EA taking control of dice

[Vapour]

Digital Illusions to continue work on Battlefield franchise and new projects

Electronic Arts has completed its acquisition of Stockholm-based development team Digital Illusions CE, a move it started officially in March of this year.

The Battlefield developer will now become a fully integrated EA studio, where it will work on developing further content for the popular military franchise, as well as creating new products for PC and next-generation consoles.

"EA is thrilled to officially welcome this team of incredibly talented people and a globally recognised franchises," said Paul Lee, president of EA Worldwide Studios.

"We're confident that our creative approach and business leadership principles are well matched to share future success," he added.

Electronic Arts had tried to acquire the developer back in 2004, but shareholders rejected the publishers' offer despite it being recommended by Digital Illusions board of directors. Both companies have since worked out differences in order to successfully merge.

Digital Illusions latest title, Battlefield 2142, is due for release in Europe on October 20th.

[wihadmin]

I don't know about you guys, but I see this as bad news. When DICE is a separate entity, they can at least do what they want to a certain degree. But now, EA is in full control of everything from start to end.

While we host EA produced games, I still find they way EA consumes other gaming companies alarming. Soon enough, all games will be from EA.

[Vxsery]

Related Link: http://dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4400

[juuh77]

I don't know about you guys, but I see this as bad news. When DICE is a separate entity, they can at least do what they want to a certain degree. But now, EA is in full control of everything from start to end.

While we host EA produced games, I still find they way EA consumes other gaming companies alarming. Soon enough, all games will be from EA.

We agree on that. I have noticed that when EA gets ahold of a company things kinda go down hill. Mind you as a whole i like EA they put out some good games and will make even better ones. ITs just the efectiveness of Dice will go down as a whole since now they have to go EA's way.

[Drayu]

EA is too large to produce good games. The smaller companies looking to make a mark usually put out the good stuff.....ie DICE back in the day with 1942.

[LordBeer]

Yeah, I can't say I'm real excited about this news. It just makes me believe that EA will crank out the next Battlefield game even faster. I fully expect it to become something like Madden has.

I agree with wihadmin. I wish EA would work focus on what they have instead of buying out more developers. I miss the games that Origin used to make. Remember Westwood studios? I fear that that might happen to UbiSoft in the future.

:thumbsdown:

[Eddy_The_Shakey]

I Love EA Games, but there needs to be a stop to the growth, it is becoming crazy. Pretty soon i think EA will be able to jack up the prices of their games cause they are such a large influence in the gaming world. And no one will be able to fight it. One big Monopoly!

[Ichi]

I say in less than two years EA will cut Dice's staff in half and in three years it go the way of spectrum holobyte, microprose and other great gaming companies that got gobbled up.

[DigitalBacon]

Poor DICE :(

[reaper214]

I don't want everything to be EA, and Battlefield 1942 was real good.

[kilroy0097]

EA Corporate is nothing more than a machine looking at the bottom line. There are blogs and emails leaked about EA's practice and how they treat their employees. Impossible deadlines lead to shabby workmanship. They will press their little companies beneath them and will attempt to squeeze out every bit of blood from their soon to be corpses. EA is a vampire and with each new license they buy they drain the life from another victim.

DICE is now part of the machine. Either they will be given a lot more funding which might lead to a larger more capable staff even though the deadline is faster. Or else they will be driven into the ground by the might of EA and will die with their last breath asking for more stones. (If you don't get the reference you haven't read enough literature.)

I feel sorry for DICE. But the dollar can blind even the most pios of men.

[deRougemont]

EA Corporate is nothing more than a machine looking at the bottom line.

Yep. To make a historical reference, this is similar to early European industrialization. The old artisan classes that made their products with pride, producing goods slowly but with care and quality were bought and squeezed out of the market by factory owners (at that time a new concept). Thereafter it was no longer a matter of a producer pouring his life into a craft for monetary as well as spiritual and aesthetical reasons, but rather a matter of simply bloating the "bottom line" with cheap, low quality goods. Thus the old school artisan was morphed into a dispensible human machine. Artisan: Dice. Soulless factory owner: EA. Sad...

:(

p.s. Some of you mentioned the old game producers; wow, memories. And what great games they made for their time!

[Drayu]

I wonder if DICE will now go the way of TRAUMA Studios. Damn EA buying just for the name.

[juuh77]

You can't totaly blame EA on all of this. If those designers don't like the end product under EA then they can always leave and start a new company. Look at the guys sony fired when they started EQ2. They went and made vanguard and it looks to be better then any mmorpg on the market when it releases in january.

