Former EA CEO & Unity CEO Says Devs Who Shun Microtransactions Are "The Biggest F***ing Idiots" But Turns Around And Apologizes

[killamch89]

Now for a bit of context, this was a short while after a merger was announced between Unity and Ironsource. Ironsource who were in the business of monetization of ads among other stuff of that nature. This would result in monetization services being integrated into the Unity Engine so you knew there was an uproar when it was announced. In response to this, John Riccitiello former EA CEO made the statement above. 

Because of the backlash he received for this, he was forced to turn around and apologize for his statement. Of course, nobody is buying because he's a former EA CEO, this is expected behavior.

Another thing to add, when I first read about the whole Unity and Ironsource merger and was reading through his response, before I even knew who he was, my first reaction was "are you sure this guy didn't work for EA?" and I was right on the mark.  It amazes me how much lack of awareness these CEOs in the gaming industry have. What are your thoughts on this?

[Empire]

I am to believe that every single game developer started out with a dream and a passion for videogames. When the company is large enough to be interesting for people with ties and suitcases, this is where their focus changes from it being about a passion to obtaining maximum profit. Its pretty natural in all entertainment industries I reckon. Very few developers can and will stay in the 'love for videogames' zone once big money starts to become part of the equation.

[Shagger]

This asshole isn't sorry for the ignorant and utterly disrespectful statement that me made because he believes in it even now. In his mind as a cooperate cake top anyone working in the games industry who isn't operating to make money regardless of the cost of integrety is, like he said, a fucking idiot. He was probably shocked that there was a backlash to that because isn't making money the whole and sole point of doing this?

 

It's bad enough that he insulted game developers for actually wanting to entrain people and express themselve creativity in their endeavours, but the fact he was so surprised by the news that not everyone shares his perspective that video games only exist to exploit audiences and harvest money just shows what the cooperate culture is really like at the top in this industry. No integrety, no shame and no respect for the process of making games, the people who make them and especially not the people who buy them.

[killamch89]

12 hours ago, Empire said:

I am to believe that every single game developer started out with a dream and a passion for videogames. When the company is large enough to be interesting for people with ties and suitcases, this is where their focus changes from it being about a passion to obtaining maximum profit. Its pretty natural in all entertainment industries I reckon. Very few developers can and will stay in the 'love for videogames' zone once big money starts to become part of the equation.

I came to the very same conclusion - Most Indie companies right now would act exactly as EA and others are acting if they were to reach triple A company status.

[Demon_skeith]

He says idiots, but I call them heroes, I don't want to be nickle and dime to death over a game. Charge me a one time price and be done with it.

[Ajibusu]

On 9/28/2022 at 12:12 PM, Empire said:

I am to believe that every single game developer started out with a dream and a passion for videogames. When the company is large enough to be interesting for people with ties and suitcases, this is where their focus changes from it being about a passion to obtaining maximum profit. Its pretty natural in all entertainment industries I reckon. Very few developers can and will stay in the 'love for videogames' zone once big money starts to become part of the equation.

The passion is not enough to keep them moving. That is certainly what I get from the increasing number of microtransactions in these popular games. They want to make more money while building games of their dream. However, a CEO coming out to blast those that still do these games for passion shows how shallow minded that he is.

[Justin11]

I know video games are made for profit but atleast be decent enough to add whatever pricing to the games worth and purchase value instead of hiding under the blanket of better armory , skins or weapons to constantly milk away money from your fans.

 

Which ever way it plays out i'm very sure gaming fans would still purchase and play it anyways.