EA Aiming For 50% Innovation

Talking to 'The Street.com' EA Worldwide Studios president Paul Lee gets grilled on game delays and industry stagnation, and reaffirms EA's commitment to new IP. From the article: "There [have] been countless games in our industry that have looked great and didn't play particularly well. Going forward, there's going to be a lot of me-too products that look great -- because they all look great -- that aren't necessarily going to do great. But if you take a look at what we have -- you know, Spore is innovative game-play, and at the same time it's got great graphics. And I think that's what really knocks it out of the park. Innovative game-play helps drive [the cause] of gaming. And if you can do that, and you can have great graphics, I think that the market is bigger than just having one of the two."

You had me reading at Spore

but when I RTFA I found he mostly talked about how he was sinking a lot of resources into Sony and Microsoft, which means they may have missed the boat since all of my peeps are buying the Wii when it comes out.

It's the games. Seriously, I don't care how the investors think about it. I was looking at investing in EA or Nintendo, but after reading this I just don't think they get it and will miss the wave that will dominate gaming for the next two years.

I'll still buy Spore and other Will Wright projects, of course.

yeah ok Spore's knocking it out of the park

Right. Spore's a megahit. Oops, it's not out yet.

And it has a very great danger of doing a whole bunch of stuff Not Very Well. Sort of reminds me of City of Heroes, in everything I've seen about it - great costume designer (creature creator) but the gameplay doesn't live up to it.

Naturally, this speculation isn't that valid as I haven't played it either. But I'm not asserting it's "knocking it out of the park" or even that it will fail. I am simply skeptical that it's going to be the Only Game I Ever Play because of all the uniquely combined elements.

Spore is going to suck

As will all future releases by him.

It's very simple, he appeared on the cover of Wired.

Push technology, SEGA, Smell-o-Vision over IP, the New Economy, Newt Gingritch, all cratered after appearing on the cover of Wired. It's sort of a Karmic slashdotting effect.

From the sounds of TFA...

One of the things that we're betting on is ... more and more of the [next-generation] games are going to need some form of open-world game-play. And the reality is that open-world game play is just a much more significant undertaking than we would have imagined. But to rush it out and not get that right doesn't get you the learning you need. And I think we made the right decision to do that with Godfather, and I think the reviews and the product sales show that. We are pushing the envelope.

It sounds to me like the basic premise for their 'innovations' is that they plan on tacking GTA-style emergent gameplay onto ever title they can. Granted, it's a nice touch in certain titles but for God's sake, don't just shove it into games where it has no purpose. Going from one marketing gimmick (yearly sequels) to another (go wherever, do whatever) just because your original tactic is failing miserably doesn't make you save any face in my book.

Title is bizarre

"50% Innovation"? Sure, the part you quote talks about wanting to have both innovative gameplay and great graphics (what do you expect he'd say? We want to have great gameplay and lame graphics, or great graphics and lame gameplay?), but 50% suggests a quantification that just isn't in the article. Or was the "50% innocation" based on the 50% owned-vs.-licensed IP in TFA, viz (from the second page [thestreet.com]):

EA seems to be placing more and more emphasis on developing its own content, as opposed to licensing it from other content owners. Do you have any targets on what percentage of your business you want owned IP [intellectual property] to be?

Our goal is to get over 50%.

Great...

A bump to 75% innovation would be nice for the market and allow them to keep Madden ;)

This is almost as good as naming a directory '-rf'.

An innovation quota!

What will they think of next!

"Johnson, you're not innovating enough! You gotta get your innovation up another 8% by the end of the month, or I'm kicking you back down to playtesting!"

ea: please remake duck hunt

subject said it all. i loved that game and would love to pay $60 for the chance to pass the experience on to my own son. ea: don't let this 'innovation' stuff go to your heads.

Re:ea: please remake duck hunt

There is no moderation option for "contains a serious factual error," so I'll reply. EA had absolutely nothing to do with Duck Hunt; Duck Hunt was made by Nintendo for the NES and came as a pack-in title for systems with the light gun. And you may very well get your wish, since Nintendo was demonstrating a new Duck Hunt title at E3, along with gun-grip attachment to the Wii remote: http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/fir st-look-duck-hunt-wii [techeblog.com]

Did anyone else...

Burst into laughter when they read the headline? Thought not.

