Is Bethesda becoming another EA?

[Something Amyss]

In the recent days Bethesda appears to be taking some vile pages from EA's 'Big book of appropriate business practices',

I swear, EA is the gaming equivalent of Hitler. Not in the sense that they are the worst person you could name, but every negative comparison seems to go to them. there needs to be some sort of Godwin's Law based on them, and I demand it be named after me.

"Oh shit, someone did something bad, it's like EA!"

EA eats sugar. Let's go there.

Moving on:

like the most recent PC release of Dawnguard - for 20 euro(that's 2/3 the price I paid for the full game on launch day).

They released what looks to be a beefy expansion to an already full and complete game that posesses a huge fanbase that will attest to the replay value and length of the game. In addition to releasing a full game, they did not release Day 1 DLC cut from the main game or include on-disk content unlocked for a fee (to my knowledge) or via online pass. Their EA-like DLC is priced somewhere between their non-EA DLC releases for TES IV, which was also not EA-like if we are to believe there is some progression here.

Yes, it's like looking at the horrific spectre of EA.

And the lawsuit against Mojang over a single word, which they lost.

I'm not a fan of this lawsuit but there's a decent chance they were legitimately trying to protect their intellectual property.

I fear that the recent actions made by Bethesda might in fact be influenced EA's general behavior over the years, and if I'm right that means that the piss poor practice of EA is causing some form of cross company peer pressure.

Which is why their attitude towards combating piracy and used games has been "make games people want to play," rather than "Day 1 DLC, constant packs and online passes!"

Yeah, I'm not even a Bethesda fan and I think this is nowhere near the mark.

 

[Jaeke]

No.

Zenimax maybe but EA isn't a developer.

Bethesda Studios is a developer. Bethesda Softworks is a publisher sure but they I've never seen them pull shit that upset anyone.

 

[Something Amyss]

ugh...you know what? Never mind, I'm not even going to bother. They don't have a Valve logo so THEY MUST BE EVIL!

Hey, didn't you hear? Valve is now selling DLC, so they must be JUST LIKE HIT...I mean, EA!!!!

 

[Laser Priest]

Blaming Bethesda's business practices on EA. That's impressive.

A company with questionable business practices isn't new, and it certainly wasn't started by EA.

I don't feel like you read the OP. At all. He didn't blame EA, he just said Bethesda is being like them.

Which is entirely ridiculous in its own right. Firstly, their legal team had more reasons than a word being in common, something Notch neglects to mention. Secondly, this is an entire expansion pack. It adds an entire extra storyline to play through, new areas, weapons and items. Whether you think it's a quality expansion or not, $20 dollars is a reasonable price for an expansion. If you don't think so, then don't buy it. If you want it but still think $20 is unreasonable, then wait until the bloody price drops.

As far as I've seen, Bethesda's not been taking developers and bleeding them dry, so comparing Bethesda at all to EA is laughable at best.

 

[Jaeke]

I think Bethesda is evil because they are making a Elder Scrolls MMO and not another damn Fallout game and can get away with releasing unfinished games like it isn't a problem. Those are my problems with them. Also 20 dollars for a single DLC expansion? That better be at a pretty damn awesome expansion.

Bethesda isn't making TESO.

No, Dawnguard is an expansion, and if you lived before the Reign of the DLC, you would know that $20 is a rather normal price for an expansion pack.

Okay I didn't know the thing about the MMO. And Yeah I didn't get into PC gaming until this gen, so I am not used to them costing that much, also am used to their expansions for the Fallout games, which was 10 dollars each.

Yeah but while Elder Scrolls DLC have been more expansion based and few and far between, Fallout 3 has had more often DLC with less content.

Todd Howard said something about this along the lines of "When developing DLC for Fallout 3 everything was hectic in the office... we want to make Skyrim DLC more like Expansions with only there being two or three."

 

[Hazy992]

Blaming Bethesda's business practices on EA. That's impressive.

A company with questionable business practices isn't new, and it certainly wasn't started by EA.

I don't feel like you read the OP. At all. He didn't blame EA, he just said Bethesda is being like them..

I don't know about you

In the recent days Bethesda appears to be taking some vile pages from EA's 'Big book of appropriate business practices', like the most recent PC release of Dawnguard - for 20 euro(that's 2/3 the price I paid for the full game on launch day). And the lawsuit against Mojang over a single word, which they lost.

