14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts is one of biggest game publishers in the world, and at the same time, a company that's constantly criticized by gamers. Sometimes gamers are wrong, but most of the time what they say is spot-on. Here is yet another example that shows just how ineffective and anti-community their business model really is.
One of the biggest complaints regarding Electronic Arts is its complete and utter disinterest towards the people who like and buy their games. Don't get me wrong, they have some great titles and most of the stuff they put out is very good. This is not about quality, it's more about the way Electronic Arts sees the people from their own community.
The company has been blamed for many things, including some of its policies regarding DLCs, support for the released games, and the fact they're pumping out games in old series just to capitalize on the name. This was true for the Need for Speed series, which has slowly got less and less interesting after the developers released a game in the franchise almost every year. This brings us to today's subject, an old game called Need for Speed: Carbon.
Why Need for Speed: Carbon is representative for Electronic Arts
I work in the news "industry" and I'm also a gamer. I know the publishers, the developers, and if it's a game that I like, I usually know all the titles launched in that particular franchise. Interestingly enough, it's difficult even for fans to enumerate all the games in the NFS franchise or even to place a certain game in a time frame.
If I were to ask people around me when Need for Speed Carbon was released, not many would have the answer without checking online. There are many games in the series, and some have been more successful than others. The problem is that Electronic Arts doesn't seem to really care what the community wants and the company just pumps out one game after another, in an attempt to wear out a franchise as much as possible.
Need for Speed Carbon was released back in 2006. Need for Speed: Most Wanted was released before it and Need for Speed: Undercover and Need for Speed: ProStreet were released after it. This is just to get an idea of the timeline. Surprisingly, Need for Speed: Carbon is actually considered one of the best in the series – it has a ridiculous story, open world racing, and a ton of cool features.
So, you might ask, why bring it up at all? Well, I had a curiosity the other day and I wanted to see what the most pirated PC games were at the moment. I used a well-known tracker for this important research. The first on the list is Minecraft, but that's beside the point. Need for Speed: Carbon is among the most pirated PC games right now and you can't buy it from anywhere on PC.
That's right. If you want to play Need for Speed: Carbon legally, you can't. You can buy the games that came before it and the games that came after it in the series, but not Need for Speed: Carbon, which is ridiculous.
Executives from big publishers are halfwits
I wanted to use a nastier word than halfwits, but it wouldn't look too nice. The problem with execs from publishers like Electronic Arts is that they are not gamers. Yes, they are in a business and they want to make money, but they also have to know what customers want. Apparently, customers want Need for Speed: Carbon. Instead of just complaining endlessly about PC piracy, they should use it as a tool.
If you release a game and it's bad, people will not even pirate it, let alone buy it. If you make a game that's good, it will be pirated a lot, even if it was initially released in 2006. Need for Speed: Carbon can't be purchased from anywhere, not even from Origin, the EA digital distribution platform. It's available for the Xbox 360 platform from Xbox Live and probably on PS3, but the PC fans don't matter.
It's easy to complain about piracy and not do anything about it. If you want to make money, make Need for Speed: Carbon available on Origin and the number of people pirating the game will plummet. Either that or get better execs that know how to juggle with two things at the same time – game and make money.