• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

EA May Face Legal Action Over Battlefield 4 - Tomshardware

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
dpodblood said:
Not if their stock prices drop through the floor due to pushing a defective product out the door. I believe that's the whole point of the lawsuit?

And let's face it most of the people who are interested in BF4 would have bought it regardless of whether it was released before christmas or sometime in the new year.
Click to expand...

It didn't drop because of that. It dropped because they announced that they would halt DLC development. They could of just kept going with DLC development with a buggy products and investors wouldn't give a damn. You think they care about the perils of gamers?
 
Quite possibly my last EA game that I'll ever purchase... I do respect DICE, which is why I went ahead and purchased but EA is so damn evil across the board.
 
TallBill said:
Quite possibly my last EA game that I'll ever purchase... I do respect DICE, which is why I went ahead and purchased but EA is so damn evil across the board.
Click to expand...

I havent purchased an EA game since Mass Effect. And only because other people actually worked on the game itself and EA just distributed it.
 
Bateluer said:
Christ help me, I'm going to defend EA and Dice. Putting a hold on DLC and expansions for BF4 until the game's bugs are ironed out is probably the smartest move that company has done in the past decade. These investors are idiots, companies have to support their products. When a product is released to market in a broken state, they are obligated to fix it. Not doing so will cause them more later. Isn't investing supposed to entail a little long term planning?
Click to expand...

I think this fact highlights the main problem with EA. The executives aren't stupid. They may not be gamers, and are probably all greedy SOBs (see microtransaction quote), but in general they understand the value of marketing and the damage of their recent controversies and want to avoid it. At the same time, however, investors care even less and just want a quick return at all costs. That means shoving products out as fast as possible.

So anyone who's anyone at EA is caught trying to balance the two. Talk about a rock and a hard place.
 
TallBill said:
Quite possibly my last EA game that I'll ever purchase... I do respect DICE, which is why I went ahead and purchased but EA is so damn evil across the board.
Click to expand...

Meh, even I'll bite when Star Wars Battlefront 3 comes out. At least I'll bite 6 months after release when the most severe bugs have been patched. 😛
 
PrincessFrosty said:
EA pretending the beta test isn't anything but a sales pitch to get more pre orders on board, if they really cared about beta testing they'd release the beta early on, they'd take continual feedback, they'd iterate through fixes during the beta phase and to get the best coverage possible they'd just open it to the public.

The beta phase for BFBC2 was especially good, Dice opened up the demo to the entire world comprising of most of the in game assets and mechanics played over a few maps, most of the issues were fixed for launch which gave gamers a decent jump off point for what turned out to be an amazing multiplayer experience.

I'm glad I didn't touch BF3 despite being a long term fan of the series and I knew even before the BF4 launch not to go anywhere near it, EA destroy literally everything they touch, anyone who hasn't learned this yet is either an insufferable fanboy or is plain demented.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the slow reply been busy with real life.
I will echo your comments. I think EA has gotten too big or just plain too
Big for its britches. The market is so dang competitive now.
I would rather a company delay a launch instead of launching games with so many bugs. I am glad Watchdogs got delayed to improve the quality of the final product. EA should have taken a hint from that situation but instead rushed the game.
 
Bateluer said:
Christ help me, I'm going to defend EA and Dice. Putting a hold on DLC and expansions for BF4 until the game's bugs are ironed out is probably the smartest move that company has done in the past decade. These investors are idiots, companies have to support their products. When a product is released to market in a broken state, they are obligated to fix it. Not doing so will cause them more later. Isn't investing supposed to entail a little long term planning?
Click to expand...

The issue is that EA shouldn't have been in this situation in the first place.
They are attempting to put out the fires.
 
Bateluer said:
Christ help me, I'm going to defend EA and Dice. Putting a hold on DLC and expansions for BF4 until the game's bugs are ironed out is probably the smartest move that company has done in the past decade. These investors are idiots, companies have to support their products. When a product is released to market in a broken state, they are obligated to fix it. Not doing so will cause them more later. Isn't investing supposed to entail a little long term planning?
Click to expand...

I believe the issue is EA management decided to release a faulty product, which in turn caused led to the stock falling. An investor should probably be concerned that the people running the company are making questionable decisions which is losing them money.

I'm not sure how a lawsuit fixes this though. I dont know anything about finances, but I would think the proper course of action would be to initiate a vote for a change of leadership at a shareholder meeting or something. Maybe this lawsuit is one step in that direction. And they are investigating the merits for a lawsuit, so nothing has really happened at the moment.
 
