Poll: Most "evil" video game publisher?

[DanielBrown]

Gonna go with Activision. Dislike that they milk their franchises until it makes absolutely no money. Though all in all I really don't care. I don't judge games based on the publishers. If it seems intresting I'll buy it.
Two Guitar Heroes was enough, however.

 

[Aprilgold]

Valve, for making near the entirety of PC gaming dependent on both DRM and digital downloads, while single handedly creating a monopoly on digital download systems and eliminating the PC used games market.

Also, the insidious, money-sucking fiend that is... hats. Damn them...

They took a opportunity by the god damn horns, and no one seeks to take em' out except for EA, which failed miserably. DAMN THEIR STYLISH HATS!

EA, is ev.... DAMN YOU NINJA!

I had decent views of EA until this year came along...

- The rushing of Dragon Age 2.
- The horrific marketing campaign for Dead Space 2.
- Origin and the controversy surrounding it.
- (Along with Origin) - Them removing their games from Steam, being immature about it, and restricting Battlefield 3 and future games to Origin use only.
- Lying about bonuses for games. (Where is Battlefield 1943 for the PS3 users?)
- The support of SOPA.
- Shitty customer service and horrible working conditions for their employees.

It really sucks cause a lot of the titles they publish I enjoy immensely. Such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Battlefield...I'm looking forward to Kingdom of Amalur as well.

 

[brainslurper]

EA cause they absorbed Westwood Studios and horrifically maimed Command & Conquer. Than murdered it with RA-3 and C&C-4.
I'll never forgive them for ruining my former favorite games series.

This ^^

And that fucking spyware/virus called origin.

Hey! That is disrespectful slander, calling origin a virus. The correct terms are trojan, or malware, or nevergoingtobeatsteamsomightaswellstoptrying.

 

[brainslurper]

I wouldn't consider microsoft a publisher, but I vote them just because they represent the largest threat to PC gaming of any company here. I really hate EA, but they publish REALLY good games. Maybe bioware's new game is a mercenaries game so I can slightly forgive them for pandemic.

 

[DracoSuave]

Valve, for making near the entirety of PC gaming dependent on both DRM and digital downloads, while single handedly creating a monopoly on digital download systems and eliminating the PC used games market.

Also, the insidious, money-sucking fiend that is... hats. Damn them...

This.

They aren't the type of evil that plans supervillainy and gets defeated by the heroes during their long monologue of 'How you are going to die, mr Bond.'

No, Valve is the sort of evil that makes an empire of fervent followers screaming their names to rhe sky while carrying out obscene acts of worship.

Both want to take over the world, but Valve's evil methods have an actual chance of success.

Stupid Evil vs Affable Evil.

Aren't you being a bit unfair? Valve didn't eradicate the PC used game market. Back around the XBox generation, retailers stopped stocking PC games, and Valve simply came in and filled a void. And they've certainly opened up a new market for indies to publish their games by advertising them along with AAA titles and taking a measly 30% cut for it (whereas on a console their will be the licensing fee, platform fee, retailers' cut, publisher's cut, etc). I don't really see the 'evil' bit here. They're just doing business.

OT: Ubisoft, for being an absolute dick. Too bad they've got publishing rights for Trackmania.

Yes, I too welcome our new robot overlords!

 

[Ovoon]

Activision... is so bad. Kotick is the devil.

But... EA. I can't forgive you EA. What you did to my C&C is unforgivable. DIE EA. DIE.

 

[illas]

blizzard, my son.

They have perverted all that they had going for them. Go back to 2006 and the sky's the limit. WoW is the best it will ever be, people only have good thoughts about Diablo, and Starcraft if still a national sport in south korea.

Now where are they? Split one game in to three for the sake of profits, has turned diablo into a microtransaction-ridden WoW clone and WoW is a joke. So cruel.

Congratulations, you have managed to make me regret voting for EA as the most evil publisher in gaming.
Do you have any idea how impressive that is?! GG Sir, GG.

 

[RA92]

Yes, I too welcome our new robot overlords!

You're not paranoid.

