John, your company sucks. Try paying people and actually staffing your projects properly. Also try coming up with a new idea every once in a while. Oh yeah, and have your company stop SUCKING ASS.

Dcbronco

Did anyone else notice how funny (and inappropriate) the RSS feed image of this looks?

[i25.tinypic.com]

kiiwii

@zilo: You do realize that metacritic chart was created by EA. It says so in the first sentence in the article you linked.

NullsRevenge

@Vanguarde: Well, that's YOUR opinion.

...and it's STUPID.
(Oh, come on. How could I resist?)

Insomnia Bob

@TheGreySpectre:

Digital Illusions made that game, when it became a success, EA bought DI and totally destroyed the series with crappy follow-ups

Sounds familiar?

cnas

@zilo:

My point is that one opinion CANNOT be 'better' or 'worse' than another opinion!

They are personal opinions!

Vanguarde

There are a bunch of no namers giving out reviews that make it onto Metacritic, its actually quite sad because usually those smaller sites will give bad reviews to good games to get more hits.

imaballa

@VakeroRokero: Wow! Got it right before me.

So, apart from not been able to propose final scores to those ten professionals, maybe letting your developers, errrh... develop as they see fit would work. Working 10-12 hours a day for 12 months will never produce anything good. Neither will rushing projects in their last month or have everyone in the team fearing their game might be shut down at any time.

And the last good (wonderful) internal EA game I remember is NFS: Most Wanted. From there, all goes down.

EloraHRanma

Wow i can't believe he just said that. So he says that thanks to the blogging and such, people now are starting to understand what a shitfuck EA is. So that's a bad thing? Damn i miss the good old times when EA could bribe a few critics to sell that extra copy.

what a r-tard

cnas

"10 professionals"? the ten guys you could keep track of to send free stuff to them.

VakeroRokero

EA got rid of the QA department so they could funnel more money into the marketing department.

dsmx

Now, sort of anybody with a pen can rate them and it ends up with a bit of a wider track some times.

Because, you know, God Forbid a game be rated by as many people as possible to reach the closest real average score a game deserves.

This is just one of many reasons to hate EA.

DaveKap

Are you sure it has nothing to do with a simple graphics and roster update from year to year?

KM91

@Vanguarde: All opinions are not created equal.

zilo

@otakuhouse: Yeah, it's part of a collection called EA Replay for PSP. Be warned it's pretty bad version of Ultima VII though... I guess it's just the SNES port. Looks crappy, no blood (ZOMG, protect the childrenz!) and obviously none of the goodies that came with the original version of the game.

EA Replay also has really disappointing ports of Syndicate and Wing Commander too -- basically the whole thing is chock full of shitty SNES/Genesis ports of all the PC games I loved from my semi-youth. Mutant League Football is still awesome tho.

Z-Word

Oh, John, how my heart bleeds for you and your companies low reviews. *gets out the world's smallest violen and plays the world's saddest song*

EmeraldDragon

I think the last game I really thought was excellent by EA was battlefield 1942

TheGreySpectre

I greatly dislike the fact that he in essence says that any hack can write a review and pull down scores. He also suggests that 'pro' reviewers ( what the hell is a pro reviewer? ) OPINIONS are worth more than a small time or hack reviewers OPINIONS.

EA - From the hardcore 'PRO' reviewer, to John who just wrote his first review, they are both OPINIONS. John's first review is how his time with the game went. So is the 'PROs' One is not 'better' than the other. It's just one persons feelings about the game!!

Geesh.

Soon we will come to the pathetic point where each and every review has to be reviewed by pro reviewers who only review the first review to make sure it's 'correct'. Insanity!

Vanguarde

"Uh, John? Think you got your Metacritics and your GameRankings mixed up."

Sorry to say this, but John is right about this one. There are tons of various "independent" websites out there that employ people "looking for experience" (read: Kids that want to be reviewers in the future that are looking for 'experience' and that are willing to work for free). These independent sites are far from professional. Look down the list of websites that have rated a popular game and you will see quite a few you have never heard of... and not jsut because they are foreign. I am not saying EA Games should have a higher score, but John in definitely right about the "anybody with a pen" thing.

