer elements. Basically, EA and Maxis messed this game up big time and I have no doubts that the game was made to be multiplayer so they could justify the always-online DRM. Blizzard did the same thing with Diablo III, only rather than multiplayer they insisted that the always-online element existed because of the Auction House (something which I never once used by the way in the 150 hours I played the game solo). That was also done to minimize piracy too undoubtedly and seems to have worked for Blizzard after a wonky start. I don't believe for one second that those EA SimCity meetings that Gibeau mentioned did not mention ways to prevent piracy and, thus, whether to use always-online DRM. I expect the massive success of Diablo III was on their mind throughout SimCity final development.

Completely agree with above. Sim City has always been single player. Not every game needs or should be multieplayer only. The could have left single player and added multieplayer to it. If they had done that I would say OK that always on DRM was not there intent but as it is that is the only conclusion I can come to. They ruined yet another game by making it a always on MMO type game that I will never play just like Diablo III. I am not going to buy any game that I may not be able to play a few years down the road because the servers that are needed to play it are no longer online. And that is something that EA and others need to start understanding when they try to take a game that has always been single player and strip every thing out of it that made it a good solid single player game.

#4565418

McNasty

2013-03-29 16:20

@Stukov Bravo my friend! People are so stupid. Is this not the same company that was caught cutting and pasting skins over a previous version of FIFA 12 and selling it as FIFA 13? Now you clowns believe the company when they say that introducing DRM to a HISTORICALLY SINGLE PLAYER GAME wasn't done with intent on totally controlling the end user? You clowns that believe the suits at EA deserve actually what they give you, and that's thier @$$ to kiss as they steal your money. And I see Sim City is still selling like hotcakes, fools.

#4565573

mackintosh

2013-03-29 20:01

@Stukov You clowns that believe the suits at EA deserve actually what they give you, and that's thier @$$ to kiss as they steal your money. And I see Sim City is still selling like hotcakes, fools.

I've always found it both astonishing and bewildering how easily people lap up unsubstantiated PR drivel, especially from companies with the track record of EA. It defies logic, beggars belief and yet, here it is, right in our faces.

#4566723

NoviceRei

2013-03-31 12:40

@Stukov Bravo my friend! People are so stupid. Is this not the same company that was caught cutting and pasting skins over a previous version of FIFA 12 and selling it as FIFA 13? Now you clowns believe the company when they say that introducing DRM to a HISTORICALLY SINGLE PLAYER GAME wasn't done with intent on totally controlling the end user? You clowns that believe the suits at EA deserve actually what they give you, and that's thier @$$ to kiss as they steal your money. And I see Sim City is still selling like hotcakes, fools.

not just FIFA, NBA Live series too! lol. that's why their NBA-games have long been killed by 2k games! lol

#4567074

Maximus7724

2013-04-01 01:00

Im sorry EA but this is utter horse ****(well presented though). I find myself in a minority of PC Gamers that dont have constant internet connection(oil rig) and i would LOVE to play this game, however i refuse to pay for a game that i can only use when i am at home. Its like taking our car insurance that only covers you in a 300 mile radius of your home, fine for most but still a very unfair arbitrary policy, some forward thinking wouldnt go amiss here. I also find it hard to believe that NONE of the dev team took issue with the online, always part of the product, even if you dont want to call it DRM there is still a very definite case of making a clearly single player game forced in to a multiplayer role. Come on - Steam Offline Mode - not hard to emulate is it.

#4567124

sava700

2013-04-01 02:36

EA are never getting another penny of my money.

same here, I said I would never give them another cent after the trash they made that is called BF3 and now BF4 which looks like Crysis raped COD4 and BF4 is the off spring. BF1942 and Vietnam were the best, full of great game play, team work and no stats and ranks that ruined the games with a way to build upon both from a massive mod community. I played BF2 for a very long time but the more and more I read into BF3 the more I felt they went into the wrong direction. Graphics such as what BF4 and 3 have are not what makes a great game... its game play, the rag doll fun effect, the ability to just jump on and play without going thru ignorance we all know of as Origin. Ugg.... I puke everytime I start ranting about it. 😛uke2:

#4567557

loop29

2013-04-01 17:24

Sooooo much bull**** in one interview, this is so funny. Now he starts the interview with pretending that DRM never was their intention and jibbers about how it was a creative decision. And then he goes repeating himself like 3 or 4 times through the whole interview. You know things cannot become more true because you state them like 3 or 4 times, basic error people are making trying to hide the truth from you. Sorry Gibeau, you´re so full of it...