Electronic Arts used to be THE most evil gaming empire in the whole of gamingdom.  EA may have lost that title to Activision in recent years, but it seems EA is seeking to reclaim that title.  With a series of unpopular press statements commenting on the need to focus on existing franchises, mass world-wide redundancies, the closure of Pandemic Studios weeks from the release of The Saboteur, and with more Need For Speed games speeding our way than are really needed, you may be forgiven for thinking the bad times are back again.

Find out whether EA have been deliberately losing friends and EAlienating people, after the jump…

A quick history lesson for those not in the know, here’s an abridged history of Electronic Arts:

Trip Hawkins left Apple to set up a software company.  After successfully borrowing some money from some rich people and after rejecting the names SoftArts, Blue Light (a Tron reference), and Electronic Artists, the name Electronic Arts was chosen to reflect Trip’s recognition of game developers as artists.

When Trip left, Electronic Arts was put through the business blender by Larry Probst.  The business was streamlined. It was streamlined so much so, that in the following years that they did not have time for the “lectronic rts” part of their name anymore, as the new EA were too busy pioneering then pumping out annual releases of their biggest franchises.

They may have lost friends with some ethically questionable business tactics, like signing exclusivity deals with all the major sports franchises, and they may have tested their fans patience, but hey, even with a bad public image, it is easier to sleep at night when your bank balance is so healthy.

Probst departed and his chosen successor John Riccitello announced that the company was to be re-organized into four labels, given more creative freedom and a goal of quality, quick to market games. The re-focusing of resources towards new IP and the acquisition of popular developers such as Bioware, have certainly helped with EA’s public image and pretty much removed the taint of evil from the EA name.

If you were expecting to find an article bashing EA for it’s latest decisions, then you have a ticket to the wrong party.  I feel for the over 1500 people who have lost their jobs in the recent layoffs but the argument of  whether the games industry is “recession proof” or not, has been well and truly answered as – NO.

While the economy can be partly to blame for the sharp drop in EA’s profits (so much so that they are more accurately described as losses) and I am sure some blame must be laid with EA management, but the employees and individual studios must be accountable for their actions too.  This is a fact supported if we can believe recent comments made by an supposed ex-Pandemic developer on NeoGaf.  He commented that blame lay with Pandemic’s (mis-)management.  The last game Pandemic developed I played and liked was one of their first, Full Spectrum Warrior and their subsequent titles were generally substandard.  The “alleged” developer also went on to say the studio’s “best game yet: – The Saboteur – has been sent out to die”.  However, judging by my fellow SG writer Pillowfort’s reaction to his brief hands-on time, this title may have been DOA in all shades of grey.

It may be easy to point fingers and say “big, evil money making corporations do bad things” (see – I just said it) but like it or not, computer games are big business these days. EA became a big business by being good at what they do.  Big businesses make big decisions, and some of the decisions will be unpopular – because you can not please all the people you affect, all the time.  EA have, generally over the years, made the right business decisions more often than not – even if it was not always popular.

The reality of the situation is as an independent developer, you have even less scope to get things wrong.  There are many recent examples of previously successful developers closing studios after just one unsuccessful game – Pandemic had more than their fair share; don’t hate the big business player – hate the bad game.

Now with that in mind, how did EA manage to still find time to offend me?  See page two for details…

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