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.
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.