EA the worst company in America

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EA the worst company in America

Postby Reverend Gooner » Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:27 pm

http://consumerist.com/2012/04/congratu ... -2012.html

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/04/05/ea-wi ... poo-award/

Looks like EA's money grabbing ways have come back to bite them. More than 250,000 voters voted for them over all companies over all industries. Of course the impact video games practices have on society is nothing compared to the impact of banks and oil companies etc so in that context it is a bit overkill to see them there but purely in the context of video games and backlashes this is a big one.

They must have really pissed off gamers to see them reap this result considering how big the poll is and the fact it is in a serious, non gaming orientated media outlet.

I have never had any love for EA and am glad to see them get this negative backlash but until people vote with their wallets they won't care. The only reason this may bother them is that this kind of bad press could affect sales. The endless complaints of gamer on forums doesn't bother them as the average mass market gamer doesn't spend much time on gaming forum beyond the odd bit of help.

I have personally boycotted EA and Codemasters for about 6 or 7 years now. It is not a total boycott, more of an economic boycott as I only purchase their games through full price trade ins and money/vouchers given to me as presents, they get none of my money.

I rarely want their games though so it isn't much of a boycott on my part (only the occasional sports game interests me from those 2), the only games in that time I have bought and not traded in significantly unfinished is F1 2010 (because I can't) and Fight Night Champion because it is decent and sorts out a boxing fix every now and again, the rest were just shit or too broken to be good despite a good idea.
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby CynicalGooner » Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:54 am

EA suck, but I can think of so many worse. Just look at the choices, it's a joke list really. I like their response to it

As much as EA annoy the f**k out of me with their money spinning ways, they do actually make good games these days and have some very good studios under their umbrella
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby Zedie » Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:05 am

I still think Activision are worse, what they've done to the Call of Duty is unforgiveable, but as long as people shell out the money, at top whack, they'll keep churning out these glorified map packs.

Im must admit, ive been suckered by EA with FIFA and now the Battlefield series (well BFBC2 and BF3 in anycase), but any other game from them has been purchased via the aftermarket or well after release. Thier both great games, but some of the simple mistakes, glitches and obvious flaws that could be programmed out never are, especially with the sports franchises. Their blatant disregard for gamers has put them in this situation.

Even still, if i buy games on release, ill pre order and get them for £40 max, but thats only if im properly hyped about them.
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby GunnGunn » Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:12 am

They are by far the worst, and have been for an age.

They are an evil corporation.
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby CynicalGooner » Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:36 am

Worse than Golman Sachs, Chevron, Coca Cola, Pfizer, Dell, J P Morgan, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft and all the other utterly soulless corporations?
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby Zedie » Sat Apr 07, 2012 3:15 am

You Forgot

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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby Leody » Sat Apr 07, 2012 4:58 am

CynicalGooner wrote:Worse than Golman Sachs, Chevron, Coca Cola, Pfizer, Dell, J P Morgan, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft and all the other utterly soulless corporations?


Yes.

Because at least the above listed will provide the product that is expected. Most of the hate those companies get is media and politician instigated, not completely warranted. And yes I mean that, 100%. And with the financial institutions, I'm sorry to be so harsh, but if you were educating yourself you would have seen the collapse coming more than 5 years ago.

EA consistently sells incomplete products for full price and then charges additional money for add-ons to approach what could be considered a final product. They've had bugs in their games that go YEARS of remakes without ever being addressed, and completely ignores their customer feedback. All while operating under a monopoly for all sports licenses. Free of any competition in any sports game because the competition cannot use team names an likenesses.

The hate directed at oil companies just makes me laugh. Yeah, some company providing something that is absolutely essential to human progress and existence at a 15% margin is "evil" while Apple bends you over backwards and rapes you up the ass for a 45% margin for something totally unnecessary in the grand scheme of things is a "great" company. :rofll:

People really need to stop listening to everything their politicians say. Obama calls Exxon's $35b profits obscene, while Apple who made almost the exact same profits off of 1/5th of the revenues is ignored. The hypocrisy is absolutely retarded. :doh:

Anything to rile the uninformed masses I guess.

