You tinkered with a formula that worked and got less than stellar results... Is anyone surprised? I'll bet you anything EA blamed Visceral for the poor numbers.
Bioware broke down the numbers and found that 82% of gamers preferred to play as the male version of Shepard. That figure doesn't account for the number of women who chose to play as a male Shepard, and it doesn't include racial changes to Shepard. In a game that offered so many options (skills, background, race, gender, sexual orientation, moral compass) the majority of players preferred to stick with the male, good soldier cliche that we've seen in nearly every shooter since the genre's creation.
I'm not saying the minority doesn't count. In fact I'd rather play a game where I was a part of a mixed bag of choices and demographics that added up to 100% (Mass Effect) than a game where everyone falls into the same category automatically just for having played the game (Call of Duty). While the numbers do show a growing number of minorities making a larger portion of the community as a whole, it also shows us that most gamers still prefer the familiar over something vastly different from themselves. It's a power fantasy that games like "Mass Effect" let anyone live out, while other games have a much narrower band of fantasy fulfillment.
Even in crystal clear next-gen HD graphics, the bad guys still have trouble seeing their target well enough to hit anything with their bullets. Also, that has to be the worst emergency stop system ever. Looks pretty though :P
SimCity is being offered by Amazon for 30% off. It hasn't been out a month and it's already being heavily discounted. Mr. Gibeau sounds like he's trying to put out some fires by screaming "It's not what it looks like! We aren't trying to screw you over, it was just a problem with the thing... interacting with the other stuff... We aren't evil!"
I don't understand. What do you call making people register games with Origin? What do you call making people log in to Origin to play games that are already installed on their computers? You can re-label it if you want to, but you're still checking our games to make sure no one is pirating your products.
@Shanks_D_Chop It's not a necessity. It's a part of EA's strategy to nickel and dime you for every little thing. If you've ever played "The Sims", then you might be aware of how many expansion packs that are available for that game. (I counted 13) By Christmas this year, I'm expecting at least two expansions for "Simcity". The DLC and the microtransactions are the "services" EA is offering you at a premium price. None of it is worth it, but EA won't change a thing while there are people willing to pay 7.99 to give their Sims virtual cats and dogs.
@quantumtheo So even when Gamespot rags on EA, there are people that think EA paid them to do it... I'd really like to lay into you for being a crazy nutjob that will stretch any minute detail into a conspiracy, but I'm just going to chalk you up to Team Crazy and not give your comment any serious thought.
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