Childs said:
I believe the issue is EA management decided to release a faulty product, which in turn caused led to the stock falling. An investor should probably be concerned that the people running the company are making questionable decisions which is losing them money.
Click to expand...

The price of the stock was impacted by the DLC delay. The DLC delay has a negative impact on their revenue stream which displeased investors. The suit isn't about quality, it's about money.
 
darkewaffle said:
The price of the stock was impacted by the DLC delay. The DLC delay has a negative impact on their revenue stream which displeased investors. The suit isn't about quality, it's about money.
Click to expand...

But it all steams from releasing an unfinished product, knowing that it isn't ready and releasing it anyways. That kind of short term thinking leads creates a bunch of related problems down the line, like DLC income and the stock price falling. If you are telling your investors they expect x amount of money from DLC, but cant sell that DLC because the game is unplayable, thats a failure in management. Sales of BF4 might even be lower than projected due to quality issues. Their decision to release BF4 in a crappy state has led to EA's stock price falling 7.5%, and it'll most likely drop even further now that they cannot hit their financial forecasts.
 
To me it's not completely clear whether the stock fall was directly tied to the announcement that they are halting other projects but either way, it wasn't a smart move.

The whole thing is a mess. I've pretty much stopped playing because of crashes. When it worked, it was epic at times, especially when I was rolling with other ATOT members. But since then, not only do the crashes and bugs continue to diminish the experience, they managed to introduce a few new imbalanced features.

I'm under the impression EA/DICE's left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. On one hand, they went to great lengths to setup the whole Phantom/Megalodon thing, on the other, they have a broken game to fix making that entire effort futile.
 
Childs said:
But it all steams from releasing an unfinished product, knowing that it isn't ready and releasing it anyways. That kind of short term thinking leads creates a bunch of related problems down the line, like DLC income and the stock price falling. If you are telling your investors they expect x amount of money from DLC, but cant sell that DLC because the game is unplayable, thats a failure in management. Sales of BF4 might even be lower than projected due to quality issues. Their decision to release BF4 in a crappy state has led to EA's stock price falling 7.5%, and it'll most likely drop even further now that they cannot hit their financial forecasts.
Click to expand...

DICE has already announced that the release date for the game was controlled internally and was not mandated by EA. Further, pushing back a blockbuster title like BF and potentially missing Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Christmas/etc would be a far more damaging situation - the customers don't get their game and their bottomline takes a huge hit from missing such a lucrative window. I think they took the best course of action for both parties and are getting railed for it anyway.

The problem here is that the "g4mers" want to think the suit is somehow done "on their behalf" when nothing could be further from the truth - they just mindlessly support anything that they think will affect a big company negatively. But the investors don't give a shit about the game or the people playing it, they care about the bottom line. And it's exactly this kind of behavior that people are constantly complaining 'ruins' companies or games - financially driven shareholder influence. That is, until it "benefits" them and it's ok because all that matters is "lol screw EA!".

The fact of the matter is that putting a hold on the DLC and taking ownership of the problem and prioritizing getting it fixed is the best thing they could have done for the people playing the game, the gamer - their customer. They did right by "you". And yet here those same people are hopping the fence as soon as they get the chance and siding with the shareholders - whom they so devoutly oppose typically - all for a chance to slam EA. It's either astonishing hypocrisy or ignorance, I can't really tell which.
 
darkewaffle said:
The fact of the matter is that putting a hold on the DLC and taking ownership of the problem and prioritizing getting it fixed is the best thing they could have done for the people playing the game, the gamer - their customer. They did right by "you". And yet here those same people are hopping the fence as soon as they get the chance and siding with the shareholders - whom they so devoutly oppose typically - all for a chance to slam EA. It's either astonishing hypocrisy or ignorance, I can't really tell which.
Click to expand...

It is ignorance, but on your part. What EA did wrong is lie to both the gamers and their investors. So, in this instance the gamers and the investors share a common grievance. EA told all of us that they were releasing a finished game in time for the holiday shopping season, when it turns out that they did no such thing.

Oh, they released a game, but it can hardly be called finished. So, the investors are mad at them because they were robbed of the ability to make a informed investment, and the gamers are mad at them for the exact same reason.

This just shows us that it is not just the gamers that EA is willing to screw, but their investors as well. The difference is the investors have the power to make EA pay for it.
 
darkewaffle said:
DICE has already announced that the release date for the game was controlled internally and was not mandated by EA. Further, pushing back a blockbuster title like BF and potentially missing Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Christmas/etc would be a far more damaging situation - the customers don't get their game and their bottomline takes a huge hit from missing such a lucrative window. I think they took the best course of action for both parties and are getting railed for it anyway.
Click to expand...

