For two years in a row, EA has won the dubious honour of being voted the “Worst company in America,” because charging people for videogame guns and costumes is a far more heinous crime than repossessing people’s houses. Still, EA has taken it all to heart, and wants to change.
"We take it very seriously and want to see it change," EA Labels president Frank Gibeau said of the polls. "In the last few months, we have started making changes to the business practices that gamers clearly don’t like.”
"In the spring, we dropped our online pass program for consoles – both next-generation and current-generation. We listened to the feedback on SimCity and decided that The Sims 4 would be built as a single-player, offline experience."
That doesn’t mean that they won’t continue making freemium mobile games or saddled their games with DLC and microtransactions though; it is where most of their money comes from.
Gibeau continued: "We announced some new intellectual properties at E3 and will unveil more new games in the months ahead. We’ve launched an initiative to help players transition to the new consoles. We want to make moving day a lot easier by allowing players to carry forward their achievements. And there’s much more to come. The point is we are listening, and we are changing."
I really hope EA can turn its image around. As much as everybody hates on them and their policies, they still are responsible for developing and publishing some of the very best games we’ve ever played, and are likely to play.
Last Updated: July 25, 2013
Admiral Chief Minion 47
July 25, 2013 at 13:36
BULLSH!T detected
RinceandLeSIGH
July 25, 2013 at 13:39
Damn you! I was about to say that. #slowinternet
Admiral Chief Minion 47
July 25, 2013 at 13:46
😛
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
July 25, 2013 at 15:49
Exactly!
Admiral Chief Minion 47
July 25, 2013 at 15:52
BANANAAAA
Xelus
July 25, 2013 at 15:54
I’m hearing that sentence in a minion’s voice, oh the lols haha
Skyblue
July 26, 2013 at 09:27
Agreed, more like this…
Admiral Chief Minion 47
July 26, 2013 at 09:29
Hahahahahaha, love it!
Admiral Chief Minion 47
July 25, 2013 at 13:36
EA Activated this
LordCaptainAwesomeness
July 25, 2013 at 13:43
Haibo… Someone needs to tell them April is loooong gone
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
July 25, 2013 at 13:39
Make the sims 4 offline? But what about SimCity?
Lardus
July 25, 2013 at 13:41
Exactly!
ElimiNathan
July 25, 2013 at 13:43
I think its because of SimCity that they are making SIMS 4 offline, was an epic failure
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
July 25, 2013 at 13:46
Dude it frightens me that they were even CONSIDERING making Sims4, a very much kid orientated game, ONLINE! Do they want to endanger their younger players by forcing them online with all sorts of creeps?
Just that fact alone makes me moerig
ElimiNathan
July 25, 2013 at 13:50
Very true didn’t think of that
Xelus
July 25, 2013 at 15:56
They haven’t changed THAT much……..yet. XD
Trevor Davies
July 25, 2013 at 13:41
Actions speak louder than words. I will reserve judgement.
Lardus
July 25, 2013 at 13:42
It took time to break down their reputation to what it is now. Hopefully time will heal these wounds. But a simple Band-Aid won’t do!
Ultimo_Cleric N7
July 25, 2013 at 13:50
Wait and See appraoch. I dont like EA at all, but since Bioware are a part of them, I will give them a chance.
FoxOneZA - X-Therminator
July 25, 2013 at 14:08
Don’t forget Crytek and Criterion.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
July 25, 2013 at 13:54
EA, you were considering making Sims4 online. Let’s unpack that quick.
Your target audience for The Sims are your younger kids.
Are you telling us that at one point you were considering making a game AIMED at younger kids perma-online?
Forced online for young kids and in so endangering their lives because they are young and impressionable and can be exposed to all sorts of creeps who just love the fact that there is a game where they are guarenteed to find lots of young kids?
Your choice to not make The Sims 4 online only shouldn’t have been a reaction due to Sim City’s poor performance but rather just because of common logic and not wanting to endanger young kids more than needed!
Seriously. Use your heads guys!