[kilroy0097]

You can't totaly blame EA on all of this. If those designers don't like the end product under EA then they can always leave and start a new company. Look at the guys sony fired when they started EQ2. They went and made vanguard and it looks to be better then any mmorpg on the market when it releases in january.

If you have the ability to do so and you have the capital to do so and if the publishing company doesn't OWN the title name then yes you can do this.

DICE is poor compared to EA. DICE was offered more money than they have ever seen by EA. EA has bought their soul and always buys the name of the product. Hence the name Battlefield in the computer game genre is EA's property now. Even if DICE main employees and developers left EA to start another company they would have to do it from scratch with personal capital and they would not be able to use the franchise name or unique concepts in their new game.

EA has their soul. They are screwed.

[Ichi]

Yeah, most of the guys at DICE are one trick ponies, has DICE released any other non-battlefield games?

[LordBeer]

Midtown Madness 3 and the Rallysport Challenge games.

Never played Midtown but I did like the Rallysport games. Wish I hadn't lost the disk..

[Ruci]

I'm going to go against the grain and say... Not a big deal. Bf2142 will come out and it will be a fun game, and there will be some bugs. If DICE falls flat on their faces after selling their company to EA, then we start playing different games. All which have been influenced by battlefield's giant teamwork model.

Imho FPS games online have become mini-mmorpgs now. Which is fine for me since i like MMORPGs but i don't like spending oodles of time playing it. I do like the small rewards for playing over time on bf2142 and it's fun for me in the way i like playing video games.

Moral of the story? Ruci wins.

[Klickinater]

well, if EA keeps the DICE employees then maybe it will be like the same except a little more bugs (from EA) just that DICE has more money?

[KAstickboy]

Moral of the story? Ruci wins.

unless im on the other team! :lol: :flipoff: :mgboxedin:

KA

[wihadmin]

I read that EA closed DICE Canada office down. 28 people got the boot. I feel bad that people got let go, but damn! They turned out some crap!

[Vxsery]

it sucks to see anyone lose their jobs, but unfortunatly, they did not meet up to the quality DICE was expecting of them. So... the bigger question now is, who will be incharge of supporting BF2 if one last, difinitive patch is nessicary, or if they choose to continue expanding the game with booster packs. The boys in stokholm? They would have handle supporting game themselves if they weren't busy making 2142.... and now they have another new project for the xbox and ps3... so is bf2 now going to be left to slowly.... dare i say it... perish??

[[mAd]Dr.Death]

Man, I was at Frys yesterday buying some printer ink, but I decided to browse the computer and video game isles. Seems like more than half of the video games are produced by EA, and same goes for the computer games.

The bad part is that for PC games, the choices are either an EA game or a really crappy company game.

The sad part is that I used to absolutley love playing video games, but now they all look the same to me. I've got money to spend on new games right now, but there aren't any games that even appeal to me.

[[W33T] JimmytehHand8]

Dr.Death;148732']Man, I was at Frys yesterday buying some printer ink, but I decided to browse the computer and video game isles. Seems like more than half of the video games are produced by EA, and same goes for the computer games.

The bad part is that for PC games, the choices are either an EA game or a really crappy company game.

The sad part is that I used to absolutley love playing video games, but now they all look the same to me. I've got money to spend on new games right now, but there aren't any games that even appeal to me.

The really bad part is how certain companies are starting to shift towards Console games. Activision isn't releasing Call of Duty 3 for PC, just the consoles. Other companies are starting to shift this way. IMO all consoles are just dumbed down versions of computers. All the new-gens have built in harddrives. The difference is all the stuff in consoles are standardized parts and you have some of the power of a normal PC.

[kilroy0097]

JimmytehHand8;148738']The really bad part is how certain companies are starting to shift towards Console games. Activision isn't releasing Call of Duty 3 for PC, just the consoles. Other companies are starting to shift this way. IMO all consoles are just dumbed down versions of computers. All the new-gens have built in harddrives. The difference is all the stuff in consoles are standardized parts and you have some of the power of a normal PC.

Cheaper, easier and quicker to produce games for Consoles. Less money spent and more money gained. Until PCs have standards in hardware drivers and operation it takes a much more skilled team to put out the game for a PC. The meat of it is the same. Rendering, game production etc. However the team that makes it compatible with Direct X or works with NVDIA, ATI, SoundWorks to get all the drivers to work right, that's where the issue comes in. Because these companies don't like to work with gaming companies if their games aren't popular. The Hardware companies are snobs in a sense.