The END OF EA??

while the subject may seem drastic...it also seems somewhat logical. EA has been one of the best developers in recent years (while not one of my favs) but this last year...they seemed to have lost their respect. With the releases of the awful Catwoman, the much hyped but bland Goldeneye: rogue agent, and even the LOTR the third age.. is EA just in a slump?
They also bought around 20% of rival Ubisoft shares being the second most powerful shareholders of that company..
AND they now have the sole liscence to the NFL. while they've been tryin to get a simialar deal for years now..they seemed to really push to win it last year because of Sega's and Take Two's ESPN NFL 2k series being at the same quality gameplay and a lower price tag ($19.99 compared to $49.99) EA seems to have been taking drastic measures to stay in the game, so to speak.
they might even lose the madden liscence because of the high NFL liscence price tag.
Now don't get me wrong, EA has some great games but lately...they've been losing some of their touch.

I would disagree and agee. The sell gazillions of sports titles a year so they're still makings millions. They're the biggest videogame company that produces games. In terms of quality of games though, they're not really well known for very good quality games like some notable compaines (Valve, Blizzard, Bungie, Rare and etc).

EA are here to stay.... you overlooked the good games that they've made.

fair enough, GE:RA and some of the others were of poor standard, but I really liked DefJam:FFNY and Burnout 3... plus FIFA 2005 was a fairly good game ✅

Apart from Burnout 3 and Def Jam FFNY they havn't really made anything I enjoyed so really I don't think I'd miss them too much if EA died away

I like Medal of Honor a lot

Yeah It's alright but I've played better

i think everyone's enjoyed an EA game or two..but..i don't really see them as crucial to the business anymore
btw most people in the biz think that EA might also raise their prices on their NFL titles

Need for Speed Underground 2 is a really good racing game.

Fifa 2005 is the best soccer game I've ever played.

LOTR: the 3rd age wasn't a bad game by any means...it was just too linear....just like the movie.

All of the Medal of Honor games are good, I just don't play them because each one feels the exact same to me.

I don't see how you can say EA is dying or ending. They are growing.

i really dont think they are growing at all. they only put there efforts into established franchises which are growing stale and don't make an effort to bring new fun titles.
call of duty is better than MOH imo

EA are gonna become bigger and bigger, and eat up every company and start making applications and AI for the military.

I hear they are making a game called Skynet but are keeping it very hush hush.

EA isn't going anywhere for a long long time. They have the medal of honor series, Madden, NBA Live, Command and Conquer, Battlefield series.

They are probably the biggest game company at the moment.

Originally posted by Linkalicious
Need for Speed Underground 2 is a really good racing game.

Fifa 2005 is the best soccer game I've ever played.

LOTR: the 3rd age wasn't a bad game by any means...it was just too linear....just like the movie.

All of the Medal of Honor games are good, I just don't play them because each one feels the exact same to me.

I don't see how you can say EA is dying or ending. They are growing.

EA make inferioir versions of everything these days - yet people still like them

Fifa is rubbish next to Pro Evo, yet Fifa has been selling more in the past.

Medal Of Honor is twoddle next to Activisions Call Of Duty, yet MOH still sells.

LOTR Battle For Middle Earth is inferior to Warcraft 3, yet the officialness of LOTR sells EAs game.

EA do have Burnout in their stable now - which USED TO be the thing that made NFS:U look rubbish. It still does, but it doesn't harm EA anymore. At least they were smart there.

The NHL serie's gameplay is steadily getting crappier in my opinion.

probably because Fifa is the official games, with teams like Arsenal... not North London 😬

Originally posted by gls

They also bought around 20% of rival Ubisoft shares being the second most powerful shareholders of that company..

Me not knowing anything about how businesses work and whatnot, does EA owning 20% of Ubi's shares mean that EA owns 20% of Ubi? like do they control it?

Remeber, alot of EA games are not actually developed by them. Its actually just published by them so they have not alot of input in the design of the game.

Originally posted by ChickinMeat
Me not knowing anything about how businesses work and whatnot, does EA owning 20% of Ubi's shares mean that EA owns 20% of Ubi? like do they control it?

I'm not sure, but I think to take perform a hostile takeover they need to buy 51% of the shares, essentially buying them out.

I don't think 20% does anything.

Originally posted by dave123
not to say Fifa isn't good, but have you played Pro Evo?

I'll have to check it out. I never tried it because I couldn't complain with Fifa 2004....and 2005 was even better.

I don't really see what Pro Evo could have to offer that would make Fifa "rubbish" in comparison, but I'll take a Europeans word for it.

I played an older version of Pro Evo I still like FiFa better but that's just me I take it. 2005 is the best FiFa so far. They finally look like they are playnig soccer