game development designer

Chapter 340 From a happy face to a pale face
Tianhe Network is still low-key as always. If Chuhe's Twitter and Weibo are still the same as usual, and there is a dynamic post about the company's internal game progress, I am afraid that many players will forget that Tianhe Network actually has several masterpieces. is being developed.

Even after winning the best annual award for Red Dead Redemption, apart from the official contact with the major game platforms and a discount on the digital version of the game, which caused a surge in sales, there is no news about Tianhe Network.

On the contrary, the momentum of game manufacturers such as EA and Ayu is super strong.

Ubisoft has already opened pre-sales for the secretly developed Far Cry. At the same time, the sequel of Capcom’s Devil May Cry will also land on major platforms, and the ambitious EA is bringing the sequel of the Mass Effect trilogy. To expand the territory.

There is no doubt that such a trilogy has achieved great success, giving EA strong confidence.

With high development costs and follow-up publicity costs, EA seems to want to make Mass Effect an evergreen series like The Sims.

The plot does not connect with the previous work. On the one hand, it is because the story is really hard to tell, but the bigger reason is EA’s ambition. They want to expand the world view and background, and their goal is not to end with one movie.

At the same time, the entire mass effect also abandons the original linear plot and replaces it with an open world and sandbox game.

Probably because the name of Mass Effect is too fancy, EA forgot one thing, fans and players who like Mass Effect all over the world, have experienced the washing of the trilogy, and almost have a fixed cognition.

Hastily changing the plot of the game, and even being unable to meet familiar characters from the previous game, this is definitely news that does more harm than good to fans of the sequel.

Just like most successful movies, the original characters will not be replaced easily, because the audience and players already have a preconceived notion.

That is, the first batch of appearances are the best, and unless the performance of the later ones is really against the sky, they will always feel a little awkward.

If you put aside the IP of Mass Effect, Andromeda would be a good game, but now Chuhe can only wish EA good luck.

In the anticipation of countless players, EA's Mass Effect Andromeda officially launched the full platform release.

The sales volume on the first day was as high as 280 million, and it was also released on all platforms, including the PC platform. Although Andromeda is not as good as the original Red Dead Redemption from Tianhe Network, there is no doubt that this figure is enough to satisfy EA.

When he learned of this data, Charles, who had been paying attention in the office, beamed with joy.

I am EA, your big brother!
What happened to making the game yourself?
Just as awesome!
The sales volume of 280 million on the first day is definitely an excellent figure even if it is not as good as Red Dead Redemption.

But remember this happy Charles now.

Mass Effect Andromeda released 480 million in one week, and major game rating websites gave their ratings one after another.

Even with the highest score, IGN, which has always been known as EA's licking dog, only gave Andromeda a score of 7.7, not even 8 points.

In the player reviews on metacritic, Mass Effect successfully scored the lowest evaluation of its series of games, only 4.3 points.

'This is not the Mass Effect I wanted, and it's not at all what fans have been waiting for!Of course you have ruined enough excellent games, and you don’t mind ruining one, EA, really please don’t ruin excellent studios and well-known game series. '

'I've been waiting for a long time to experience that wonderful story again, to go back to the universe of Mass Effect and play a space hero, meet those interesting characters, and enjoy the wonderful story of RPG-but here in Andromeda, what do I I can't experience it. Rather than saying that this is an RPG game, I think it is more like an FPS game. '

'I've been playing for 20 hours in a row. Well, despite the name Mass Effect, the game is actually quite interesting, but can the NPC dialogues and quests be a little new?Of course, it doesn't matter, I can make up my own brain, but why are female characters so ugly? Is Sarah Ryder really modeled by jaydeross?I can't believe my eyes, are you guys blind at EA? '

A week later, Charles looked at the latest collected data with a ashen face. A week ago, he was still smiling, but now looking at the almost plummeting sales chart data, Charles was a little dazed.

Has Mass Effect lost money?

In fact, it did not. The sales volume reached 480 million copies in a week. It is not a difficult task to recover the cost of the project, and even EA can make a lot of profits.

But this is not the key, because it is not a question of profit or not!

Mass Effect Andromeda, the project failed, and that's what really matters.

Even the applause is not popular, and the cost is barely recovered, but Mass Effect is full of applause. EA is more willing to see this phenomenon.

"Damn it, with a development cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, will they come up with such a result?" Looking at the information collected in his hand, Charles threw it to the ground angrily.

A week ago, he was still smiling in this office, but now... let's not talk about it, it's uncomfortable!
Although the project recovered its cost, the failure of the game dealt a heavy blow to EA.

Including global players complaining about EA, and the market is not optimistic, EA's stock fell like diving again.

A very interesting phenomenon happened. On the one hand, the Mass Effect series has recovered its cost and started to make a profit; on the other hand, the market value of EA keeps shrinking, and players chase after it.

In fact, the reputation of EA in foreign countries is probably the same as that of domestic penguins.

"Cancel the follow-up DLC development of Mass Effect, put all resources into the Star Wars series, reduce the publicity of Mass Effect, and contact Tianhe Network, and hold a meeting at the same time." Charles, who was relieved, took a deep breath, from He picked up the documents on the ground, threw them on the table next to him, and turned his head to give instructions to the secretary next to him who dared not say a word.

Hold on, come on!We are the big brother in the game industry, and we still have a trump card, and this year's EA has not lost yet!

We also have a 3A masterpiece, and we also have the world-renowned Star Wars!

We can definitely win!

But before that, you have to stabilize your morale.

After the secretary went out to work, Charles took a deep breath, clenched his fist and hammered his palm.

Then he turned his head and looked at the table on the computer screen on the desk. It was the follow-up promotion plan, but it must be changed now.

There is no doubt that Mass Effect Andromeda has failed. It is not a vicious bug that can be modified through subsequent patches, but a complete failure of the game design concept.

(End of this chapter)