KID-A26

damnit my typing/english is horrible today... two days with no sleep ontop of two 10 hour shifts makes your mind go numb... I apologize for my horribly composed comments tonight...

StagnatedLives

there's a psp port of ultima vii????????

otakuhouse

@Jun581 likes street fighter 2 but he hates zangeif: actually forget Madden. I want him to play the NBA Live series. That should punishment enough.

Jun581 likes street fighter 2 but he hates zangeif

The guys a buisness man, hes trying to spin things in order to comfort investors...

Sorry, its the real world... what do you expect him to say? Yeah, we make shitty games, oh well, what else are they going to buy? blitz?

Its what hes thinking, obviously, but obviuosly he would never make such a comment ... so Im not really understand why so many comments are surprised by his actions.... The games may or may not be crap, but the man knows how to run a business from a strict financial perspective.

StagnatedLives

It's good to see the head of a grand company is as concerned about the arbitrary number associated with a review as forum trolls. The review text matters not, apparently.

SwimOdin

Please John

It took EA about 4 years in this gen to provide features that weren't found in the last-gen. That's pretty embarrassing.

In fact, the gift that IGN gave Madden 06 (easily one of the worst sports games ever made) a good score is one of the biggest indictments of the integrity of game reviews. EA gets a ton of leeway already.

Cult of reviewers? That won't win him any extra points from reviewers, eh?

Snuffbox

Hmm. I wonder if the bad review scores have anything to do with the fact you've been RERELEASING THE SAME DAMN GAMES FOR 10 YEARS! You can only expect people to review Need for Speed Underground so many times before they start getting pissed off.

Maybe Dead Space, and the handful of other new IPs your company has in the pipe will turn things around. But until you've put out a game that isn't an incremental upgrade on last years model, don't cry about low scores.

Insomnia Bob

How about making some better games? Not just better games, but something different besides the usual yearly parade of sequels,movie tie-ins, and sports games. Maybe then the reviews will be a bit higher!

".....have played more than the first fifteen minutes of the game. But that's a separate issue."

Now that's just a low blow.

arazzor

I think the last EA Game I loved was 007: Everything Or Nothing. It was original and consistently fun, something few if any EA games since then have been.

@otakuhouse: I don't think Ultima VII really counts as an EA game. EA only handled the CD-ROM re-releases and the (terrible) PSP port. LOVE that game in its original form though. I still have my cloth map and metal ankh somewhere.

Z-Word

Spore is probably the only game that will get a perfect score, I don't think dead space will do that well judging from the gameplay footage.

I am also not sure what exactly he expects. All the sports games he listed are the same clone crap that has been coming out every year. Sure it might have a tweak here, and a nifty feature there, but the vast majority will be exactly the same thing from previous years. Why Should they give a high score to repackaged crap? Also, it isn't just this, but EA's problems are Legion:

1. Buying up every independent game developer in sight so EA is a monopoly and turning the studio to crap afterwords (bioware is on death watch).
2. Not understanding the word NO when a company does not want to sell (take-two)
3. Repackaging the same drivel sequels every year and only releasing a few new games (every sports title EA released).
4. Selling crippled games and trying to nickel and dime everyone to buy individual content that should have been included/accessed from the get go.
5. PC Hell, nazi like DRM that REQUIRES that it phones home and gives you LIMITED installs.
6. ADS, first, forcing us to watch that STUPID UNSKIPABLE EA LOGO and trying to force ads in every game.
7-infinity. ETC..etc

Azriel77

@LittleBigPlaneteer: exactly. I wonder if John actually plays the game before they are shipped. If he did, maybe he realize why EA games are rated as they are. I remember him say a while back, before Army Of Two was released, that there was a chance that the game would be released even with bugs.

Hey, here's a suggestion to John. Play the next iteration of Madden and tell me if it's not the same as last year or the year before.

Jun581 likes street fighter 2 but he hates zangeif

You guys do realize that EA's Metacritic average is a good deal higher than the norm, right?

