The hate on EA, justified?

[Mrsoupcup]

I have been arguing with my friends for the past half an hour that the hate on EA isn't justified. My friends said that because they make too many of the same sport games, the company is evil. How does that justify the hate given on EA? Is there anything else other then this?

EA isn't evil they just like money. They funded games like Left 4 Dead 2 Battle Field Bd campany 2 Mass Effect 2 and managed to give those Devs enough money to give them a good chance in the market. If anything Activision is the evil one.

 

[WINDOWCLEAN2]

They killed Pandemic and my hopes for SW:Battlefront 3.

So yes the hate is justified

 

[Axolotl]

Bullfrog.
Westwood.
Origin.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

 

[Babrook]

EA is slowly becoming one of the 'good guys' in the industry, especially when you look at Activision and Bobby Kotick. Some EA studios, such as Maxis, have a pretty open view of DRM - don't use it, and give players other reasons to purchase their games.

Plus, some recent EA releases are very good.

Some people seem to view EA as money hungry monsters. Well guess what, video games are a business, nearly all major developers and publishers are money hungry monsters.

 

[Riobux]

I have been arguing with my friends for the past half an hour that the hate on EA isn't justified. My friends said that because they make too many of the same sport games, the company is evil. How does that justify the hate given on EA? Is there anything else other then this?

There's the part where they abuse their staff which is great. The part where they just buy out developers instead of compete (the one that springs to mind is the one where EA tried to buy out Take Two). Oh, and the diabolical servers which they insist people use instead of Microsoft servers on X-Box 360 games (I doubt we need to go into depth how reliable they are). There's the rushing of products which leads to a lot of patches needing to be done (Battlefield 2 as an example). Honestly, they have one hell of a record.

 

[Need MOAR APPLES]

I have been arguing with my friends for the past half an hour that the hate on EA isn't justified. My friends said that because they make too many of the same sport games, the company is evil. How does that justify the hate given on EA? Is there anything else other then this?

EA isn't evil they just like money. They funded games like Left 4 Dead 2 Battle Field Bd campany 2 Mass Effect 2 and managed to give those Devs enough money to give them a good chance in the market. If anything Activision is the evil one.

Yes. Activision is the evil one I don't hate EA as much as I hate Activision. Imo I want Bobby Kotick dead.

I can understand yes they are trying to make money but, for pete's sake he's pushing it's a tad too far.

 

[Mcface]

I have been arguing with my friends for the past half an hour that the hate on EA isn't justified. My friends said that because they make too many of the same sport games, the company is evil. How does that justify the hate given on EA? Is there anything else other then this?

Yes and No.

EA used to be horrid, during the infamous gaming drought a few years back, they pushed out generic title after generic title.

However, they also release a lot of great games, and more recently, have been giving smaller devs huge resources to create awesome games. Case in point, APB.

 

[josemlopes]

Reasons why i hate EA:
DRM is bullshit
Quality of games is lower than competitor's (common criticism, not just my opinion)
They release the same games every year with little improvements. Why not release games like madden every two years and release DLC roster updates in between?
They acquire small independent game devs so that they can legally use the devs' intellectual property
After they acquire those companies and have their IP EA lets em go to hell (RIP Pandemic)
They ruin franchises by rushing or meddling in the game making process (RIP Mercenaries)

IMO hate against EA is justified.

This anwsers your question

 

[Plurralbles]

I never really care about the Publisher. It's all in the Dev.

 

[Hollock]

theres a huge difference from being evil, and being a dick,your friend probably doesn't know this.

 

[Woodsey]

Most people I know quite like EA these days. They've really turned around their image with some quality titles over the last few years.

I'm one of them - early 2008 they seemed to really turn things around. They'd of never bothered with something like Mirror's Edge a few years ago. When the sales figures came out lower than the year before (as expected) they took it on the chin and said it wouldn't change anything.

Activision have become the total pricks now.

 

[Mehall]

EA have redeemed themselves a lot lately. Post-Spore was the turning point for them, and they have worked a lot to make things better. This is largely due to their cash-flow problems, but it just shows that if you do bad things to your customers, then your customers will no longer be exactly that.

Activision are by far the new EA. The Requirement of Battle.net for even LAN play in Starcraft 2 shows that, despite what anyone says, Blizzard cannot do what they like, and that Kotick has some control, he just gives them a loose leash.

To make a comparison, compare Bioware to Blizzard. It's a fair comparison in most every way. Bioware have done one or two questionable things due to leadership from EA, but it has worked out in the end, whereas when Activision get involved with Blizzard, it ends worse.

Remember: Kotick wants nothing but perpetually selling franchises, his "guaranteed sellers" if you will.

 

[orangebandguy]

They gave us Battlefield 2, and Bad Company. So they're not all bad.

 

[The Last Parade]

four words "DRM and install Limits"

 

[Mehall]

Just like many much smaller devs/pubs, EA are getting into the habit of removing install limits and DRM after a couple years. For example, the latest BF2 patch, 1.5, gives you all the extra content they have made since the games release for free, AND allows you to play without requiring the CD in the drive anymore. (CD check was the only DRM included in BF2, we don't yet have a more recent comparison, because all the games with hellish DRM either did badly, or are too new to remove them DRM from)

 

[dibblywibbles]

I couldn't care less either way. I like their nhl franchise(I only buy them once every 2 years anyways), mass effect 2 was the cats meow, dante's inferno actually looks like a lot of fun. I don't care if you're "evil". If I don't like a game I don't buy it. if I don't like a company, I won't buy their products. then again if I do buy something and don't like it, I have every right to whine and ***** and scream. I just tend to like everything but selective in purchases. I will say one thing though, they pissed me off with Fight night round 4 so I returned it, but hey you can't always be happy can you?

 

[SovietSecrets]

Well good to see other people also having the same points I tried to explain to my friends. Though I don't get why some think that because they buy out developers, thats also bad. From the quality of the games, gonna guess that they get a lot of free reign.

 

[squid5580]

EA shut down Pandemic, the creators of Destroy all Humans.

I shall hate them for all of eternity because of that.

I guess you haven't played Path of the Furon yet. Pandemic should have never let the series go. Or focused on trash like LOTR Conquest.