EA Promises Not To Be Worst Company Ever
Some of the complaints against the company are simply bogus, EA claims.
This topic was too good to pass up: EA will try harder to not be one of the worst companies in America. The promise to "do better" comes directly from EA COO Peter Moore himself who acknowledges that work needs to be done to improve the company's status, but that EA also seems to draw in a lot of "undue hate" as well.
This time last year, a poll conducted by a blog affiliated with Consumer Reports named Electronic Arts as the Worst Company of 2012 based on votes submitted by readers, surpassing Bank of America, AT&T, Walmart and numerous others. EA made the list because of the cost of its games and the extra content customers must buy after the initial purchase… in other words, the company will nickel and dime customers to death. EA also seems to scoop up start-ups in order to squash the competition.
"For years, while movies and music became more affordable and publishers piled on bonus content -- or multiple modes of delivery -- as added value to entice customers to buy, video games have continued to be priced like premium goods," the Consumerist stated.
Moore said on Friday that EA was voted to be worse than the companies responsible for the biggest oil spill in history, the mortgage crisis, and bank bailouts that cost millions of taxpayer dollars. Complaints against the publisher ranged from the company's support for SOPA to the ending of Mass Effect 3.
"We can do better. We will do better," he said. "But I am damn proud of this company, the people around the globe who work at EA, the games we create and the people that play them. The tallest trees catch the most wind. At EA we remain proud and unbowed."
He goes on to admit that EA has made plenty of mistakes, including server shut downs too early, games that didn’t meet expectations, missteps on new pricing models, and the "severely fumbling" launch of SimCity (putting it lightly). Some of the complaints EA has received or heard via press are legitimate, while other complaints -- like the always-on feature in SimCity serving as DRM (and it does no matter what he claims) -- are pure garbage.
"In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT characters in our games," he said. "This week, we’re seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America. That one is particularly telling. If that’s what makes us the worst company, bring it on. Because we're not caving on that."
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"We are committed to fixing our mistakes," he added. "Over the last three weeks, 900,000 SimCity players took us up on a free game offer for their troubles. We owed them that."
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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Inferno1217 "undue hate"Reply
I imagine that is in reference to the Sim City always online debacle or the Origin deployment fiasco. -
echondo EA has dug themselves into a hole that will need at least 10 years to climb themselves out of.Reply
Best of luck Peter Moore! You're gonna need it! -
AzureFlash "EA admits that it is the worst company ever, acknowledges that their practices are the worst"... you'd only see that on The Onion.Reply -
itchyisvegeta Vote with your dollar people... vote with your dollar. Everything else is meaningless.Reply -
cdburner5911 well, its good to see they realize they have some, issues, to work out, but my view of them is, and always will be, negative, when they bought out westwood, they ruined my favorite gaming franchise of all time! Red Alert 2 is, and always will be my favorite game of all time. I know it is hard to come up with a sequel that is as good as the original, but RA3 was just a disappointing twist on the franchise. Don't get me started on the other "sequel" they made...Reply
So improve as much as you like EA, but I will be taking my money elsewhere. -
griptwister Well then... I don't like all those friggin micro-transactions. So I guess it's a really good thing I don't like Sim City, or else I would never buy a game from EA again.Reply -
assasin32 "At EA we remain proud and unbowed."Reply
Sorry you have no right to be proud EA your business practices are beyond morally wrong. Even for a large company that is in a spotlight more than the little guy what you are hated for the most you do in the wide open and not behind close doors. I think most of us can go on for a long time with all the wrongs you have done, but lets leave that to someone else shall we.
I have several hundred dollars which should be yours had your company been more moral. But until than I am boycotting your products and refuse to buy them. -
Stimpack Oh, believe me, the complaints are valid... they're just blown out of proportion when compared to some other companies. I think we should have a "Most evil publisher/developer" poll. Then people wouldn't complain as much about the outcome.Reply -
Martell1977 I didn't like EA since they destroyed Ultima Online, but thought I would try Battlefield 3 anyways. BF3 was fun, but woefully short campaign for $60. When I saw that the first DLC pack was available so quickly after release, I truly believe they made the entire game and then decided to break it up to soak all the money they could. I will NEVER buy another EA game, I learned my lesson.Reply
IMO, they are the worst game company, but the worst company overall...not really, I'd have to give that honor to Best Buy.