[www.next-gen.biz]

But hey, it's EA and EA sucks. Glad I stopped by for m daily glass of Haterade.

zilo

Try a little something called QUALITY ASSURANCE! It can go a long way towards ensuring better review scores. When your games grow more and more buggy each year it can tend to negate the various other improvements to your products. I buy EA games, but I also expect them to be buggier than games by other publishers/developers.

mirage

He acts like EA is getting unfair treatment. If "anyone with a pen" is rating EA games, don't you think they're also reviewing non-EA games too? There has to be a reason why EA games would score lower. Perhaps he should focus on improving the quality of the company's PS3 releases before bitching about metacritic scores

LittleBigPlaneteer

i'm sitting here, owner of every console on the market and handheld device, and trying to remember the last EA game that I really loved. I think it was Ultima VII?

otakuhouse

He says we don't know what we're talking about. That makes Grumps angry!

Grumps

Even if the average joe reviewed it, isn't he the intended audience? Or are you making games that the average gamer can't understand or appreciate?

minimelo321

OH NO HE DID NOT!? Attacking reviewers because your company makes half ass games is unprofessional! Long gone are the days when EA made Mail Order Monsters on the C64 my friend. Your company throws more garbage on the street than the guys handing out porn ads on the vegas strip. Where is the integrity in the modern corporate world....

L337fool

Protip: Pumping out yearly sequels = quick and sloppy games.

argh

Please. Take a look at some of the BS reviews for Halo 3 on Metacritic and tell me there's not a "cult of 10" for certain well-marketed mediocre games.

zilo

I guessed this post's author based on the headline!

frostcircus

@Al2x:

i think they carry less weight though(the less credible reviews).Someone else will chime in with the info.

SortaKindaAGamer

@Pata-pwn(TM?): Madden: The Movie 2009- A whole new roster, full 3d rendering of John Madden, 17 hours of DVD Commentary!!

Zerbrechen

Beating a dead horse here but better games usually mean better ratings.

jihadjoe343

What was the last EA game worthy of a perfect score? I can't think of anything over the past couple of years.

Strangelove

HINT: Make better games and you'll get better review scores

Jeff Paine

I definitely believe him. You'll get precision scores (aka scores that agree with each other/close) and then you'll get three or four reviews that almost want to make the game's rating go down.

Al2x

1. Epic picture.

2.Uh, John? Think you got your Metacritics and your GameRankings mixed up. The exact words I was going to say.

3. Games will be games, reviewed as games and played as games. Make a good one and people will like it. Make a bad one, and it will be seen as bad.

Stop playing the victim when you're the problem.

karasu is my homeboy

QUIT THE GAMES BUSINESS AND MOVE ONTO MOVIES, THEY ARLEADY SUCK ENOUGH.

Pata-pwn(TM?)

MAKE BETTER GAMES.

archibaldleech

MORE LIKE ELECTRONIC FARTS LOLOLOLOLOL TAKE THAT BOIIIIEE

Miakisses

@Vanguarde: You're wrong. Not all opinions are of equal worth. That's the entire point of having critics, for better or worse.

I know nothing about art. I think van Gogh paintings look like crap and I wouldn't hang one on my wall. Does that reflect on the artistic worth of Van Gogh's paintings?

Hint: no.

(I actually like van Gogh, just making a point)

@NullsRevenge: Doesn't mean it's not true. ;)

zilo

[www.metacritic.com]

mobiusxxiii

The fact of the matter is that anyone who can play EA's (or anyone else's for that matter) games can submit their opinion on Meta Critic. I'd bet EA would be against net neutrality if it would earn them a buck.

Siskoraban

ive been reading EGM for years now and even they state that EA games are mostly unoriginal crap that get pushed out year after year. i assume that a nationally published video game magazine is unprofessional eh asshat? oh no, we are ea and we are perfect. if someone does something better than us, we buy them and drag them down into mediocrity. love the logic.

last ea game i liked was need for speed underground 1 lol.

maraxusofk

@KM91:

Mass Effect PC - 90
Skate Xbox 360 - 86
Burnout Paradise PS3 - 87
NHL 08 PS3 - 86

but feel free to live in your own reality... ;)

BobTable4Four

@NullsRevenge: I'm going to go out on a limb and say that someone would have called them on it if it was wrong. I mean, other corporations wouldn't want to let EA send out a self inflated view of itself unopposed, yet no one opposed the chart, publisher or journalist.