I also have to comment on the inclusion of Microsoft on that list... the company headed by the biggest philanthropist mankind has ever know. :naughty: Bill Gates has done more to lessen human suffering than any government ever has.
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby EvAMY-CRAIGLEEAFC » Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:48 am

McDonalds had a very dodgy link. If i remember rightly.
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby Reverend Gooner » Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:06 am

Another big criticism is that is their anti-competitive strategies, buying out and shutting down smaller companies making better games then them (or close enough). A massive negative on the industry.

CynicalGooner wrote: I like their response to it


It pissed me off, doesn't even acknowledge any criticism. It should be expected though as they don't care about opinion, or quality or integrity, just max profits at all costs.

I don't think the people who make the decisions at EA are gamers at all or even care about games, they just saw the money and thought they wanted in. It is like Games Workshop in many ways, in the 80's and 90's the chain was run by hobbyists, for hobbyists. The prices were high but still acceptable for the niche, they engaged fully with the community, allowed all kinds of fan input into the games and helped grow and promote the hobby through all kinds of games community ventures. It was awesome and they made tonnes of money whilst getting the love off the fans.

Then they were bought out in the 2000's by people who couldn't give a crap. Prices shot up 25%, then they downgraded figure production from metal to all plastic drastically reducing production costs yet they put prices up further and not down. Prices are now extortionate and they have lost so many long term fans (Unit sales are dropping more and more but they keep putting up prices to balance the loss, it will crack soon), they shut down 90% of community work, banned unofficial fan input in nearly all of their games and became IP Nazi's, suing everyone from big companies to joe bloggs over anything they could to try and get more money over. They don't always win the cases, or even have that good a case in the first place but they use their financial clout to scare people/companies into settling before it gets that far. They have a highly aggressive IP warning on their site which legally they can't even enforce fully but most people don't realise so they bully their way into money. If they don't actually sue they fire out cease and desist orders to fan material on the net even if it is not for profit, for a select few and is for a game that was out of print 10 years age (true story). Something they welcomed and embraced when they were run by hobbyists as it was free advertising and the one of the biggest draws to new hobbyists but not any more as in some aspects of allowing it they lose the odd sale.

Due to their new shitness and fan desertion loads of new model companies are popping up (which is great for the hobbyists) but I am sure GW are watching them like a hawk even though they ripped off 90% of their material from other parts of the fantasy genre themselves(that is why many of their IP cases do not stand). The company literally went from the most loved to the most hated of it's genre in about 6 or so years, in fact they really should be on this list.

Anyway I know this isn't about GW but I thought I would mention them as I do see parallels and would not be surprised if the EA big boys couldn't give 1 crap about gaming and the game community either. They strip aspects off of their full release and sell it as DLC on day 1 to force you to pay more for the same game, they charge £10 for online play for second hand and try and destroy the traded games industry which has been a part of gaming since day 1, they only have gone to war with it now they want more money.

They release broken games with obvious bugs and often don't fix them. Usually there is 1 patch released soon after and that is it, then they no longer support them (which sucks for games with limited lifespan anyway like annual sports releases) and they do this because of their strategy or massive online PR and advertising pre release to sell massive quantities on release. That way by making the bulk of sales early it won't matter if they fail to support the game as the money has already been taken.

They also look down on and discourage mod making in many titles as why allow something to be made better than your pros for free, when you could be making money from add ons. Community mods are my favourite thing about gaming and thankfully most companies don't see it as an ill.

There is more but, the short of it is that EA suck and deserve their reputation.


Leody wrote:I also have to comment on the inclusion of Microsoft on that list... the company headed by the biggest philanthropist mankind has ever know. :naughty: Bill Gates has done more to lessen human suffering than any government ever has.


That is his personal life though. Microsoft have had major criticism for their monopolistic, anti competitive strategies and ridiculous pricing. Based on their business practices and business-consumer relations I am sure they deserve a place. Personally I just vote with my wallet with microsoft, I buy my operating system as a OEM install (still stupidly priced) and that is it.

I know what you mean about the oil companies, their margins are not big at all which is alarming as prices are jaw droppingly high now as it is. It makes you wonder about the future, some alternate will be sorely needed at some point.


