EA Tries Selling Video Games That Work

Two years ago, Electronic Arts, the second-largest U.S. video game company, ran on promises. Developers pitching a feature for a big game had to produce a cool video to win approval from the bosses. They were then left alone for months, until it was too late to fix any problems, says Ian Milham, one of the company’s creative directors. He describes the philosophy as “make a trailer that promises a lot and then don’t show anyone until it’s perfect.”

Often it wasn’t. Several of EA’s biggest 2013 releases, including entries in its SimCity and Battlefield franchises, were so bug-ridden on release that they crashed game servers and were essentially unplayable for days or weeks before they were fixed. EA’s sports games have become Internet punch lines, thanks to videos of glitches trapping digital athletes in anatomically impossible positions.