EA Settles Out of Court

[EternalGamer]

The infamous EA suit has come to a resolution.

The terms of the settlement will see Electronic Arts pay out $15.6 million, to be distributed to all class members and plaintiffs' attorneys. A portion of that $15.6 million will go directly to the named plaintiffs (Kirshenbaum, Mark West, Eric Kearns, and Gianni Aliotti) as well as into a fund to cover all administrative costs. The case will be dismissed as a result.
I'll bet EA wishes it could go back to the good old days before it had the gaming world paying such close attention to its ne'er-do-well ways. You can read the full story here (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6135106.html).

[Magnanimous Gnome]

You should submit this as news.

[Crispy951]

I love it hehehe

[bait]

EA used to be a good company doing good things for the industry...a long, long time ago.

[EternalGamer]

EA used to be a good company doing good things for the industry...a long, long time ago.

Yeah, your right... They uh... they did publish those James Pond games... ok.. I give up.. what did they do that was good?

Dan

[Bushi]

EA used to be a good company doing good things for the industry...a long, long time ago.

Not really, they just used to publish some good stuff and that was almost incidentally good for the industry. They have been sucking the lives out of development houses and breaking the knee's of small companies since the early eighties.

[Bushi]

Extra HTTP in the trackback link

[Klade]

Well at least there is some justice in the world.. wonder how long it will be before these plaintiffs get "let go" at the completion of their project.

[EternalGamer]

Not really, they just used to publish some good stuff and that was almost incidentally good for the industry. They have been sucking the lives out of development houses and breaking the knee's of small companies since the early eighties.


I do recall how they went from avoiding to pay Sega a licensing fees to buying the license to avoid competing against them. I'm not sure the former tactic was any more noble, though.

Dan

[bait]

Come on, guys. Brush up on your history.
Here's what I'm referring to...From wikipedia:
"A novel approach to giving credit to its developers was one of EA's trademarks in its early days. EA was the first video game publisher to treat its developers like rock stars in an industry where developers were more prone to be treated like nameless factory workers. This characterization was even further reinforced with EA's packaging of most of their games in the "album cover" format of the late 1980s-'90s. This format was pioneered by EA because Hawkins thought that a record album style would both save costs and convey an artistic feeling. EA routinely referred to their developers as "artists" and gave them photo credits in their games and numerous full-page magazine ads. EA also shared lavish profits with their developers, which added to their industry appeal. Because of this novel treatment, EA was able to easily attract the best developers."

Of course for some time now, they have been (and continue to be) a load of bastards.

[Adam Blue]

Hawkins was the man, still is, but the mainstream didn't accept it.

[EternalGamer]

Come on, guys. Brush up on your history.
Here's what I'm referring to...From wikipedia:
"A novel approach to giving credit to its developers was one of EA's trademarks in its early days. EA was the first video game publisher to treat its developers like rock stars in an industry where developers were more prone to be treated like nameless factory workers. This characterization was even further reinforced with EA's packaging of most of their games in the "album cover" format of the late 1980s-'90s. This format was pioneered by EA because Hawkins thought that a record album style would both save costs and convey an artistic feeling. EA routinely referred to their developers as "artists" and gave them photo credits in their games and numerous full-page magazine ads. EA also shared lavish profits with their developers, which added to their industry appeal. Because of this novel treatment, EA was able to easily attract the best developers."

Of course for some time now, they have been (and continue to be) a load of bastards.


Yeah, that actually was pretty cool that they did that... in 1983. I guess I didn't think about that since was trying to remember something good that they did in the last two decades.

Dan

[Bumbuliuz]

for those that dont remeber the case. Please refresh our memory ;)

[bean19]

This would be a better news story if you had quoted the information about what the suit is about. There are various suits against EA.

[Dirty Harry]

man this makes me cry, i want ea to be like the ea i used to know when i played road rash and nhl :( on my sega.(im not rlly cryin or am i? :P )

[codswallop]

what did they do that was good?
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts#Notable_games_published_by_EA:

Archon
M.U.L.E.
Bard's Tale
Populous
Starflight
Of course, many of those were published but not developed. Also, what about:

Road Rash
Mutant League Football
All Origin/Bullfrog games until they were destroyed
Skitchin' *g*
"Back in the day", EA games were ones to look out for if you wanted a quality and enjoyable game. Least in my part of the world.

[DCJoeDog]

What sucks if EA is now moving all the employees who they have to pay over time to because of the reclassification to their florida or Canadian studio. WTG EA!!! Way to skirt the issue even longer.

[fndarkone]

I wish I had a Kryptonite cross, because then you could keep both Dracula AND Superman away.
yeah, but youd still have jesus hanging around all the time

:groan:

[TKO]

Oh man, that list codswallop posted there, that was serious nostalgia. I'd forgotten just how many cool titles on the old C64 (and other 8-bits) had loaded with that trippy "EOA" logo.

Racing Destruction Set just has to be mentioned coz it rocked so hard (someone needs to do an updated version of that, seriously), and Pinball Construction Set, the Ultima series (before Electronic Arts inevitably started fsking them up), Skyfox, Bards Tale, Seven Cities of Gold, Chuck Yeager's AFT...

Mule and Alternate Reality look like ones I should have tried out. Never did tho. ..Damn. I'm gonna have bring out the X-Arcade and fire up the emulator now, aren't I? ;)

[Roc Ingersol]

This suit only covers the artists.

Coders have their own suit, but they're gonna lose. (unless they can prove some type of nefarious plotting at the management levels)
Labor laws hate software developers.

[Librum]

This suit only covers the artists.

Coders have their own suit, but they're gonna lose. (unless they can prove some type of nefarious plotting at the management levels)
Labor laws hate software developers.

Labor laws hate business in general, I might add, but hey, more power to the proles, right?

[Roc Ingersol]

Labor laws haven't impeded business one iota.

The proletariate could use a little power, their lobbyists suck.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

I'd much rather have the power in the working class then in cash-hungry corporate types.

[Greymane]

In all fairness, the reason coders have so much trouble in the industry is because the profession at large has allowed itself to take the hours and overtime issue right in the shorts for, oh, a few decades now.

EA's pretty bad, but they're really not unique in the software industry as a whole.

[mister_slim]

The other day I ran across some old stuff about EA scuttling their EA Partners program (publishing outside devs) back in '00, '01, where DICE had to offer to self-fund Battlefield 1942 to prevent it being cancelled.

Offtopic, where's Player 1? He should be explaining how this proves EA's saintliness.

[Montgomery_Python]

Of course for some time now, they have been (and continue to be) a load of bastards.

A shower of bastards, perhaps? Mmmm? :D

[Magnanimous Gnome]

Offtopic, where's Player 1? He should be explaining how this proves EA's saintliness.



I was wondering this myself actually...