My God, EA you need a new QA department. Fire all of your game testers and start over. I'm trying to remember the last game you released without a bug....... I'm thinking maybe M.U.L.E. for the C64.

Quite an improvement over the work-around for Madden 06.

http://www.joystiq.com/2005/10/04/ea-offers-work-around-for-madden-psp-crash/

Still, it would be nice if they could actually release a game that worked at some point. I mean, it's not like they are starting these from scratch every year. Then again, programmers are expensive, especially if they're being paid for all the work they do...

EA Sports is quickly moving up on my list of "evidence that the human race is doomed." Why in FSM's name do people buy this garbage year after year?

Nice of them to fix it and give you a new copy.

And somewhere, a SEGA executive is ticking off another number on the days left until the NBA license that EA wrongfully owns is lifted.

Don't worry little SEGA, your time to shine will come soon enough.

its not the testers... the testers find that stuff and its the developers that choose to fix it or not. there is something going on there than opps we missed that. that is something you check over and over again.

Chiablo - SEGA does not make sports games.

Well I'm sure he's referring to 2K Sports, but they have the NBA license anyway. Anybody can make an NBA game. The league is cool like that. They don't want any monopolies.

I agree with #5. I tested for EA for 10 months on 4 different projects... we were all very passionate about the bugs we had found, and believe me, we find 99% of them. Like #4 said, it's the dev's and the QA managers who decide what bugs ultimately gets fixed. #1, you have no place to blame the testers. They do 1/2 the work on games, and often get the least credit for it. Unless you've been a tester at EA, how can you know of the work process that testers go through? It's painfully frustrating when it is decided that a bug is a shippable one, but there is so much that goes into it than just saying, "We won't fix it." EA has shareholders that it answers to ultimately, and those shareholders demand a certain pace to the games that are produced by EA. Marketing sets deadlines for release dates, and people work their asses off to meet those deadlines. I'm talking 16, 20 hours work days. Have you ever worked that much in a day? Do you know what it's like to poor over millions of lines of code to find one slow memory leak? It takes thousands of hours. And if you mess up a fix, you create more bugs. Anyway, you should know that the people at EA are super passionate about gaming... and honestly, I'm sick of how much everyone gripes about it. If you hate their games so much, don't buy them! If you think you can make a better game, then do it! Just know that testers work their asseses off and love the games they work on. It's unfair to blame them when it's a much more complex process to find all bugs and fix them than just having a good QA department. Until you understand that, you'll never know the game making process.

Hogan, I am sure you are familiar with the ea_spouse case, as most of the readers here are. I have done programming (not professionally), and know that it can be difficult. I have the utmost respect for the people who actually make these games.

My hatred for EA is directed entirely at the corporate office. They are the ones who decide what to deliver to gamers (very little, for as long as they're willing to pay $60 for roster updates) and they are the ones creating the work environment that is not conducive to producing a quality product. I have no doubt that the rank-and-file employees - testers, developers and everyone else who gets their hands dirty - care deeply about their work, but even the best among you can't do 26 hours of work in a day. Thus, the games suffer.

I sincerely hope that you're no longer with EA and have found a better place to put your talents to use. I wouldn't wish a job there on my worst enemy.

I know it's hardly praise to say that I don't see it as your fault that a game isn't good. However, it would be a lie to say that EA is producing games that I would consider worth playing.

#9... much agreed. I am no longer with EA, but that doesn't take away my pride for the work that I did. I agree that there are certain corporate elements within EA that I do not agree with, but the only way that we, as consumers of video games, can do anything useful is to not support poor game quality. At the same time, I was often frustrated when issues reported would get over-looked, but I came to understand that there are important reasons why. In the end, I do wish EA, with it's vast talent of developers, would truly spend the proper amount of time to fully-test a game. Maybe games are becoming too complex though. Maybe it's because a good majority of gamers do not think about these things. It'd be cool to find out.

Bug?? They are just making the REFs more life-like

Hogan, I am sure you are familiar with the ea_spouse case, as most of the readers here are. I have done programming (not professionally), and know that it can be difficult. I have the utmost respect for the people who actually make these games.

My hatred for EA is directed entirely at the corporate office. They are the ones who decide what to deliver to gamers (very little, for as long as they're willing to pay $60 for roster updates) and they are the ones creating the work environment that is not conducive to producing a quality product. I have no doubt that the rank-and-file employees - testers, developers and everyone else who gets their hands dirty - care deeply about their work, but even the best among you can't do 26 hours of work in a day. Thus, the games suffer.

I sincerely hope that you're no longer with EA and have found a better place to put your talents to use. I wouldn't wish a job there on my worst enemy.

I know it's hardly praise to say that I don't see it as your fault that a game isn't good. However, it would be a lie to say that EA is producing games that I would consider worth playing.

I would like to say that Hogan (post #8) is 100% correct. I also worked for EA and its frustrating when you know a product can be made better if you had a little more time but it has to ship no matter what. So don't blame the people working on the game that don't have ANY say in the decision making process.