"At least they aren't Activision"- Says my friend about EA

[DustyLion]

This actually got me thinking. Outside of annualizing its series and its love of paid DLC (something the other major publishers are also guilty of) what has Activision done that even remotely compares to EA?

I was arguing with my friend over the state of Battlefield 4 and EA track record with releases and post launch support but I just couldn't get it through to him. EA releases knowningly glitchy and some times unplayable games, they insist on the worst possible DRM they think they can get away with, they're customer support makes the DMV look down right friendly, and they're just as guilty if not more of running franchises into the ground like Activision is.

So how exactly, can one say Activision is worse? I've never met an EA fanboy till this guy, he blissfully ignores everything wrong with Battlefield 4 and gets upset when people start talking about its numerous problems. Then again I guess if you shell out 120 bucks for a game day 1 you better damn well love it.

 

[Saelune]

EA is worse than Activision. That's probably why Activision is well, doing better than EA. All EA does is make sports games an take credit for Bioware games. (ME2 box has 1 mention of Bioware, atleast 3 EA logos on it)

Activision atleast has some good games under its belt, and I personally love CoD, despite its aweful community, and even worse anti-community.

And EA is even worse for its Origin service and denial of games on Steam cause of it.

Maybe if EA let Mercs.Inc (Mercenaries 3) be a thing and make servers that work, Id be less hostile to them. (The game is in dev hell)

 

[DustyLion]

EA is worse than Activision. That's probably why Activision is well, doing better than EA. All EA does is make sports games an take credit for Bioware games. (ME2 box has 1 mention of Bioware, atleast 3 EA logos on it)

Activision atleast has some good games under its belt, and I personally love CoD, despite its aweful community, and even worse anti-community.

And EA is even worse for its Origin service and denial of games on Steam cause of it.

Maybe if EA let Mercs.Inc (Mercenaries 3) be a thing and make servers that work, Id be less hostile to them. (The game is in dev hell)

Heh pretty much this. I wish they'd figure out that CoD players will play CoD, so ignore them and play to your franchises strengths.

I like CoD too, but I also like Battlefield, I'd prefer them to each offer me something different :S

Let's not even talk about how EA seems to be the poster child for everything the Jimquistion brings up as wrong with this industry xD

 

[shrekfan246]

All EA does is make sports games an take credit for Bioware games. (ME2 box has 1 mention of Bioware, atleast 3 EA logos on it)

And Need for Speed, and Mirror's Edge, and Alice: Madness Returns, and Crysis, and The Sims, and Dead Space, and Shank, and DeathSpank.

'Course, I suppose if you're going to ignore the fact that Bioware is owned by EA so you can claim Mass Effect isn't an EA game because of reasons, I suppose none of that really matters either.

EA does a lot of stupid things, but the variety of games they release isn't one of them.

OT: Most recently, Activision killed Radical Entertainment in much a similar way as they did Troika years ago, roughly a month before the PC version of Prototype 2 launched. Less recently, Troika. They rushed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines out for release so that they could be the official first third-party game to use Valve's Source Engine, and ended up releasing an unfinished game that completely bankrupted the developer and resulted in former employees of Troika working to patch VtM on their own time. EDIT: Granted, the development history of VtM is pretty sordid in the first place, since they were developing with an as-of-yet unfinished version of Half-Life 2's Source engine.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick also has a long history of pointing out how he wants to suck the fun out of the development process for video games.

Then of course there's plenty of fuel to be had for the fire if you were ever a fan of Blizzard, though it's debatable how much pull the Activision side of the company actually has over Blizzard anyway.

And lastly, for some odd reason people always seem to be required to "pick sides". So if somebody is a big Battlefield buff, they have to hate Call of Duty because of competition, or vice versa, or else face accusations about how they're everything wrong with gaming somehow.

 

[TehCookie]

The games. EA does have some stupid policies, but at least they make better games. I don't even find EA's new games that great, they set the bar at ground level and somehow Activision still manages to trip over it and be worse.

 

[shrekfan246]

It is bull, but what can you do?

I generally just try to ignore it.

