14 DAY TRIAL // An anonymous executive from a big games publisher has talked about the recent trends in the gaming industry and revealed that customers are becoming more and more entitled, as highlighted by the recent backlash experienced by BioWare with Mass Effect 3.
The gaming industry is constantly evolving and its interactive nature means that customers, i.e. gamers, can easily find ways to interact with developers and influence their creative process.
While this is usually a good thing during the game’s development, once the title’s released, the reaction can get out of hand, as we saw when Mass Effect 3’s endings caused a serious backlash among fans of BioWare who demanded that the studio released new endings, which it quickly did through the Extended Cut DLC.
This movement is causing quite a lot of problems for big game publishers, at least according to an unnamed executive who talked with Kotaku.
"Gamers are absurdly entitled, but I think they got there because we ask so much money from them every step of the way. No one's demanding reshoots for the final Matrix, because it only cost you 10 bucks to see it. Sometimes I think we in the industry lose sight of what it's like to pay $60 for a piece of entertainment," the anonymous executive said.
"We're worried about the precedent that Bioware set here. Will it fan the flames on future titles? No one knows for sure."
The source also addressed the bad image of big publishers like his own company, saying that the hate can be unwarranted but sometimes gamers are right, as many bad things need to be done in order to protect an investment.
"A lot of the bile comes from a place of ignorance, lack of understanding, etc," explained the insider. "It's one of the reasons I wanted to jump on here today. But we can be straight-up evil too. Depends on the situation."
Even if BioWare pleased most fans with the Extended Cut DLC, some are still quite angry at the game’s publisher, Electronic Arts, so there’s definitely truth to the executive’s statements.