It’s normal for big publishers to be hated on by gamers for a multitude of reasons. Whether it’s killing of a game franchise that htey loved, closing down a studio, shoehorning microtransactions in games; the list goes on. However, we rarely hear developers badmouth each other or a publisher. Well, that’s about to change today.
As part of Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell’s candid Q&A over a YouTube livesteam showcasing Project Cars 2 (yes, the same livestream where he not-so-subtly hinted that the studio is working on a Fast & Furious video game), Bell went on a tirade and name-dropped EA as "fucking" them over and trying to steal their technology when asked why Need for Speed: Shift never saw a sequel.
"We made a game called Need for Speed: Shift, we made a game called Shift 2 and EA came to me and said <<We’ll give you 1.5 million if you agree not to talk to any other publisher, to agree any other games or work on any other arrangement with any other publisher. And we’ll give you 1.5 million and we’ll sign Shift 3>>. So I said OK. That sounds like a good deal. I took the 1.5 million, I paid the guys, lots of bonuses, and two weeks before we were due to start Shift 3 it was canceled. With no warning. They said: “We are not doing that anymore."
“We were in trouble, we had nothing left. We were done. They literally destroyed our company. They tried to kill us, they tried to steal our technology as well. They tried to f*ck us over, there is no other way to put it. That’s what they tried to do. And we have no love for EA and this company.”
You can watch the Q&A again right here.
Is Bell in the right here or is there another side to the story that we don’t know of? Or is this par for the course when it comes to EA? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Source: WCCFTech