Poll: Most "evil" video game publisher?

[Mr. Sparzy]

No Apple?

Honestly, there's very little in between them at the moment. EA's advertising, Activision's cloning, Ubisoft's PR, Microsoft's control fixation, Apple's comfort dealers...they're all as bad as each other. Each of them have near illegal practices, profit based morals and an army of slathering fanzombies.

Valve may be utter bastards in real life - but against their peers, they shine like angels.

Wait, why would apple be on their? They don't publish games. The only games they published that I know, were the ones for the Bandai Apple Pippin. I don't know any other games they publish. I think everyone who publishes games on the App store just needs to have an apple account and put then on their or something. (I don't remember. I know I looked it up, but that was a long time ago.)

 

[Mr. Sparzy]

i vote tryarch, even though it aint on the list, for raping the "zombie killing" idea. anyone else remember the original call of duty with zombies besides me?

They aren't a publishing company, though. They are developers. The poll specifically says video game publishers. Treyarch makes the games, Activision publishes and funds them.

 

[Mr. Sparzy]

Those mother fuckers who decided that they wouldn't show all those who made L.A. Noire in the credits of the game.

Extra Credits did a video on that.

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/working-conditions

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Wait, why would apple be on their? They don't publish games. The only games they published that I know, were the ones for the Bandai Apple Pippin. I don't know any other games they publish. I think everyone who publishes games on the App store just needs to have an apple account and put then on their or something. (I don't remember. I know I looked it up, but that was a long time ago.)

Well...Their influence carries far... [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/113986-Apple-Voted-Largest-Influence-On-Gaming-Industry]

 

[Legion IV]

What? No Bethesda? There my pick...

 

[JochemDude]

EA by a long shot

Though Ubisoft has been pulling my PC gamer nerve lately

 

[RipRoaringWaterfowl]

Activision, cuz whatever you say about EA, at least the games they publish are, for the most part good and original (to an extent at least, as nothing is truly original).

[sub]Even if their marketing department seems to be running on failsauce[/sub]

Maybe it's just the Business Certificate talking though, since every time they do something anti-consumer I immediately think "Hey it works from a business perspective" so i don't get pissed off about it.

But wait... how is potentially ruining the whole industry, or at least their reputation forever, a good business decision on EA's part? Sure, a quick buck is made, but isn't the long term more important, and easily more profitable? Bad reputation or the firm's industry tanking aren't good for a business.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Activision, cuz whatever you say about EA, at least the games they publish are, for the most part good and original (to an extent at least, as nothing is truly original).

[sub]Even if their marketing department seems to be running on failsauce[/sub]

Maybe it's just the Business Certificate talking though, since every time they do something anti-consumer I immediately think "Hey it works from a business perspective" so i don't get pissed off about it.

But wait... how is potentially ruining the whole industry, or at least their reputation forever, a good business decision on EA's part? Sure, a quick buck is made, but isn't the long term more important, and easily more profitable? Bad reputation or the firm's industry tanking aren't good for a business.

The thing is businesses in general do not want to risk their money on risky long term projects unless they're guaranteed a decent return. When you've got millions of people buying the Madden games every year for example, you have a good grasp on how much of a profit you're gonna make on the next one.

The general point is why risk too much money on new ideas when you have a safe money formula sitting in front of you?

People'll go on bitching about EA but until they lose a significant chunk of their money as a direct result of this they won't care, it's not like they're just a regular shop that people could just stop buying from if it got a bad rep. They publish, they're meant to be behind the scenes(This is becoming less true if they continue pushing onwards with Origin.) You've got to buy from them if you want games from certain devs, bad rep or no.

And the industry is nowhere near tanking, stop overreacting

 

[everythingbeeps]

It's really down to EA or Activision. But I'm going with Activision.

EA still has a lot of great games, and seem more committed to releasing great games than Activision, who is just more blatantly about money and killing franchises.

Yeah, I know EA killed Pandemic. But Activision killed Bizarre. So that's a wash as far as I'm concerned.

 

[kyogen]

EA, with Activision and Ubisoft clawing at each other for a close second and third. I won't do business with any of them.

 

[CRAVE CASE 55]

EA hands down. Greedy bastards charging for an online pass for pre owned games. They started a trend that is spreading like a disease. A close second to activision for what they did to Infinity Ward.

 

[GreatSvenster]

Capcom. My argument being Marvel vs Capcom 3. Solely MvC3. Yeah, they've also done some dick things in the past but MvC3 is the strongest example that Capcom really doesn't care. They know their fans won't complain as long as it has a solid fighting system, so they can leave out many gameplay features just to put it in UMVC3. You know they planned that. "Hey, we're gonna make a fighter, get people hooked, then rerelease it with more stuff and those idiots will buy it again." And people did. Well played, you know the stupidity of your audience.

 

[Aeshi]

Activision if we take "Evil" to mean "Cool to bash"

But if you want actual "Evil" I'm gonna go ahead and say Valve:

Out of all the games they have "made" only two (Half-Life and Portal franchises) are actually theirs (instead of just ripping-off a popular mod for another game and claiming credit) and out of those only the former is any good.

They may have been good at one point but now they are little more than parasites, content to sell community-made items backed to them and doing a TF2 Crossover with any game that sells more than 10 copies.