EA As The Next Disney 332
ducomputergeek writes "There is an article over at Business2.0.com about how EA may just surpass Disney as the number #1 media company in the world. Considering that EA has turned out some great games over the years, including Wing Commander, many sports games for consoles, and the SIMS, it wouldn't surprise me."
EA is that big? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also does anyone know how much the Sim's helped EA out? or did Maxis make most of the money off that?
Does EA produce their own stuff? (Score:2, Interesting)
EA vs Disney (Score:2, Interesting)
Does Eisner Know? (Score:2, Interesting)
When did it stop being EOA? (Score:5, Interesting)
Ah, those fond memories of my youth... 2AM, sitting in front of my C-64, watching that EOA title screen come up... gaming all night long (in between using a 300 baud modem to contact BBS's in germany, Japan...)
I almost didn't survive the beating that resulted from one month's phone bill... almost 400$ of overseas long-distance. Twenty years ago, 400$ was, as they say, real money.
Yep, I can hear the L33T K1dd13Z now... "Shut up, pops. Go take some Bayer for yer arthritis."
They work their employees like dogs... (Score:5, Interesting)
EA works you like a dog. Everyone there hates their job. Big sexist corporate culture too. Both of my friends are women, and BOTH have had ideas stolen from them by their male manager. Fuckers.
So in that respect, yes, they are just like Disney.
Re:Conglomeration (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't have any problem with people compairing EA to Disney.
Wow (Score:2, Interesting)
One of my favourites was Foxfire or Firefox or something like that. Ace flight sim for that old 8 bit machine.
Useless trivia of the day: The legendary SID musician/coder Rob Hubbard works for EA these days. He coded the themesong for Commando in machine code in just one night. Skillz.
Measuring stick (Score:1, Interesting)
funny... (Score:4, Interesting)
black and white, with about 8 developers on it..each talking about games they had programmed...Archon, stuff like that...
that was EA, as I recall....on one hand...kewl they've succeeded...on the other hand, they were once a blatently geek programming company...kind of a bumber...but it was kewl...
RB
Speaking of which... (Score:2, Interesting)
Wing Commander... (Score:2, Interesting)
Considering that EA has turned out some great games over the years, including Wing Commander...
Maybe I recall incorrectly, but I have this distinct memory of Wing Commander being originally published independently by Origin Systems before being bought out by Electronic Arts. Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.
Re:Competition makes things good. (Score:2, Interesting)
Movie-wise I would say disney has been getting better.
Or, for my own taste anyway - Lilo&Stitch was an excellent film - and all the pixar productions keeps getting better as well.
I mean, compared to "Sleeping Beauty"... I'd take today's disney films any day of the week.
One may argue that Disney is trying to drown out Gibli stuff by buying up the rights, but maybe they are actually recognizing talent?
No Sweat! (Score:4, Interesting)
"it's almost absurd to compare a $2 billion software maker with a $25 billion diversified media giant.
If you are reading it... chances are, Disney is aware of the same information.
money Gordon hints could be used to expand into movies or music. In any event, Probst is clearly way beyond thinking of EA as merely a creator of software toys. "Our goal," he says with no hint of self-consciousness, "is to become the greatest entertainment company ever.
So, given the quoted valuation differences, and EA's stated goal, my question is.. how hard would it be for Disney to make EA an "offer they can't refuse"?
Maybe the next version of Sim City is going to include a big fat Epcot Center monument!!
Lobbying? (Score:3, Interesting)
Electronic Arts won't be the next DisneyCo until EA starts lobbying to the United States Congress for copyright laws that further restrict consumers [pineight.com] and other authors and publishers [pineight.com]. Look how much money DisneyCo contributed [opensecrets.org] to get the Bono Act passed in a desperate attempt to keep Mickey Mouse locked up [bumperactive.com].
Re:They work their employees like dogs... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:They work their employees like dogs... (Score:5, Interesting)
Worst work experience I've ever had. At one point they wanted us to dumb our game down to the point where the users could hit a key to have his vehicle automatically follow an enemy. Then all the user would have to do is click the mouse button to fire their weapons.
Yes, the clueless, khaki/t-shirt/black sweater management core from Redwood Shores that such an idea would make the game, "more accessable". It never dawned on them that it also removed all interactivity from an interactive entertainment product.
But, what do you expect when their CEO is from Sara Lee and gives motivational speeches with such phrases as, "Making an online game is a lot like making a quiche.".
