We've had good times in the past, the Need For Speed series is probably one of the most ingrained racing franchises in the industry, if not the racing franchise. There was Populous, and Dungeon Keeper 2, arguably Peter Molyneux's finest games. Command & Conquer, Simcity, Medal of Honor, the list goes on.Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Need For Speed, with Underground being a great recharging the series needed, featuring the tightest controls for an arcade style racer, has more recently been relegated to shovelware. Medal of Honor is still fighting the same war, with the headlining feature for the game being, "Look at the Military Correspondent we have this time! He's a higher rank than our last one!" Don't even get me started with their sports games.
But your games aren't the only thing you've ruined, I remember Bullfrog in their heyday, Dungeon Keeper 2 is a personal favorite of mine. They were one of the most promising studios in the industry, but now you have them making games like Catwoman, and the Harry Potter Games.
I remember Westwood, when they were the prime contenders for King of the RTS, going head to head against the likes of Blizzard, and holding ground. Which is to be expected, seeing as how they were one of the pioneers for the RTS genre.
But your usage of the studio can be described as nothing but outright idiotic, with their swan songs being C&C:Renegade, and Earth & Beyond. No developer deserves to go out on such a low note, let a lone Westwood.
And last, but certainly not least, Origin. While, at the time, I was more interested in RPG's of the Eastern variety (forgive me), so I can't honestly speak regarding the Ultima series, I'm sure it was a fine franchise. I was however, a huge, huge, Wing Commander fan. It's certainly a shame the studio and the Wing Commander franchise are now defunct (No, do not bring up Wing Commander Arena to me...), but I think it was fair to say that the franchise went out on a high note with Prophecy... at least in contrast. Hey! I liked Wing Commander Prophecy.
But you know all of that already, no real point in bringing it up. You have, afterall, already copped to that, and I respect you for that. However, talk is cheap, and it's going to take a lot of action to sway the minds of the people. And let me tell you, the people hate you. Don't act so surprised though, you brought it on yourself, but let's forget about the past, we've started over fresh, right?
You were already off to a good start too! The Burnout series was stale, and poorly executed, before you came along and lit a fire under Critereon, resulting in the stellar Burnout 3. While Paradise could have been better, full judgment will be reserved till I see your supposedly big DLC plans take fruition.
The Command & Conquer series is as strong as ever, with C&C3 being a solid game all-round, and Red Alert 3 looking amazing. Tiberium I am a little concerned about though, conceptually, it looks like nothing out of the C&C universe, but I've been pining for a good squad-based shooter since SW:Republic Commando, and Tiberium looks very similar. If my biggest problem with the game is aesthetics, then bring it on.
And what about Rock Band! While a brilliant game in and of itself, your model for DLC is a license to print money. Brava.
Oh, and Spore, how can we forget about Spore. One of the most conceptually interesting games to come out in recent time, if not all time. You're taking a big risk in a game that features a persistent service (Sporepedia) with no apparent subscription model, a move that almost seems altruistic.
However, not everything is fine and dandy, quite frankly, when you pull things like this, I worry if this is simply another cycle of bad business decisions happening all over again.
Naturally, the blogosphere imploded, like it usually does. But while I would have defended you when being bashed unreasonably, I did nothing to defend you this time, simply because I couldn't, wouldn't. I did not agree with the idea of purchasable weapons, and quite frankly, it confused me how you could have gotten DLC so right with Rock Band, but got it so absolutely wrong with Bad Company. Perish the thought of that being actual irony.
Oh, we've chided, but I'm concerned if this is a trend that will continue, and I fear that if it does, the jokes will be more like gallows humor.
But as it turns out, maybe you really have turned over a new leaf. While it did take the internet starting a whole kerfuffle, you least know better than to ignore your customers. But what they don't seem to realize, if only because the idea seems silly (especially for such a big company such as yourself), you're still learning.
Yes, I know, people find it hard to believe, but it's true. DLC is a hard thing to do right, in fact, Rock Band is the only one to do it right. However, not all games are like Rock Band, understandable. It's also understandable that you were simply trying out a new business model for DLC, I just wish you could have thought it out a little more for BF:BC before setting it in stone.
Just a little word of advice for the future though, I know you're looking to Korea for ideas into DLC, but understand that the Korean market and the Western market are two very different beasts, as evidenced by the public outcry. Foreign ideas are just that, and you know how xenophobic people can be, regardless of how good that foreign idea may or may not be. But I can't really blame you for trying.
It would be best to think things through a little more though, get some public opinion, do some polls, just something to test the waters for a new business model before you set it in concrete. Other wise, the internet is going to be drawing dicks on it before it gets a chance to dry. (Whatever, like 8% of people do it.)
Yours Truly,
Some Guy
