whatsonpenang.com

You are here: Home -> Activision

The EA Graveyard: Remembering Some Studios That Got Bought And Closed

August 7, 2021 By Keith

A great post about Penang Malaysia.

Quite recently, Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen claimed that the publisher is not getting enough credit for treating studios the publisher acquired well. It takes a certain amount of shamelessness for anyone working for the infamous EA to be able to say that. Or perhaps for the executive, making such decisions is just part of the job and not worth remembering.

Fortunately for us who are fans of the departed studios, the internet never really forgets. So let’s take another walk down memory lane, through the EA graveyard, to remember the studios that the publisher shut down, and conveniently forgot about. And by the end, we can evaluate whether we’re really not giving the publisher enough credit, or enough heat.

Though, a disclaimer before we start, this will not be an extensive list. EA has shut down 14 studios overall, and not all of them were acquired externally. In this list, we will only be mentioning a few of those that were indeed bought before being shut down, with one honourable mention that was created and killed by the publisher itself.

Bullfrog Productions

Dungeon Keeper

Bullfrog Productions was a pretty old name in the industry. So much so that, if the studio was still alive, it would be older than me. But the studio was dissolved in 2001, back when the internet was still a fairly new thing, so it’s no surprise if the name doesn’t ring any bells for you.

But for those who remember the name, they would also remember that the studio was responsible for games like Populous, as well as the Dungeon Keeper series. As mentioned, the studio wasn’t exactly killed, but it was merged into EA UK, which effectively ended its independent existence.

Westwood Studios

CFO

Command & Conquer. Red Alert. Need more be said? Even before the age of the internet, Westwood Studios was a household name even in the late ’90s. Which is a massive achievement to say the least. Following its success, the studio would be acquired by EA in 1998.

Then in 2003, just five years later, the legendary Westwood Studios was shuttered – because Command & Conquer: Renegade did not meet expectations. And we all know the kinds of expectations that the studio killer known as EA has.

Origin Systems

Ultima Online

Origin, to be fair, wasn’t known for much else besides one thing: the name behind the Ultima RPG series and the Ultima Online MMO. The success of the series would lead to the studio’s acquisition by EA in 1992.

In a way, there’s a chance that it’s thanks to EA that Origin Systems would come to create the MMO Ultima Online. But it would also be the title to seal the studio’s fate. The publisher would decide that the studio be an online-only company. This may have had something to do with the poor reception of Ultima IX, which lead to the cancellation of the studio’s upcoming projects and its disbanding in 2004. The publisher will continue to use the name for its own games launcher.

Pandemic Studios

Star Wars Battlefront classic

Funnily enough, Pandemic Studios was founded by an equity investment by Activision. In fact, it’s first games would also be sequels to existing titles by the publisher. The studio will ultimately go one to make other games, and strike gold with the eventual making of the original Star Wars Battlefront series.

It would then be acquired by EA in 2007, alongside BioWare, incidentally. The acquisition also caused licensing issues, which meant that Pandemic wouldn’t be able to work on Star Wars Battlefront III. And in 2019, as part of a restructuring in EA, the publisher decided to let the studio go.

Black Box Games

Need for Speed Carbon

If you know your Need for Speed series, then you’ll know Black Box Games. This was the studio behind the vast majority of the games in the series. In fact, the studio was acquired during the development of Hot Pursuit 2 in 2002.

Black Box would go on to do its own thing, including working on the Skate series, until 2012 when it was renamed Quicklime Games. It would then be closed one year later.

Honourable mention: Visceral Games

EA Dead Space Steam

The last high profile closure by EA, which prompted many similar articles back in 2017. The reason why Visceral is listed here as an honourable mention is because it was a studio that EA created, as Redwood Shores in 1998, rather than one that it bought.

But that doesn’t change the fact that corporate meddling doomed the studio that found its success in a relatively niche genre. We’ve heard the stories of the way EA forced microtransactions into the third game, had nonsensical expectations of a niche title, and punished the studio with closure due to the publisher’s own misguidedness.

 

Dead Space

And now, EA wants to remake the first Dead Space. And the company CFO wants praise for the publisher’s treatment of acquired studios. But immediately follows up by saying that he “doesn’t care” during an investor call. Which is probably for the better, because if he did, he would be aware that – business realities notwithstanding – the company’s track record suggest that it deserves lot of the opposite instead.

