@Thanotos Omega
Yeah I would’ve thought after all that we’ve learned about the inner workings of development studios over the past five years that developers are just as culpable of shitty things in our games as publishers. Look at the development of Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem for example: EA was pretty hands-off for the most part, yet Bioware couldn’t get its shit together in either case.
“B-But the forced use of Frostbite!”
While true, I don’t think it was as ‘forced’ as people make it out to be. EA would prefer an internal engine to one where they have to pay Epic or Bethesda or Crytek, but from the exposés on both MEA and Anthem, EA wasn’t “use Frostbite or else!” but more “we’d prefer you to use Frostbite, because it would be good for both us and you too.” And if there was coercion, then it shows the weaknesses in Bioware’s leadership by them not putting their feet down and saying “using Frostbite will make things much harder than they need to be. We will save more time and money by using Unreal, which is an engine we’re all familiar with, so even after license fees to Epic, we’ll still end up making more money.”
And that’s just Bioware. A lot of other developers are in the same position due to bad company culture and/or shitty or weak-willed leadership.
@Goku Black
Yes because apparently those companies were so much better when owned by westerners. Remind me again of what EA’s developer body count is at this point?
The problem isn’t who owns these giant publishers or where they come from, but the
tone at the top that these publishers engender.