Electronic Arts’ Los Angeles branch has conceded that product support has been an ongoing problem and said new steps would be taken to correct the problem.
“I am not as proud of our record in supporting our games after launch. In fact, I’m downright unhappy with that aspect of our business,” EALA General Manager Mike Verdu wrote candidly on the official Command & Conquer website.
The team worked on Command & Conquer 3 and its expansion pack, including the PC version of Kane’s Wrath which has suffered from a delayed patch.
Verdu said the scarcity of patches and their long development times could be ascribed to “tension between developing new products and supporting our older products.”
However, he said greed was not a factor and that millions of dollars were poured into support for previously-released titles.
Verdu also said a new team will be tasked with a post-release “protect and serve” mission for Command & Conquer titles, including Red Alert 3, due out in October.
Here too, Verdu spoke bluntly: “I am not going to say that this initiative is going to instantly solve all of our support issues and I don’t think we have the credibility with our customers to make that claim anyway,” he said. “But over a period of months and years, I believe the benefits of this new approach will be evident.”
Source: Shacknews.com
Published: Jul 7, 2008 07:39 pm