http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/10330.cfm

 as an example...

as an avid EA NHL gamer, i can't agree more.  i've play all installments of NHL since NHL 1994, and the ones that i enjoyed the most are 94, 96 and 98.  all the ones after 99 are essentially the same.  not to mention that the controls actually became a bit too difficult even for somebody like me, and the addiction level for whatever reason keeps dropping year after year.  the game just isn't exciting anymore.

 speaking of innovation, i'm glad they're adding "family play" to the Wii line of the EA Sports title, which levels the playing field somewhat.  hopefully when NHL 2008 comes out there'll be new gameplay elements... the engine has been identical for like 4 years now, even the graphics look pretty much the same.

 wii's gonna benefit greatly from the new EA CEO's strategy, it sounds like.  not only is EA shifting resources to the Wii, they also appear to have a coherent strategy.  fun games are making a comeback!

There are plenty "fun" games, just not from EA.

According to EA chief executive John Riccitiello, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, "We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play."


God forbid you have to have some skill. I too enjoy NHL but I would NEVER want the game to be any easier, those people need to play Mario Party or something.

Though I agree, most EA games are "boring" LOL

Are you surprised that EA is shifting to the Wii??? They have always been the whore of the video game industry. Now all the piece of sh!t games that they made for the PS2 got last gen will go to the Wii, just with waggle now ;)

I have actually been very impressed with EA this gen. They have only announced one minigame compilation for the Wii and they are making really great modifications to their current games for the Wii. Then they have Boogie which combines the two most popular casual games of all time IMO, DDR and Singstar. They have completely adjusted the gameplay to their famed Sims games. I am continuously floored by the promise that EA is showing towards the Casual Market. Lets just hope these games don't suck when they are released.

I actually think he meant "Harder to Play" as "Currently games have an unnecessary level of complication" rather than "Currently games are too challenging." Back in the day many arcade and NES games were remarkably challenging yet didn't require 2 joysticks, 6 buttons and a 4 hour tutorial mode.

Eliminating "Complexity" may not (dramatically) decrease the challenge of a game and may make it easier to deliver the quality of experience you want. Many developers would have included player controlled jumping in The Legend of Zelda but the added complexity wouldn't have added much to the game and would have (potentially) made the game far harder to control; the extra difficulty to control the game does not make it more 'challenging' as much as it makes the game more frustrating.

Most EA games are boring so I don't blame him saying this, just don't apply it to all games hehe

Wow, that's incredibly harsh and unnecessary. Yes, EA has a deserved reputation for sticking with the tried and true rather than pursue innovation, but they are also a well-run business that serves as the model for how third party publishers should act. EA is one of the very few companies in the video game industry that consistently maintains profitability, year in and year out. They clearly know what they're doing. If you don't like their games, vote with your wallet and don't buy them. That's the best way to get them to make better games in the long run.

Now with regards to the specific Wii complaint, EA is simply doing what it does best: reading the market and adjusting accordingly. EA initially threw most of its support behind the 360 and PS3, the expensive high-end consoles. As a result, their profitis were way, way down from previous years. I went and pulled up their earnings report from this past year just to prove this; here's a link for the curious:

http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/88/881/88189/items/250822/2007AnnualReport.pdf (skip ahead to page 100 for the relevant information)

Over the past four years, EA's net revenue has remained fairly constant at around 3 billion dollars annually, while their gross profit has remained at about the same figure, $1.9 billion. But look at what happens to their operating expenses: the balloon upwards with each year of the "next-gen" consoles! Total operating expenses: 1.08 billion (FY04), 1.26 billion (FY05), 1.45 billion (FY06), 1.84 billion (FY07). Nearly all of those expenses are coming from increases in research and development (ie, the cost of making these "HD" games); R&D costs more than double from $511 million in FY04 to $1,041 million in FY07. As a result, EA's profitability drops steadily every year over this period, from $577 million in FY04, to a paltry $76 million last year in FY07. If you read further, EA tries to explain away their falling profits with a bunch of words about "generational change" and "transition costs", but the writing is on the wall. Developing for the 360 and PS3 is not paying off.

Is it any wonder then that EA is shifting towards more Wii support? The publishers that threw the most support behind the Wii and DS (Ubisoft and Majesco) are reaping huge profits this year. Gamespot even has an article today about how Majesco has recovered from the verge of bankruptcy thanks to developing for Nintendo. What EA is doing is not called "being a whore", it's called good business. Or should they act like Take-Two, and utterly destroy their company's finances just to produce "hardcore" games that fail to turn a profit?

 well, i'm talking about all those extraneous moves.  like left spin, right spin, fake right, fake left, deke, special move, drag, flip pass, saucer pass, direct pass, on-target pass, normal hit, big hit, ... etc etc etc.

needless to say, i don't even need anywhere close to all those moves.  some of them are so ineffective the game is made more fun be eliminating those functions.  i've trained myself to know how to use all of them, but it's just not fun.  (i liked deflection, since it's perfect on a powerplay, but then they took it away for some reason.  maybe it's too easy to score goals.)

what's worse, there're things you that you CAN'T do on a keyboard, only on a controller since you need the analog sticks and those shoulder buttons.  that's just flat-out ridiculous.  the keyboard has 101 keys at least after all...

they need to focus on what makes the game fun.  like skillfully running a powerplay, better gameplay along the boards (this absolutely needs to be fixed... the dump-ins right now are stupid), better player positioning, etc.

the line-up adjustment screen from NHL 94 is still the best.  i don't know why they moved to much less friendly interfaces in later NHL's.

there are just so many things that can be improved.  i still use the top-down camera the most since i can see where all my players are and can make a pass that i intend to.  yet they spend so much time making the graphics look nice in the more close-up cams.  

yeah, EA NHL has really become boring. 

 awesome post.  thanks for looking up all those numbers.

If he meant it in that manner, I'll give you that. The whole interview isn't there, so it is out of context.

Honestly though, I think that games have just gotten proportionately as difficult as everything else in our lives. Think about driving, you use to just have a shifter, wheel, gas, brake, and clutch. Now we've got an automatic, which is necessary, so that we can change the 5 CD changer, XM radio, Nav system, OnStar, do your make up, change the kids DVD, all while on that ever so important phone call to Little Johnny's teacher, explaining why he had his pecker hanging out in class today ;)

On the flip side, how would you play something like GTA with this:

@Sulla

Sorry if you think that was harsh, but it was incredibly tame to me. I could care less about their business model, that's not the point, the point is they will publish whatever crap is marketable in the slightest. Plus they haven't made ANY(or nearly any) advancements on their sports franchises in, what, 9 yrs?

The only exception I've seen is the games they've published by Criterion Studios, Burnout series and Black. They are also doing the Bigs, right? Maybe they can avoid screwing it up.

EDIT: Take2, no profit? GTA? you're right GTA IV will surely be a flop, just like the last one.