The DeanBeat: What gamers should grasp about big studios and big games

I anticipated that Electronic Arts’ purchase of Titanfall studio Respawn Entertainment wasn’t going to go over well with fans. And from what I’ve seen, the reaction has been mostly negative. But should we really be so quick to judge this will be the death knell for creativity at Respawn? I don’t think so. I think we need to understand the realities of running big development studios that are building blockbuster games.

I don’t have the complete inside scoop or a crystal ball on the future. But I have interviewed the leaders of EA and Respawn about this, and I want to point out the basic business matters that fans should understand before they leap to the most cynical conclusion. I don’t mean to apologize for the behavior of big companies. I just think we should grasp why they do what they do. These companies aren’t acting the way they are because they’re evil. It’s because they’re doing what’s in their business interests, and that’s the way that you run a company with the aim of producing one big creative success after another.