300°

EA’s CEO tells staff it’s been ‘impeded’ by the FIFA brand: ‘It’s four letters on a box’

From VGC: "Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson has given employees a frank appraisal of why he believes the company could be better off ending its 30-year relationship with FIFA.

In his most revealing comments yet on the status of licence negotiations with the footballing body, Wilson told staff in an internal company meeting in November that the FIFA license had been “an impediment” to EA’s ambitions for the game series."

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-Foxtrot829d ago

Are they kidding? It's 4 letters but it spells out a word that's a massive brand today.

You know how many casual sport fan gamers buy this every year because of the world Fifa in the title, I mean it won't kill sales but I doubt it'll get as much recognition as it used to. It was one of (the many) reasons why it had an edge over PES.

gold_drake829d ago (Edited 829d ago )

i mean, sure.
but the licence holders of Fifa want billions of dollars for licencing at this point.

they're also quite limited in what they can actually do with the games it seems.

who knows whether its actually worth it or not for EA.

EvertonFC829d ago

Limited ? You mean make a authentic sports game wether that be football, soccer, etc.
FIFA probably asked them to put VAR features in the next one which meant EA would actually have to do some work so they ran a mile.

RosweeSon829d ago

The only limitations are on 99% of the other developers who cannot compete with Fifa who have the players licenses and all the leagues so everyone else has to get around that like pro evo or just go down a completely different route (red card soccer etc) the only limitations are down to EA’s lack of originality they make changes for changes sake. Utter cash cow stopped buying it years ago should have been free to years now just charge for an update each year that’s basically what they release anyway, new number on the end new soundtrack and same old same old

Seraphim829d ago

I get being frustrated by being limited in what you can do but how many hundreds of millions come from both game sales and coin purchases so players can buy the name on those cards and packs each fiscal year. At some point, due to greed by either FIFA or EA there will possibly be a breaking point. But to come out and say this? Seems like he's a bit out of touch with just how the FIFA Brand provides EA. 2 cents

XbladeTeddy829d ago

"You know how many casual sport fan gamers buy this every year because of the world Fifa in the title, I mean it won't kill sales"

You say people buy it because it has FIFA in the title, but then you say not having FIFA in the titles won't kill sales. Not sure where the statements going there.

Fact is FIFA on the box or not EA make the best game about football. They can call it EA football if they want, people will still buy it as the core game is solid. It has the edge over PES as it's simply the more solid product.

S2Killinit829d ago

FIFA and UEFA are one hell of a corrupt organization though.

RosweeSon829d ago

UEFA still deciding on the champions league I dunno what rock they living under but it’s not even a decision. All about 💰 tho.

RosweeSon829d ago

It spells out a 4 letter word that goes hand in hand with a lot of the higher ups at EA. It’s similar to CarroT and CurrenT ends and begins with the same letters anyway 😑🤷🏻‍♂️ 🤣 fans deserve better than their yearly churned tat

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porkChop829d ago

They can't add any new modes or brands because FIFA won't allow it. They can't even add gameplay features and such without getting FIFA's approval first. I know it's EA, but it does genuinely seem like they've wanted to do more but FIFA blocks them at every step. On top of that, FIFA's demanding $2.5B over the next 10 years. That's $250M per year. That's not worth it, especially when FIFA actively hinders the end product.

To be completely honest though this doesn't surprise me. FIFA are known for being corrupt scumbags. They've had so many scandals.

senorfartcushion829d ago

EA sports football would go down well.

It doesn’t have to be FIFA.

Not hard to Imagine it being a mobile game on consoles though

RosweeSon829d ago

The licenses are what 90% of people are buying into been that way for years pro evo were making major changes and better games for years previously didnt matter tho as Manchester blue doesn’t sell copies of a gsme when you can Chuck all the official leagues and players in your game. Fifa getting too big for their boots hope they give it up they’ll soon regret it when the sales drop off a cliff

EvertonFC829d ago

What so FIFA say no to having proper leagues ? That's on EA imo.

Urrakia34829d ago

I guess FIFA must also be impeding EA from innovating Madden because that franchise hasn't changed in almost a damn decade.

A quick Google search on how much EA has profited from their combined Ultimate Team modes and you will see that $2.5B (if accurate) over 10 years is chump change to them in the long term.

Maybe, just maybe, this is EA doing damage control by essentially saying they don't need FIFA and that, if anything, they were a detriment to their goals.

rippermcrip829d ago

EA hasn't shown innovation in any of their sports franchises in many years, so I find it hard to believe FIFA people are holding back game innovation.

