EA Voted 'Worst Company in America'

[News Portal]

According to a poll on The Consumerist, EA has been voted the worst company in America, ahead of the Bank of America. Voters decided that "hold[ing] back content with the sole intent of charging a fee for it at a later date", what we in the industry refer to a 'DLC', was inexcusable.

This comes hot on the heels of the announcement that EA is standing by its LGBT community in the face of "several thousand" hate letters and emails from anti-gay groups. Upon being accused of deleting forum posts that were hateful against the LGBT community, Vice President of Corporate Communications Jeff Brown stated simply that they do not tolerate hate speech in their forums. So are EA really the 'Worst Company in America' just because they charge for DLC? Probably not. But at least they're willing to stand up for what's right.

Source: The Consumerist, Kotaku Australia

Read full article by GON News

[Tim Colwill]

Worst company in America? Honestly?

Ahead of Walmart, or Phillip Morris? Come on, people.

[Ash_Williams]

They did ruin Mass Effect and Battlefield? I think it's interesting that EA of all publishers (instead of Activision - The kings of DLC) is the worst company in America.. Oh well, can't argue with community votes.

[Cas Bitton]

Worst company in America? Honestly?

Ahead of Walmart, or Phillip Morris? Come on, people.

It's a bit of a joke. I really do hope that EA release a game with a lot of satire sometime this year, slap the "Worst company in the world" tag on the box and let gamers have a field day

Wooo, free marketing.

[Nemesis_22]

This, right here, is a classic case of bratty sense of entitlement issues combined with first world problems, which is everywhere you look. Its the same sort of thing that leads a 12 year old to scream to high hell when they get a white $1000 iphone 4s instead of the black one they wanted.

[Cas Bitton]

Its the same sort of thing that leads a 12 year old to scream to high hell when they get a white $1000 iphone 4s instead of the black one they wanted.

lol that was great when the last iphone launched, often it was also combined with "WHY DIDN'T I GET A CAR FOR MY BDAY?", so many tears.

[shlaimon]

Worst company in America? Honestly?

Phillip Morris?

I believe phillip morris has already won previously.

[PalZer0]

Through what they've done over the past couple of years, I think this title is deserved.

Let's count the ways....
1. Price jacking games on Steam for Aussies
2. Pulling games from Steam and not releasing their biggest titles on Steam due to some perceived "restrictive terms of service"
3. Force feeding PC gamers Origin when they don't really want it in the first place (ties into point 2) and then price jacking specific regions through Origin anyway
4. Shoddy DRM practices (either by using activation limits, using SecuROM's release date control alongside another DRM scheme (Dead Space 2, Dragon Age 2 and all titles activated through Origin) without disclosure or requiring a constant Internet connection (C&C4))
5. Online passes for games (which has spread to other publishers) that tend to expire (see the NFS Hot Pursuit online pass expiration story from a while back)
6. Cutting off server support for titles (sometimes only a year after the game's initial release)
7. Banning people from their games for forum infractions - some of which weren't even valid reasons for a ban of any sort

I could go on all day.

[Nemesis_22]

Through what they've done over the past couple of years, I think this title is deserved.

In light of the fact that not one of EA's business practices have resulted in the death of a human being or the wholesale destruction of the natural environment, I find this statement and this judgement patently, utterly absurd and refer once again to it being a result of the pandemic of entitlement.

How can you -possibly- equate any of your above statements in -any- way to be close to actual physical harm?

[clownius]

before i read anything... "the voters have spoken.."
sup with irl?
sweet.

[PalZer0]

In light of the fact that not one of EA's business practices have resulted in the death of a human being or the wholesale destruction of the natural environment, I find this statement and this judgement patently, utterly absurd and refer once again to it being a result of the pandemic of entitlement.

I presume that you're referring to the BP oil spill for the "wholesale destruction of the natural environment" part. Not sure what you're referring to with the "death of a human being" part though.

As for the BP oil spill, that didn't directly affect consumers at all (The Consumerist - as its name implies - is a consumer advocacy site). EA's business practices (some of which I've outlined in my previous post) do directly affect consumers though and that's why EA got the title.

[Matty]

In light of the fact that not one of EA's business practices have resulted in the death of a human being or the wholesale destruction of the natural environment, I find this statement and this judgement patently, utterly absurd and refer once again to it being a result of the pandemic of entitlement.

I presume that you're referring to the BP oil spill for the "wholesale destruction of the natural environment" part. Not sure what you're referring to with the "death of a human being" part though.

As for the BP oil spill, that didn't directly affect consumers at all (The Consumerist - as its name implies - is a consumer advocacy site). EA's business practices (some of which I've outlined in my previous post) do directly affect consumers though and that's why EA got the title.

So what are your thoughts about the runners up, the Bank of America?
Or even Apple.

How is EA worse then these two?

[PalZer0]

So what are your thoughts about the runners up, the Bank of America?
Or even Apple.

How is EA worse then these two?

Can't pass comment on Bank of America but I reckon Apple should've been the other finalist (it would've been much closer too).

EDIT: Also, EA has a global reach. Bank of America doesn't. That's another reason why EA got the nod (and got such a high percentage of the vote).

[Matty]

So what are your thoughts about the runners up, the Bank of America?
Or even Apple.

How is EA worse then these two?

Can't pass comment on Bank of America but I reckon Apple should've been the other finalist (it would've been much closer too).

EDIT: Also, EA has a global reach. Bank of America doesn't. That's another reason why EA got the nod (and got such a high percentage of the vote).

So in your opinion, how is EA worse then Apple?

[Tas]

EA are rank amateurs in the "I'm an arsehole" stakes.

Enron comes first
Telstra comes second for pure greed an piss on the workers mentality.
EA for shear stupidity an lack of professional ability.