What did Electronic Arts show at E3?

On June 9, at 21.00 Moscow time, the first large-scale presentation of E3 2018 took place. It was conducted by Electronic Arts. In our article there is a short story about what one of the main players in the gaming market showed.

The main thing that was expected from the company was details and gameplay from the new Bioware IP studio. Since the announcement of Anthem a year ago, there have been no large number of details. The game, starting from the debut trailer, was compared to Bungie’s MMO hit – which has already managed to result in a Destiny dilogy.

An interview session with developers, a new trailer and a gameplay video do not completely dispel fears. But it is known for sure that there will be micropayments in the project, but exclusively cosmetic. You will have to pay for the unique appearance in the game. There will also be no loot boxes in Anthem. The latter once again suggests that EA does not want a repeat of the scandal with Star Wars Battlefront 2 and is very interested in correcting its image.

In general, the whole presentation left the impression that EA is striving to please the current gaming community as much as possible, which in recent years has become very active, if not aggressive. And the company, although it does not anticipate, but tries to work in such a way that it at least has something to praise from the point of view of this abstract, socially sensitive audience.

It would be naive to consider the new Battlefield V trailer a work on a bug, since such things are not prepared in a couple of weeks, but it looks exactly like a correction of the situation with the debut May video of the game, which was met with hostility by the players. And now we see in the footage, instead of an action movie in the spirit of Fortnite, a classic pathos story for the series “about the great war”.

The same story includes flirting with indie within the previously launched EA Originals brand. The support of small teams, the launch of their unusual projects both in graphic and conceptual form, may, according to top management, be able in the eyes of a disparate community of players to somehow change their current perception of the company as an evil corporation.

There is also a commercial interest in this. EA is pleased with the sales of the first really large-scale title within the brand. Today she proudly mentions from the stage the name A Way Out, whose initial sales amounted to more than 1 million. And the company probably hopes that new projects will also be warmly welcomed by the audience.

And if there are still questions about one of these indie novelties – the German Sea of Solitude — (now it’s only clear that the project is trying to raise psychological issues and at least play on the Journey, Rime and ABZU field), then everything is a little more interesting with the Unravel sequel.

Its concept is very close to the one on which EA itself has recently successfully played together with Josef Fares. We are talking about a linear story project designed to be played by two players on the same screen, among other things. As for marketing, the company is trying the Bethesda approach on the game, which puts the title on sale on the day of the announcement or shortly after it.

The only unexpected announcement was Command and Conquer: Rivals. What is surprising is both the return to the once very popular franchise, which is just considered one of the ruined by EA managers, and the format of its reincarnation. A new game in the series about the struggle of the Global Security Council with the Brotherhood of the Nod turned out to be a mobile freeplay title in the spirit of Clash Royale.

The game should officially become available on Android today. And judging by the first frames, just like Wargaming with its Warfair, EA is not so much cloning Supercell mechanics as trying to develop it. It looks at least interesting, but from the point of view of marketing, it was not the best step to take a popular brand for this. Fans of the original series are very unhappy.

The story about the presentation would not be complete without mentioning the really important franchise of the company. It’s about FIFA. It is customary to laugh at announcements concerning EA sports titles, but for the company itself, working on them is often a priority. As for FIFA specifically, it is the most profitable and one of the most numerous titles of the company in terms of audience. It is him who EA puts in the first place in financial reports.

An important, but natural announcement was the appearance of the Origin Access Premier subscription. Here EA is following in Microsoft’s footsteps, but quite possibly overtaking other sites. We are talking about a service in which the user spends $ 100 a year and throughout this period of time plays projects, including new products, companies on Origin (those games that are not published by EA, but are in its store go at a 10% discount).

There is a subscription — there is access to the library, there is no subscription — there are no games. It is quite logical against the background of the fact that other game stores are now faced with a situation of oversaturation and a natural drop in the cost of non-top products trying to attract attention with the simplest marketing tool.

In general, EA’s presentation leaves an ambiguous impression. The company seems to listen sensitively to the audience, tries to please it, corrects those things that fall under the scope of criticism, but at the same time does not do the main thing — it does not surprise. Even the Anthem show is as cautious as possible, not allowing you to form an unambiguous opinion about the game. The project then resembles the already mentioned Destiny, then Monster Hunter, then generally some coolly drawn, but still generic.