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shaenoide829d ago

What is Apple... Just 5 letters on a box... And a fruit

plmkoh829d ago

I think Andrew Wilson should remember that he's only the CEO today because he created one the most abusive system possible on FIFA fans.

This is literally a grifter complaining about the Italian Mafia.

829d ago
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230°

Take-Two CEO Doesn’t Think AI Will Reduce Employment or Dev Costs; “Stupidest Thing” He’s Heard

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn't think AI will reduce employment or lower development costs, and calls it "stupidest thing" he's ever heard.

lodossrage17h ago(Edited 17h ago)

They already have AI trained to do coding.......

How he thinks it's stupid is beyond me, Especially since we see it happening in real time.

CS715h ago

Company A has 300 employees and lays of 200 to replace them with AI to release the same quality game.

Company B has 300 employees and keeps all 300 but instead uses AI to release a game with dramatically larger scale, scope, complexity, short dev cycle etc.

Company B would release a dramatically better product by using humans + AI and consumers would buy the better game.

I actually agree with this concept.

Huey_My_D_Long15h ago(Edited 15h ago)

This is key facet. Its how the AI is used. It's actually is impressive as is and really would make an amazing addition to alot of people in their jobs, not just tech. It also has the potential for businesses to use to lay off large amounts of people, as much as they could to save money on labor. I hope too many companies don't go with the latter. But since usually companies are worried about bottom line over people...we will see some try and hopefully fail. But yeah, if its to help workers like in your company B scenario I'm totally down...Just scared Company A may be too enticing to some ceos and businesses.

Darkegg14h ago

Value of AI and value of humans will both be increased with human-AI complex. Each, by themselves, will not be independently better than the other. Whether AI will ever be independent from humans is the fear question of humans, ironically because of our doing. At this stage, most of the doing is because of humans, not because of AI. AI is doing exactly that by our design, until we have failed ourselves with an AI development that went awry. The biggest take is that humans have only ourselves to blame when things become wrong, and we have to decide what is the ultimate goal with AI we want to accomplish. It would take a person with high morals and high ethics to make right of AI. I would not want businessman to decide what AI should do or what capabilities it can have. AI should be in the hands of people with high moral fiber, or those operating on love, kindness, and compassion.

BlackOni14h ago

AI is SUPPOSED to be used as a tool, not a replacement. It's designed to do two important things artists can take advantage of immediately.

- Make the ideation/reference imaging process much quicker and easier (basically using it as a google search)
- Make mundane and time consuming tasks faster and easier so more time is spent on creation.

Unfortunately, what many have done is used it as a way to replace rather than supplement.

Einhander197211h ago(Edited 11h ago)

CS7

In the ideal world yes.

In the real world where companies have shown little desire to innovate and spent every effort to maximize profits the end result will be the same quality games (if were lucky) made by less people and more AI.

Company Real World: Fires 200 people and makes the same game cheaper using AI and the executives get record bonuses.

Edit:

Lets look at history, specifically auto manufacturing.

In the 70's and 80's the auto unions tried to oppose automation of jobs (robots) stating that they would take peoples jobs. And the people in charge who wanted to make more money said the exact same types of things that are being said about AI. But we can look at history and see that countless types of jobs were in fact replaced by automation, that was of course even compounded upon by computers.

The net effect was that the rich got richer less jobs were needed so wages were forced down by competition for the jobs that were left.

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Number1TailzFan15h ago

You can already make your own SFX with text prompts now as well, of course it will lower development cost and time

1Victor15h ago(Edited 15h ago)

WARNING WARNING ‼️ SARCASM AHEAD
Sure Strauss and robots didn’t take jobs from car factories.
Edit:Sad thing is he believes it and unfortunately he won’t be replaced for a long time by AI

senorfartcushion13h ago(Edited 13h ago)

He doesn't, he's just lying. These people lay people off so they can get bonuses. If AI takes jobs, their bonus goes bigger and the workforce goes smaller.

porkChop11h ago

Because he sees AI as a tool to aid development. He wants to use AI to help make bigger and better games in the same timeframe. Other CEOs want to replace devs with AI to cut costs and make lifeless games faster for a quick buck. Strauss has the right idea, this is how AI should be used. To extend and expand the capabilities of devs.

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jambola17h ago

Ceo says stupid thing
Part 5837384

Zeref15h ago(Edited 15h ago)

I think maybe sometimes we give people in these positions too much credit when it comes to intelligence.

romulus2315h ago

As long as it doesn't effect his inflated executive salary or his ridiculous bonuses I'm sure he's fine with it.

RNTody15h ago

Hahaha yeah trust the CEO suit over the actual developers making the games. Good one.

