With Ubisoft now being my least favorite publisher this year I honestly think EA have improved a bit since last year (Maybe winning worst company three times in a row helped them realize that) sure they have done some bad things like shutting down some multiplayer servers but they have also done some good like trusting the review embargo with DA inquisition and making Origin more customer friendly with its return policy. What do you think of EA this year?
Poll: Is EA becoming a better publisher?
- Thread starter Ryanrulez5
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Actually, EA is getting somewhat better. Ubisoft has replaced EA as my most disliked gaming company.
They still do their typical EA-stuff, just look at stuff like Sims 4 this year. The new Battlefield is a cashgrab - they rather want to release the games on a yearly basis instead of taking their time. Also, Battlefield 4 has had a catastrophic release.
But by now, comparing EA's and Ubisoft's amount of bs, EA has become the smaller mountain of smelly feces.
Origin has gotten somewhat better since its release while Uplay stays the same useless and malfunctioning DRM.
EA gives away a lot of games for free on Origin. And they released that Humble Bundle a while ago and gave 100% of the money to charity (all of this simply served PR, but still..).
Also, aside from their annual sport games they seem to care more about releasing polished games than they did before.
Of course, when a company like EA does stuff like this, you get the feeling that all the good things they do is just to say 'look, we're not evil!'. So you get distracted and don't see Satan's pitchfork they're hiding behind their backs.
They still do their typical EA-stuff, just look at stuff like Sims 4 this year. The new Battlefield is a cashgrab - they rather want to release the games on a yearly basis instead of taking their time. Also, Battlefield 4 has had a catastrophic release.
But by now, comparing EA's and Ubisoft's amount of bs, EA has become the smaller mountain of smelly feces.
Origin has gotten somewhat better since its release while Uplay stays the same useless and malfunctioning DRM.
EA gives away a lot of games for free on Origin. And they released that Humble Bundle a while ago and gave 100% of the money to charity (all of this simply served PR, but still..).
Also, aside from their annual sport games they seem to care more about releasing polished games than they did before.
Of course, when a company like EA does stuff like this, you get the feeling that all the good things they do is just to say 'look, we're not evil!'. So you get distracted and don't see Satan's pitchfork they're hiding behind their backs.
Plants vs zombies: a free to pay (not a typo) game...
Titanfall: Hugely hyped, turns out to be incredibly repetitive in the end. Like a constant ME3 multiplayer or something.
DA: Inquisition: Hard to tell since it isn't out yet. I hear talk about multiplayer 'loot chest' microtransactions, which isn't for me. And there are still plenty of bugs and glitches too? Not sure, hard to tell right now.
Let's just say that EA has destroyed so much of my trust that they won't get it back so easily. Even a little. If they keep on...'improving' for another two or three years, then they might regain some of that trust. I usually easily trust someone, but when said someone breaks my trust it will take a hell of a lot to regain it.
Titanfall: Hugely hyped, turns out to be incredibly repetitive in the end. Like a constant ME3 multiplayer or something.
DA: Inquisition: Hard to tell since it isn't out yet. I hear talk about multiplayer 'loot chest' microtransactions, which isn't for me. And there are still plenty of bugs and glitches too? Not sure, hard to tell right now.
Let's just say that EA has destroyed so much of my trust that they won't get it back so easily. Even a little. If they keep on...'improving' for another two or three years, then they might regain some of that trust. I usually easily trust someone, but when said someone breaks my trust it will take a hell of a lot to regain it.
No. They let Bioware be Bioware for the most part with the new Dragon Age game but this year was still a year riddled with classic EA blunders.
Pay to play then pay some more Plants vs Zombies, Battlefield 4, the crap they pulled with Dungeon Keeper mobile and Sims 4. But like others have said when compared to everyone else this year they are the lesser evil.
Pay to play then pay some more Plants vs Zombies, Battlefield 4, the crap they pulled with Dungeon Keeper mobile and Sims 4. But like others have said when compared to everyone else this year they are the lesser evil.
