Poll: Which Company holds the title of "Biggest Bunch of Pricks in the Business"?

[RJ 17]

Got the idea for this topic from my response to the article about Activision flipping out on that French website for posting an article about Black Ops 2. Someone had mentioned that every time you hear about Activision in the gaming news, it's always a story about how they're assholes...why can't there be any positive articles about them? To which I responded "Ohhh we can't have that. Activision is currently duking it out with EA to determine who g3ets the crown of "Biggest Bunch of Pricks in the Gaming Industry".

Apparently that was a decent little joke as I've had numerous responses to it. So that inspired me to go ahead and make this topic: just who DOES hold the title of "Biggest Bunch of Pricks in the Gaming Industry"? Activision has a very well established record and they gained a good deal of ground by merging with Blizzard.

But EA has been doing a LOT to play catch up, and I dare say it might be neck-and-neck at this point.

But a number of people said "Don't forget about Ubisoft!" in response to my little joke, so I'll throw them in there as well. Personally I haven't heard much news about Ubisoft pulling off a bunch of dick-moves, so please, if someone could elaborate on why Ubisoft is a bunch of pricks (other than delivering an absolute abortion of a game with Assassin's Creed: Revelations) I'd appreciate it.

Of course, if you've another game company that you think deserves the title, go ahead and click "other" and specify the company and reason.

 

[yourbeliefs]

For me, Activision can't be considered simply because they don't use online pass. The fact that they haven't allowed the Call Of Duty series to succumb to that scam knocks off multiple prick points.

While it is a close battle, I'd have to say that EA wins overall due to a longer history of prickness. First off they got the exclusive NFL license which has cause NFL games to remain stagnant for the better part of the last decade. Rather than trying to compete with the superior and cheaper 2k series by making a better product (which just happens to be the cornerstone of capitalism) they instead decided to tell the world, "Because we suck at making games, NO ONE ELSE CAN DO SO!!" That along with their refusal to pay athletes royalties for using their likeness, shutting down studios that underperform with the most wild of expectations, combined with their utter lack of ability to innovate as opposed to copying (BF3 vs CoD) puts them high up in the class of pricks. Oh, and they also have a shitty distribution service which you HAVE to use to play their games and they use online pass.

Here is your gold medal covered in feces. Enjoy.

 

[McMarbles]

Capcom.

Not for cancelling Mega Man Legends 3. For cancelling it and blaming it on the fans.

 

[RJ 17]

Capcom.

Not for cancelling Mega Man Legends 3. For cancelling it and blaming it on the fans.

Yeah, that is a pretty big dick-move right there. Can't blame ya for picking them.

 

[Thoric485]

Three different flavors of awful, just can't choose.

 

[Iwata]

Three different flavors of awful, just can't choose.

Nice...

And true!

 

[RJ 17]

Three different flavors of awful, just can't choose.

Seriously, gold star for you for having such a fantastic (and accurate) graph to offer up.

 

[Domehammer]

I will probably get a lot of hate for this but I would have to say a tie between valve, ubisoft, and EA. Ubisoft and Valve have some of the worst DRM though Valve gets away with steam more than it should it is still slightly better than Ubisoft as there is a semi-functional offline mode for steam. EA just fails when it comes to marketing there games such as fail of dead space 2 and that other game with fake protestors to advertise it.

 

[Weealzabob]

They are all pricks in their own special ways, but the more I hear about EA's treatment of their fans, and hideous use of online passes, it makes me look at them with quite a bit of contempt.

For me, Activision can't be considered simply because they don't use online pass. The fact that they haven't allowed the Call Of Duty series to succumb to that scam knocks off multiple prick points.

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement.
I used to hate Activision absolutely, I still have major hangups with their milking of franchises, (Hell, every publisher seems to enjoy raping their franchises to get every penny they can.) and insane DLC prices,(oh wait everyone does that as well!) but I like that they haven't sunk to online passes... yet.

