Recently, I saw an article on Escapist saying that EA was one of the worst rated companies. So I figured I would make a forum about such a topic. Please let me know your opinions about EA with any facts or anecdotes you might have.
Give me your opinions about EA (Leave out ME3)
- Thread starter flecker080
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They're a company. There job is to make the most money they possible can make. In fact, they have a fiduciary duty to do so. If you don't like a practice that they do, don't buy their products. I don't understand people who complain about EA and buy EA products. If you do this, you only reinforce the company's behavior.
EA has been one of the most ruthless game publishers over the years. They frequently acquire well-liked studios and franchises and run them into the ground (e.g. Maxis and Sim City, Westwood Studios and Command and Conquer, and so many more). They do not treat their customers very well, they are happy to ban them for weak reasons without appeals (similar to Microsoft and Blizzard), they support a lot of bad DRM (famously Spore and Bioshock, but basically all of their games now have unnecessary online "features" that amount to DRM and irritation, and DLC advertisements). The final straw that makes it easy to stop buying their games is that they are withholding them from Steam, so I'm not even tempted to buy them.
As far as businesses go they are damn good. They keep the money rolling in and know how to milk something.
They are not very "customer" friendly though which is why a lot of folks dislike them.
They are not out to be our best friend, they are out to make money. It doesn't make them "evil" but it certainly doesn't put them on a lot of peoples Christmas lists.
I have a little bit of admiration that, pretty much like ActiVision, they can polish the same turd and sell it time and time again. Yes folks, The Sims. Nothing much has changed over the years but people lap it up. My wife is one of them.
She owns every single Sims game and expansion released while I just nod and smile at her.
Basically EA does not give a shit about the consumer. Not in a "we're out to get you" kind of way but a "as long as the money keeps on rolling in we're good" kind of way.
They are not very "customer" friendly though which is why a lot of folks dislike them.
They are not out to be our best friend, they are out to make money. It doesn't make them "evil" but it certainly doesn't put them on a lot of peoples Christmas lists.
I have a little bit of admiration that, pretty much like ActiVision, they can polish the same turd and sell it time and time again. Yes folks, The Sims. Nothing much has changed over the years but people lap it up. My wife is one of them.
She owns every single Sims game and expansion released while I just nod and smile at her.
Basically EA does not give a shit about the consumer. Not in a "we're out to get you" kind of way but a "as long as the money keeps on rolling in we're good" kind of way.
I really don't hate Electronic Arts. I've gotten some good games from them in the past. 007: NightFire set my standards for first-person shooters back in the day.
Truly, the videogame company I despise the most is Activision. But, even, then I'm not going to boycott them. If they come out with something I actually find good, I'll support them on that and buy it. I bought [Prototype] on Steam a few months ago, and I think I'd like to get Wolfenstein, as well. I might even try Ultimate Spiderman and Spiderman: Web of Shadows, if they're really as good as I hear.
Truly, the videogame company I despise the most is Activision. But, even, then I'm not going to boycott them. If they come out with something I actually find good, I'll support them on that and buy it. I bought [Prototype] on Steam a few months ago, and I think I'd like to get Wolfenstein, as well. I might even try Ultimate Spiderman and Spiderman: Web of Shadows, if they're really as good as I hear.
But... this is America. Bigger is better, right?spectrenihlus said:
Really well writen piece. Very long though.Dexter111 said:
My opinion: Similar to Dexter's, only not quite as well informed. I really didn't like them Pre-ME 3, but as of yet I wasn't interested in doing something as drastic as a boycot or something. which I now am, post Mass Effect 3. It doesn't count for the "no ME talk" if I made the text invisible, right?
Personally I always thought they should have just stuck to appeasing the frat boy crowd by making sports games. But my only serious complaint about them is the bullshit reasoning beyond their War on Used Games. You make your profit from a game within the first few weeks of its release when EVERYONE has to buy it new...six months after the game is out when people have already moved onto the next big game, you're not going to be making much with the random people here and there picking up the game new.
In short: the same way a band makes their big money by going on concert tours and not by selling CDs, so too do game companies make their big money at launch and the few weeks following it, not a few months after the game has been released.
In short: the same way a band makes their big money by going on concert tours and not by selling CDs, so too do game companies make their big money at launch and the few weeks following it, not a few months after the game has been released.
EA and Activision are the two giant evils of the industry right now. Both are exceedingly greedy and dismissive of their audience, both have a habit of ruining any studio or IP they acquire, and both show no signs of wanting to change so long as they get paid for being abusive.
The key difference is that while Activision is downright malicious, EA comes across as just stupid. Activision will beat a genre into the ground as fast as possible then move onto another until there's nothing left simply because it's profitable, but EA just seems to misstep and make horrible business decisions, along with greatly misjudging the audience in ways that are mutually detrimental.
EA isn't evil. I loathe the nickel-and-dime approach when used on what should be free content (although I support Project $10 wholeheartedly) and Origin is a joke of a platform. It just seems that they have no idea what they're doing, they just go where they're told the profit is. I find it hard to actually 'hate' them anymore than I can hate a toddler for stumbling into a TV.
That's my view on them, anyway.
The key difference is that while Activision is downright malicious, EA comes across as just stupid. Activision will beat a genre into the ground as fast as possible then move onto another until there's nothing left simply because it's profitable, but EA just seems to misstep and make horrible business decisions, along with greatly misjudging the audience in ways that are mutually detrimental.
EA isn't evil. I loathe the nickel-and-dime approach when used on what should be free content (although I support Project $10 wholeheartedly) and Origin is a joke of a platform. It just seems that they have no idea what they're doing, they just go where they're told the profit is. I find it hard to actually 'hate' them anymore than I can hate a toddler for stumbling into a TV.
That's my view on them, anyway.
I remain indifferent they never really wronged me outside of "EA sports IT'S IN THE GAME!" That has murdered my mind since the N64. idk why that drives me insane in retrospect.
Well they are a corporation meaning they'll do anything if there is a possibility for profit.
This of course means that I'll just weigh my purchases a bit more carefully. "Do I really want an RPG?" "Is this new NFS really that important?". Sometimes yes, other times no.
But I definitely don't get the all-consuming hate. They (not being a fanboy here) are just a corporation and as with every other luxury product in your life you should expect them to tilt the court in their favor (in other words, if they think screwing you over is profitable they'll do it).
This of course means that I'll just weigh my purchases a bit more carefully. "Do I really want an RPG?" "Is this new NFS really that important?". Sometimes yes, other times no.
But I definitely don't get the all-consuming hate. They (not being a fanboy here) are just a corporation and as with every other luxury product in your life you should expect them to tilt the court in their favor (in other words, if they think screwing you over is profitable they'll do it).
Customer service, they basically dont have any.
Public relations, the guys they specifically hire to do this should be banned from it.
Command and Conquer 4, the executives who forced that abomination to become a full sequel should be shot.
That said, Westwood, i still mourn it.
I still enjoy thier games, where theyre actually good. Though theese are increasingly few and far between.
Public relations, the guys they specifically hire to do this should be banned from it.
Command and Conquer 4, the executives who forced that abomination to become a full sequel should be shot.
That said, Westwood, i still mourn it.
I still enjoy thier games, where theyre actually good. Though theese are increasingly few and far between.