EA wants to release more games with “monetisable” open worlds, ex-BioWare staffer Manveer Heir has hinted in a 90-minute interview with Waypoint published over the weekend. The comments come in the wake of Visceral Games’ closure, where a statement from bigwig Patrick Soderlund seemed to suggest that the Dead Space developer’s single player Star Wars title was scrapped in favour of something “that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come”.
“It's definitely a thing inside of EA,” Heir said. “They are generally pushing for more open world games. And the reason is you can monetise them better. It's the same reason we added card packs to Mass Effect 3: how do you get people to keep coming back to a thing instead of 'just' playing for 60 to 100 hours?”
Heir spent many years at BioWare Montreal, working on Mass Effect 3 prior to Mass Effect Andromeda. “The problem is that we've scaled up our budgets to $100 million-plus and we haven't actually made a space for good linear single player games that are under that,” he continued. “But why can't we have both? Why does it have to be one or the other? And the reason is that EA and those big publishers in general only care about the highest return on investment. They don't actually care about what the players want, they care about what the players will pay for.”
So people are actually buying these microtransactions, then? “I'm not allowed to say the number but I can tell you that when Mass Effect 3 multiplayer came out, those card packs we were selling, the amount of money we made just off those card packs was so significant that's the reason Dragon Age has multiplayer,” Heir explained. “I've seen people literally spend $15,000 on Mass Effect multiplayer cards.”
EA, of course, will also be aware of the power of microtransactions because of its sports games; FIFA and Madden lean heavily on their Ultimate Team modes these days, and clearly make the company a significant amount of money as players fawn over the rarest, most valuable players. It’s all very interesting stuff from an industry perspective, but it’s terrifying news for fans of old-school, single player campaign.
[source eurogamer.net, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 74
oh well, looks like i'm not buying a EA game again then, unless it's a cheap second hand one
I only bought 3 EA games this gen - Mirrors Edge 2, Battlefield 4 and Dragon Age. They were all pretty junk (in the order I listed them, best to worst) and I have sold em all on or deleted them.
So yeah, EA just suck and aside from the odd gem here and there they always have done. No surprise.
I actually really like FIFA and Madden (although both get their fair share of criticism) but I agree they haven't been great outside of the sports stuff this generation.
Really struggling to think of one EA game that I really, really liked outside of sports stuff.
When single player is done, so am I...
I have vast game collection, I'm good.
@get2sammyb I understand why some people like the annualised sports EA games. I used to love playing FIFA and NHL on my Megadrive and PS1 too so I know how fun they can be. Same with Battlefield, if that's your jam fair play to you. But these games are not something that really interests me these days with there being so much else to play, and outside of that and Unravel EA's recent portfolio has been very depressing.
To hell with all of this.
No surprise, but statements like this: ''They are generally pushing for more open world games. And the reason is you can monetise them better.''
..and this: They don't actually care about what the players want, they care about what the players will pay for.”
..are always saddening to read nonetheless. Experimentation is out of the question, and the only games that get made are those that make the most money. They don't care whether their products are good, or if people like them or not, as long as they're profitable.
No EA games for me then. I'm sure other companies will be happy to part me with my money by providing the single player experiences I want. Shame, but such is life.
Pretty upsetting to read this and I have no desire to be apart of it. Hopefully gamers will stand together and refuse this type of practice.
Disney shouldn't give ea full exclusivity on star wars games, they'll only make multiplayer and online focused games.
Well at least we still got sony, they still make big budget single player story games. I don't think other publisher will make games like uncharted 4, horizon (an open world game without micro-transaction), or god of war.
Cut the price of games from $60 to the level of mobile games--free.
People who have $15000 dollars to spend will only do that on a game that has a massive user base surely. If there are too many "service" games the market will be saturated and only some will make money and they'll move on to the next money making scam.
I think the last EA game I played was Star Wars Battlefront, which I wasn't exactly enamoured with.
I can understand why they'd want to shift their focus to this, as it makes them a lot of money, but it comes across as almost sinister. I get that a lot of people buy card packs and all that nonsense, but there must be an equally large group of players who don't want to be nickel and dimed like that.
