Electronic Arts has received a hugely negative response to a tweet appearing to mock people who âonly like playing single-player gamesâ.
On Thursday, the FIFA and Battlefield publisher put its own spin on a popular meme by posting: âTheyâre a 10 but they only like playing single-player gamesâ.
The message, while likely intended as a light-hearted joke, received an overwhelming negative response in its more than 7,000 replies.
Jacksepticeye, the Irish YouTuber with nearly 30 million subscribers, wrote: âTheyâre a 10 but thought this tweet was a good idea.â
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - official teaser
Developer Obsidian sub-tweeted EA, writing: âSingle player is dope. Multiplayer is dope. Games are rad.â
Responses even came from EAâs own employees. Vince Zampella, head of EAâs Respawn Entertainment â creator of single-player games Titanfall and Jedi: Fallen Order – replied with a hand-on-face emoji, while the design director of Jedi: Survivor simply posted a wink.
BioWare writer Patrick Weekes added: âThinking about working until midnight for the better part of a year to help ship Mass Effect 2â.
And former Dragon Age series designer Sebastian Hanlon wrote: ââRemember,â the Community Manager in the group, waiting for our flight to board, said, âjust be more careful than usual about what you say while weâre there; you represent the whole company, whether you like it or not. Even if you _think_ youâre âoutside the showâ.ââ
The most high-profile criticism came from Zach Mumbach, who was formerly a producer for games such as Dead Space 2 and Danteâs Inferno at Visceral Games, the studio closed by EA in 2017.
âThis is the company that shut down my studio and laid off ~100 great developers because we were making a single player game,â he wrote in a message retweeted over one thousand times.
âAlso, if you break game rating scores down to a 10 point scale most EA games are a solid 6 or 7. Not because the developers are bad but because ea the corporation forces them to rush games out. EA corporate leadership wouldnât know what a ’10’ looks like in terms of video games.â
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Hours after EA posted the original tweet, it appeared to backpedal following the criticism, posting:Â âRoast well deserved. Weâll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11.â
The tweet was unfortunately timed given that EA has recently started making more linear single-player games, after spending a significant period dismissing their viability.
EA appeared to actively shift away from single-player experiences over the last decade, closing Dead Space developer Visceral games and cancelling a Star Wars project from Uncharted lead Amy Hennig.
Further reading 6 Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has officially been announced for release in 2023 The PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC game is set five years after the events of Jedi: Fallen Order
In 2010, an EA executive even claimed that the traditional single-play games model was âfinishedâ. More recently in 2017, EAâs CFO suggested that players âdon’t like [linear games] as much today as they did five years agoâ.
The success of Respawn’s 2019 release Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which has been “played” by over 20 million people, has contributed to EA warming to the idea of releasing more single-player games.
Upcoming single-player games from EA include a Jedi sequel, a new Dragon Age title and a Dead Space remake.
Seigmoraig on July 1st, 2022 at 13:01 UTC »
Yeah because live service looter shooters with "skip the grind" monetisation are amazing and my credit card gets wet just thinking about all the 30 day boosts and battle passes with missable time gated items its going to get to buy
Stompydingdong on July 1st, 2022 at 12:58 UTC »
Member when EA published awesome single-player games like Mass Effect and Dead Space? I member…
NoHeroes94 on July 1st, 2022 at 12:54 UTC »
This is an awful, awful look. Even Vince Zampella - Respawn (CEO) (Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, currently owned by EA) did a face-palm emoji response.
In my opinion, they've only done 2 things right in the past few years
- Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall 2, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order)
- EA Originals (It Takes Two, A Way Out, Fe, Unravel)
Wonder what the connection is there...