Today on Headline
RePLAY: EA is turning its franchises into “online universes,” the story
producer for the Dead Space franchise
blasts Gears of War’s writing and Microsoft’s
Xbox division loses $229 million.
“Online universes” are
the future of EA brands, a term being applied to all of the publisher’s
franchises including FIFA, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, Star Wars,
The Sims and Need for Speed. EA’s Northern Europe boss Keith Ramsdale said the
concept is more than “simple online play”; it involves the ability to play a “brand”
with a variety of devices that can contribute to a singular goal and profile.
“Imagine a player gets
up in the morning, plays an online match on his 360 before going to work,” Ramsdale
explained. “On the bus, on his way to work, he practices his free kicks on his
tablet. At lunch he looks at the transfer window on his PC. On the way home he
chooses his kit on his smartphone.
“Here’s the thing:
when he gets home to play again on his 360 that evening, all those achievements
and upgrades will be alive in his game.”
This allows the
consumer to play “how he wants, when he wants, and on the device he wants,”
Ramsdale said.
“We’re very focused on
transforming all of our brands into these online universes. That gives the
consumer full control of how and when they play in a rich world of content.”
|Source: Eurogamer
In an interview with
EA’s “The Beat,” Chuck Beaver, the story producer of the Dead Space series, calls Gears
of War “literally the worst writing in games.”
“Story can only ruin a
game for those who care about story, so it’s a conditional answer. For
instance, Gears of War,” said Beaver.
“It contains atrocious, offensive violations of story basics. Yet it doesn’t
seem to ruin it for many, many people. It’s literally the worst writing in
games, but seems to have no ill effects.
In contrast, he points
to Portal as an example of good writing.
“On the other hand, you’ve got the Portal
series, which, to me, succeeds at least as much on its writing as its masterful
platformer level design.”
But Beaver also had
issues with his own work on the Dead
Space series, saying the original was “just simple haunted house story that
we later pasted a personal aspect on top of.” On Dead Space 2, he recalled the challenges of taking elements that
were “poorly thought through” and “getting that into shape,” yet still not “fully”
making it.
As of writing this
post, the interview cited has been taken down, whether it was due to Beaver’s
comments remains unknown.
|Source: EA
Microsoft is far from
being in Sony’s precarious position, but its entertainment and devices division
has recently reported a loss of $229 million in a three month period since
March 31st after Xbox 360 sales fell almost by half.
The division saw a
revenue drop of 16.5 percent, down to $1.6 billion. Only 1.4 million Xbox 360s
were sold this quarter, equating to a 48 percent drop. In contrast: 2.7 million
units were sold last year in the same quarter, which increased the division’s
revenue by 60 percent.
Microsoft attributed
the loss to a “soft gaming console market,” but noted that the Xbox 360 has
been the best-selling console in the U.S. for 15 consecutive months, according
to the NPD last week.
As a whole though,
Microsoft’s revenue did increase by 6 percent, totaling $17.41 billion, while
operating income rose to 12 percent to $6.37 billion.
|Source: Edge
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