EA boss Andrew Wilson is willing to make delays so that games get better

Jul 26, 2014 00:19 GMT  ·  By

Recently appointed Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson explains just what new strategy is currently being implemented at the large publisher and how it emphasizes not just quality but also early testing and playable builds as soon as the development starts.

EA's reputation with gamers has fluctuated between highs and lows, as whenever the publisher received praise for its emphasis on innovation, it was quickly met with negative events, such as last year's Battlefield 4 launch, which was filled with glitches and problems that continued into 2014, despite the release of updates.

These new events have determined EA boss Andrew Wilson to start advocating for better quality testing and earlier playable builds, so that development teams can spot issues as soon as possible.

"We have really gone in and fundamentally changed the development process," Wilson tells Kotaku. "So the time from alpha to final is now significantly longer. So we're asking teams to be finished earlier. We're also looking at teams and saying, 'You have to maintain a playable build from the very first conceptual phase, so we can be testing stability [and] scalability all the way through the development process'."

According to Wilson, having a playable build of a game is crucial to spotting issues overall rather than examining it portion by portion. He admits that EA's different teams may have forgotten this principle during rushed development cycles but he's now willing to ensure that they're respected even if it means that delays are necessary.

"This is a fundamental shift," he says. "We always believed you need a playable build. We've been building games a long time. But in the heat of battle you kind of do what you can. We have now said there is no alternative. If the build is not playable, you have to push the schedule until it's playable again. You can't eat up that time."

The perfect example for the new strategy is Battlefield Hardline, the new shooter in the series. The game was set to debut this October, but thanks to a public beta in June, EA and developer Visceral realized that more work was needed and a delay became necessary.

"Part of the reason we've come much earlier with [Battlefield Hardline] is we want to have a much longer ramp and a much longer phase to bring far more people into the game so we're hitting it harder...the game is already in a very polished state. We've got to get things done earlier."

Visceral and EA emphasize the many improvements made to Hardline after the beta because of the user feedback but also mentioned earlier this week that a delay was needed in order to ensure that the game delighted fans of the series.