I can't believe Monsanto are not in it, I would not bat an eyelid if they were wiped off the face of the earth.
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby Dejan » Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:10 am

No clue how a company that makes VIDEOGAMES can get the award for worst company of the year

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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby gzagee » Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:14 am

Certainly I reckon they think they can churn out any old sh*te and the gamers take it.
I take the NCAA football series as an example; EA has almost exclusive rights to the video game market so no other gaming company can get in. This in turn means EA can churn out very lazy editions of the game whereas as if they had competition it would "up their game" pardon the pun.
I last bought the NCAA 11 game which was cool despite a few issues but, upon reading what the forums were saying about the NCAA12 edition I boycotted because they were just insulting the fans.
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby Swan » Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:18 pm

i'm going to say the worst corporation in the states is the United states..
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby Zedie » Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:22 pm

Leody wrote:
CynicalGooner wrote:Worse than Golman Sachs, Chevron, Coca Cola, Pfizer, Dell, J P Morgan, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft and all the other utterly soulless corporations?


Yes.

Because at least the above listed will provide the product that is expected. Most of the hate those companies get is media and politician instigated, not completely warranted. And yes I mean that, 100%. And with the financial institutions, I'm sorry to be so harsh, but if you were educating yourself you would have seen the collapse coming more than 5 years ago.

EA consistently sells incomplete products for full price and then charges additional money for add-ons to approach what could be considered a final product. They've had bugs in their games that go YEARS of remakes without ever being addressed, and completely ignores their customer feedback. All while operating under a monopoly for all sports licenses. Free of any competition in any sports game because the competition cannot use team names an likenesses.

The hate directed at oil companies just makes me laugh. Yeah, some company providing something that is absolutely essential to human progress and existence at a 15% margin is "evil" while Apple bends you over backwards and rapes you up the ass for a 45% margin for something totally unnecessary in the grand scheme of things is a "great" company. :rofll:

People really need to stop listening to everything their politicians say. Obama calls Exxon's $35b profits obscene, while Apple who made almost the exact same profits off of 1/5th of the revenues is ignored. The hypocrisy is absolutely retarded. :doh:

Anything to rile the uninformed masses I guess.

I also have to comment on the inclusion of Microsoft on that list... the company headed by the biggest philanthropist mankind has ever know. :naughty: Bill Gates has done more to lessen human suffering than any government ever has.


Not saying that im a huge fan of Apple or Dell, but how could you possibly call them a worse company than a any oil company when they are simply selling a luxury product to the mass market who lap it up like crazy?

Its peoples choices if they want to go and spend huge amount of money in the Apple store for pointless hardware, thats their perogative.

Apple are the epitomy of a successful company. They were hanging on in a closed market, where Microsoft had a monopoly, theyve managed to design and push (spec wise an inferior) product and have now positioned themselves as the cool company of the decade. I cant see how that is taking advantage of people? If people didnt want to buy Apple, they could f**k off and buy any myriad of alternative products on the market.

Now take the upstanding oil companies you mention. They are selling a natural resource that only they have the capability to source and selling it to the mass market.

If they want to stop supply everyone is f***ked
If they want to increase cost by 100% everyone has no choice but to buy
They played a significant role in the Iraq war
The industry runs a massive cartel, wherebyif one increases costs for random reason, the rest level out their cost to within a few pence

The last time i remember, people could choose to not buy EA games or Apple products but the vast majority cant do without fossil fuels
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby CynicalGooner » Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:26 pm

Leody wrote:
CynicalGooner wrote:Worse than Golman Sachs, Chevron, Coca Cola, Pfizer, Dell, J P Morgan, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft and all the other utterly soulless corporations?


Yes.

Because at least the above listed will provide the product that is expected. Most of the hate those companies get is media and politician instigated, not completely warranted. And yes I mean that, 100%. And with the financial institutions, I'm sorry to be so harsh, but if you were educating yourself you would have seen the collapse coming more than 5 years ago.

EA consistently sells incomplete products for full price and then charges additional money for add-ons to approach what could be considered a final product. They've had bugs in their games that go YEARS of remakes without ever being addressed, and completely ignores their customer feedback. All while operating under a monopoly for all sports licenses. Free of any competition in any sports game because the competition cannot use team names an likenesses.

The hate directed at oil companies just makes me laugh. Yeah, some company providing something that is absolutely essential to human progress and existence at a 15% margin is "evil" while Apple bends you over backwards and rapes you up the ass for a 45% margin for something totally unnecessary in the grand scheme of things is a "great" company. :rofll:

People really need to stop listening to everything their politicians say. Obama calls Exxon's $35b profits obscene, while Apple who made almost the exact same profits off of 1/5th of the revenues is ignored. The hypocrisy is absolutely retarded. :doh:

Anything to rile the uninformed masses I guess.