 

[RJ 17]

Wow, I'm actually rather surprised to see that EA is ahead at this point...but then again, they've been really working hard at being a bunch of douches within the past few months. Activision has been loafing about on the matter.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

It used to be Capcom now it's Capcom and Ninja Theory.

FUUUUUU

 

[AlternatePFG]

I only would say EA because not only are they dicks, but they're hard to avoid dicks, because they have the gall to publish games that I actually want to play.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Three different flavors of awful, just can't choose.

You, I like. You can stay here.

 

[Valanthe]

Ubisoft gets the gold medal nomination from me, and thank god for Jim [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/5385-Ubisoft], for offering a nice easy url to explain my hatred of them, rather than having to waste precious time and energy on the process. I would add that dismissing the complaints of PC Gamers as 'bitching' [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.325816-I-Am-Alive-Producer-Dismisses-Bitching-PC-Gamers] definitely sealed the deal for me.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Valve, just to march to a different beat.

Sure with the other three main companies you know and acknowledge they're greedy, evil, monopolistic corporations that take over anything they can, force out poorly made games and tend to smash innovation and developers while amassing intellectual property.

But damn it, they're honest about it.

Valve...Valve is that guy who's friendly and helpful to your face, but steals your stuff and makes you do all the work.

Think about it.

Steam is great, but you don't own anything on it. Team Fortress, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, all fun. But where are the sequels? Just DLC for some, micro-transactions for others, 'episodic' releases that are full price...

Come on, we vilify EA, Activision and Ubisoft for that, but people still worship Valve, even though they do the same things, just on a smaller scale. At least the bigger ones are open about it, sure they dress things up, but come on, you KNOW it, you accept it, you expect it from them. Valve just has you tricked into thinking that they're not like the other 'bigger pricks'.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Three different flavors of awful, just can't choose.

This graph shows exactly why I hate both Activision and Ubisoft without going into details. If you're wondering, I'm comparatively indifferent to EA because they sit in the middle.

If I had to choose though, it would be Ubisoft for their continual use of idiotic DRM despite piles of evidence proving it does nothing but waste our time and their constant bad PR by constantly calling PC gamers pirates.

 

[80Maxwell08]

It used to be Capcom now it's Capcom and Ninja Theory.

FUUUUUU

I don't even know why I'm going to try this but to start off Capcom directly told Ninja Theory to make Dante controversial so people would talk about it. Ninja Theory has been trying to appease the fan hate so far by showing off the gameplay, bringing in hardcore Devil May Cry fans in to get their approval, and the only reason the story has seemed to change so much is because fans won't shut the hell up about everything. They are only doing what they are getting paid to do. To be honest it was wise to bring them in since when it comes to writing Capcom is somewhere around the level of a 6th grader. Also considering Capcom themselves are doing the gameplay while Ninja Theory is only doing the story that should be an attempt to solve the series's problems. But people still just won't shut up about his appearance.

 

[Lunar Templar]

of those 3? ubisoft

Activision i just don't or very rarely buy from.

I've actually had no issue with EA yet, and the last 2 EA games i got, i didn't need to worry about origin.

but which just leaves Ubisoft, whom actually had the gal to call ever PC gamer a pirate, on top of having not developed, or published anything worth my time since No More Heroes, plus, they're french, and petty as it may be, nothing good or useful ever comes out of France imo

not on the list

Capcom .....
canceling MMl3,
pretty much shelving Mega Man on the whole,
threatening not not make Dark Stalkers 4 if tekken x street fighter doesn't sell well,
handing DMC to a bunch of twats,
and,
killing Breath of Fire -.-


yeah, Fuck you Capcom

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Activision and EA are greedy bastards.

Capcom and Ubisoft are incompetent.

I don't know which trait is worse.

 

[Lightning Delight]

I would say Activision. They are willfully being pricks. They know how to not be pricks, but they do so anyways. EA at least doesn't know any way to function other than by being pricks. And Ubisoft has no clue what's going on anyway, so prickishness is unavoidable.