EA Founder Criticises Nintendo's "Feudal Dark Age"

why i oughta hes obviously tripping

While i understand Nintendo's desire to determine which games will release on their platform their choices are strange considering shovelware.
I'm not sure i get his point but we all know most of the reasons why 3rd parties couldn't really shine on Nintendo's platforms so far. And i don't think it's got much to do with restricting their ideas.

In my experience as a developer, Nintendo don't do concept approval whereas Sony do and I believe Microsoft also do.

To get developer status with Nintendo you have to submit an initial game design and show them that you are a real developer company staffed with experienced console developers, but this is to stop naughty people getting their hands on sensitive development equipment, not a quality control thing.

Bitter, Totally bitter.
Sorry, I can't take a guy in charge of something called 'Digital Chocolate' seriously.

What an odd metaphor.

How many companies baught the EA? to many, and how of them closed the last few years? to many.OK Mr EA boss? OK.

This doesn't sound like an overly restrictive policy. If you want access to our technology, show us you're serious. This is big business, and in big business you make proposals for joint ventures. He sounds like one of these, "I'm the artist; don't restrict my creativity" characters.

How did they ever approve Wappy dog!?!?
I think this guy has a point. Developers should be able to develop what they want. I really can't imagine that they gave too many games the stamp of rejection though... If so, how did they let all those terribad games in?

He's talking about the fact that developers pay royalties to Nintendo, Sony, microsoft and Apple for games developed by 3rd parties. If you made a game for the PC you didnt pay anything to anyone. This is a common thing and he has his point, which is famous. He just focused on Nintendo since it's the biggest, most successful, most experienced etc videogame company in the world.

@melechofsin: I guess that would make sense. Nintendo could still say "we don't want this game on our system" but being paid for it seems strange indeed.

bitter. live with it, dude. Nintendo is pretty massive, it's their right to require at least a little checking on who develops for them. Nintendo shop is NOT the Web; no comparison.

Looks like he took some of that Digital Chocolate money, took a trip down to the local mall, and got him some Glamor Shots. AND he payed a little extra for the bonus halo (not Halo, the good kind with Master Chief). Makes it perfect for his profile picture on Match.com.
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@burning spear: LMAO dude. I hardly call anything EA does "artistic." They produce nothing but "functional shovelware." Just like they did after they reverse engineered Sega's 16-bit hardware.

Trip is one of the early rock stars of gamedom, why do I get the feeling that most here are too young to know who he is, and what he's responsible for?

EA was an incredible company with him at the helm. 3D0 was a bold, and impressive attempt, his recent accomplishments are equally impressive.

He's a brilliant man that really cares, even tried to keep 3D0 alive with his own money.

I respect his opinion more than most in the industry.

I agree with what Trip Hawkins said. Nintendo said it would be more 3rd party friendly, but to what extent they plan to take it I don't know.

It almost sounds like he's referring to the NES days or something. Their dev kit process doesn't seem any worse than Sony/Msoft (though they could be a little nicer with letting WW devs know when their games could be released - their download sales policy is over the top restrictive).

His ethos obviously isn't with EA anymore. They love buying out he little guys and stifling their creativity/slapping obscene drm on games.

Guy was responsible for the 3DO system. Nuff said.

@17 - I'm old enough. EA wanted to pay less for licensing, so they reverse engineered the Genesis, pirated Sega's development kit, using those pirated development kits and developed games for the Genesis, then demanded a reduced fee structure from Sega for the games they developed using pirated development kits. Some very good games I own(ed), in fact, Madden Football, Populous, Road Rash come to mind.

Kind of funny coming from a company that takes content out of the disc to charge extra for the DLC and charges for online modes that should be included. A hypocrite is YOU!

yay but the feudal system has lasted since 1986 in the video game market while the system you had free play with is now a 3rd party. sure ea won in that deal but sure doesn't look like sega did at all. So, Nintendo's system works...but they could be alil more resilient with there 3rd party.

Does that mean that mediocre, non-compelling Digital Chocolate games will not come to Nintendo consoles? I can only pray to the holy lawn for this hope.

In all seriousness, I do not like this guy. The 3DO was a hilarious attempt, for one. Then he sits there complaining about EA pushing the employees too hard, and starts Digital Chocolate to fix that. And I promise you this company has absolutely no potential to become the next Popcap.

I would have taken this comment a little more seriously if it wasn't for the fact that Trip Hawkins founded the money-sucking Electronic Arts. I'm still pissed off at EA for not supporting the Dreamcast. And then they had the nerve to buy all the rights to NFL becuase Sega's own NFL games were ten times better than Madden. Instead of EA improving their games, they stopped the competition from showing them how to reallty make good games using just money.

Also, he can't really give Nintendo advice when you consider that his own foray in to the console market, the 3DO, was a complete flop. That thing cost £600. Sure the thing was a monster compared to the SNES and Mega Drive, but did he seriously think he could be competitive at that price? Yeah Trip, good business.

Googles what games digital chocolate has made, Sony's and Microsoft's liscensing systems, the 3do, and Trip Hawkins himself
Am I supposed to take this guy seriously? It seems as if to me this guy is just taking a cheap shot at Nintendo. All of the big three's liscensing systems are the same, the 3do was a disgrace price and gamewise, judging by what I've read, all that reverse engineering the Master system/genesis did was take money away from Sega that they needed to function as a company, and Digital Chocolate is, simply put, an awful company that has no influence on the current gaming landscape.

Well at one point Nintendo needed to do that, well all know about the video game crash.

From the guy that bought us the 3DO....

"Of course, Hawkins has long since left EA and now runs Digital Chocolate, a producer of casual PC, mobile and console download games"

Okay, you lost me there. He makes casual now. And his words go against the excitement from the EA boss from today.

But he has a point: Nintendo is to restrictive all the time. That's why Nintendo consoles becoming the havens for third-party developers probably will always stay a dream!