(I am so glad I'm out of that environment.)
What this article misses... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Does EA produce their own stuff? (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, EA doesn't buy up anyone and everyone. They had the chance to purchase Take Two Interactive (GTA series) and declined the offer.
Electronic Arts no longer artists... (Score:5, Interesting)
Electronic Arts is in the video game industry making sound business moves and producing disposable rubbish for an eager consumer base. They are no longer Electronic Artists and they no longer make great video games. This shows in the huge amount of crap they spew out each year.
Other companies were getting to be guilty of the same thing, but they seem to have realized it and are trying to make a turn for the better. Capcom, for instance, has pledged a shift towards quality and innovation, and shortly afterwards announced 6 new fairly unique looking titles.
3DO claims to be making a similar shift, and has cancelled many projects to focus on a few unique titles. Trip Hawkins even forked over his own personal money to help fund the company further along. How many CEOs do you know of who would do that? (Well, the President of Sega did that, too, then died shortly afterwards.)
Many of the more respectable publishers and developers are making this shift towards quality, but Electronic Arts openly clings to "tried and true" titles, even if it means saturating the market with crap.
I don't rant about it like I used to. I just stopped buying the shit [ea.com]. After all, there are other [nintendo.com] great [bioware.com] video [blizzard.com] game [capcom.com] developers [sega.com] out [konami.com] there [rockstarnorth.com].
Good. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:When did it stop being EOA? (Score:5, Interesting)
The cube, sphere, and pyramid objects in Ultima VIII were originally supposed to be evil artifacts in Ultima VI, if I remember correctly. Richard Garriott had a bit of a grudge against Trip Hawkins ("Pirt Snikwah") back in those days, as Origin was less than thrilled with their treatment as an EA affiliated label in the late Eighties. Richard had painstakingly planned a whole boatload of EA-as-the-embodiment-of-ultimate-evil allusions for the Ultimas beyond V, but EA skillfully dodged his wrath by offering to buy the company.
EA, EA Sports, EA Big, Maxis, and who knows what.. (Score:2, Interesting)
I also noticed that where the Sims got a lot of time, their other biggest stable, EA Sports, only got two short blurbs. Madden has been the standard for Video Game Football for years, and most likely will continue to be for a while. Other notable titles like NBA Street, SSX Tricky and Medal of Honor were left off.
I don't get the reference to EA being the Microsoft of the gaming world. I could have sworn that Microsoft was the Microsoft of the gaming world, but who knows. I mean, Microsoft Games is one of their good points (and I know there are few), and they make a huge amount of games as well. That little X-Box thing, and AoM/AoE, plus their sports stable.
EA will never be another Disney in the sense of what Disney is. However, they could easily be to Software what Disney is to animated features and children's programming: the standard. I'm not sure if I own more Sierra or EA games. For the PS2 it's hand's down EA, and for the computer it's a little closer.
For them to really go into the entertainment industry, they would have to pull in something that could move them past being just a software company. Someone like Blizzard or Square Soft (I thought they used to have a stake in Square USA) could be what moves them closer to Digital Movie entertainment. I know that the Warcraft 3 made me think that Blizzard would someday go movie instead of game. But for now, they can rest on being the best publisher out there.
beyond games, beyond geeks (Score:3, Interesting)
But really, EA needs to look beyond gaming if it really wants to challenge Disney or any other major media concern. Sure, it's a powerhouse in the gaming world, but my mother's never heard of Electronic Arts, while she sure as hell knows who Disney is.
Sports Games are profitable (Score:4, Interesting)
Another aspect of sports games is that they are very capital intensive due to licensing and the amount of statistical data. This prevents any small upstart from coming out with a noteworthy competitor.
Loyalty amongst sports game fans is another factor, people who have played madden for the last 10 years are not going to switch to NFL2K3. EA has made the wise decision to release their sports games for just about every platform. One other plus for the sports game genre is that it appeals to the growing market of older gamers.
Re:Sports Games are profitable (Score:1, Interesting)
In short, IMHO, more competition the better. It feels like bad news that EA is growing tremendously big, along with smaller "great" companies like, Origin, being bought. Back then, games came out with variety and competed for our undivided attention. Doom, One Must Fall 2097, Monkey Island, Full Throttle (LUCAS ARTS is the kind of adventure games). No doubt, there will be amazing titles from EA, but I feel choices will be less