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340°

Trying to push players over from PC to console is a terrible idea, PlayStation

As PlayStation announces its new strategy to encourage PC users to choose PS5 it is a bitter-sweet moment for PC gamers.

Christopher2d ago

I mean, it's a business based on hardware market. Do we expect them to not even try? It's not like Nintendo doesn't do the same by not putting any games on PC and Microsoft until recently did the same. I don't care what they attempt, as long as they don't abuse the community or lie about their goals/requirements.

Will it work? Not likely. Should we care? No. Let them waste their time, it doesn't affect anything.

RaidenBlack2d ago

let them try ... at the end of the day, we get few extra PC games ... yay ... and also promotes game preservation via PC ... so double yay.

LordoftheCritics1d 20h ago

If only Playstation games provided the ease of pc gaming features.

Primary being very few PS games support m/kb.

Christopher1d 13h ago

If only PC games supported controllers more. Main reason I play primarily on console. So many games have shit support on PC. Playing Dark Envoy now, and it's quite frustrating since I have to switch to keyboard during cut scenes just to make sure advancing conversation doesn't also auto-select a decision. Let alone it's quite rough to select between characters and inventory screens are bad bad bad.

Anywho, similar complaints for both I find. But, I 100% agree that both PC and consoles should support both as best as possible.

crazyCoconuts1d 8h ago

PS may push more kb support in the future to get more PC converts, we'll see.

Flewid6381d 7h ago

As someone with a high end PC, I feel like the ease is on PS5. Too many PC games are a troubleshooting nightmare, which few people have the time for when all you want to do is pop in a game & play it.

Yui_Suzumiya23h ago(Edited 23h ago)

I just use an Xbox controller on my laptop for everything 😆 .. I haven't used a keyboard / mouse combo for PC gaming since 1996

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LordoftheCritics1d 12h ago (Edited 1d 12h ago )

I don't think you understand what I mean by the lack of m/kb support on PS.

Over a thousand titles have PS controller support on PC.

Not even 30 titles have m/kb support on PS5.

Once you are done with the single player title, you'll go back to playing your daily shooter/looter/mmo etc which the pc gamer has mastered with their mouse and keyboard.
Why would any pc gamer make the switch?

jznrpg1d 3h ago (Edited 1d 3h ago )

PC is secondary to PlayStation for them. Mouse and keyboard would affect development. Live service will have it but most single player games aren’t going to have it as PC is not the focus

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Fishy Fingers2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

I wish them the best of luck.

But PC players are often a patient bunch, many will even wait for Epic launcher exclusivity to end until a game comes to Steam.

If they didnt buy the console when its games were exclusive, why would they do it now theyre not?

MrNinosan1d 22h ago

Way more do than you probably think.

ravens521d 22h ago

All you need is that one game that'll make a few switch at a time. Like a game a PC player REALLY wants.

porkChop1d 9h ago

It just doesn't work that way though. Plenty of the best games ever made were never available on PC. That didn't make PC gamers buy consoles to play them. This kind of strategy has never worked in the past and it won't work now. It's fine for PS to hold their games back and release on PC later, but to think that will boost console sales is wishful thinking. All this will accomplish is some double dipping, which is obviously good for business.

JackBNimble1d 9h ago (Edited 1d 9h ago )

People aren't going to switch from pc to ps5, why would anyone do that for a game?
Most sony exclusives aren't all that to begin with, and pc has the option to upgrade what they want when they want it. Having access to some ps5 games, gamepass and steam.

Thinking this would happen is naive

outsider16241d 18h ago

I mean if there's 10 million pc gamers out there...getting atleast just 1 million from there is probably a good thing..right?

romulus231d 16h ago

PC players are not a monolith, I don't know why people keep thinking they speak for the entirety of all PC gamers like they all know each other personally. You think out of the millions of PC gamers not one single person will be impatient?Well Sony is willing to bet there will be. Why would they do it now? People's feelings change and new PC gamers come along all the time that may also feel different about waiting, that's why.

Yui_Suzumiya23h ago

Just like how I'm waiting for Alan Wake II to hit Steam 😆

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-Foxtrot2d ago

PC gamers are just too patient and loyal to their gaming set ups, something they've spent a lot of money on to perfect. They have backlogs of games which many never get round to finishing or get round to at all and will always have other multiplatform releases to keep them going.

Over the many years Sony has published so many awesome titles such as The Last of Us, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, Infamous, Killzone, LittleBigPlanet, Dreams, Puppeteer, Resistance, Heavy Rain, Gran Turismo, Motor Storm, God of War, Horizon, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, Bloodborne

If none of those games BEFORE all these PC ports convinced a hardcore PC gamer to get a PS5 console then why on Earth would porting them them to PC now make any difference? All PC gamers now know 100% is that they just have to be patient, which they are good at anyway to get a PS5 game 2 years later.