From what I hear, what EA lacks in game release quality(BF4/Sims4/the fact BF:Hardline exists), marketing competence(Dante's Inferno/Dead Space 2), and communicating their ideas effectively(Project $10/EA Access had a rocky start but opinion leveled out), their customer support is pretty good and at least they aren't Activision or Ubisoft.
It's less that they've been becoming better and more that they haven't openly shown contempt for the consumer recently. Even if they are turning over a new leaf, they have a LONG way to go to make up for all of their bullshit.
The question I'd ask is "Improved over what?" What they were from before? Not really...they're still putting out some pretty crap content (Sims 4, as an example), but as others have pointed out they've managed to avoid any major blow-ups for the past few months, allowing Activision and Ubisoft to take center stage.
The way Ubisoft has been acting, it's as though they're desperate to be a more hated company than EA. At present, the worst thing you have to worry about with EA is a below-average to mediocre game getting put out, Ubisoft is putting out straight-up broken games and then insulting the intelligence of their target market by saying things like "No, really, 30 FPS is better than 60 FPS!"
The way Ubisoft has been acting, it's as though they're desperate to be a more hated company than EA. At present, the worst thing you have to worry about with EA is a below-average to mediocre game getting put out, Ubisoft is putting out straight-up broken games and then insulting the intelligence of their target market by saying things like "No, really, 30 FPS is better than 60 FPS!"
I may be bitter about them pulling the plug on my primary source of YouTube content, but I thinl EA and ubi are still equally shit companies. Sure, free games. The refund policy is nice too. But they still frequently treat consumers as atm machines,and games soley as their debit card and pin number.
Im currently on the fence with EA. Lets be honest here over the last...lets say 4 years theyve flung a lot of crap around. However theyre clearly trying to come back at the same time and sponser some consumer good will by admitting mistakes and creating good business practices on origin (I mean come on I can get a full refund of an EA game and their customer service in my experience has been generally decent. Thats lightyears beyond steam who going on a almost a year still havnt given me access to all my Oblivion DLC that I bought last christmas). Origin still needs to remove its spyware from origin before I will use it but their refund and CS are still steps in the right direction.
As for their recent games...Battlefield 4 had an abysmal launch and was a broken and buggy game for many months after. Battlefield hardline IMO looks like a mod more then a game but Im trying to keep an open mind there. Then there was the sims 4 which as I understand it (didnt play it myself) felt like a stripped down sims with nothing really new to the franchise. Finally dawngate got canceled which seems a shame. It was the one moba that seemed to be innovating instead of just being a Dota variant. However from a business perspective I can kind of understand since the LoL and Dota 2 markets are absolutely massive. I guess I just would have liked to see Dawngate come out and make its own mark on the market.
I really think this change is because of 2 things. Their 2 consecutive golden poo rewards and their loss of sales. The latter speaking more loudly then the former but the former has unquestionably damaged their reputation which is a big deal in this industry.
There is of course one more caveat. This could all be a ruse. Every good thing they do right now could be to foster good will for a massive blunder or anti-consumer practice down the road. Only time will tell if thats the case and really as cynical as I am I can really go off of evidence and the evidence right now says theyre trying but they have a long way to go before they earn any respect in the eyes of gamers
As for their recent games...Battlefield 4 had an abysmal launch and was a broken and buggy game for many months after. Battlefield hardline IMO looks like a mod more then a game but Im trying to keep an open mind there. Then there was the sims 4 which as I understand it (didnt play it myself) felt like a stripped down sims with nothing really new to the franchise. Finally dawngate got canceled which seems a shame. It was the one moba that seemed to be innovating instead of just being a Dota variant. However from a business perspective I can kind of understand since the LoL and Dota 2 markets are absolutely massive. I guess I just would have liked to see Dawngate come out and make its own mark on the market.
