PMBD

Here is a 2005 BBC article about EA Games, their business plans, adult players, making mo' money, and where celebrities come in. ( Complete article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/4180453.stm )

Thought it might be of interest.

 
" EA to take on film and TV giants
Video game giant Electronic Arts (EA) says it wants to become the biggest entertainment firm in the world.
The US firm says it wants to compete with companies such as Disney and will only achieve this by making games appeal to mainstream audiences.

EA publishes blockbuster titles such as Fifa and John Madden, as well as video game versions of movies such as Harry Potter and the James Bond films.

Its revenues were $3bn (£1.65bn) in 2004, which EA hoped to double by 2009.

EA is the biggest games publisher in the world and in 2004 had 27 titles which sold in excess of one million copies each.

Nine of the 20 biggest-selling games in the UK last year were published by EA.

Gerhard Florin, EA's managing director for European publishing, said: "Doubling our industry in five years is not rocket science."

He said it would take many years before EA could challenge Disney - which in 2004 reported revenues of $30bn (£16bn) - but it remained a goal for the company.

Mr Florin said that more than 50% of all EA's games were sold to adults and played by adults, but the perception remained that the video game industry was for children.

"You can't ignore an industry when people queue to buy a game at midnight because they are so desperate to play it," he said, referring to demand for titles for such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2.

Jan Bolz, EA's vice president of sales and marketing in Europe, said the firm was working to give video games a more central role in popular culture. He said the company was in advanced stages of discussions over a reality TV show in which viewers could control the actions of the characters as in its popular game The Sims.

"One idea could be that you're controlling a family, telling them when to go to the kitchen and when to go to the bedroom, and with this mechanism you have gamers all over the world 'playing the show'," said Mr Bolz.

Celebrities

He also said EA was planning an international awards show "similar to the Oscars and the Grammys" which would combine video games, music and movies.

Mr Bolz said video games firm had to work more closely with celebrities.
"People will want to play video games if their heroes like Robbie Williams or Christina Aguilera are in them."

Mr Florin said the challenge was to keep people playing in their 30s, 40s and 50s. "There's an indication that a 30 year old comes home from work and still wants to play games.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/4180453.stm
Published: 2005/01/17 10:44:32 GMT
© BBC MMVI"

Interesting.  The main theme is - money, money, mo' money and how can we make money

In the corporate world, it is ALWAYS about the money... always.

See, now I thought there was some rocket science involved, but according to Mr. Florin there isn't, so...

Damn you, EA!  Crushing my reality again!   :cry:

Saints preserve us, they make ungodly sums of money, don't they?

Oh EA has always been like that. If they are assimilating...I mean taking...I mean buying smaller game companies, they're abusing their staff members. It's always about the money for them and if the "little guy" gets stepped on they could care less.

In the other thread about their profits, I read last year's total profits...At least a BILLION dollars from U.S.A. a billion from Europe. A billion from South America...etc. BILLIONS. Yes, that's right.

"heroes like Robin Williams and Christina Aguilera"....

Yeah right, in what world?

And did these pple never get the memo? Even Hollywood can't bank on big stars doing big box office anymore.

I am seriously depressed this week because EA is trying to take over one of my favourite game companies, Ubisoft... I don't know what was worse, that or finding out that Microsoft now owns Firaxis the company that produces Civilisation 4.. Hubby said "what are you going to do if you're left with just EA and Microsoft producing PC games".. And all I could say was, find a different hobby.. It's a seriously depressing thought. Hate EA, wish they weren't producing The Sims.

Oh no,not Ubisoft or Firaxis..........I hope EA doesn't take Firaxis and cannabalize Civilization,it's one of the best games out there and I really am afraid of what EA will do to this fab franchise.

The operative word there is trying. Keep in mind that Ubisoft is a huge company as well, and isn't likely to take a hostile takeover by a rival company lying down (Ubisoft has much more power and money to deal with actions like this than say Maxis, for example). Plus, if it is possible for two corporations to hate each other, then Ubisoft and EA loathe each other, and actually oftentimes seem like they do things specifically to piss the other side off. As an example, in my home town of Vancouver, EA (which is the largest developer and publisher in the city at the moment) managed to block Ubisoft from opening a development studio here (to which all I can say is thanks a lot, EA, you're awesome. /sarcasm).

Office Rules.. It was Microsoft that took over Firaxis as far as I can see, cos emblazoned across the top of my Civilisation 4 Beyond the Sword was the legend "Games for Windows".. which as far as I remember they only do when they own the company.. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

I just hope to god Ubi doesn't get swallowed.. I have several of their games on my shelf and they're always terrific. They're like the anti-EA in my book.