The next few years are going to be extremely interesting, I think.
This is hideous. People can spend their money on what they like, but surely it takes a rather addictive personality to spend $15,000 on Mass Effect 3 multiplayer cards. Is it right for EA to purposely design their games to exploit these people?
@wiiware Xenoblade Chronicles X is open world with zero microtransactions or content locked behind dlc.
@kyleforrester87 completely agree, this is hardly bad news for single player gamers because EA haven't made any great single player games for some time.
Looking through my collection I don't own any EA games and none of their portfolio even remotely interests me. Not to mention theirs and Ubisofts open world games tend to be rather generic when compared to the likes of Horizon and Zelda. So I for one am more than happy for them to peddle microtransaction on the masses and leave the single player games to proper games developers 😉
@Reanfan7 Already jettisoned my wii u to outerspace
The last EA game I bought was medal of honor warfighter. I'm still bitter that they killed that franchise.
Oi .... no matter that we all gripe about microtransactions if there are those who are willing to funnel large funds in after them. I guess you can’t blame a company for going after a market and making money, it is a business after all, but it just means I’ll gravitate to other publishers who actually have some respect for the value of gaming art and culture. Making money is fine, but selling your soul is not.
The gaming industry is going down the crapper due to quick cash greed. I’m getting concerned about the future of single player campaigns and the increased paywalls behind multiplayer’s. People need to stop paying for this junk or it’s never going to stop.
"people literally spend $15,000 on Mass Effect multiplayer cards"
Sorry lads, that was me.
Argh so so short sighted. Yes, good open world games are monetizable BUT players who are playing one game for a long period of time will not purchase more games. So that means that with an industry flood of games that are designed to grind and keep you engaged for hours, people will only invest in a few each year. It means short term gain, long term ruin.
Admittedly I have only bought two EA games this gen, Unravel and battlefront (and that was on sale).
@mookysam No it isn't. And hopefully these practices will be banned outright in the coming years. Lootboxes are gambling plain and simple.
i think i've bought 5 EA games this gen - Fifa 14 and battlefield 4 at launch of PS4, battlefront, TF2 and mass effect andromeda (which i hardly played). battlefield 4 was fairly decent eventually, but you needed the dlc packs and 6 months of patches to fix the mess in which it launched. BF1 might as well have been called sniperfield. I bought way more EA games on PS3, and the only franchise they have left that I'm really interested in is bad company, but maybe it's for the best dice focus on the main battlefield series because they'd probably destroy its legacy at this point.
i'd bet they find some way to sabotage the potential of anthem..
Big publishers have just created an unsustainable practice for themselves with these $100 million budget games, which is a shame. I am intrigued by the world they created for Anthem, and I was excited for Visceral's Star Wars game, but I am just not interested in the loot box mechanics.
I have purchased a few of EA's games this gen, Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect Andromeda being the biggest. A few sports games as well. But I likely won't be interested if they keep the loot box approach. I am concerned about Dragon Age 4.
@ShogunRok haha, You had to put half of pushsquare towers as a mortgage to pay for your hobby.
In similar news Ive boycotted EA already. Im hoping for a big commitment from some peripheral game makers stating they are going micro free with their games, creating amazing good will.
And then theirs me, absolutely loving the dragons dogma remaster for 20 quid, let the kids have their new style no content games I'm good
@get2sammyb I really enjoyed TitanFall 2 that story mode was awesome.
@Rudy_Manchego Exactly. It's a bit of a paradox, isn't it? I think that market will become saturated very quickly. Big open world games, or MMO's aren't a recipe for success either.
"I'm never buying an EA game ever again!"
Anthem gets good reviews.
"Pre-ordered"
@oatmealwarrior92 Yeah, that's a good shout. I enjoyed while I was playing it but I don't really remember much about it now.
Funny, until they mentioned it I completely forgot they shoehorned MP into Dragon Age. Oh well when one player concedes market space another will come to fill it.
