Top 5 Ways EA Failed Gamers in 2017

Over the last year, EA's reputation among gamers has taken a massive drop. With games littered with loot boxes, troublesome launches, or dull content. Now that the year is almost over let us look back at the top 5 ways EA failed gamers.

5. Mass Effect: Andromeda

Mass Effect: Andromeda's launch was terrible. It released with a myriad of glitches and horrible facial animations that made playing the game difficult. What made the entire experience worst was that despite being one of the most acclaimed franchises ever made with one of the best stories Andromeda disappointed many gamers thanks to a lackluster, and predictable, story and a weak main antagonist. 

If that was bad enough the game offered a version of Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode with fewer characters and more options to purchase loot boxes. Post-launch content would continue for the game but only for more multiplayer addition. Unanswered questions, that many hoped would be answered in single-player content, was dismissed when BioWare confirmed that support for the game was closing and all lingering mysteries to be answered in comics and novels.

Many wondered how Andromeda released in this condition until Kotaku unveiled its rocky development. The game faced a difficult time in development due to "ambitious goals but limited resources". A lot of the game's difficulties was caused by lack of management and constant changes. Now the franchise has been put on hiatus and the studio merged with EA Motive, with Mass Effect's future left uncertain.

4. Closing Visceral Games

One of the most shocking stories this year was the closure of Visceral Games, the developers behind the much acclaimed Dead Space franchise. However, it came to light that sales for the studio's projects have been down since Dead Space 2 but many saw this as EA's attempt to move after from single-player adventures. This was later confirmed by a former Andromeda developer and former employees from Visceral Games.

Andromeda's developer conveyed that EA was moving towards more open-world games for longer investments. The focus being microtransaction, similar to the market found in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. It was also confirmed that the Star Wars game that Visceral was working on, which was canceled, according to Kotaku was focused on aspects that the publisher mostly abandoned; single-player campaigns. 

3. Death of Single-Player Campaigns

After multiple reports and the closure of Visceral Games, it seems clear that EA isn't interested in single-player adventures. Instead, the company is seeking alternate ways to provide adventures that can be updated multiple times similar to what Square Enix has done with Final Fantasy XV. However, unlike FFXV EA's vision for the future of both single-player and multiplayer content involves random drops that can be paid for and boost performance.

2. Microtransactions

One of the most frustrating moments playing EA games this year was the publisher's unhealthy obsession with microtransactions. Where other publishers like Bethesda, Nintendo, and Sony have provided fantastic games free of these vexing additions EA has gone out of their way to not only put them into the game but make them necessary for progression. Mass Effect: Andromeda, Need for Speed: Payback, Madden NFL 18, FIFA 18, and, the biggest example of this, Star Wars Battlefront 2.

1. Star Wars Battlefront 2

If you've been following Star Wars Battlefront 2 you know that the game faced a lot of backlashes not for the game itself, but the microtransactions. After launching early for EA Access, Origin Access, and the Deluxe Elite Trooper Edition EA quickly attempted to mitigate the damage by providing reasons for the slow progression and loot boxes containing performance-enhancing Star Cards.

As you might expect it didn't turn out well. EA's comment explaining the massive grinding needed to unlock Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker became the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. The microtransaction system faced such negative criticism that the company completely removed the system for refinement and will implement it at a later date. However, it seems like the damage is already done with those who took advantage of the pay-to-win system and greatly enhanced their characters. Considering that the grind to unlock most of the enhancements still requires an absurd amount of time, easily massing 100+ hours, those hoping to unlock their favorite classes and heroes will need to dedicate a lot of their free time unlocking them. 

Has EA disappointed you this year? Let us know in the comments below!

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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