Why else do companies go corporate and create huge conglomorates?  To adopt kittens?

Of course it's the money.

As for companies buying up other developers and what not, it'll never just be Microsoft and EA, there will always be a little up and coming firm that the people who design games will want to work for because they will have more freedom.

If you're really interested in reading up a bit more on games industry corporate shenanigans (including more fun between EA and Ubisoft :lol: ), I recommend the sites Gamesindustry.biz (http://www.gamesindustry.biz) (this page (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=27521) specifically for an article about the recent share "transfer") and Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com) (I think I might have mentioned them before somewhere). A lot of interesting info on both sites on all sorts of games industry stuff (I'm in both places reading all of the time).

2 of my favorite games are put out by the worst money grubbin gaming companies out there. SOE and EA. I've found EA to be the lesser of the 2 evils and I don't mind them so much.

I play on Pogo, order games through Pogo. Pogo is also owned by EA the games are from third party vendors. Most come from Oberon. Or else I order them from BigFish, so I get the discounts on games. I buy a lot of games, so when they sell me games that cost 19.99 for 6.99, or for being a member I get them for 13.99 instead of 19.99 they get my vote. I think the one for 6.99 is a different game each month you can choose to get for being a member for that special price. Then all the other games are 13.99. They have never given me any problems at all, so far.

PS I did want to say this, when my PC completely crashed in December and my power supply melted all over everything. EA/Pogo went to everyone they had records of me ordering games from, and made sure I got all those games back as well as the codes for them. There were more than 50 of those games. So they did a lot of work for me, going through their records, contacting the makers/vendors of the games, etc. Oberon was fantasic about working with me. They stayed right with me a representative of their company to make sure I got them all back. So EA isn't all bad, although I think they're messing up with the Sims games.

You know  they may not be handling the Sims right with the paysites, but when i had a problem with the Sims 2 site downloading my preorder they were prompt, and made sure Amazon.com corrected the link quickly too. And most the people creating the game, seem to take a lot of pride and love for the series. I was watching the new walkthrough the two producers this time were Women to :). And look at the new EP thats coming out, while its a remake of Vacation, I thought they were on a roll with it, and got creative with some aspects of it. I cant wait to see the next EP. They are taking their time with Spore too not rushing it out. SO EA is not all bad.

Is the new video posted on the exchange? Or did you find that on Youtube? I saw the Spore video with Robin Williams I thought that was really cute, although I don't think he should play it often. lol

Hey Hawkgirl

The developer video is actually on the main site as we speak, this is the link.. http://thesims2.ea.com/about/ep6_videos.php

Angha

While we are on the topic of EA, you would think that SOME communication does happen....but maybe not.

MaxoidDrea states one thing on Aug 17 (http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=6134fe0a997bb1d12255fce7195a7cbd&directoryID=2&startRow=1&openItemID=item.2,item.43,item.61,item.104,item.41,item.127,item.23)
and yet go to the BonVoyage movie download page Aug 30you get the familiar EULA (http://thesims2.ea.com/about/ep6_videos_download.php?movieID=1&version=hi)

I dont think the left hand knows what the right hand is doing over at EA

Thank you very much :)

when I try to Play I get a broken QT
when I dld and try to play a "broken movie atom" box appears


is anyone else finding this to be the case

Bah.
I tried to watch it and it told me I needed QuickTime. Bugger that. I've tried to live with QT before and I loathe that it auto installs iTunes with it. I choose my own software thank-you very much Mr Jobs. Stop trying so hard to be Bill. You missed that boat a long time ago.

Actually I don't see that.  It says in the first post you linked to that, "We were unable to get this EULA change in Bon Voyage but we are working to have the edits reflected in future games." So it makes sense that the BV EP has the other EULA.  Unless I am missing something here.  Which is always a possibility.

They may have been unable to change it for BV, but they have been quite able to change it for the Video's. Homecrafter, Bodyshop you can download those all right from the Exchange. Yet the only thing that has changed is the one thing you can't create content with. The content manager. These EULA's have been updated if you compare them to the old ones, that you can find on any of your games including Seasons. Even the one they point too. Point blank says you will not be given copyright over anything you make with their tools, or that goes into their game in layman's terms. The updated ones for all the tools that are used for creating CC, are all updated on the exchange and they all still say non-commercial. The only thing on the Exchange you can get that doesn't say anything about commercial/non commercial is the CC tool. So I am still counting the days for a paysite to make us some downloadable CC with it.