Free to play games are becoming more and more popular in today’s industry, but this has facilitated the rise of micro-transactions as well. Some developers have gotten it right, while some like EA have had some rather rough patches throughout. If it’s not criticism against games like Plants vs. Zombies 2, then it’s for games that rightfully deserve it like Dungeon Keeper Mobile which prompted a wave of fury from gamers and critics alike.

EA COO Peter Moore had some rather interesting thoughts on the same when speaking to Games Industry International. “I think the challenge sometimes is that the growth of gaming… there’s a core that doesn’t quite feel comfortable with that. Your readers, the industry in particular. I don’t get frustrated, but I scratch my head at times and say, ‘Look. These are different times.’ And different times usually evoke different business models. Different consumers come in. They’ve got different expectations. And we can either ignore them or embrace them, and at EA, we’ve chosen to embrace them.

“There is a core – controversial statement coming from me, sadly – that just doesn’t like that, because it’s different. It’s disruptive. It’s not the way it used to be. I used to put my disc in the tray or my cartridge in the top, and I’d sit there and play. And all of these young people coming in, or God forbid, these old people coming into gaming!”

Moore has a rather interesting view on the whole situation. There are plenty of people who like to bypass all the grinding and time spent levelling with micro-transactions. However, that still doesn’t excuse the likes of Dungeon Keeper Mobile which aren’t even pretending they’re ripping you off. Your thoughts on the same? Let us know in the comments.

Dungeon Keeper Mobile, a smartphone version of the classic strategy title, was routinely criticized on release for its horrible implementation of micro-transactions. EA CEO Andrew Wilson has finally addressed criticisms about the same but noted that it was more of a result of EA “misjudging the economy”.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Wilson said, “For new players, it was kind of a cool game. For people who’d grown up playing Dungeon Keeper there was a disconnect there. In that aspect, we didn’t walk that line as well as we could have. And that’s a shame.”

“We misjudged the economy.” Thankfully, it seems the company has learnt from many of the mistakes that came with ruining Dungeon Keeper’s essence. “As we look forward, the two lessons we get are, one, where you are dealing with IP that has existed in the past, even though you’re reinventing it for a new audience, you have to do your best to stay true to its essence. And that’s a challenge. The Star Trek J.J. Abrams [made] was very different from the first season I watched, but I still felt good about it.

“The second is, when you’re thinking about any business model, premium, subscription, free-to-play, value has to exist. Whether it’s a dollar, $10, $100 or $1000, you have to delivering value, and always err on the side of delivering more value, not less.”

We’ll believe it when we see it. Stay tuned for more.

Dungeon Keeper: Mobile developer Mythic Entertainment, which also developed Warhammer: Age of Reckoning and Dark Age of Camelot, has been shut down by publisher Electronic Arts.

“We are closing the EA Mythic location in Fairfax, Virginia, as we concentrate mobile development in our other studio locations. We are working with all impacted employees to provide assistance in finding new opportunities, either within EA or with other companies via an upcoming job fair.”

Mythic Entertainment was folded into Bioware for a short period of time before rolling back to being Mythic Entertainment and working on Dungeon Keeper: Mobile. The free to play did very badly in its critical evaluation due to its heavy handed micro-transaction approach and Mythic’ reputation never quite recovered since then.

What will happen to support for Dungeon Keeper: Mobile and what other studios will EA look to for mobile development? We’ll find out in the coming weeks or months.

Electronic Arts may be famous for many things – the sheer number of franchises it controls, micro-transactions, FIFA – but it’s also infamous for many others. One of those infamies includes winning The Consumerist’s award for Worst Company in America two years in a row. But it seems the company will have some competition this year as Microsoft is now in the running according to the current bracket.

EA’s main crimes against consumers include the post-launch controversies of Battlefield 4, which is still being patched/re-patched to this day, and the awful Dungeon Keeper mobile which aggressively sacrificed gameplay for the sake of pushing micro-transactions. Given that Microsoft introduced an always-online console and attempted to kill used game sales though, we’d say it’s going to be a tough competition.

And that’s not even taking into account the problems it’s faced with Windows 8.1. Who are you hoping will win? Let us know in the comments below.