Not at all.

 

[meryatathagres]

It's funny how people hate EA still, even couple years after they kinda cleaned their act. Activision and Ubisoft are really dragonian nowadays.

 

[Magnicon]

Ive had a running joke with a couple buddies that Blizzard, Activision, EA, and Ubisoft are in a contest to see who can corrupt themselves the worst.

EA and Ubisoft have both put a tremendous effort in recently, but I voted for Activision because of Bobby Kotick and simply having much more time at it.

Sadly though at this point, it seem almost every company is doing it. Bathesda seems to be on the edge. Only major company I feel confident in at all at this point is Valve.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

1st - Activision in first for being the most money-grabbing whores in the industry, churning crap out on a production line with little to no innovation or creativity. CoD's success has changed gaming as a whole for the worse.

2nd - EA in a near second for a) buying BioWare who up till then could do their own thing free of EA interference and tactics, b) closing down more decent studios than I can remember (Westwood, dice, Pandemic), c) churning out the annual sports franchises and getting away with it for decades and d) all the crap and controversy around Origin and pulling games from Steam. Not cool you sneaky, underhanded gits.

3rd - Nintendo for not creating an original game in decades and for turning gaming into a casual, hand waving fiasco that has developers diverting resources to creating pap like Cooking Mama instead of actual good games.

4th - Ubisoft for draconian DRM and their apparent attitude towards PC development.

I have nothing but love for BioWare, Bethesda, Capcom, 2K and Atari.

Oh, and Microsoft and Sony get honourable mentions for keeping hardware development back for so long. We're at least a year or two overdue for a new console generation.

 

[Sumrex]

EA they chained down bioware and made origin eviiill

 

[xdiesp]

EA, the Fox News of gaming publishers.

 

[erbkaiser]

In the past EA, for ruining every studio they swallow up (although they might be getting slowly better),
probably in the near future Ubisoft, for insinuating all PC gamers are thieves and their insane business decisions,
but currently? Activision. Activision is at least as bad as EA was up until recently, and Kotick is one of the biggest assholes in the industry. Plus, they killed Troika, for which they deserve eternal damnation.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

EA.

But not for any of the reasons given so far in this thread.

Because they ate Bullfrog.

RIP Bullfrog. You may be gone but you are not forgotten.

Despite what the previous 80 posts might suggest.

 

[bificommander]

Thoughy, EA, Activision and Ubisoft are all strong contenders. But I'm going with Ubisoft for their pioneering work in the field of horrible DRM.

 

[veloper]

EA.
EA EA EA.
There is no publisher on this planet I despise more than E fucking A.
They have done soooooooo much to piss me off, lets look at a little list of things they've done in just the past two years...

Online Passes
Always on DRM
Annual EA sports cash in titles
The Dante's Inferno Ad campaign
The Dead Space 2 Ad campaign
Pulling all their games off Steam
Origin
Origin bans
Origin functioning as spyware
Promising fans a free copy of Battlefield 1943 and than "changing their mind"
Shitty customer service
Supporting SOPA

I can go on ALL DAY folks...

Add to that list the destruction of Origin of Ultima fame, Westwood and Pandemic.

Furthermore EA doesn't just do always on DRM, they actually started the whole thing before publishers like Ubisoft jumped on the bandwagon.

 

[hellflame]

EA, with ubisoft in close 2nd.
although activision deserves an honorable mention.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Where it the option for Rare!? Those guys are the worst scum in the industry. They called their gaming division for causal gaming schlock, meaning all those great franchises they own were technically executed.

R.I.P. Conker... R.I.P. We will also never see a Killer instinct 3, or an ACTUAL remake of Goldeneye.

As far as your list goes, I'll say Capcom, since they are on their way to becoming Rare.

 

[DracoSuave]

Yes, I too welcome our new robot overlords!

You're not paranoid.

Not at all.

I find warding off evil masterminds becomes a lot easier when my tongue is firmly pressed against my cheek.

Where it the option for RareMicrosoft!?

The company that made those games you like got annexed by a different empire, which is why they stopped making those games.