If they have announced a while ago that they were releasing in January or March, I doubt the stock would have fallen as much as it has. The decision to release when it did has more to do with COD's release. I doubt DICE tells EA when they are going to release the game, and not the other way around.

The problem here is that the "g4mers" want to think the suit is somehow done "on their behalf" when nothing could be further from the truth - they just mindlessly support anything that they think will affect a big company negatively. But the investors don't give a shit about the game or the people playing it, they care about the bottom line. And it's exactly this kind of behavior that people are constantly complaining 'ruins' companies or games - financially driven shareholder influence. That is, until it "benefits" them and it's ok because all that matters is "lol screw EA!".
Click to expand...

Strictly from an investor point of view, I can see how some of EA's decisions could be negatively effecting their investment. ME3 -> Sim City 5 -> BF4. One blunder after another. After a certain point the EA name is just going to be toxic, which in itself wouldn't effect too much as long as they are giving a good return on an investment. But when the blunders start effecting the stock price, thats when something needs to be changed. I'm just not sure how a lawsuit fixes that, unless its laying the foundation for stockholder revolt. But I admit I dont know how any of this works, its been awhile since I've seen Wall Street.

The fact of the matter is that putting a hold on the DLC and taking ownership of the problem and prioritizing getting it fixed is the best thing they could have done for the people playing the game, the gamer - their customer. They did right by "you". And yet here those same people are hopping the fence as soon as they get the chance and siding with the shareholders - whom they so devoutly oppose typically - all for a chance to slam EA. It's either astonishing hypocrisy or ignorance, I can't really tell which.
Click to expand...

I would think investors are bottom line kind of people. In hindsight, the best thing would have been to delay the launch, ensuring the best product, preserving the BF/EA brand, and ensuring future sales via DLC and sequels. But they only come to that conclusion when the money grab fails. You can't do right by gamers and investors if that hasnt been your corporate philosophy from the beginning. EA is in a pickle, as they are getting it from both the customer base and investors. Best solution is simply to do a better job with the games they release. Maybe lawsuits from investors get them to do a better job.

What EA should have done is spun it like they were releasing Battlefield 4.1, with numerous improvements and improved stability. And its a free upgrade, which will support all future DLC. But saying no DLC until the game is fixed means no DLC income to an investor. What's kinda surprising that this is what caused a drop in stock price, and not any of the other issues with Sim City or Mass Effect. Maybe it did, and this is the proverbial straw that broke the camels back.
 
What strikes me is that EA was part of the botched SimCity launch which drew a lot of attention. BF4 is mostly there from a feature perspective and has been playable for the majority I believe from day one. I really think it's an across the board issue and Dice is just the latest victim, though I wonder why EA didn't try to throw some free games around to appease people.
 
what you fail to realize is that EA first responsibility is to increase shareholder wealth, not to appease gamers.

Shareholders today live quarter to quarter. If the stock price takes a dip it means shareholders are selling their stock but no one else buying. Notice the stock did not drop until they said no DLC. That is what pissed off shareholders, next quarter will probably not meet projected sales therefore the shareholder wealth will not be increased.

I did not read the article to know what the suit states but I would imagine it says something about not meeting fiduciary responsibility. The shareholders expect the DLC to meet projections and now EA said that won't happen on schedule. Enough investors said forget this and they pulled their money to put it elsewhere, price drops and EA failed to increase shareholder wealth...
 
I haven't had that many problems with BF4 compared to some. But there are still obvious bugs and problems with the game and even some of the basics of how the game works. We have come a long way since release. It feels like where the game is now is where they should have released the public beta.
 
"What I would say is, games are becoming more and more complex – even though we'll run a beta and we'll do massive amounts of testing, there are certain things, especially in an online-focused environment, that you won't catch. I wish I could day that we will, but I don't think we'll ever catch everything."
Click to expand...

RAGE! I HATE this kind of crap. It's the same patent rubbish we were fed when GTA V when live with a widespread garage glitch. Nobody denies that not every esoteric issue can be found, but widespread ones that affect a lot of people are not acceptable and this excuse is bogus. I guaran-f**king-tee you that when this game went live there were still many unsolved defects in their defect tracking system. And not just tiny ones that are not really of any relevance, but big ones.

A lawsuit based on buggy software is hard to win; since all software has some bugs somewhere, it's hard to say when a customer has gotten what they bought or not. I will say with the GTA V garage nonsense, and what I've heard about BF4 it is starting to teach me to never buy a game when it goes live. Give it at least a month for them to actually finish it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top