[ekianjo]

> EA just is not what it used to be and all my favorite classic franchises (Command and Conquer, C&C Red Alert, Sim City, Syndicate, etc) are just a shadow of what they once were.

The games you quoted were not FROM EA per se, they were mostly from studios acquired by EA which were dissolved soon after they released something worthy of publishing. Sim City was from Maxix, SYndicate from Bullfrog, CC from Westwood. Do not assume developer=publisher.

[yareally]

I'm aware of who developed/published them :). EA is also a developer and not just a publisher. I'd guess as they acquired each one, they became more prominent in the decisions for each franchise as well as hirings of future developers. Westwood and Maxis as far as I can see, ceased to exist when they were acquired and the games they put out shortly after were running on the inertia they had before acquisition.

I played on Westwood's multiplayer servers back in the 90s. EA carried on letting Command and Conquer series be pretty good up until Red Alert 3 (bad) and Command & Conquer 4 (horrible), which were made long after Westwood was absorbed[1]. Even Sim City 4 was pretty good and that was published long after Maxis had been swallowed.

My point was, EA is where good games go to die, regardless of who develops them. It wasn't always that way, but something shifted in the company over the past 10 years. Their current mode of operation is treat PC as a second class platform, recycle instead of create, appeal to the lowest common denominator for marketing[2] and stuff as much social/online interaction as they can with no way to opt out[3].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westwood_Studios

[2] https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=red+alert+3+women&...

[3] http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/The-Benefits-of-Li...

Edit: some clarifications and citations.

[phaus]

Don't forget the Ultima series and Crusader: No Remorse.

Also, they killed off PC sports games by re releasing the same PS2 ports for like 6 years in a row.

[joverholt]

And don't forget "Hard Hat Mack", "Mail Order Monsters", and Archon. Long live the 8-bit generation!