Electronic Arts Wants To Be Voted Best Company In America

[Ulquiorra4sama]

If they want to improve themselves that's great. I'm not about to condemn someone for trying. How much effort they'll put into it needs to be seen. Please don't half-ass it, EA, you used to be so much better than this.

"Removing things people don't like", or at least improving upon them, seems to be their new policy so maybe given a bit of time they'll give Origin a proper overhaul as well and so they stop ostracizing all the PC gamers.

 

[RicoADF]

Baahahahahahahaha great now the only thing your going to have to do is scrap origin the most ridiculously draconian piece of DRM I have ever seen I was genuinely looking forward to battlefield 3 before you took a dump in punchbowl by adding origin to the party. If more people were bothered to read the terms of service of origin your servers would be empty and I can honestly say if that did happen and EA went bankrupt I would dance for fucking joy!

You have bought and killed 5 games studios. 2 of which made games I grew up playing and fell in love with (Bullfrog and Westwood) so you will never have my custom, trust or respect until you make some pretty dramatic changes to your current business model.

While pricing on Origin sucks, the software is no different to steam, I have both and have no issues with it. I think some people hate for the sake of it.

 

[Storm Dragon]

In all honesty, though, it's not outside the realm of possibility for EA to change their ways and become one of the most beloved video game companies in the world, it's just on the outermost frontiers.

 

[MrFalconfly]

"We looked at something as simple as the Online Pass," he continued. "People were telling us they didn't like that. So we weighed up the pros and cons and went, 'Okay. We will remove it.' These decisions need to be driven by what consumers want and tell us, and that is where we may have faltered a bit in the past."

So we weighed up the pros and cons and went, 'Okay. We will remove it.'

we weighed up the pros and cons

pros and cons

What pros EA? What were the pros? What?

Here's a tip for you EA. If you want to be voted the best company in USA, then stop being so mean all the time.

Eh. If you read the bit behind "Pros and cons" you'll probably come to the conclusions that there weren't that many pros.

My point exactly. But it was still introduced in the first place none the less... See how this fits together?

What? That EA has gotten a new public figure, instead of that Richitello guy, who actually possesses some rational thought, and can see that some of these ideas where battynuggets?

 

[Brian Tams]

While I don't think they're even close to getting out of the top five worst companies ever, I do think they're going to relinquish to top spot to Activision. Or Ubisoft. Face it, they have made some small improvements in the way they do business.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I still find it laughable EA was named even once, sure, they suck, no arguing other wise but worst? really? some how I doubt EA are worse then some of the banks and such, ya know company's that are doing REAL harm to the economy and peoples livelihood.

 

[the_retro_gamer]

Well acknowledging that there might be a step in the right direction but there is still a whole mountain to climb. Start by not nickle and dimeing you customers and provide games that do not suck, and DLC that doesn't feel like a cheep cash in. Also stop assuming F2P prints money.

 

[Icehearted]

Soderlund said it's inevitable that EA will make mistakes but suggested that the plan going forward will be a simple one: acknowledge that a mistake was made, and then fix it.

Seeing what they did to Origin, Bullfrog, and Bioware, I think they passed the point of "inevitable" a long long time ago. As for fixing it? Yeah, it's been decades. They've pretty much never course corrected, and act like they've been doing us a favor. His whole attitude about Online Pass is a perfect example.

There are definitely worse companies in America though. As game companies go EA is legendary in it shit treatment of it's target audience.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Don't want to be voted the worst again?

GET RID OF ORIGIN! Or at least make it so that I don't have to be online to play single-player games!

Get rid of the DLC checker BS that prevents me from playing any Mass Effect saves offline because they have DLC on it! That was total BS! Didn't even realize it until I got the whole series downloaded.

And give me Jade Empire 2! Or some spiritual successor, dammit!

Just a note, but I just got internet back after three months of its absence, and I was playing Origin-bound games with no difficulty. Offline mode seems to work well enough. In contrast, Portal 2 on Steam gave me the finger every time I tried to start it.

 

[Britishfan]

Just try not to do anything too horrible and I might consider showing you my appreciation for it with my wallet when Titanfall, Mass Effect "Not-A-Spin-off", and your up coming Starwars stuff come round. If you're really lucky I might even use Origin. But vote you best company in America? Not bloody likely.

 

[Buizel91]

If they don't fuck up the new Star Wars Battlefront game they have my vote as best company.

And lets face it, they haven't been that bad recently...ish...kinda...

 

[Caiphus]

Unlikely, fellas. Perhaps start putting some of that Sims 3 DLC on sale so the whole lot doesn't cost upwards of $400.

Anyway, they seem better than they were when Riccitiello was in charge, at least.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

So EA, you want to be the best company in America?

Well in order to achieve that you need to put your customer's needs over your desire for increasing profit margins.

