author: Krzysiek Kalwasinski
8 Times When Developers Should Have Bit Their Tongue
Game developers are, of course, also humans. That's why strange statements and all sorts of slip-ups happen to them too. Especially when they feel defensive. We have aggregated a list of instances when they definitely said too much.
Table of Contents
- 8 Times When Developers Should Have Bit Their Tongue
- "I think that [single-player] model is finished"
- "You think you do, but you don't"
- "Do you guys not have phones?"
- "It just works"
- "Sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes”
- “We don't call them lootboxes. We look [at them] as surprise mechanics”
- "Gamers are the worst f***ing people."
"I think that [single-player] model is finished"
- Who said it? Frank Gibeau, then president of EA.
- When? December 2010.
We go back ten years, to the moment when Dead Space 2 was released. It was a game intended to usher in a new era heralded by EA. Frank Gibeau, then CEO of the company, talked about it in an interview with the editors of the website Developed (the interview itself is unfortunately no longer available).
The new guidelines said that each subsequent game released by them should receive an online mode, thus gaining a longer life cycle.
They're very comfortable moving the discussion towards how we make connected gameplay – be it cooperative or multiplayer or online services – as opposed to fire-and-forget, packaged goods only, single-player, 25-hours - and you're out. I think that model is finished. The web is a place of action and innovation.
At that time, EA also announced that it will reduce the number of games released by half. Where did this idea come from? Probably from the low sales of Dead Space and Mirror's Edge. Overall solid games that unfortunately didn't conquer the market. During the interview, there was also the example of Battlefield 1943 given – a smaller and cheaper production that was a tremendous hit. However, as it turned out years later, Frank Gibeau wasn't right. Especially considering the streak of success that Sony had with their exclusive games.