Electronic Arts named Worst Company in America again
Consumerist online poll sees publisher repeat, topping Bank of America in rematch of last year's finals
As expected, Electronic Arts has won the Consumerist online poll for the Worst Company in America, making it the second year in a row the publisher has been granted that dubious distinction. In a rematch of last year's finals, EA trounced Bank of America with more than 77 percent of voters in the poll determining the game publisher as a worse operation than the financial institution.
Among the reasons cited for EA's win were flaws with its products (the SimCity always-online launch problems specifically), its exclusive NFL license preventing competition in the marketplace, a focus on free-to-play nickel-and-diming, in-game ads, and poor customer support.
EA COO Peter Moore failed to jinx his company last week when he wrote a blog post on the poll, saying he fully expected EA to be named the Worst Company once again. "This is the same poll that last year judged us as worse than companies responsible for the biggest oil spill in history, the mortgage crisis, and bank bailouts that cost millions of taxpayer dollars," Moore noted in his post.
In announcing the results of this year's poll, Consumerist writer Chris Morran acknowledged Moore's post and responded with a question for the executive.
"When we live in an era marked by massive oil spills, faulty foreclosures by bad banks, and rampant consolidation in the airline and telecom industry," Morran asked, "what does it say about EA's business practices that so many people have - for the second year in a row - come out to hand it the title of Worst Company In America?"
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Caleb Hale on 9th April 2013 7:46pm
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Todd Weidner on 10th April 2013 4:15pm
I just bought and played through a used copy of Dead Space 3, because not all of us are rich enough to buy full priced games in this economic downturn. It was still every bit as awesome as DS 1 and 2 but I was annoyed that not only can I not play co-cooperatively online unless I shell out another £7.99 for an online pass (not unexpected as I buy many EA games) but some half a dozen trophies or achievements cannot be unlocked unless you play said co-op missions.
Call me grumpy and unrealistic but I think all trophies/achievements should be reachable if you own the game (didn't someone from EA state this exact principle themselves in a GamesIndustry.biz interview?). And if trophies and achievements are not important drivers of game play, why have them at all?
Anything else is a punishment for players who cannot afford new games. Don't even get me started on that fact that they previous owner cannot him or herself used the online pass without the disc they have passed on. EA know that they are not suddenly paying for 2 players to use the same facilities.
I make only two exceptions to that rule and that is if the player does not have the skills or puts in the time, or if it's a game everyone buys primarily for the online multiplayer experience, like say CoD.
Plain fact is, EA hate hardcore gamers (who buy more games than anyone else and some of those must be used games as a result) and hardcore gamers hate EA even though they do produce some absolutely amazing games.
Now I have that off my chest, tell me were Xbox LIVE named worst online gaming service? There should be a category.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Al Rhodes on 10th April 2013 5:28pm
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Al Rhodes on 10th April 2013 5:37pm
The major gripes cited against EA, the ME3 ending, the SimCity launch etc, are all things that EA took big steps to fix, creating new content for ME3 and compensating people who bought SimCity. Other sources for complaint such as Day 1 DLC, microtransactions and Online Pass are industry standards, not EA exclusives. I'm mystified as to how maintaining the industry norms and paying for our mistakes makes us the worst anything.
EA is top dog of industry that sells entertaiment, namely dreams. Gaming is immersive and important activity based on illusions and can create very strong feelings.
When a top dog, someone everyone looks up to, turns out to be "evil", then the mentioned dog may expect huge backlash fuelled by irrational feelings. Like Tom said, if EA does something and it's accepted, then everyone will follow.
EA is, of course, nowhere near as bad as painted but combination of the above and really badly managed Sim City PR enraged many just in time to cast vote.
If anything, it shows how important EA is for gamers and how insecure we all are when transitioning to digital.
Still. I'm proud to work for EA. I think we do some amazing stuff and if the price of leading is stumbling occasionally and being criticised for those stumbles. I can live with that.
The masters we are all slaves to didn't seem to mind the WCIA bracket outcome.... EA's stock is up a few percentage points from yesterday.
So, I got BF3... Played it... it was nice, moved along & ranked up... nice game, well done...
Expansion came out, Ohhh, eye candy... new "Stuffs" ...Bought it
Could no longer play the game... Kept getting disconnected.... Submitted tickets, got ignored, More tickets, got ignored, More tickets, finally told patch would be in NEXT DLC. (huh?) But, I swallowed the bait...Bought new content, with "fix"
Now, I can play the game for almost 1 hour at a time... Woo hoo... (Of course, since an average match lasts LONGER then 1 hour, I can no longer advance, since my stats are not updated...)
Basically, yeah, I no longer play the game. It's just gathering virtual dust, never to be played again. Money well spent? I think not.
Especialy when you compare it to what the guys over at CCP are doing....... (for FREE)
Worst Company on the planet? Not hardly.
Stupidly managed company that is killing itself, in the eyes of gamers? yup!
Stupidly managed company that is killing itself, in the eyes of the people who write editorials on gaming? You Betcha!
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Patrick McCarthy on 15th April 2013 6:03pm
But it would have been more fair if the voting options included Activision, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo.