EA CEO determined to beat head against wall
0Dragon Age: The Veilguard was something of a dud, selling 1.5 million copies total, or about half what publisher EA was counting on. There were many reasons for that. One of them was not that it should have been a live-service game. But if you ask Andrew Wilson, Electronic Arts CEO, that actually pretty neatly sums it up:
In order to break beyond the core audience, games need to directly connect to the evolving demands of players who increasingly seek shared-world features and deeper engagement alongside high-quality narratives in this beloved category. Dragon Age had a high-quality launch and was well-reviewed by critics and those who played; however, it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this highly competitive market.
That’s publisherese for “it should have been Helldivers 2.” As an enjoyer of single-player, story-rich games, fuck you, Andrew. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 says fuck you, too:
After just a day on the market, the highly anticipated sequel to 2018’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance has sold 1 million copies.
Since yesterday. “Highly anticipated” might involve some liberties-taking, as the original 2018 game was fun and interesting and had innovative ways of playing, but it wasn’t a huge hit itself. But the sequel didn’t stew for ten years like Dragon Age, and it’s out now to critical acclaim as well as commercial success. (So we can ignore, I guess, that KCD2‘s director was a Gamergate enthusiast.)
But yeah, single-player RPGs can’t directly connect to the evolving demands of players. Everything’s got to be Fortnite.
The hell of it is, EA made BioWare, the studio that developed Dragon Age, develop an online multiplayer shared world game several years ago that stunk because BioWare wasn’t any good at live-service games. They had that data point!
“The craziest and scariest part?” writes Dwayne Jenkins:
They have the money to keep throwing themselves at the diamond live-service wall until something eventually slips through the cracks and becomes a hit. That path is laden with financial insecurity for developers as they’re marched to the live-service gallows. But, who cares? At a certain tax bracket, they become ants.
I’m still sore over Zenimax disbanding Arkane Austin because Redfall tanked.