EA Wants to 'Regain the Trust of PC Gamers'
By Jasmine Henry 26 January 2016
Despite the company’s previous PC missteps, Peter O’Reilly, the senior marketing director of Origin, reveals that EA is “on a journey to regain the trust of PC gamers”.
The past few years have been somewhat tough for PC gamers. While the most recent missteps have come from Warner Bros. Interactive (with Batman: Arkham Knight‘s buggy PC launch and the announcement that Mortal Kombat X won’t be getting any more DLC on PC), Electronic Arts (EA) is also a notable offender. For example, the publisher’s launch of SimCity was a huge disaster, Battlefield 4 also had a rocky release, and The Sims 4 players continue to complain about missing features that have yet to be added to the game (e.g toddlers).
Understandably, these events have eroded PC gamers’ faith in gaming companies. But in a new interview, Peter O’Reill, the senior marketing manager of Origin (EA’s PC gaming platform), reveals that EA is “on a journey to regain the trust of the PC gamer”.
O’Reilly explains that “over the last couple of years we have focused on ensuring a great play experience from launch and bringing players a better experience on Origin,” citing the Great Game Guarantee (refunds within 24 hours of launching the game), On the House (free games), and the recently announced Origin Access service as key examples in that initiative.
O’Reilly also says that “we’re excited about the progress we’ve made, but are always pushing ourselves to innovate on behalf of players.” But, despite EA having made some notable steps forward, not everyone is convinced. After all, Ubisoft once stated its commitment to PC gamers but 18 months on and PC gamers are still forced to wait weeks for some of Ubisoft’s biggest titles (e.g Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and the upcoming Far Cry Primal).
Others, though, are hopeful for the future and have already begun to draw up wishlists of things they’d like EA to do. Mod support, for example, is high on the list. As games like Fallout 4 and GTA V make headlines for their modding antics, games such as Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefield Hardline lack official mod support. SimCity got mod support but it was criticized for being too restrictive and some players said that it was too little too late after the game’s broken launch left a sour taste in their mouths.
Also on the wishlist is that EA will stop killing off online support for its games. Last year alone saw seven titles lose their online connectivity, and two more are set to go offline this March. Additionally, PC gamers are also keen for EA to release more games on Steam as well as Origin. With EA apparently wanting to establish Origin as a competitor to Steam, that seems unlikely, but if the company is to win PC gamers over again it will at least have to have an open mind.
Source: MCV
