Sure, there’s always petitions, negative Metacritic ratings, infamous consumer studies and more, but at the end of the day almost all decision-making power remains with these mammoth commercial entities. Take EA’s 2013 performance as an example. The publishing powerhouse endured not one, but two major controversies last year, when it botched the release of both SimCity and later, Battlefield 4.
Despite issuing a series of vague-at-best explanations and apologies, a recent interview conducted by RockPaperShotgun appears to find the company in a largely unrepentant mood. Taken at this year’s D.I.C.E developers summit in Las Vegas, the lightning quick Q & A begins with an open criticism of both episodes, an opinion EA’s chief creative officer Rich Hilleman fails to share:
Knee-jerk reaction or not, it’s likely many early adopters would describe their experiences of SimCity and Battlefield 4 as “bad.” Hilleman’s attempts to defend the games as high quality products essentially side-steps the real issue: the question of whether ill-considered limitations and poor planning hampered the potential enjoyment of both titles.
“But I’m not willing to accept — and I don’t think most of my customers are willing to say — “it’s a bad product, I wish I didn’t buy it.” That’s not the conversation we’re having now. I think what we’re hearing is, “You made a game we really liked. We would’ve liked it a little better if it didn’t have these problems.” Many of those problems we can fix, and we have and will.”
Asked how the company intends to improve upon its internal testing, Hilleman continued:
Interestingly, Hilleman goes on to state that the “80” percent change in development process between console generations will also affect the “next major number release for Battlefield.” We hope that his optimism is grounded, but no one will argue that a company can’t avoid past mistakes unless they fully acknowledge them.
“The obvious and glaring issues — the ones we heard most about from our customers, the ones that matter most to them — we’ve really gotten on top of those and they’re fixed. What is most important is to know how to not have the problem next time, and that’s kinda what I’m proudest about.”
Are Hilleman’s statements intended to create breathing room for future failures? Is EA willfully ignoring the concerns of its customers? How can the company better address its issues in public? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check in with all of the latest EA news, right here on Game Rant.
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Source: RockPaperShotgun