Nirolak

"Think you got your Metacritics and your GameRankings mixed up."

Waitaminute, I know this sounds stupid, but I always kind've assumed that Metacritic and Gamerankings did the same thing...

GlassAdam?

@kiiwii: Some would actually say it's very appropriate, based on the way this guy is acting XD

Zerbrechen

@otakuhouse:
Ultima VII probably doesn't count. After all, the Guardian's three evil generators in the game are a sphere, cube, and tetrahedron - the 3 elements of EA's logo (as of the game's release). The murderers Elizabeth and Abraham also have interesting initials.

bee01

Hey Riccitiello - please gargle with a jar of razor blades and choke to death on your own blood, EA sucks and you're, have slowly ruined, gaming.

God I have such hatred for EA, they're nothing but a bunch of fuckers more interested in their stock options then the health of the gaming business.

Solarion

Clearly all EA has to do is pre-fix all of their new releases with "Metal Gear" or "Mario" and sane review scores get completely circumvented.

Seriously: "Metal Gear Madden: 2009"; "Marios Battlefield 2500", guaranteed 110%.

MartinX

@Snokie: Haha, well said!

zilo

@archibaldleech: What do you mean MAKE BETTER GAMES? Why you mean BUY BETTER GAMES! or BUY BETTER GAME DEVS!!

Yes sorry for the caps. And the archaic humor...=D

excaliburps

EA's best shot at a 100% will be Spore. It's just that with so many other games under their label... well, let's just say they're not all Spore.

@zilo: Exactly. it's the difference between

"Everyone is entitled to an opinion" <-- true
"Every opinion is of equal worth" <-- false

It's sort of like singing. Everyone *can* sing, but not everyone is worth listening to. :)

Snokie

The whole reviewing thing is fucked up. I don't trust reviews, neither should anyone else but stockholders.

If you're interested in a game, get a demo of it and play it. If there's no demo, go over to a friends house or something.

If you don't have a friend who has the game, watch videos of the game and make a calculated guess whether you will like the game or not.

Reviews are bullshit. No scores to be seen, no money to be exchanged. Take Metal Gear Solid 4 review for example, the cutscenes were seen as a negative, while for me it was a huge positive. See how that works? If I would have read the review first, I would have gone into the game a bit cautious about the cutscenes.

But I didn't, because I sealed the internet away, and played in silence in my husked casket. The most amazing gaming experience.

Itchy (PSN: Kaizoku-ou)

/small violin. Even if EA took over TT, their average score will not budge.

It doesn't help when hundreds of your games are barely creaking 70%, five 100% games from TT will not budge anything.

PsycheE

Here's an idea:

We stop giving Metacritic so much power. EA - pay someone else to talk to your investors and focus on making effin games

kidko

@Miakisses:

lol

mynameisob3l

Yeah, yeah - ten "professionals", meaning fewer people who pr can have better control over.

El-Suave

You must admit EA is one tough motherfucker. Even with all their craptastic games they still manage to sell and make money.

garytek

@Zerbrechen: I think I'd have to cry if I was the person who had to model John Madden in 3D for months and months until it was perfect.

"Going back to work, honey. Yeah, today I'm doing Madden's nutsack. Hey, do you know where I left that suicide pistol I got at the Wal Mart?"

PlayerX

@Strangelove: Fight Night Round 3 may not have been perfect, but it should have at least been in the mid 90's. Instead it was brought down to 86 by some ridiculously low scores.

[www.metacritic.com]

There are generally some reviews from people who seemingly just don't like the genre of game that they are reviewing. Someone who dislikes RPGs(like myself) shouldn't review RPGs, but it seems like one guy from some of these media outlets gets to review all of the big releases whether that reviewer likes the type of game or not. You end up with people who aren't very skilled at action games reviewing Ninja Gaiden 2 and people who aren't interested in playing a platformer criticizing Ratchet & Clank for being...a new Ratchet & Clank game. He actually has a point. It seems like some of the lowest scores come from people who weren't interested in playing the game in the first place.