That Super Twit
July 25, 2013 at 14:12
On a side note: Nice avatar! 😛
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
July 25, 2013 at 14:12
Why thank you good sir
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
July 25, 2013 at 14:12
@Erwin_Kempff:disqus also has a new one 🙂
That Super Twit
July 25, 2013 at 14:17
@Erwin_Kempff:disqus Wicked avatar too.
Mark Treloar
July 25, 2013 at 14:22
Exciting things
Kobus Nel
July 25, 2013 at 14:40
EA… sigh
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
July 25, 2013 at 15:49
I know Gavin never appreciated that EA won the awards, because “there are worse candidates out there, just look at the oil industry”, but from a gamer perspective, EA deserved every single golden poo, and they deserve a third or should I say TURD one.
Go EA, get another golden poo, you rotten poo!
Xelus
July 25, 2013 at 15:55
Greed has poisened EA’s soul, they think to much and feel to little!
Sean Potgieter
July 25, 2013 at 16:02
I have nothing against EA. They have made some of the most memorable games in my mind. Sure, their latest business practices are a bit inconvenient, but I give them the benefit of the doubt to regain their former glories. People must stop taking issue with so many little things and starting online crusades to force the devs to do things their way. If you don’t like it, vote with your wallet, not your mouth.
Jack
July 25, 2013 at 17:33
It seems like they are all like this
Jack
July 25, 2013 at 17:34
….
Evan Taylor
July 25, 2013 at 18:25
FU EA! Sell your IP and move your execs to other boardrooms. You’re done.
Dakan45
July 25, 2013 at 18:43
Ea on their crappy anticonsumer moves
“NOOOOOO we are good, you are wrong, you change”
Origin sucks
NOOOO ORIGIN DOESNT SUCK
On drm
NO YOU FOOLS ITS NOT DRM, DRM IS POINTLESS ITS A SERVICE.
On online passes.
NO ONLINE PASSES ARE GOOD.
On turning syndicate into a fps
NO FPS IS THE RIGHT CHOICE
ON turning dead space 3 into an action game
NO WE NEED MORE SALES AND HERE ARE MICROTRANSACTIONS TO ATTRACT MOBILE GAMERS
Voted worst company
NO WE ARE GREAT, YOU ARE WRONG.
On firing half the staff from the old republic.
NO YOU FOOLS, ITS THE ONLY WAY FOR THE GAME TO CONTINUE TO GROW AND EXPAND.
Then they gone F2P and fired the other half.
Thats pretty much EA
We tell them we hate F2P and origin, they keep pulling numbers showing that there are alot of users on them and they know what they are doing.
They also said cryiss 3, and dead space 3 had the higher preorders, but guess what? crysis 3, dead space 3, moh warfighter all those games flopped and everyone was pissed off about mass effect 3.
Back in 2004 they were like 200 billion Now they got 500 billion.
Stop buying their crap, they got money, but they want to maximize profits. Dead space 3 a survival horror game MUST sell 5 million copies.
Ea thinks they selling icream to kids and not specific types of games.
youarEAssholes
July 25, 2013 at 19:03
Prove it by starting with Real Racing 3!!! That was the most amazing portable game I ever played…I was days away from purchasing an iTunes card to blow on it….then I went and updated it; thinking it would make an awesome game more addictive…but….WOW! Total nose dive in greatness!! I had $400,000 earned and was at Driver Level 51 when I deleted it!!! There was nothing in the update that was POSITVE!! It went from Free-to-play to cough-up-hundreds-to-win!! Smells like EA wasn’t getting what they expected in revenue!!
a
July 25, 2013 at 20:28
80 dollars just saying
FUCK EA
July 25, 2013 at 23:49
saying they’ll charge more for next gen games unlike other companies and then they’re saying they’re changing ? FUCK YOU EA EAT MY FUCKING WET DICK
galamere
July 26, 2013 at 09:14
You know, I hated EA ever since they bought Westwood, ran Command and Conquer into the ground, then fired the staff.
I had a Darth Vader ‘No’ moment when they bought Bioware.
And you DARE to put ME 3 on that list, something they utterly destroyed the ending to in hopes of selling DLC.
Shame on you. SHAME!
I wouldn’t kill them, I’d put them in the stocks and let little kids throw things, let people sneer at them and kick them in the ballcocks.