I really think this change is because of 2 things. Their 2 consecutive golden poo rewards and their loss of sales. The latter speaking more loudly then the former but the former has unquestionably damaged their reputation which is a big deal in this industry.
There is of course one more caveat. This could all be a ruse. Every good thing they do right now could be to foster good will for a massive blunder or anti-consumer practice down the road. Only time will tell if thats the case and really as cynical as I am I can really go off of evidence and the evidence right now says theyre trying but they have a long way to go before they earn any respect in the eyes of gamers
I think EA has gotten much better than before, mainly with Origin. Their Origin Client is actually better than Steam right now, because you can return a game in 24 hours if you downloaded it or 7 days if you only bought it, their is no open indie cesspool like Steam Early Access, and every so often you can get a free game for just having an Origin account (Dead Space, Dragon Age 1, Battlefield 3).
I would not buy non-EA games on Origin, but i like Origin far more than i like Uplay
Steam > Origin > Uplay
I would not buy non-EA games on Origin, but i like Origin far more than i like Uplay
Steam > Origin > Uplay
Agreed. Ubisoft has put their foot in their mouth so many times this year that their breath is starting to smell like gym socks. EA is still up to their same old shit, we're just all staring at the secondary, larger pile of shit.Zipa said:
Let's, in the last year and a month:
Battlefield 4.
Titanfall.
Closed Victory Games.
Closed Mythic studios.
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare.
Did nothing with the Gamespy Shutdown, killed almost 50 games in the process.
Also put games that required Gamespy to work on sale on Steam and Origin after Gamespy closing announcement, then announced that games would die with Gamespy days before the switch off, kept selling right up until Gamespy closed forever.
Dungeon Keeper iOS remake (too innovative!).
The Sims 4.
Cancelled Command and Conquer.
Battlefield: Hardline and annualised Battlefield/DICE releases announced.
Cancelled Dawngate.
Brought in paid subscription service for access to timed demos.
Publicly threatened to kill Sims if Sims 4 sales don't improve.
Has EA improved? No, not even slightly, this year they've done some of the most aggressively anti consumer things in their entire history. They're also about to run one of my favourite series (Battlefield) right into the toilet with Medal of Honor, Crysis and Titanfall having failed to give them the biennial filler they so desired.
Granted Ubisoft are giving them a run for the title of most aggressively stupid triple A this year, but that doesn't improve EA's behaviour in the slightest.
Battlefield 4.
Titanfall.
Closed Victory Games.
Closed Mythic studios.
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare.
Did nothing with the Gamespy Shutdown, killed almost 50 games in the process.
Also put games that required Gamespy to work on sale on Steam and Origin after Gamespy closing announcement, then announced that games would die with Gamespy days before the switch off, kept selling right up until Gamespy closed forever.
Dungeon Keeper iOS remake (too innovative!).
The Sims 4.
Cancelled Command and Conquer.
Battlefield: Hardline and annualised Battlefield/DICE releases announced.
Cancelled Dawngate.
Brought in paid subscription service for access to timed demos.
Publicly threatened to kill Sims if Sims 4 sales don't improve.
Has EA improved? No, not even slightly, this year they've done some of the most aggressively anti consumer things in their entire history. They're also about to run one of my favourite series (Battlefield) right into the toilet with Medal of Honor, Crysis and Titanfall having failed to give them the biennial filler they so desired.
Granted Ubisoft are giving them a run for the title of most aggressively stupid triple A this year, but that doesn't improve EA's behaviour in the slightest.
Inquisition's handling has definitely improved my idea of them lately. Plenty of development time, allowing early reviews, no day 1 DLC, no pre-order bonuses beyond the cosmetic (the flaming weapons will probably be better than starting level equipment surely, but the main benefit is the ability to use that model for future crafted weapons if desired), and most of all, no DLC companions. Ever.
The only thing they are doing "better" is keeping their usual shit on the established level, and most important of all not opening their mouths. Meanwhile Ubisoft is tripping over it's own balls, and then lying about it on top just to make a greater spectacular.