BrynS
Mr Kat says...
Just caught this on Firingsquad; the original Wired article is here.
Regarding EA's Origin et al acknowledgment, following the Point of Origin releases has certainly provided some insight into the evolving impact EA had on Origin. I believe Wing Commander and Origin definitely had a good run under EA stewardship, but it was a great pity to see Origin -- the home of so many great gaming creations -- close and I'm sure the former OSI employees must appreciate this acceptance that EA got things wrong.
Anyway, I think it's interesting that EA have fronted up to this now and together with the way Riccitiello was reported to have championed the Bioware purchase against some internal EA resistance seems to point to a changing corporate focus. Although the Bioware purchase occurred before the Vivendi/Activision merger, that too must now be affecting EA corporate steer, I suspect. In the face of ongoing consolidation, the upside of the Activision merger as far as I can see, is there now being two (more evenly matched) publishing behemoths rather than just one (EA) and a bunch of smaller players (Ubisoft, THQ, Codemasters, etc) -- hopefully this will keep them both honest!Wired said:""We at EA blew it, and to a degree I was involved in these things, so I blew it."
[...]
Riccitiello said that the company's "one-management-size-fits-all" mentality with its acquisitions in the past only stifled creative freedom. "When I talked to the creators that populated these companies at the time, they felt like they were buried and stifled," he said.
[...]
"Creative teams can be thought of as flowers in a hothouse -- you move the temperature up or down a few degrees and the flowers will die," he said.
Regarding EA's Origin et al acknowledgment, following the Point of Origin releases has certainly provided some insight into the evolving impact EA had on Origin. I believe Wing Commander and Origin definitely had a good run under EA stewardship, but it was a great pity to see Origin -- the home of so many great gaming creations -- close and I'm sure the former OSI employees must appreciate this acceptance that EA got things wrong.