No, we SHOULD be hoping for EA's imminent demise. If a big video game company goes into the red and changes these terrible business practices, that's good, but it won't help the video game industry as a whole wise up. Another flaw in your argument is that you are assuming that company won't go back into doing those terrible business practices again once they are no longer in the red and have some breathing room. Businesses that are stupid enough begin doing these kinds of business practices that ruin them to begin with are easily stupid enough to go back to doing them if they think they can get some quick cash doing so.hentropy said:I don't think anyone is saying they shouldn't fail. Only that We shouldn't sit here and pop the champagne over companies failing. I'm also not talking about the developers, they can probably get by just fine, but rather all the accountants, HR people, IT people, janitors, etc. who work for EA and might not necessarily be able to get another job right away somewhere. People who may only have a cloudy idea of why everyone hates EA, and people who will be laid off because of crap their bosses did. Not something to celebrate, even if it would make the industry as a whole a bit better. There's a difference between realizing the sad reality and ignoring it so you can celebrate the demise of the faceless "bad guy".
In the end EA won't ever "fail" in the traditional sense, they'll be bought out by some other (probably foreign a potentially even worse) company, but that will probably still mean a lot of people being laid off or pay/benefits getting cut.
What we should be hoping for is not their imminent demise, but that they change their leadership and business practices, something that might happen if they start getting into the red for an entire year instead of just a quarter.
The people that are whining about people losing their jobs really need to look at the big picture. What the video game industry needs right now is a gaming company giant crashing and burning as a direct result of these terrible business practices, something that puts up a couple of metaphorical giant neon signs that say "THESE BUSINESS PRACTICES DON'T WORK!!!" and "DO THESE THINGS AND YOU'LL DIE TOO!!!" In short, something to set an example.
We should be popping the champage and celebrating if a big gaming company like EA dies off, it's something the industry REALLY needs. Sure, people will lose their jobs as a result and that sucks, but that's the cost that needs to be made, and it's hard to find any good thing throughout human history that just happened without some people somewhere suffering either to bring it about or as a direct result of it.