Give me your opinions about EA (Leave out ME3)

[Quesa]

I jumped ship on every EA product but BioWare after Spore was utterly mutilated by corporate meddling, and dropped BioWare after that approach, muted but visible in ME2, was so brazenly displayed in DA2.

I understand their desire to turn every title into a controlled investment, infinite return product. I have utterly no desire to play games like that though.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Well, let's just say that I'm not getting any games that get released on Origin, but not on Steam...

 

[Verzin]

They've bought the majority of my favorite studios, and I've seen a decline in every one of them from then on.
I don't like them.

 

[Thoric485]

They make games in order to make money. Often that involves ruining good studios.

 

[Samarith]

Isn't that the company that just remakes the same sports games each year and charges full price for what could basically be a minor DLC type upgrade?

Other than that all I know is that they have the same reputation as SOE, which is to say if they bought into it then it's broken or about to be..

 

[Something Amyss]

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.

You want to leave out ME3, but are asking because of an internet poll that was going on at the height of the Mass Effect rage?

Just wondering if you understand this.

Anyway, I'm not here to ***** about ME3, but I can still think of some issues. For one, they're the real trailblazers in the online pass/anti-used games/fuck you consumers movement. For another, people are up in arms over Origin still. For another, the whole mandatory multiplayer element thing is pretty freaking stupid.

I'm still kind of annoyed by Army of Two: The Fortieth Day, personally. We got an official statement from EA that they would not be releasing any more fixes for the game (which still had glitches from minor to game-breaking) mere DAYS before they put out paid DLC. "We're not going to fix your game anymore. Please buy expansions for it. *hand out*"

There are other examples, but there's always the uncercainty of who was behind it: The pub of the developer. But since EA owns and operates EA Montreal, there's little doubt there.

 

[Hazy992]

They treat their customers like thieves, they abuse their developers, they give gaming a bad name with their stupid ad campaign, they're even worse than Activision for releasing the same game with minor updates each year and Origin.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

As bad as EA are they will always win because while they use dickish practices to sell their games, they are the main publisher that actually still make good games and whenever a new Dev needs a publisher EA jump in and snap them up. So as much as you may want to punish them for their use of dickish practices by not buying their games, you can't cos doing so would be depriving your self of good games. Well unless you pirate them but that's not really an option for console gamers.

Also they seem to think that the money they gain from dumbing down Bioware games to appeal to more people will be more than the money they will lose from completely destroying both Bioware's and their own reputations. It sounds like a very risky business model but I guess its working.

 

[Fishyash]

EA... what have you done to Maxis? Bullfrog?

What have you done? You MONSETERS![i/]

Okay seriously, I don't really hold much against EA, except that I don't like Origin. I kinda have a love/hate relationship with Steam, but Origin has taken out the love.

 

[Rednog]

Meh, I don't hate EA, so many companies pull random bullshit that screws over their consumers. It just happens that because EA is so big is pulls the same amount of bullshit with each title as everyone else but since it has so many titles out there at once the bullshit from each title piles up and makes it look like a giant monster.

Also, I actually happen to like Origin better than steam. For me it just functions better. And before someone jumps down my throat decrying me an EA/Origin fanboy my steam library is this big http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/rednog . My games download faster on Origin, when I download from Origin my browser speed isn't crippled, and my whole system doesn't shit itself when it is trying to update more than 1 thing at a time. And the thing I especially love, it doesn't pause all my downloads just because I launched a single player game.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

EA is like shark infested water. Maybe everything will be ok with a game that is made there if the right people are working on it but sometimes there is a smell of blood in the water and the sharks come out to play. It's a big company but they have more than their fair share of incompetence, mediocrity, petty rivalry and just plain predatory business practice.

 

[DustyDrB]

Meh, I don't hate EA, so many companies pull random bullshit that screws over their consumers. It just happens that because EA is so big is pulls the same amount of bullshit with each title as everyone else but since it has so many titles out there at once the bullshit from each title piles up and makes it look like a giant monster.

Also, I actually happen to like Origin better than steam. For me it just functions better. And before someone jumps down my throat decrying me an EA/Origin fanboy my steam library is this big http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/rednog . My games download faster on Origin, when I download from Origin my browser speed isn't crippled, and my whole system doesn't shit itself when it is trying to update more than 1 thing at a time. And the thing I especially love, it doesn't pause all my downloads just because I launched a single player game.

You have a game for every letter except Q. GET ON THAT!

 

[4ged]

I don't understand people who complain about EA and buy EA products.

This is kind of the root of the problem.

EA have a lot of top quality designers working for them, but they look at the numbers and take away the wrong lessons. They subscribe to every detrimental "conventional wisdom" idea that's bad for business in general, moreso for the idea that apply to the entertainment industry. And whenever a move they make screws up, they fall into that inevitable trap of thinking that goes, "That didn't work, which means I must not be doing it hard enough."

Also, they treat their people terribly. I'm of the belief that if you give you a creative team a budget and deadline and tell them to do what they do best, you'll get much better results. Publishers in general don't agree with that. They will point to the massive piles of money they're making as proof, but then the question becomes, "Could you be making more money?"

Overall, I just don't like EA's corporate culture. They make being a gamer less fun by treating me like a moron and a thief and treating their developers like mules. I want to keep supporting their developers, but I don't think I can do it anymore. I don't know if I even have the heart to finish the Dragon Age trilogy.

just going to point out that if they subscribed to all the bad for business practices then why is EA still a gaming juggernaut, piles of money = successful in the business world and if they shoveled shit to do it then that's a double win for them

 

[Realitycrash]

Uh, how about their horrible, HORRIBLE marketing? Remember the shit they pulled for Dante's Inferno? "This is a game your mom doesn't want you to play", basically marketing an R-rated game directly to kids?
And let's not get into the whole "touch a booth-babe" thing, because that's just..So..Fucking..Gah, words fail me.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Not sure why everyone seems to think they're doing a good job, just with shitty p.r. They are one of the most incompetant companies I've ever seen, the fact that they have made any kind of sucess is little more than blind luck. However, they are at the point now where they are "too big to fail" so even a moron could run EA now.

EA is in deperate trouble financially. Yes, they make a lot of money but that's only because of the sheer size of their company. They should be making much more than they are with a business as big as EA is.

Share prices have plummeted around 50% after the release of Dragon Age II and with all of this hubbub over Mass Effect 3 it's not likely to rise again any time soon. Especially when you consider the fact that EA won the "worst company in America" award. Which was quite fittingly a golden turd trophy.

 

[AbstractStream]

Hate might be too strong, but I certainly don't like them.
EA has hooorrible customer service. I say that from experience and from stories I've heard too.
Still, they've churned out some good games at times.

I dunno, they seem too much like a monopoly to me.

 

[Iwata]

I honestly don't mind them. They publish a lot of games that I like, and I don't buy the ones that I don't. Besides, I still owe them for "Road Rash".

 

[tacotrainwreck]

I'm just not a big fan of their profit-at-all-costs corporate approach towards games. If they don't see it making enough money, they aren't interested. I'm not saying they release bad products, but they're afraid to step outside the box. Activision is really no different, along with a slew of others. That's mostly why I'm a big fan of these recent kickstarter projects.