I fear that the recent actions made by Bethesda might in fact be influenced EA's general behavior over the years, and if I'm right that means that the piss poor practice of EA is causing some form of cross company peer pressure

but to me that sounds a hell of a lot like he's blaming EA in some way. Being like them and influencing them are completely different

 

[crazyrabbits]

I swear, EA is the gaming equivalent of Hitler. Not in the sense that they are the worst person you could name, but every negative comparison seems to go to them. there needs to be some sort of Godwin's Law based on them, and I demand it be named after me.

"Oh shit, someone did something bad, it's like EA!"

EA eats sugar. Let's go there.

Unless Bethesda (a developer, not a publisher) holds the honor of destroying several well-respected and successful franchises, they will never be like EA. I agree with your post.

 

[Cyfu]

Ok, before I throw myself into this, I need to clarify something.
Please note that I am talking about Bethesda the publisher, not BGS(bethesda game studios) the developers.

Right, moving on...

So EA is a company known for their ugly business practices and general stupidity. Just recently they publicly announced that Zynga's recent stock troubles was due to not being able to "diversify" their product lineup -which followed the announcement of their eighth Sims 3 expansion.

In the recent days Bethesda appears to be taking some vile pages from EA's 'Big book of appropriate business practices', like the most recent PC release of Dawnguard - for 20 euro(that's 2/3 the price I paid for the full game on launch day). And the lawsuit against Mojang over a single word, which they lost.

I fear that the recent actions made by Bethesda might in fact be influenced EA's general behavior over the years, and if I'm right that means that the piss poor practice of EA is causing some form of cross company peer pressure.

Any thoughts? (examples and counter-examples would be welcomed.)

Off-topic: The captcha for this post was "banana bread", delicious!

Nop, not even close to EA. They aren't even doing anything bad. Releasing Dawnguard for 20 euros isn't something bad. I imagine it's worth a lot more than 20 euros (I don't know though, I'm broke at the moment).
And dude! come on! Didn't you pay any attention to the lawsuit case? THEY HAD TO! if they didn't someone else could call their game The older scroll: Dyrim and they could have used the scroll game as an case against Bethesda if they wanted to sue them.
"well, you didn't sue scrolls"
they could have actually used that in court if they didn't sue!
GOD! do some fucking research before deciding which side your on. I hate the ignorant people who didn't get this in their fucking skulls when this lawsuit was going on.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Fan boys are saying "business is business" but Bethesda are doing exactly what EA do, so why defend Bethesda and ridicule EA for trying to maximise profit?

I don't like EA, in fact I hate them as much as the next person on this website, but saying Bethesda aren't as bad as EA for doing exactly what they do is madness (insert 300 joke here).

I think Bethesda need to treat their customers with a little more respect because these are the people paying their god damn wages.

 

[Right Hook]

Any thoughts? (examples and counter-examples would be welcomed.)

"You see that mountain over there? You can climb it...wait no, that mountain is DLC...I meant that one, you can climb that one. Nope that's just a hill, oh and it's a preorder exclusive hill." - Todd Howard on Elder Scrolls 6.

 

[Bvenged]

I disagree, because the lawsuit wasn't an aggressive move to shutdown Notch's new game, just a precaution because they hadn't actually declared "scrolls" as theirs. They didn't lose the court case because they won the rights to the name "scrolls" to stop anyone else milking off TES by using "scrolls" in their game's title, at the same time Mojang were allowed to use "Scrolls" but don't own the rights to the title.

They didn't do anything like "EA", more-so just covered their arses in this one instance.

Pricing expensive DLC when it was selling well on other platforms... how is that dirty? It's common sense from any business perspective.

Hell, they allowed the Prey 2 developers to work on the game for another year when their development progress was falling behind. That's completely the opposite of what EA would likely do.

EDIT: The one thing I'm against is this shop-exclusive preorder bonuses for Dishonored. What if I want 1 ability but want to buy at Amazon which doesn't offer it? now that is milking a game for money before it's out, by signing these deals with shops. Still nowhere near what EA does.

EDIT 2: EA is a corporation, their entire existence is about making money for it's shareholders and investors. Bethesda Softworks is a company, whose existence is about pleasing its customers enough to buy products, alongside making money.

