Monday, May 7, 2012

Undie Bundle


In case you missed the fervor, EA recently put together a Steam bundle of six games developed by independent developers via their EA Partners program. It was unfortunately named the "EA Indie Bundle" and there was a bit of ... contention about it.

Since I worked on many of the games in the bundle in some form or another, I talked to Rock, Paper, Shotgun about the whole thing. And some other stuff too, like the ethics of media consumption in general when nearly everything that gets made these days is ultimately owned by some asshole or another (read: usually Rupert Murdoch). Considering I've had massive respect for RPS for quite some time, getting to talk to them at length was actually a pretty darn cool thing for me.

Anyway, summary of my thoughts on the whole thing is, it's not a good name, but the games themselves were created under the right conditions for the right reasons by developers independent of EA. I think some of the people howling about the sale may didn't understand all the games were made by folks with total creative independence (and we really did, even though it sounds too good to be true). I just wanted people to understand the who and why of those games. If they do and still take umbrage, that's totally fair.

The sale does support all the developers though, and if you want six weird games from weird (but awesome) people, most of whom are actually Canadian (and the last sixth are Dutch), $20 is a darn good deal. If you're not cool with it, I understand. If you have more questions, I'm happy to answer them as best I can.

And with that bit of the past concluded, there should be some more Ninja excitement in the near future. More soon.

4 Comments:

Blogger Ambsace said...

One: What?! This is a fantastic bundle of games, and a good deal is a good deal regardless of name. Sometimes I feel portions of the gaming community prize the appellation more than the actual content. (Hipster gamers?)

Two: Poor EA. Yes. I said it.
While their image isn't the cleanest in recent years in the public's eye, they may surprise people if they decide to look past the civil portrayal.
Studios they buy or help out flourish more with the aid of the money they throw at them. The sports branch down here in Orlando (Tiburon) is a pretty fantastic place to work at too. (Although the Dev Vs. QA war from their Superman title is STILL waging.)

Three: It was awkwardly fantastic to meet you at PAX. Mark of the Ninja was one of the highlights there for me. Thank you kindly for signing the poster!

May 8, 2012 at 2:47 PM  
Blogger Jacob Clark said...

I'm looking forward to Mark of the Ninja. Glad to finally meet you as well and play the game in person! Now all we need as an indie game meet and greet at the Westin!

May 9, 2012 at 3:40 PM  
Blogger Nels Anderson said...

@Sam

And yeah, it kinda sucks people heap so much bile at EA. Certainly I think some of it is deserved and there are things they do regularly that I'm not really cool with at all. Suffice to say I wouldn't ever want to work there (but I don't think I'd ever want to work for any publicly traded company).

But on balance, EA is certainly not the worst offender out there. They're far more progressive than a lot of other big organizations (e.g. http://kotaku.com/5909038/a-transgender-transition-inside-ea-sports-will-everyone-stare-at-me) and they've got some really talented folks whose work I admire.

And yes, it was nice to meet you too! I'm sure I'll be linking posts about Ninja here as they roll in. If there's anything specific you ever want to hear about, let me know! I never know what folks will find interesting and what folks will find prosaic.

@Gaming in Public Heh, something like that could be sorta fun. Places like Irrational to their big ol' get togethers at stuff like PAX, but having the smaller folks band together for something like that could be cool too. Hmmmm ...

May 11, 2012 at 9:53 AM  
Blogger Ambsace said...

EA certainly has its share of shame to burden, but I guess my qualm is people chastising (like in this case) anything even closely associated with them! Corporate makes terrible decisions and obviously prioritizes certain things above others, but the subs or partners shouldn't have to share in that public discrimination. There's a lot of misplaced anger and concern here!

Also, thank you for that link. It's kind of surprising any company would take the time to support a huge life decision like Kelly's- let alone an EA Sports branch- but it's relieving to know that kind of support and respect is out there. Hopefully that notion will come to the states. ; ;'

And um... If I can 'fan request' topics, then just anything that correlates with game development turns out awesome. The back log you have has quite a range on topic, but it's all fantastically relevant on a whole and introspective in a refreshing way. It's exciting to get updates and news on these titles, but please keep writing anything you find interesting and congruous to this wonderful medium.

So.. Um... Yeah.
Just keep on spilling out those gems, dude.

May 11, 2012 at 1:54 PM  

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