You have to create a top quality product that people desire and can depend on to deliver, and when it doesn't, give full apologies and compensation.

You need to readdress your budgeting to get the most out of your companies earnings by creating an efficient workforce, not subsidising a top-heavy corporate structure by nickel and diming your customers.

You must provide a value for money service that customers are happy to purchase. You must not include shady or unpopular systems in your products that your customers vocally dislike (microtransactions, cut content being sold seperately as DLC, Always Online etc.)

That is what you must do if you truely want to be seen as the best company in America. It will cost you money. It will cost you shareholder confidence and reduce your profit margins. It will make your company more honest, more popular and better regarded.

Do you wish to continue?

~~

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0......... GAME... OVER!

OT: Fat fucking chance that'll all happen. Unless the above quote actually happens. That'll be amazing if it did. As others have said, baby steps will help. I also don't like how he said "We did that and we started to realize that we are doing things that people don't like." as if they JUST realized this shit. Cmon EA, really now? It wasn't obvious beforehand? With about everything you've done thus far?

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Hmmm...that's a big positive from a bigwig at EA to come out with. I hope they do start to follow up. Project $10 was a horrid mistake that was always going to piss off consumers. Microtransactions, always on requirements, Day-1 DLC/On-disc DLC and other practices are also at best controversial and at worst, despised.

Do away with watering down all games to be bland, generic action-adventures with a grey/brown palette, stop trying to mimic Activision and just make the best damn FPSs, hack and slashes, RPGs and what not and you'll be on the right track. I would love to see EA games back on Steam too. There aren't many I would buy right now, but who knows in the future? The path to success isn't copying CoD and WoW, it's making something people want to play more than them.

Anyway, I'm not gonna say a bad thing here when EA have taken a step in the right direction. I cheered for Ubi when they ditched their draconian DRM on PC and think EA can be better if they try.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

How cute, EA. Fix Sim City properly and we'll talk.

And I don't just mean remove the online-only requirement. Fix the damn traffic model and increase the map size.

 

[Dark Knifer]

I'm going to judge the merits of these sentiments when there games start coming out, then we shall see if there is any difference. Though they have been avoiding stupid shit more then other companies recently, microsoft with their xbone debarcle and ubi "everything MUST be a franchise" soft have been replacing them there.

 

[BrownGaijin]

And I want to nail a hot 26 year old cosplayer, but that not going to happen without a little effort on my behalf.

Alright, alright here's a little constructive advice: Read <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Who-Says-Elephants-Cant-Dance/dp/0060523808>this book and then give Lou Gerstner a call.

 

[A-D.]

Oh EA you so funny. But seriously, you want to make up for years of bullshit? You really want to change how you operate? Alright, here's a few tips.

1: Origin. Do not make it mandatory, especially for singleplayer games. Likewise, if a game of yours is sold elsewhere, say steam which is already DRM to begin with, do not make origin part of the package. One DRM tool is enough.

2: Steam. Bring your games back to steam. You might not be a fan of valve, but broadening the availability of your products to as many places as you can will only help you. There are plenty of people who dislike Origin, or they simply dont want yet another program running in the background so they can play games. Adjust to this.

3: Always online. Just no. Throw that idea overboard, it doesnt work, it will never work. Multiplayer and Online-functionality should at best be a addition, a feature rather than a requirement. If people do not wish to play online, do not force them to. MMOs or Multiplayer-Only Titles are the exception because by design they are meant to be played with others. Games such as SimCity, which can be played by yourself are not that kind of game, do not try to change this.

4: DLC. First, quality check your DLC, of every subsidiary that makes games for you, bioware, maxis, whoever. Then price accordingly to what is offered. A 3-hour DLC is not worth 15 Dollars or equivalent. Neither is a DLC which adds only a few tiny buildings worth more than 1 Dollar, 2 at most. Do not gauge your consumer base, offer content they want and charge at a reasonable rate, the cheaper something is, the more likely it is to buy something. If the content is high quality, some might buy it simply to encourage you to make more, even if they do not want the DLC themselves.

5: DRM. Again, Origin. DRM is not mandatory, it does not help you, it does not deter piracy or whatever is your latest boogeyman. Never make it harder for the honest consumer to enjoy your products, it should be as easy and as painless as possible to install and run a game for people who buy your games. The more hoops a customer has to jump through to get to the game, the less satisfied they will be with your product.

6: Shareholders. Do not listen to people who have no idea what happens in the game industry. They wish to make a profit, therefore your best idea is to listen to the people who actually buy and play your products, namely the gamers. If you make your customers happy, you make your shareholders happy because you make a profit. If you only make your shareholders happy, your customers might leave in droves, meaning you lose money which makes nobody happy.


So EA, you really want to wish to continue? Here is your chance.