This whole "war" mentality between developers/publishers/consoles that the customers have has never made any sense to me anyway; I buy what I like and avoid what I don't. I won't blame anyone for their choice of video game preference and there are precious few games I don't think people can enjoy.

While there are things I don't think people should encourage by supporting because the trends are going more and more toward publishers trying to pump out as little content for as much money as possible, there are still countless games released almost every month that offer excellent value, be it through gameplay, story, visuals, or all three.

 

[Saelune]

All EA does is make sports games an take credit for Bioware games. (ME2 box has 1 mention of Bioware, atleast 3 EA logos on it)

And Need for Speed, and Mirror's Edge, and Alice: Madness Returns, and Crysis, and The Sims, and Dead Space, and Shank, and DeathSpank.

'Course, I suppose if you're going to ignore the fact that Bioware is owned by EA so you can claim Mass Effect isn't an EA game because of reasons, I suppose none of that really matters either.

EA does a lot of stupid things, but the variety of games they release isn't one of them.

OT: Most recently, Activision killed Radical Entertainment in much a similar way as they did Troika years ago, roughly a month before the PC version of Prototype 2 launched. Less recently, Troika. They rushed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines out for release so that they could be the official first third-party game to use Valve's Source Engine, and ended up releasing an unfinished game that completely bankrupted the developer and resulted in former employees of Troika working to patch VtM on their own time. EDIT: Granted, the development history of VtM is pretty sordid in the first place, since they were developing with an as-of-yet unfinished version of Half-Life 2's Source engine.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick also has a long history of pointing out how he wants to suck the fun out of the development process for video games.

Then of course there's plenty of fuel to be had for the fire if you were ever a fan of Blizzard, though it's debatable how much pull the Activision side of the company actually has over Blizzard anyway.

And lastly, for some odd reason people always seem to be required to "pick sides". So if somebody is a big Battlefield buff, they have to hate Call of Duty because of competition, or vice versa, or else face accusations about how they're everything wrong with gaming somehow.

Bioware shouldn't even be under a publisher's thumb I think though. And its not that Im ok with Activision's evil, I just think EA is a bit more evil. Activision just has more power to spread theirs.

An I agree about the flaws of picking sides. I hate Battlefield, but because its not to my tastes. I don't think someone shouldn't like Battlefield series. CoD is about person vs person in small battles, while Battlefield is about force vs force in people/vehicles vs people/vehicles. I like CoDs smaller battle scale, but I can see why people would prefer the bigger instead.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

They're both evil. But at the end of the day, I don't enjoy Activision games AT ALL. EA at least makes games that I want to play.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Never really cared about the companies. I just buy the games i want. I also never buy DLC if its not worth it. But again we are all free to buy we want, when we want. Not like these companies force you to buy every title and piece of DLC they make.

 

[Caiphus]

Activision was the bugbear of yesteryear. EA is the new shit. Most of the hate towards Activision was aimed at same sort of stuff as with EA: Preference of shareholders over customers, an asshole of a CEO, DRM usage, rallying against used games, killing-off developers, etc etc:

http://www.h3xed.com/pc-gaming/all-your-favorite-bobby-kotick-quotes-in-one-place

They seem to have gotten better over recent years, if only because Kotick has stopped shoving his foot into his mouth. The hate is still as strong as ever; it has just changed targets now.

I've always found the witch hunt slightly obsessive myself. I can't really understand why the OP would need to pester his friend because he doesn't get his jollies from thinking mean thoughts about a company like the rest of us. But the OP is far from alone, so there you go.

 

[Fireaxe]

Activision has done a remarkable job of ruining Blizzard.

Seriously, from seven games Blizzard has put out two decent games (even including expansions) since the Activision merger and one of those two they basically couldn't have fucked up without actively trying and the other they ruined with patching within a year. For some developers that might be considered a decent hit rate, but Blizzard is a company that between 1995 and 2005 put out 12 games (not counting the Warcraft 2 BNE because it was a box set, albeit with some improvements), 11 of which were worth at least some of your time (and the crap one was co-developed).


