6 May 2013

Electronic Arts: Now Your Source for Star Wars Games

by | posted in: Game News | 0

ea-logo.pngDisney have bestowed upon Electronic Arts the exclusive rights to the Star Wars license. For the next several years, Electronic Arts and its studios including BioWare, DICE and Visceral Games will be making Star Wars games. All three studios are also making these games with the Frostbite 3 engine.

I immediately thought of Star Wars: Battlefront III being helmed by DICE. I can also see Star Wars 1313 or something similar coming from Visceral Games. I see a legitimate KOTOR 3 coming from BioWare as well.

Then my mind began to wander and I started pairing EA studios like Criterion a sequel to Star Wars: Episode I – Racer. How about Maxis creating a Star Wars themed Sims game? A new Star Wars RTS by Victory Games?

Say what you will about Electronic Arts but I can see why Disney chose them; they have the resources to span across multiple genres and platforms. For Disney, this means they don’t have to manage relationships with a list of developers and publishers — it’s just one point of contact for all things Star Wars.

Will this pan out? Not every title will set the world ablaze but that wasn’t the case before this exclusivity deal, so I don’t see this a bad thing at all.

7 Mar 2013

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…

by | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

ea-logo.pngShame on you?

People are justifiably pissed at Electronic Arts and the launch of SimCity. They paid hard earned cash for a game that doesn’t work properly. I would be very annoyed as well if I were in their shoes. I may not demand a refund from EA but I would be irked by the fact that I bought something and it didn’t work right away.

To rid myself of such headaches I simply don’t buy online centric games on day one. Not even week one. I received my copy of Diablo III on launch day (pre-ordered it for $40) and purposely delayed playing it until all the server issues were addressed by Blizzard.

No one should be surprised by this SimCity launch. It is a popular franchise and it needs to be online. Whether or not it should be an online game or not is debatable but the requirements were laid out by EA early on and anyone who was excited enough to pre-order it should have seen the catastrophe that was going to ensue.

Electronic Arts could have handled the launch better. They must have known their own pre-order numbers, so this overwhelming capacity shouldn’t have been a surprise for them. They could have also staggered player enrollment by pre-orders or temporarily scale up their server capacity for a massive launch. The options to mitigate this problem are plenty, it’s just a matter of cost to them.

All this to say both parties could have avoided this mess. Electronic Arts could have handled their launch better and we, as consumers, could have exercised a bit of patience and play it a week later.

Shame on you? No. Shame on me if I fall into the trap of believing in smooth launches of online games.

18 Dec 2011

Checkpoint: Guess How Many iOS Games I Own Edition

by | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

checkpoint-guess-how-many-ios-games-i-own-edition

At the time of writing, I have 35 iOS games and not a single iOS device to play them on.

I’ve been taking advantage of iOS sales throughout the year and I’ve amassed quite the collection. Most of these games or “apps” were free thanks to daily deals or other promotions. I’ve come through with a couple of observations on the iOS app market and its deals over the past year:

  • Never, ever pay full price for an EA title – If you thought EA games go on sale fast for consoles and PCs, you haven’t seen their iOS titles. During any holiday, Apple event or just because it’s a weekend, EA will put on a sale of some kind for their apps. Newer titles may not be included in the nearest round of sales, but if you wait until the next deal? It’ll be on sale.
  • Popcap is stingy with the deals – PopCap games do not go on sale frequently despite them being owned by EA now. Whenever you see a sale for a PopCap title, it’s best to jump on them sooner rather than later. Otherwise, you’ll be waiting for quite some time.

If you’re patient or observant, there’s a lot of iOS gaming to be had without spending a dime.

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