Notch on EA Indie Bundle: “EA Is Methodically Destroying Gaming”
EA recently released an “EA indie bundle” on Steam, stirring up some controversy over its use of the word “indie.” Traditionally, independent games are those produced by small teams without the financial support of a video game publisher. Well, Notch has called out EA on the matter via Twitter, going so far as to state that the publisher is “destroying gaming.”
Notch began by joking about EA’s use of the word “indie:”
EA releases an “indie bundle”? That’s not how that works, EA. Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.
— Markus Persson (@notch) May 3, 2012
He went on to explain that he no longer considers his own studio, Mojang, an independent developer:
Fwiw, I don’t even call Mojang inde any more. Vlambeer is indie. Polytron is indie. Stephen, Ed, Terry, Derek, Tommy and Chris are indie.
— Markus Persson (@notch) May 3, 2012
Notch finished with the money quote:
Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it.
— Markus Persson (@notch) May 3, 2012
Ouch. Do you agree with Notch, or did he go a little overboard?
via Develop
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2 Comments on Notch on EA Indie Bundle: “EA Is Methodically Destroying Gaming”
quicktooth
On May 3, 2012 at 11:48 pm
I agree with Notch. EA is doing their damndest to get rid of fun in games, and they’ve a poisonous relationship with their customers. Their lack of respect for consumers and developers is legend. By buying up companies and attempting to move their evil buisness model into online sales (ie. competing with Steam, GoG etc), EA really IS trying to destroy gaming. Agree? Disagree?
JTI
On May 7, 2012 at 6:18 pm
I downloaded Crysis from Steam. When I went to go play it, it turns out that they had run out of keys for the game. So I called EA, and they gave me Crysis 2 for free, and gave me a key for Crysis when it became available. I thought that was pretty cool. I thought that was good customer service.
But now, the more I read, the more I see that there is a lot of animosity toward this company. First, I see on the Steam forums that most people considered EA to be “The worst company on Steam”. Next, it’s voted the Worst Company in America, and there’s various things like this here and there.
I agree that perhaps it shouldn’t have been called an “indie” package. But what else do you call it such that people know what types of games they are getting?