Spartan1308™

@Strangelove: The only ones I can think of are Maxis games, which, come to think of it, are probably a lot older than I'm remembering them. When did SC4 come out?

Fuck, I'm old....

PlayerX

Hey, John Riticello. Consumer, here. Make a fucking game that doesn't make me want to shit baby horses, and I'll buy it. Otherwise, shut up. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's whiny millionaires.

PlayerX

@KID-A26: That's exactly the point I was going to make. The preponderance of reviews/scores from sites whose opinions I couldn't care less about has made Metacritic a much less useful tool than it could be.

Dirk Dorkelson

Playing devil's advocate for a bit I think that Riccitiello might be gearing up for a great big "HAHA! In your faces!" moment, EA has Bad Company(snicker)(rated 93 by Game Informer - Make of that what you will), Dead Space, Spore, Mercs 2 (Pandemic I know, but...) all around the corner, all of these are being looked on favourably so this might just be a feint as EA expects to land a fistfull of high scoring reviews. Also, Burnout Paradise scored quite well if memory serves...high 80's at the mo but I seem to remember it being 90-ish for a bit.

ThursdayNext

He's right in that Metacritic's standards for publication inclusion is incredible lax. Look through any game, and you'll find a shedload of publications you haven't heard of, that no one reads, and is staffed by interns.

hahnchen

Hmm everybody can pick up a pen and write a review... the wonder of the internet and free speech! But EA is upset that it can't control all of the press now? Cry me a river. They do enough by bribing the big game sites to up the scores of their games.

It's not a problem if you actually release games that are good. To my knowledge the majority of games 'they' release that are good are games where they pick the third party developers up when they have almost finished. They then iterate them into mediocrity for sequels.

That being said the noises they have made about their new operational ethos of allowing their developers to retain their souls is good - not saying its actually happening.

I look forward to seeing how Dead Space and Spore turn out - but thats by no means the large part of their catalogue.

TurtleSoup

Yeah John, how horrible that regular gamers can now review your games instead of jsut the select review sites that you're paying off to give your games high marks. What has the world come ot!?

This idiot personifies everything wrong with corporate game developers.

Mr.Waffleton

@mirage: Don't hate on the QA department. They would be stretched thin across a zillion different projects, asked to pull long shifts, paid poorly and generally disrespected.

My experience with EA QA has been very positive for what they can offer.

/Work with EA on several projects.
//Never diss QA.
///Will never forgive them for dismembering Command and Conquer the way they did.

r1nce

I must say that I don't like metacritic as much...but it does a better job than a one man review. An average gives a better picture than one sided review. They are either big fan or against it. What I don't unerstand is metacritic also take into account rewiews of people who hasn't even played the game. I remember doing a search for mgs4 and ranking was out already when most people haven't even played it.

karateka

EA doesn't like more reviewers because it can't pay off that many.

Artdeux

his upcoming reviews will not fare well after snubbing the press like this. ea biting the hand that feeds them here.

gentlejones

He has a point - It has gotten much more difficult to have high review scores with more reviewers around.

Do you know how much more effort it takes to bribe or squeeze all those reviewers nowadays? ;)

Jonax

That guy looks every bit as creepy as the head of EA should. He reminds me of the new Pope, with a little less wrinkle action.

ManekiNeko

Dear EA,

Your games suck. You haven't done ONE THING to improve the CORE GAMEPLAY of Madden, NCAA, Tiger Woods/PGA Tour, or any of the other staples since the late 1990s.

More higher resolution textures and a new roster!

Whoopdie-fucking-God-damn-doo!

You guys really need to take a break from developing your own sports titles and spend an hour playing somebody elses. Konami's MLB Power Pros blew EAs baseball efforts off the map. Hysterical that a chibi cartoon inspired baseball sim wound up being more realistic than all the other rehashed crap out there.

If there's one thing EA has NEVER, EVER figured out, its Gameplay > Graphics. EA fails.

rbininger

I forgot to add that im pissed nascar 09 does not have split screen. EPIC FAIL!

boots555

Well when you charge people for things that should be included in the original people hate that. When you take out features from old games, people hate that, when youu make the same game every year, people hate that.

boots555

skate is the only decent game they've brought out in years.