@themcnoisy hate to pick random figures out the air but at a guess it feels like 90% of games are already microtransaction free
@ApostateMage Hey if Anthem is good and you don't need to spend money on microtransactions (like you don't in Destiny) I'd get it for sure.
@Octane Exactly, I mean look at the boredom with Assassin's Creed or other generic Ubisoft style games. Plus, as you say, how many MMO's have come and gone?
I mean, I game say an average of an hour or two a day if I can manage it so a large open world game takes me at least a month if not two to complete. I get burnt out on them.
Good for them, guess I'm not buying anymore games from EA. Oh but then again I very rarely touch their trash with a 10 foot pole.
Just make good games, I'll likely pick up dlc content if i love a game. Otherwise, bye bye, next.
@kyleforrester87 Word up son.
@Rudy_Manchego For Honor, Steep, The Division, Battleborn, just from recent memory. Sales for Destiny 2 were a bit disappointing too, weren't they? These companies are chasing trends, but trends change and they often miss the boat.
@ApostateMage Word!
@wiiware I went digital with my Wii U and transfered all of my WiiWare and Wii VC games to it so it would be dumb for me to get rid of it or even sell it.
@Toe-knee all of my spare time was spent playing MOHAA when it was popular. I loved medal of honor back then, well thought out and well designed maps, good balance of weapons... Yup I'm mad they killed that franchise too.
How shocking.
@Quintumply "I get that a lot of people buy card packs and all that nonsense, but there must be an equally large group of players who don't want to be nickel and dimed like that."
Yeah but that equally large group isn't making them as much money.
@get2sammyb This is making me sad.
@kyleforrester87 I meant one of the biggies, just imagine Sony at psx getting on stage and....
"None of our first party games will ever (long pause) include a lootbox"
Boom. Drop the mic, with a closing backdrop of pspro now £250 and Whitney Houston I will always love you playing in the back.
Yeah.. no thanks. There isn't many games I like from EA, so I think I should be good in the long run in not buying anymore games from them if they continue down this path. (shrugs)
EA shouldn't be boycotted entirely. However, their games that involve these short-sited and greedy practices like micro-transactions and loot boxes should indeed be boycotted. It's just anti-consumer, and putting gambling into games is just plain wrong. It never has been and never will be okay to exploit people like that.
When EA starts making quality games (that would be a shocker) that don't involve these things, I'll be more than happy to buy them. Until then, I'll be buying the Mario Odysseys and Breath of the Wilds and God of Wars and Horizon Zero Dawns of the gaming industry. At least they aren't just soulless products pumped out on an assembly line meant to suck as much money out of people as humanly possible.
These people who spent $15000 won't spend it on any other games as they'll be at their credit card limit and paying that off for the next 20 years. Or their parents will. Unless they whine to a tabloid paper and get the bill cancelled.
The best game I played this year was an indie single player experience, What Remains of Edith Finch.
I wouldn't support EA irrespective of what Mr. Heir says. Racist jerk that he is; EA is one company that I will never financially support, and I don't need someone like him reminding me of why I won't. That being said I'm not surprised at all by this information.
@KirbyTheVampire That's fair enough. I suppose we should reward good behaviour, though that's not exactly often from EA. The only game I've brought new from them in a very long time is Unravel, and I haven't played it yet but it seems justified that they should get my money for it.
The only ea game I have is battlefield 1, but I have spend no money on it other than the initial purchase. Not even any dlc
Yay, what a bright future for single-player games.
#wordupson
“...how do you get people to keep coming back to a thing instead of 'just' playing for 60 to 100 hours?” Make a good game you milk guzzlers.
@ThroughTheIris56 Yeah, that's true. Boycotting the games that either are clearly half-hearted/rushed efforts or are filled with micro-transactions is basically the same thing as boycotting the entire company.
It sucks, because a company as large as EA is more than capable of publishing good games, not to mention games without stuff like micro-transactions and loot boxes. They just don't.