Does this make them worse than EA? I don't know; at least EA doesn't have BioWare putting out garbage.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I consider them both bad developers. I hate Call of Duty, and I happen to hate The Sims. I also hate everything else produced by either of the companies with few exceptions.

EA just loves grabbing money, doesn't it?

Activision is proabably guilty of all of EA's non-Origin related sins.

 

[bjj hero]

I dont like activision because of uncle Bobby and what they did to infinity ward. I loved cod4 to pieces. Im interested in what respawn can do now.

EA tends to give pc gamers the shaft but I tend to by EA games for the console as my laptop struggles to run current titles.

 

[Raioken18]

OT: Most recently, Activision killed Radical Entertainment in much a similar way as they did Troika years ago, roughly a month before the PC version of Prototype 2 launched. Less recently, Troika. They rushed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines out for release so that they could be the official first third-party game to use Valve's Source Engine, and ended up releasing an unfinished game that completely bankrupted the developer and resulted in former employees of Troika working to patch VtM on their own time. EDIT: Granted, the development history of VtM is pretty sordid in the first place, since they were developing with an as-of-yet unfinished version of Half-Life 2's Source engine.

I still consider that one of the biggest video game related travesties of all time. VTB Bloodlines wasn't perfect, but it was very well made up to the point they got cut off. The crappy ending sequences and game ending bugs made what could have been an awesome game for it's time into a shutout. Those things likely results of Troika's demise, actually they weren't meant to release it at all, but with it so close to completion they did anyway.

While releasing an unfinished game is considered blasphemy in the gaming world, this decision was basically down to all or nothing. Release it unfinished or not at all.

<3 VTM series. RIP.

 

[The AmeriCanadian Gamer]

I dont like activision because of uncle Bobby and what they did to infinity ward. I loved cod4 to pieces. Im interested in what respawn can do now.

EA tends to give pc gamers the shaft but I tend to by EA games for the console as my laptop struggles to run current titles.

They both give PC gamers the shaft, EA just uses more lube.

OT: People seem to have a need to pick sides in this "fight". I never really will understand why they have to go to such great lengths to justify their pastime. Hell, I play CoD/Battlefield/TF2/Halo/Quake at the moment (can you tell I'm an FPS junkie?). They each bring something I love, but BF4 was gimped on PC at start, and is now only running properly, but at least they give us true dedicated servers (that players can make and control) and a variety of options, where as ghosts uses a matchmaking system with a ded. server background, with no way to admin the game, and don't even get me started on the lack of FoV options and horrid optimization of Ghosts -.-

 

[Sarge034]

Does this make them worse than EA? I don't know; at least EA doesn't have BioWare putting out garbage.

ME3 and SWTOR would like to have a word with you. Also SimShitty, but that was EA-Maxis.

OT- Is Activision "worse" than EA? No. I find myself enjoying most of the Activision games I play while most EA games I play send me into fits of rage for one reason or another. I do find it surprising that in this thread of hate no one has mentioned Ubisoft. I fucking hate Ubisoft as a company, but I hate most publishers so there is that.

My shit list is...

1 & 2) Ubisoft & EA (They swap places so much it would be a disservice to say one is worse than the other.)
3) *activates flame shield* Valve
4) Irrational games/2K
5) -everyone else-

Addendum- Microsoft technically has spot #1 for the Xbone debacle, but in the sprit of the question I left them out.

 

[llubtoille]

For me EA comes across as a more 'human' company, they do some silly stuff in the name of making a quick buck but generally seem to have good intentions, they're also quite a bit more vocal and responsive to the gaming public,

Whereas Activision is shamelessly ans self-stated to be a no-fun money making machine, their goal is profits pure and simple, though they seem to calculate on a mid-term level (ie - the impacts of public image ) and generally keep their mouth shut when it comes to controversy.

 

[Fireaxe]

ME3 and SWTOR would like to have a word with you.

SWTOR wasn't an objectively bad game, as far as an MMORPG (read: Grindfest) goes it was actually fairly good.

ME3 was a third game in a trilogy, and was generally considered good (ending aside), which isn't a poor showing given how trilogies usually end up.