CanaryWundaboy

Yeah, totally sucks when people other than the big sites (the ones who heavily depend on developer/publisher advertising) start reviewing games and give an honest take on EA's consistently mediocre work.

Again, all this focus on microtransactions, in-game ads and whatnot, but you never hear anything about making the stories, concepts, etc. better.

EA would rather bitch about the metric than the games themselves, which are the real problem.

Silverbackne

Shame on you Kotaku! You and your reviewer friends made the man cry!!

Daisuash

@Azriel77: "Spore is probably the only game that will get a perfect score..."

I seriously doubt that. Granted, I have no experience with game, but I think many critics will play the hype card and review it with excessively high expectations.

But I agree with those who lament the days of old EA. Were things better with Trip Hawkins in charge? *shivers*

HJungle

What a moron. If their company would publish better games and listen to the fucking criticism from the reviewers and gamers they'd have better scores. I dont hear any other publishers complaining about the review system. Fuck him

smuckersisgood

Actually John Riccitiello seems to be right because I just went and checked out the MGS4 reviews (by the way, OMFG awesome game) and there were almost 40 reviews. That probably pales in comparison to GameRankings but its still a lot more than 10.

TheUsedVersion

@Strangelove: The point he's making is that no game is worth a perfect score

baccardi84

@Itchy (PSN: Kaizoku-ou): I don't personally like Metacritic, because I don't rate a game on a number. When I see a game I think I might like, I watch videos and read as many reviews as I can. That way, when a reviewer says something like "Mass Effect was too slow paced" (example), I can say "well, that sounds like it might be a nice change." By reading as many as I can, I get a pretty good picture of the game and decide what parts I would like. The problem with watching videos is that the company only shows stuff that makes the game look good.

aspasticninja

Yes, please make better games. The latest Sims patch is 84 MB and I still need about 40 mods to get the game working like it should. Maybe EA's QA should try testing their games for more than 15 minutes.

Knukleur

lol its because EA's games aren't very good. Slightly above average, but not very good.

fenderfuel08

awww, poor butthurt EA. did you think being the ONLY football game in town, you'd score well just because? every few months there is a new Sims 2 expansion, yearly roster updates for all of your sports titles, but your reviews aren't high enough for your tastes. maybe new, solid IPs are the way to go, Johnny boy!

in the meantime, I honestly think that the last EA game I bought would be one of the Strike series on the Genesis, or Mutant League Football, also on the Genesis. Bones Jackson ftw.

fillerbunny9

@zilo: EA does suck, for a rather long litany of reasons, most recently their forcing of DRM on Mass Effect and Spore PC - DRM not desired by the developers but mandated by the publisher, EA.

It's always been in the game journo world that the big mags - now websites - always hype the hell out of games whose publishers are paying big $$$ for advertising. In fact, reviewers have been fired for being honest about a game when the management didn't want to anger the publisher. In other words, they were a load of shit and now people can read varied opinions. A good example is GTA4 - having played it extensively, does it deserve a perfect score?

Hells no.

Recent events make me wonder how many viral 'operatives' EA has out shilling on sites like this one. GET OUT.

The Commissar

It used to be EA made good games once upon time!

Phenom88

Here's an idea EA. Why don't you get your head out of your ass and see/play the shit you've made? Everything that you make now or have made in about 10 years has been fail, and will always be fail, because unfortunately you don't strive in any way to make something great with the millions and millions you make off of the repetitive and grotesque shit that comes out each and every year. Doesn't matter if your consumers are rating the product either, because they're buying it. Fuck professionals, if you want a game, go and look out and see if it is catered to your tastes before you buy it.

Aurarian

Well i always found the battlefield series on pc to be games that i loved, especially battlefield 2. They have lost the magic on the consoles though but the bad company demo is fun so who knows maybe it will make a come back.

Ted_x

@otakuhouse: Ultima vii was a great game cause EA didn't make it, origin did. ea bought them out a few years later when ultima 9 came out which sucked.

EA buys some of the great game makers, and then stops producing their games. like with origin, after they were bought the ultima, and wing commander series died. what was the last game bioware made since being bought out?

EA blows!

tonberry