The Electronic Arts Revival

Once upon a time, I was a wee lad in college applying for internships.  I had an interview with EA over the phone, at the end of which they asked me if I had any questions.  I asked them what they thought they were doing to advance the medium of Video Games.

They didn’t like that so much.

See, inherent in a question like that is the implication that I don’t really think you ARE doing anything to advance the medium, because if I did, I wouldn’t have needed to ask.  The interviewers mumbled something about graphics, and we ended the interview there, neither of us being particularly impressed with the other.  I went to go work for Microsoft instead, which eventually resulted in my position with Xbox now.

EA has in the past decade purchased and then eviscerated some of the most best and most promising studios the world had to offer.  In addition to this lovely practice, they had the unfortunate habit of working their employees to death and discarding their burnt out husks, primarily on insipid franchises which change only incrementally from year to year, and yet are released for full price.

John Riccitiello said he was going to turn this around.  Apparently I’ve assumed that CEOs and Politicians seems to share the trait of spewing whatever bullshit the public wants to hear, but it seems EA has actually gone and done it.

Dead Space, above, looks scary and fucking awesome.  Do you know that this game is banned in three countries?  That’s a far cry from the policies of the old EA.  Spore (say no more) comes out on Sunday.  Mirror’s Edge, a critically acclaimed first person runner, is a game that does not contain the color green.  BattleForge is an RTS that uses a collectible card game mechanic to drive gameplay (through micro-transactions even).

EA, you’ve either totally lost your shit, or you’re starting a Renaissance.  Either way, I forgive your past sins, and I look forward to what you’ve got to say for yourself in the future.