This post was provided on this site.

I trust that you found the above of interest. You can find similar content on our main site:
whatsonpenang.com

Let me have your feedback below in the comments section. Let us know what subjects we should write about for you in future.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Activision, CFO, company CFO, Electronic Arts, executive, Hot Pursuit 2, Online MMO, Pandemic Studios, populous, Westwood Studios Command

Video Games Cheats Invade Consoles With Machine Learning

July 10, 2021 By Keith

An interesting article on Penang Malaysia.

Video game cheats have primarily been a plague on PC, not so much on consoles. But a new, relatively sophisticated method brings the disease to consoles. And it involves a PC, a capture card, and machine learning.

The Anti-Cheat Police Department, a bunch of volunteers who look out for and disrupt cheating groups, have shared on Twitter a new kind of cheating. As mentioned, it uses machine learning, The way it works is by having the cheat analyse your gameplay in real time, and the cheat adds in inputs so that your crosshairs snap to your enemies.

Because it’s not an aim bot or wall hack, you will actually have to see your enemies for the cheat to kick in. And even then, you’ll have to manually aim in the general direction of your targets until a certain threshold where it kicks in and does the aiming for you. Think of it as aim assist, but turned up to 19 and given a steroid overdose.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the next generation of cheating now available on console, and has been for a while but lately its been becoming more popular and more of a trend, consoles are no longer a safe space to play your games legit anymore pic.twitter.com/iEQzPVFf1h

— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) July 5, 2021

Making this even scarier is that this is usable even on consoles. All you need is a PC that’s running the cheat, and a capture card so allow your PC to see gameplay from your console.

There was a video promoting this on YouTube, presumably showcasing the cheat working in a Call of Duty. Activision has since made a copyright claim on the video, taking it down. But as Eurogamer reports, the cheat’s discord is still active, and the software is still up for sale. The good news is that it is still detectable. But even then, it will be awhile before any real action gets taken against this new breed of cheat. More so, it’s a sign of the evolution that cheats are currently going through

(Source: Anti-Cheat Police Department / Twitter via Eurogamer)

The above article was first provided here.

I trust you found the post above interesting. You can find similar content on our blog here:
whatsonpenang.com

Please let me have your feedback below in the comments section. Let us know which subjects we should write about for you next.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Activision, Cheating in video games, Console, Geography of Malaysia, Internet Gaming, machine learning, Penang, Social Media & Networking, Technology Internet, Twitter

Login/out

Username or Email Address

Lost your password?

Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email

Login
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Submit Guest Post
  • Submit Review
  • Submit Event
  • Contact Us

Categories

  • Advertising
  • Art
  • Bars & Pubs
  • Blog
  • Careers
  • Events
  • Food On Penang
  • Langkawi
  • Magazine
  • Motors
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Penang Hotels
  • Penang Images
  • Penang News
  • Penang Video
  • Property
  • Sport & Fitness
  • Theatre
  • Travel
  • Website Design
  • What's On Now
  • What's To See On Penang

Recent

  • Dua Sua Ka Cafe at Jalan Arumugan Pillai, Bukit Mertajam, Penang – What2seeonline.com
  • 🔥TRENDING MALAYSIAN STREET FOOD💯1 MIN RECIPE #cendol #penang #cwc3 #trending #viral #shorts
  • Penang Hill Series Episode 4: The Great Hill
  • Logitech Lift Mouse Lightning Review: Not Essential, But Still Comfortable
  • PENANG HILL CHAR KWAY TEOW Cliff Cafe Buggy Ride and Monkey Cup #arimaunow

Reviews

  • Bars & Pubs
  • Books
  • Fitness
  • Guest Houses
  • Hotel
  • Kids Entertainment
  • Movies
  • Music Event
  • Music-Album
  • Night Clubs
  • Places of Interest
  • Restaurants
  • Sports Clubs
  • Theatre
  • Travel

Copyright © 2022 · What\'s On Penang · Log in

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Submit Guest Post
  • Submit Review
  • Submit Event
  • Contact Us