E3 2018

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

EA PLAY: A SHIT LEOPARD CAN’T CHANGE HIS SHIT SPOTS

- Jim Lahey, Trailer Park Boys

So this particular ‘event’ showed off plenty of new games with EA making no mention of the controversy surrounding their most recent titles, particularly Battlefront II which has sparked legal challenges and questions around loot boxes across the globe. You know that when a government thinks your actions are underhanded, you must be pretty evil and exploitative.

But they are trying to salvage something from their otherwise fucked reputation and lure people back to Battlefront II, which has the potential to be an amazing game. But they were prepared for this; they rolled out their most inoffensive employee (Dennis Brännvall) to give us all the good news.

That EA are now having to add the caveat ‘there are no loot boxes’ to every new release does indeed go some way to show EA is at least acknowledging the damage to their reputation as a company. Loot boxes work for EA sports games, but RPG and first person shooter players a vastly different breed as I hope they have now found out.

So what else did EA offer?

There was of course the new raft of EA sports games like FIFA19 et al which is to be expected as they are out every year, so these were no surprise.

There was a little more shown off of Anthem (which does not contain loot boxes, but optional purchases for cosmetic items can be made) and more from Battlefield V (which does not contain loot boxes, but optional purchases for cosmetic items can be made) with the promise of more game-play to come as the week goes on.

There was also the announcement of their latest cash grab: EA Origin Access Premium. A Netflix like subscription service that allows you to play EA’s entire catalogue at and new games launch. Xbox have released a similar service and PlayStation are toying with the idea it seems.

I’m not entirely opposed to these subscription services in principle, but it does bring with it the risk of fracturing gaming communities and separating friends as this will inevitably lead to games being released exclusively through these services without a physical edition (or a delayed physical edition) to try and get already squeezed consumers to cough more money on top, but I will look at this in a different article.

But with a reputation in tatters and rumors that Disney are pulling EA's exclusive rights to make Star Wars games, I am quietly hopeful that EA will deliver for Anthem at the very least.

Stay tuned for updates, of which there will be some as the week progresses and more details emerge as the week goes on.