EA’s Andrew Wilson has revealed the company is revising their process for game development, to ensure games are playable sooner, and also to provide more transparency.
First off, they are going to get playable builds up and running sooner. In fact, builds should be playable as early as the conceptual phase, so that stability and scalability can be tested throughout. They are also extending development time from alpha to final release, and, most importantly, they will no longer hesitate to delay games.
Second, they are overhauling their QA and debug process. It was this mindset that led them to offer an beta for Battlefield Hardline quite early relative to final release. The overhaul is intended to ensure the game is in a polished state sooner rather than later.
Finally, they are revealing games earlier. This is why they showed off conceptual phase assets for the next Mass Effect, Star Wars Battlefront, and Mirror’s Edge games. In this way, EA hopes to break up the culture of secrecy that continues to define the industry.
Regarding delaying games, you may think they would be citing Battlefield 4 as a case study, but instead, Wilson named Titanfall. While it released in better shape than Battlefield 4, its release was plagued with issues as well, that could have been avoidable if they spent more time fine tuning the game. One particular heart-to-heart talk with Respawn’s Patrick Soderlund led EA to making this choice.
Talk is one thing though. Will they be able to actually follow through with this? Are they willing to drop a year of one or several of their annualized sports franchises with this in mind? I do feel seeing Dragon Age 3 Inquisition footage in the shape that it was at E3 was a good sign, and an indicator that EA isn't just paying lip service. We hope to see this reflected all the way to the final product for their games in the coming years.
Image is from Titanfall.