It's not just seeing "EA" and "innovation" in the same sentence, it's the fact they seem to be aiming for a specific percentage of "innovation" in their games. It all seems very accountanty.

Developer: I've got this great new idea for our game! It'll be revolutionary!
Boss: Sorry, I'm not sure if we've got enough innovation left in our budget for revolutionary, can you scale it down to a neat twist on an existing idea?

Title should surely read,

"EA aiming for 50% of the games they put their name on, but don't develop themselves, to be innovative." I guess it doesn't roll off the tongue as well.

Novel idea for them

A lot of people are casual gamers or weren't raised on PS2/Xbox and have problems with the controls. Maybe they ought to consider things like autoaim that Quake had for FPS and action games so you don't have to work 2 thumbsticks to aim... Of course that would require them to compensate by making the AI more difficult.

what?

But if you take a look at what we have -- you know, Spore is innovative game-play, and at the same time it's got great graphics.

who wrote this crap? Maybe it's just this headache I have but this article seemed practically unreadable.

Innovation out of EA?

How exactly do they plan on innovating with their next 40 installments of Madden and NCAA Football? Seriously, EA is the king of beat a dead horse. I think this is the first time I've actually seen EA and innovation in the same sentence.

Innovative Hockey

I can see it now, EA's new committment to innovation will result in a revolutionary new option in NHL 2007: the ability to skip the hockey and jump straight to the fights.

EA's upcoming innovative titles

Look forward to the following titles this year!

• American Mcgee's NHL 2007
• Madden 007 2007: Goldenpunt
• Lord Of the Sims: Hobbit Date
• Harry Potter and the Milking of Franchise
• Need for Medal of Honor: Third Reich Racing
• The Burbz: Virtual Emo
• Burnout Soviet Russia: Cars Blow Up You!
• Lord of the Rings: Street
• Command and Conquer: Dubya vs. Everybody

And of course,

• Unskippable EA Logo Challenge 2007

Re:EA's upcoming innovative titles

I would so buy Lord of the Rings:Street. I can see the bridge scene now.

Original version
Gandalf: I am the servant of the scret flame... (yeah, I don't know the whole quote, so sue me)
Gandalf: Thou shalt not pass!

Street Version
Gandalf: Yo I am one nasty nigga. I'm OG foo'. You don wan nonna dis
Gandalf: Now get to steppin biyatch.

50% Innovation is really...

...just a half-assed attempt at being completely innovative.
Half empty, half full - ad naseum.

What's 50% Innovation?

What's 50% innovation? Are they just going to release a new football game where the players have capes?

Where the Problem Lies

It lies in the system, the fact of the matter is that when you think about artistic ideas and gameplay and consider it as merely IP; something merely attainable by investment, you've been mistaken. You can't "invest" in creating a masterpiece, you need insight and artistic individuals. It doesn't take much to make "IP", and it doesn't cost much either. All it costs is intelligence to write a good story or plan a good game, and if you don't have that, then well, fuck you.

Hmm...

.50*0=?

Innovation

I don't think innovation will come from one of the big game developers. It will come from the small niche / indie game market. Why don't EA games try to stimulate that by doing things like popcap did with publishing their open source framework that allows anyone to reduce some of the effort that accompanies building games. I just finished a small game based on this framework and its fun to build and to play. How much inhouse frameworks/tools does EA have? If you want innovation you need to create the possibilities for doing that.

50% increase is easy...

...when current innovation is 0.

Hm...

Maybe they should readjust their numbers.

Like, why 50%? We don't need that much. They could cut it down to, say, 38.3% Innovation, 90% profit whoring.

Note: The discrepancy in the numbers is best explain by the same math that convinces EA they make a profit.

New properites != Innovation!

New properties != Innovation!

It'd be nice if EA actually backed some new ideas besides those by Will Wright (apparently the only employee of the company to retain his soul). But because the company, back in their 8-bit computer days, were the publishers of so many wonderful creations, I have to rate the company as having a net deficit in the wonder-and-goodness department until they at least get back to that level.

Electronic Arts was hot stuff once. I doubt we'll ever see it at that level again.

An Alternative

Rather than releasing late or releasing on time and buggy, you could... *gasp* make a realistic release schedule. That way, you give the customers a good product when you said you'd give it to them.