EA are Ubisoft looked at as the 2 premier 3rd party publishers, in particular since the PS3/360 generation. Ubisoft asserted their position then with series like, Assassins Creed, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and Rainbow Six. Even had a lot of success in the casual space with the Just Dance series. EA continued (for the most part) their momentum in Sports realm from the PS2 era with their series Madden, Fifa, NCAA football, PGA, NHL,and Fight Night. They also established themselves greatly with single player IPs Dead Space, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and to a much lesser degree gave console gamers the opportunity to play the Crysis series. Released the last good racing games (not named Forza) in the Need for Speed series and Burnout Paradise. Most importantly in the 360/PS3 generation, they answered the Call of Duty onslaught with its greatest competitor to date: Battlefield and subsequently arguably released the highest quality games in that series to date.
Enter PS4 and Xbox One.
For Ubisoft, despite arguably misleading fans with graphics, from the jump you could tell their mindset was to push the envelope with titles like Watch Dogs, and Assassins Creed Unity. They started off slower than they hoped, and even worse started fatigue in their flagship series Assassins Creed. Ultimately in response, Ubisoft redeemed themselves from the slow start by releasing solid entries in established Far Cry Series, Rainbow Six as well as introducing new popular IP like For Honor, The Division. They even took risk that paid off greatly by developing an exclusive game for the Nintendo Switch with the MARIO IP. Most importantly, they stabilized Watch Dogs with its higher regarded sequel Watch Dogs 2 and successfully rejuvenated the Assassins Creed series with Origins followed by Odyssey. All things considered, Ubisoft seems to be trending up as we end the generation.
EA on the other hand has seemingly left a lot to be desired as we approach a dawn of a new generation of consoles. Despite having acquire the right to develop games for one of the biggest IP in the world, Star Wars, EA has looked extremely risk adverse and hesitant. They've become completely uncompetitive in the racing realm as the Forza series has the genre in a stranglehold and Need for Speed and Burnout are all but dead. While still major sellers, the quality of their revered sports series have stagnated across the board, even arguably, FIFA now. All their acquisition of the UFC liscense has seemed to spawn is more fans begging for the return on the Fight Night series. Fortunately for them, Battlefield has achieved great commercial success despite some mishandling on their part at the turn of every release on PS4 and XB1. Mass Effect, one of the biggest single player IPs in gaming and extremely anticipated for PS4/XB1 is ultimately now on hiatus due to the lastest entry being a flop due to a extremely troubled development process. Their Star Wars Battlefront releases have left fans wanting more despite doing well commercially. Perhaps their highest quality releases this generation have been Dragon Age Inquisition, which they have yet to return to, and Titanfall 2, game that they appeared to not have much confidence in as it released right in the middle of Battlefield and Call of Duty launches. They also have yet to jump on the Nintendo Switch momentum like Ubisoft and other 3rd party publishers have. The publisher appears to have a lot riding on the success of Anthem.
I say all that to ask this, what happened to EA this generation? What can we expect from them when PS5 and the next Xbox come around?
Enter PS4 and Xbox One.
For Ubisoft, despite arguably misleading fans with graphics, from the jump you could tell their mindset was to push the envelope with titles like Watch Dogs, and Assassins Creed Unity. They started off slower than they hoped, and even worse started fatigue in their flagship series Assassins Creed. Ultimately in response, Ubisoft redeemed themselves from the slow start by releasing solid entries in established Far Cry Series, Rainbow Six as well as introducing new popular IP like For Honor, The Division. They even took risk that paid off greatly by developing an exclusive game for the Nintendo Switch with the MARIO IP. Most importantly, they stabilized Watch Dogs with its higher regarded sequel Watch Dogs 2 and successfully rejuvenated the Assassins Creed series with Origins followed by Odyssey. All things considered, Ubisoft seems to be trending up as we end the generation.
EA on the other hand has seemingly left a lot to be desired as we approach a dawn of a new generation of consoles. Despite having acquire the right to develop games for one of the biggest IP in the world, Star Wars, EA has looked extremely risk adverse and hesitant. They've become completely uncompetitive in the racing realm as the Forza series has the genre in a stranglehold and Need for Speed and Burnout are all but dead. While still major sellers, the quality of their revered sports series have stagnated across the board, even arguably, FIFA now. All their acquisition of the UFC liscense has seemed to spawn is more fans begging for the return on the Fight Night series. Fortunately for them, Battlefield has achieved great commercial success despite some mishandling on their part at the turn of every release on PS4 and XB1. Mass Effect, one of the biggest single player IPs in gaming and extremely anticipated for PS4/XB1 is ultimately now on hiatus due to the lastest entry being a flop due to a extremely troubled development process. Their Star Wars Battlefront releases have left fans wanting more despite doing well commercially. Perhaps their highest quality releases this generation have been Dragon Age Inquisition, which they have yet to return to, and Titanfall 2, game that they appeared to not have much confidence in as it released right in the middle of Battlefield and Call of Duty launches. They also have yet to jump on the Nintendo Switch momentum like Ubisoft and other 3rd party publishers have. The publisher appears to have a lot riding on the success of Anthem.
I say all that to ask this, what happened to EA this generation? What can we expect from them when PS5 and the next Xbox come around?