 

[Bolwing]

I don't like what Bethesda is doing with Dawnguard, but it's a game COMPANY. Companies should make profits. So is EA. But I'm not saying that's good. It's just the sad reality: companies tend to rip off pepole.

 

[Setch Dreskar]

In the recent days Bethesda appears to be taking some vile pages from EA's 'Big book of appropriate business practices', like the most recent PC release of Dawnguard - for 20 euro(that's 2/3 the price I paid for the full game on launch day). And the lawsuit against Mojang over a single word, which they lost.

Im sorry but this whole Dawnguard raging thing is mostly gamer entitlement BS imo,

If you don't know what entitlement means don't use it. Seriously the word is being bastardized to the point of insanity because some PR Rep used it to try and downplay the whole Mass Effect 3 mess, it wasn't used properly there and you certainly haven't used it properly. It is not entitlement to be disappointed that an expansion is pricey, once you buy a product you are entitled to critique and find disapproval of the product you purchased, and you are entitled to a working product as advertised. The negative aspect of entitlement is once you cross the line to demanding things that were never promised in the first place, or wanting something for free. (Yes the reason ME3 wasn't considered entitlement is because it was always advertised as something that was never delivered, but the critiques and general bad press about the whole debacle were labeled entitlement to try and cut credibility.)

The OP never said he wanted or demanded the Expansion Dawnguard to be given to him, he voiced his concerns at the price it was listed which is reasonable because, though it is an expansion 20 euros can be a steep price when you could get other full games for the same or cheaper prices. So in my opinion you need to stop using entitlement as a buzz word for your argument. Personally I would feel more upset that Dawnguard is 20 USD and 20 Euros, the European's are getting a bad deal but that's more to do with odd pricing then general malice.

On topic, no Bethesda is not like EA, it takes allot of hard work... well poor work to build up so much hatred in your customer base that they begin petitioning for the Boards' heads on pikes.

EDIT: Also as was said the lawsuit against Mojang was pursued by Zenimax not Bethesda, and it was only done because of really god awful copyright laws in the US which state if you don't defend your product against all supposed copyright infringing items then you don't get to defend it against any at all.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Any thoughts? (examples and counter-examples would be welcomed.)

"You see that mountain over there? You can climb it...wait no, that mountain is DLC...I meant that one, you can climb that one. Nope that's just a hill, oh and it's a preorder exclusive hill." - Todd Howard on Elder Scrolls 6.

Yeah, he never said that. Don't post false quotes. If he did ever say anything like that, it was in radically different context than you're putting it.

 

[Laser Priest]

Snip

Personally, I think that's more the result of poor phrasing and word choice than anything. As far as I've gathered, the OP is just saying that Bethesda is becoming like EA (which is ridiculous) rather than blaming EA directly. Either way, I think we can agree that the argument is ridiculous.

 

[Hazy992]

Snip

Personally, I think that's more the result of poor phrasing and word choice than anything. As far as I've gathered, the OP is just saying that Bethesda is becoming like EA (which is ridiculous) rather than blaming EA directly. Either way, I think we can agree that the argument is ridiculous.

Guess we're just interpreting it differently And yeah Bethesda is nothing like EA.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

bethesda only make xbox 360 games these days with half assed ports. which is sad when its the pc modding community that keeps their games being played years after release.

the days of huge quest mods that you saw for oblivion are over

what? Have you not seen how much Bethesda has actually been pushing mods. They put skyrim on the steam workshop, which let's mod makers and kid users easily download massive mods and have them automatically install and update. Skyrim's missing system is exact the same as oblivion, and the skyrim creation kit was released lettin mod makers make those massive quest mods that are "dying out". Skyrim is a really good pc port, it has less bugs than the consoles, has the exact same launcher as oblivion and it has an official texture pack only for pc... for free! Tell me how skyrim is a crappy console port like prototype 2 and modern warfare 3, go on. Also, go search for a mod called moonpath to elswyr, it's a massive quest mod that adds the khajit homeworkd, fully voiced characters, new weapons, some beautiful new environments unlike anything from skyrim and a long, detailed questions with tins of new monsters to fight. Stop being hyperbolic, horse armour was a crappier dlc than dawngaurd, and you had to pay for fucking horse armour! Yet no one made massive hyperbole saying Bethesda is turning into ea. Gamers these days need to learn to stop being so hyperbolic and melodramatic and focus on actual bad publishers an actual games that are killing the missing scene.