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As our title would suggest, Lorne Lanning doesn’t shy away from his feelings on Electronic Arts.
In a recent interview, the Oddworld creator/game developer says that he told EA ‘f*ck you very much’ when they looked into purchasing his company, Oddworld Inhabitants. He didn’t hold back in throwing a few more jabs at the conglomerate, hinting that they were little else besides money-grubbing bastards, out to eat up the little guy and spend the profits on expensive crap.
“Our agreement is, you won’t be seeing our profit being spent on Ferraris and shit like that,” Lanning said. “Our profits are going back into games so we can ultimately raise to the point where we can grow our audience.”
While Nerdreactor reports that Oddworld is fine making comparatively smaller profits as opposed to the gazillions that come with a successful EA release, Lanning insists the company is still doing well. “People are still employed and we’re able to keep making content.”
He also added that with less money and expenses involved there’s also less pressure to do well: “Rather than having to have 1.5 million units in the opening week or suffer death,” he said, “now if we have 50,000 sales and we’re still in business
Partner and managing director Stewart Gilray also added that the company does get bonuses: “We don’t need to blackmail our staff by having them relying on LARGE bonuses. Plus, we treat our staff with respect and rarely, if at all ask them to work Overtime or crunch.”
I know a couple people who work at EA and love it, and for all I know Lanning’s opinion is just that — an opinion and little else. But he sure seems a little pissed at EA for even presuming they could buy his company — sounds like he my have been privy to some dirty insider details we’ll never hear. “Publishers are flying jets, do you think they care about the customers just one fucking percent?” asked Lanning. “Not at all.”
Jeff Nau – who has written 1264 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Jeff Nau is a main contributor to the Jace Hall Show covering pop culture and music trends in the nerd community. He has contributed to San Diego City Beat, 944, and Ill Literature, amongst others, and spends his spare time working as an artist and photographer.

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