E3 2019: What we don’t want to see from EA’s press conference

EA’s antics have left their reputation in tatters. What can they do, or not do, to bring it back at E3?

As it was last year, EA is not hosting your traditional conference during E3. They will be hosting an EA Play event just before it, where they will be presenting some new games and information to a small crowd of developers and select journalists. Last year, we saw plenty in the form of upcoming games as well as announcements. Battlefield 5, Unravel 2, Sea of Solitude and Anthem, along with EA’s range of sports titles all featured, while Respawn Entertainment’s Vince Zampella announced from the crowd the name and release period for their Star Wars game, Jedi: Fallen Order.

However, EA in recent years has garnered a reputation for not being quite as transparent as their presentations would suggest. Star Wars Battlefront II launched with one of the worst progression systems seen in an online game that heavily promoted a culture of microtransactions, while Anthem’s experience is hollow and should have been much better given its development time, not to mention trying to fight the Belgian legal system for their right to sell loot boxes.

These are the types of things we as gamers don’t want to see, but it’s easy to remember which publisher we are talking about when mentioning these bad practices. So what can EA do to bring some goodwill back to the fans of their games?

Here are the three main things that we don’t want to see from EA at their EA Play event.

No more franchise revivals in mobile form

There was a game that we omitted from the list above that featured at their event last year. That was Command & Conquer Rivals, where they showed a “live” match taking place between professional Starcraft II player and analyst iNcontroL and nickatnyte, a Youtube content creator who specialises in mobile games. The game’s presentation and match lasted about 10 minutes, and the crowd were mute for almost all of it, which goes a little way to show just how much fans of the series wanted or cared for the game.

It’s not the first time that EA has resurrected a beloved franchise and turned it into a mobile game. In 2014, they brought Dungeon Keeper to iOS and Android in a game that time-gated trap building and progression, with the ability to purchase gems that would speed up or remove that requirement to wait. It essentially meant that EA turned Dungeon Keeper into Clash of Clans. It was without a doubt the worst way that EA could have handled a new game in the franchise.

EA somewhat made up for the Command & Conquer Rivals debacle in November when they announced remastered versions of both the original game and Red Alert, but whether they have learned that mobile versions are not what the majority of fans from their beloved back catalogue want remains to be seen. If they didn’t learn from Dungeon Keeper, chances are we’ll be looking at Theme Park/Hospital Mobile or Dead Space Portable at E3.

A presentation full of sports titles

It’s inevitable that EA will bring out and demonstrate their sports titles at this year’s EA Play as they do every year. They are all by far their biggest selling regular franchises, with FIFA in particular being a massive seller in the European regions almost all year round with the season lasting close to 10 months of the year. This is also not to imply that the games are poor either. On the whole, all of the sports titles in EA’s collection range from competent to very good simulations of their sports.

But EA is at E3, the time of the year when gamers are watching for the new and anticipated titles. For the most part, FIFA and Madden receive at least a small presentation to go with a trailer and frankly, the extra time taken is a waste of time.

It’s also a misjudgment of the audience. Sports titles are generally not targeting the type of player that watches E3. The gamer who exclusively plays FIFA or Madden is not going to tune into the conference to look out for more information on the next title. A longer demonstration video on Youtube, however, is far more likely to draw their attention and as such, making time for it at EA Play doesn’t really make much sense. But that’s not likely to stop them.

CEO Andrew Wilson

This might be asking too much, but it might be the thing that will do the company the most good. The company’s Australian CEO Andrew Wilson isn’t the worst presenter at a conference in terms of delivery (it’s doubtful anyone will ever top Mr. Caffeine at Ubisoft’s 2011 conference), but unfortunately, his reputation now precedes him.

Years of being the man at the top while several questionable decisions have been made have left his image tainted on the EA brand. It was similar to his predecessor John Riccitiello, who essentially left EA in a bad way both financially and with the mood of gamers after multiple years of lacking innovative new titles and being the biggest advent of online passes in the last console generation.

Wilson may have done well to bring them back from Riccitiello’s reign, but the company has not shaken its reputation as one of the more maligned gaming brands. It’s difficult to say for sure how much he is at the mercy of the company’s investors (which previous reports indicate they want more money makers like FIFA), but when you’re the face of the company, it’s you who takes the brunt. Maybe a fresh face would be the first step to repairing EA’s image, much as it did with Phil Spencer at Microsoft.