I also have to comment on the inclusion of Microsoft on that list... the company headed by the biggest philanthropist mankind has ever know. :naughty: Bill Gates has done more to lessen human suffering than any government ever has.

You're sounding a bit elkano here Leo. I don't read the papers or even keep up with the news most of the time, I just don't care what these people think so don't listen, especially politicians. But I am perfectly capable of forming my own opinions about things that people such as yourself may not agree with - that's life bro. Not everyone is a lemming nosediving off a cliff

I think the hate EA gets is blown all out of proportion in this context. Gaming by nature is an emotional hobby, a way to let off steam and have some fun. So I can see why people get mad when they are disappointed with the product or service they get (trust me I'm one of them), but to say they are the worst US company is crazy and just look at the choices man, the whole thing was a joke from the start.

You go on about EA not offering the product that is expected but I'm really not with you on this one. They make games and sell games to people, they usually get what they paid for. Bugs in games on release is an industry wide problem, it's stupid to single out EA for criticism here when they all do it. They never used to but they know they can get away with it more now because most people are connected online so can get patches. It's often not even EA the publisher's fault but the developers - take Battlefield for example, always broken on release, only really becoming a balanced game months after release. That's DICE, not EA. It was a problem before they were bought and still is now.

There are some cases of games that release with on-disc DLC that they then make you pay for if you want it - that is absolutely deplorable yes, but guess what, they aren't even the worst offenders. This is again an industry wide problem. But the majority of EA's games are not like this. The sports games are a big part of what they do but not the only games they publish and honestly, what's wrong with fifa? You get a lot in that package.

So you saw the banking crisis coming 5 years ago, and apparently so did a lot of other people, awesome. That makes the fact it still happened worse. They are utterly disgraceful.

I didn't mention Apple because they are one of the few companies that deserve to be nominated that actually were. None of the companies I mentioned were nominated. Nor was Halliburton, nor was News Corp.

EA are no saints and I probably curse them as much as anyone but they are tadpoles compared to the real corporate scum of this world.

And Bill Gates is not Microsoft
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Re: EA the worst company in America

Postby Leody » Sat Apr 07, 2012 2:27 pm

Reverend Gooner wrote:
Leody wrote:I also have to comment on the inclusion of Microsoft on that list... the company headed by the biggest philanthropist mankind has ever know. :naughty: Bill Gates has done more to lessen human suffering than any government ever has.


That is his personal life though. Microsoft have had major criticism for their monopolistic, anti competitive strategies and ridiculous pricing. Based on their business practices and business-consumer relations I am sure they deserve a place. Personally I just vote with my wallet with microsoft, I buy my operating system as a OEM install (still stupidly priced) and that is it.

I know what you mean about the oil companies, their margins are not big at all which is alarming as prices are jaw droppingly high now as it is. It makes you wonder about the future, some alternate will be sorely needed at some point.


Apple are even worse than Microsoft though, and the very same people that stoke the fires or anger towards "big evil corporations" ignore when Apple do the very same, and often praise the company. You hardly hear a word about Apple's involvement in the e-book price fixing. What did Microsoft try to monopolize, their web browser which they gave away for free? So they bundled stand alone products other companies made along with their OS, what software company wouldn't? In my opinion, they weren't a monopoly, they didn't stop others from making anything, but that's a whole different debate.

That's what I find absolutely mind boggling though. Microsoft is considered to have ridiculous pricing, when their profit margin is below Apple's, and as you can see by this thread Apple is praised as the epitome of a great company. It's laughable. People pick and choose their winners and losers, not based on logic and reason but emotion.

And the reason oil prices are ridiculous, is primarily due to governements taxing the living crap out of everything energy related. Because they know we need to use it, and they can "hide" the taxes. And to try to influence market behavior to try to encourage the use of energy sources they want us to use. i.e. Green, even though they're not cost competitive.

Not the greatest source, but gives you an idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes ... ted_States

Diesel fuel in the US has over $0.58 per gallon in taxes between state and Federal taxes in most areas. :dizzy:

And that's just at the pump. That doesn't even include what they tax the discovery, transportation, refinement and every other step from the ground to your gas tank... ALL of which eventually get passed on to you the consumer so the company producing makes their money. Don't hate the oil company, hate the taxes IMO.
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