I get GaaS games or multiplayer focused titles but if people really want to play these games they'd have gotten a PS console years ago.

Crows901d 19h ago

Not sure they're aiming to convince the hardcore PC gamer.

Not sure why people are obsessing over his comment...it seems pretty simple to me.

He will do all he can to entice gamers to move to his ecosystem. As you say....exclusives existing hasn't moved many gamers over. But if they get to try them and love the games then they might change their mind about waiting 2 years.

We're in an echo chamber on this site...I've Personally seen people with Xbox and PC setups but no PlayStation. I've also seen people with small PC setups but no console. Not every pc gamer invests thousands and many may decide to put one in the living room.

They're not looking to convince all of players to buy a PlayStation...just a few...and really it is just a PR statement after all...they have to give a reason why single player won't release day 1....not to mention they also have to ensure current PlayStation gamers don't jump ship to PC. It goes both ways and they're ignoring the big L by putting any of their games off their platform.

anast1d 18h ago

"Not sure they're aiming to convince the hardcore PC gamer."

Right here

Kakashi Hatake1d 18h ago

PC gamers think tomorrow is promised. Sorry, don't have time for that.

Michiel19891d 17h ago

it's not just about loyalty or sunk cost, pc is an open platform while consoles are closed platforms. If you for example want to mod, you will play on pc, no question about it. Also if you like indie games, steam is a fucking goldmine for that. I've been playing a lot of indie games over the last years and there just seems to be an endless amount of them on steam. Also not having games locked to a certain fps is a prettty big deal for me and I assume a lot of other pc players.

Walalon1d 16h ago

And don't forget steam sales, you can get a ton of games on an awesome price.

badz1491d 7h ago

@Walalon

Sony has been doing sales constantly on the PS Store nowadays.

jznrpg1d 3h ago (Edited 1d 3h ago )

@Walalon Steam sales are basically the same as PS sales. I was going to buy a Steam Deck and I heard about these Steam sales but the games I was interested in were not any cheaper. Indie games were cheap and older AAA were cheap but the same can be said for PS store sales. I didn’t end up getting the Steam Deck as there weren’t any games that I wanted to play that wasn’t already on PS and prices aren’t much different

romulus231d 16h ago

And how do you know out of the millions of PC gamers that not one single person ever went ahead and bought a PlayStation console for one or more of those games? People keep speaking for the entirety of millions of PC gamers like they know them all personally. Here's one example for you, I'm currently typing on a recently purchased PC that cost me over twenty five hundred dollars and is more than capable of running any game including Sony exclusives that come to PC and yet I still bought a PS5 so apparently I'm not patient or loyal enough to my set up, hope it's not mad at me for not being loyal.

jznrpg1d 3h ago

Some of those people will consider getting a PS5 some wont. I was a PC gamer for a long time and I’m a console only gamer now. Everyone’s different.

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helicoptergirl2d ago

Who cares? Then just stay on PC and play the waiting game. No big deal. Sony wins in the end anyway.

Melankolis6h ago

Yup. If the strategy doesnt work, all they have to do is to change their mind, publish the games on PC, and they still win anyway.

Number1TailzFan2d ago

I mean if there's any single player Sony games that I actually want that aren't on PC then I would buy said console to play them on. But the ones that I like that aren't on PC are few and far between anyway so no loss for me.

If I game, it's usually multiplayer titles, otherwise I like playing around with some other software.

Amplitude1d 13h ago (Edited 1d 13h ago )

Astro Bot is the game that just did it for me. I'm gonna have to grab a PS5 again for that.

I did this for Ratchet Rift Apart too but ended up selling the PS5 after getting my plat. Rebought it on PC and other than GoW Ragnarok and Horizon FW (which eventually I could get anyway), I haven't had a reason to downgrade my graphics, controller features, ease of recording, and increase my game costs and monthly subscriptions throughout this entire generation.

I play on a TV with a controller but this has been the absolute worst console gen for both consoles. Never in my life thought I'd be a PC gamer but I've been spoiled by the cheap costs, cross-platform controllers and mostly the unbelievably useful Steam controller config.

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50°

ARK: Survival Ascended Premium Mods on Consoles Q&A - By 2030, Time Spent on UGC Will Be Way Bigger

ARK: Survival Ascended has introduced Premium Mods on consoles. Wccftech talked to Studio Wildcard and their partner Overwolf about the rising importance of user-generated content, especially for live service games.

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