Ouch someone definitely isn't the norm for splashing out $15,000 on game monetisation. Most I've spent is probably £10 and that's cos it's on a freemium game that I pumped hours into and DECIDED the publishers SHOULD be paid for their hard work. BTW.. Can Disney not outsource the single player campaign to Sony, and maybe Sony can build the game? That would be every gamers dream right! Star Wars written by Amy on PS4! I smell 10million copies! Cash cow!
I've found I've naturally moved away from the AAA market as it has become filled with more and more of this bull. There are plenty of independents out there who are making great games that they would want to play rather than copying the current hot item or filling them with ways to try to get you to pay to play.
Wow, I remember buying like, $10 in ME3 MP cards. $15,000 is a new car. Unbelievable.
I love Destiny and will probably love Anthem too but I don't want every game to be the same.
@Reanfan7 I use not my main email for nintendo wii u login so I can sell it with all my games, from the first time I bought it, I plan to sell my wii u. I hate that thing from the first couple hours I play it.
For switch, I only need 1 or 2 days to decided that I will keep the console, it's a night and day difference with wii u. But it suck that I can't change my nintendo login email, I want to use my main email
I dono why all these publishers want us to play their games for hundreds of hours (besides the money). Seriously I actually get bored of most games around the 50 -60 hour mark (save persona 5, witcher 3 e.g). I have stopped playing decent games because I felt as if it was dragging. If your game is amazing I will play it for a while but there are limits even to some multiplayer games
EA engages less and less consumers every year, but bleeds their increasingly smaller user base for more and more money. Every year they manage to post profit thanks to sh** like FIFA Ultimate Team and whatever. It's gross. I hope the bubble bursts on them soon, because it seems genuinely unsustainable... $15k on Mass Effect cards; fu** that guy. People like that are ruining it for the rest of us - not just gamers, but developers as well. Clearly.
Gross. The only EA games I've picked up this generation are Dragon Inquisition and SW Battlefront. The former wasn't all that great, while the latter was rather enjoyable despite being shallow and not playing like the old school ones.
Not interested in pretty much anything they put out these days.
PS: Bayonetta 2 was robbed that year at the Game Awards - it definitely should have won over Dragon Age!
Wait I enjoy MMO's that allow you to play solo as well as in group. I no longer enjoy PVP but open world events you can drop in on and join are more fun to me. Pay to Win micro transactions are the Evil and LOOT that should be part of a reward system for playing not cash! Only expansions to the game should be sold,,,
I have only one EA game on my PS4, Dragon Age Inquisition (a great RPG) and I don't think I will buy any other one soon.
They are - along with Activision - destroying the industry and our passion for video games.
@IceClimbers I agree on Dragon Age Inquistion. It sad that pretty sure there will be no more DA titles in near future after ME Andromeda fiasco.
I always enjoy EA games. EA are successful because they make big titles and know how to make money. They are not going to fail like other developers who fail to graps this concept. Yes there will always be haters who will not buy EA games out of principle but they are the not the majority.
Time to vote with my wallet. Sad that people won't do the same.
@GamerDad66 Amen. If something ever happened, I never have to buy another game again. Hope it never gets to that.
This news is disgusting to hear, i have been a gamer since the early days and to see these gaming companies like EA act so greedy where they stop caring about the customer is very concerning. It shows the direction that we are heading, and it scares me to think that all games sooner than later will feature microtransactions. Well i say this, they will never get my money like that. They could try and prey on the weak but i for one will not fall for it. F*** any company that tries to do so, I buy games when its on sale, only on rare occassions i buy a game day one for full retail (super mario odyssey for example) and once i'm done with them i'm on to the next one. So F*** EA, this type of thinking will backfire on you guys.
I didn't buy EA games anyway... and I'll continue to not do so.
With the exception of Battlefield 1 I'm boycotting EA and will continue to do so. Same with Ubisoft, only got Wildlands (but sold it again). I'm really done with everything "over the top monetized". I can't even stand most hollywood movies anymore. Arthouse and Indie it is. Or Books. I like books.
I've boycotted EA this generation, last generation, and the one before that. Looks like that isn't changing anytime soon.
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