EA going bankrupt?

[John Hadley]

Whats with EA giving away all their games in the humble bundle for five bucks? They don't even get paid anything. Is this some kind of ploy to sell DLCs or is EA in ruins and about to get bought out or declare bankrupcy and this is some kind of poison pill tactic to screw over whoever ends up acquiring EA?

[Vissari]

They've been making a focus on charity work recently, even sending 80 staff members to do the San Francisco AIDS walk, raising 18k for charaity. This is actually a continuation of that effort.

So no, EA is not being bought out/bankrupt. They're still in the green. And origin isn't ending either. Because what good would the recent origin sales and origin game keys do if the service shut down?

They're trying to not be the 'worst company in America' for a third year in a row. It's that simple

[Kolya]

i think they just want some more love from gamers and catch some for their gaming platform Orign

[Delu]

It's a win win for everyone, what EA needs is a better image, better reach for their origin platform and now they do charities big time and get a good guy mention on like every site that writes about the deal, ppl share this, get their games, get origin and/ or value that some steam keys are given, so a lot of attention/ promo for EA/ Origin.

Attention to their game series like ahead of BF4, sims 4 and all their other related IP's (mirror edge game on the horizon too), it's bold but also what was needed for them in order to shine in a better light and also helps with expanding/ promoting their game series.

Combined with the fact that recently Valve made some misstakes and lost some of that golden boy shine and showed flaws and EA also beat them to the game return policy this is all good for them. It also shows that nowadays "suits" adapt, if that's genuine change or not is debatable. Oh of course it's another nail in the brick and mortar retailers coffin, so I guess not everybody wins in the end, almost tho.

[John Hadley]

I see what it is now after looking at Origin today. They have new versions of several of these games coming out and they are trying to get some preorder action. Sims 4, Battlefield 4, Need for Speed Rivals all coming in the fall.

[miguelaliz]

reduce taxes

[John Hadley]

Yes I suppose that's true too. Donating to charity gives them a tax writeoff even though they can make an unlimited number of copies of their game with very little cost. They are essentially being paid by the IRS to advertise Origin.

[RieL]

I guess it's just a charity..

[DrKnorpel]

None of these Games are worth anything at all. Who srsly wanna spend real money for Sims 3 when they anounced sims 4 already and showed gameplay at the gc, same with Battlefield, who gonna buy bf3 and dlc's when bf4 is knocking on our doors. Crysis 2 is obsolete, you can get burnout paradise on some Facebook pages for just liking something , command and conquer - obsolete coz EA already has f2p C&C in the pipe as shown on Gamescom.

Charity , EA ? come on.. they know that these games aren't worth 5,10,15,20 $ anymore...conclusion - Humble Bundle - Profit from people actually thinking "good guy Ea gives games away for "free" ".

[lxRs451]

I think they just need better image, as ppl above me said a lot of players are hating EA theese days and i think this is a good way to win some love back. Its good for gamers cuz they get games for low price, its win for charity because they get some more help and its win for EA cuz they will improve their image.

[John Hadley]

After checking out their Origin website some more it just made me think what I have thought for several years now, that Electronic Arts is greedy and treats gamers as cash cows. They want $59.99 for the new battlefield game and another $49.99 for "Premium". No, sorry there isn't any shooter on the planet worth $110 out of the box when there's already many dozens (probably hundreds) available and of course that's just touching the surface of what the game will cost. Later there will be expansions and map packs and head-start packs and such.

Sims 3 has such DLC overload its incredible. There's like 20 of them and EA wants $5-$20 apiece. That seems to be their new business plan because all their new games have riculous amounts of DLCs that when added together in cost make the games cost well over $100. It reminds me very much of the "free-to-play" model where you can start playing the game for free but by the time you buy the full experience you spent way way more than any retail game would ever cost.

I disagree that the games are not worth $5 though. Each one could probably sell tens to hundreds of thousands of copies on Steam for $5 but EA holds on to its Origin pipe dream. They are mostly single player games which play just as well today as they did a few years ago when released. There hasn't been a new console generation and games are developed for console compatibility so the games haven't really increased their technical requirements a great deal for several years. A game from three years ago is almost the same as one from today.

[Kieran Lee]

Can one not do something without getting something back? Obviously its generated alot of hype around EA and Origin but even if that is the case we get VERY cheap games.

[John Hadley]

The answer is no. Publicly traded corporations are profit making ventures. They don't do anything if they don't hope for it to help the bottom line because they have shareholders to answer to whose main motivation for stock speculation is to earn money. Every action is calculated and designed directly to make money or to gain advertising or good will which they hope will make them money later. If it were a privately held company then you might argue that the owner was just generous but that does not apply to public corporations.

[Flint's Drinking Water]

Messaggio originale di DrKnorpel:

None of these Games are worth anything at all. Who srsly wanna spend real money for Sims 3 when they anounced sims 4 already and showed gameplay at the gc, same with Battlefield, who gonna buy bf3 and dlc's when bf4 is knocking on our doors. Crysis 2 is obsolete, you can get burnout paradise on some Facebook pages for just liking something , command and conquer - obsolete coz EA already has f2p C&C in the pipe as shown on Gamescom.

Charity , EA ? come on.. they know that these games aren't worth 5,10,15,20 $ anymore...conclusion - Humble Bundle - Profit from people actually thinking "good guy Ea gives games away for "free" ".

People like you should quit whining and appreciate the fact that they are even doing something like this.

Also, your grammar is terrible.

[soundbox97]

It's for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ charity, jesus christ! Why the ♥♥♥♥ are you complaining about it when you can get like 10 games for $5 and EA hardly gets any. Be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ grateful. It isn't always about publicity and money. It's a factor but it may not be the only thing.

[John Hadley]

It IS always about money. This is not a church or a community group or a rich elderly retiree that is going to the grave soon and hopes to do something benevolent with the money before then, it is a for-profit corporation that does over a billion dollars worth of sales in a year whose entire goal in this world is to make more money. The bigger the corporation, the more clear that it is focused on making money. If it weren't, then it wouldn't have grown so big to start with. The whole reason for a corporation to grow is to make even more money than it was making before.