By Jacob Baumann

This year’s “Worst Company in America”/”Golden Poo Award” goes to the colossus in the gaming industry known as Electronic Arts.

Although it may come as a shock to ‘some,’ The Consumerist’s polls culminated to the ultimate fact that EA was the worst company in America.  Obviously these polls are not perfect, but that was well deserved.  I mean EA had to beat out companies like Bank of America, AT&T, Apple, and Carnival.   That’s a difficult task to tackle, but through uninteresting titles, poor planning, and a general misunderstanding of the public, EA were able to pull it off for the second year in a row.

Some of the past winners include Comcast, BP, and AIG.  Yeah, none those surprised me and neither does EA.

Before I continue to rag on EA, let’s get one thing straight. EA is not the worst company in America, because Bank of America should have one out for the roles it has played in our current financial matter.  People on the internet chose to band together to vote for EA, because most of the people who play their games utilize the internet.  So, this award may not be the obvious choice, but EA is definitely the worst publisher in the entertainment industry.

Even those who are not heavily into games have heard of EA, and that’s due the amazing titles they have released in the past.   This is part of the reason why they are receiving so much flack.  EA is known for the Battlefield series, Mass Effect series, Dead Space series, and SimCity.  Listing these titles brings back the memories of when EA gave developers time to produce great content and when games were fun.  Alas, those days have come to an end for EA and there are three main points to why they have unfortunately fallen from the pedestal they were placed upon.

What happened to the games?

What happened to the games that made me wanting more?  No new EA title has given me the euphoric feeling of awesome story-telling or even a good combat system to cover up a bad script.   The EA that I know and love was capable of producing unknown titles and turning them into blockbuster hits.  The perfect example of this is Dead Space, which is a horror based game that I recommend everyone play even if scary games aren’t your cup of tea.  DS, or Dead Space, was quickly followed up by DS 2, which was good but didn’t encompass all of the good traits from the first installment.  In my opinion they were much like the first Bioshock games, except the third game was better than the first two.   For DS3, the wheels seem to have fallen of the wagon.  Developers were obviously paid very highly in a short span of time, and out popped a severe disappointment to DS fans.  It was almost like a chore to play, but I kept hoping for something amazing to happen…. and it never came.    Like many other new EA games, it failed to capture me with an intriguing addition to the character’s story.  Also, the game failed to present anything new to the series following the likes of Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2, and SimCity 5.  All of EA’s new games fit into one category, “Big name, No creativity.”

Mistakes

In game ads, oh just another addition to the content I purchase from EA for $60 to enjoy.  You would think after slaving over a product for years that they would be eager to allow gamers to enjoy what they worked so diligently on.  I know the developers don’t have much say, but shame on EA for forcing them to incorporate ads into their bigger titles.  SimCity 5 had an ad for the new Nissan Leaf, but why?  Money.  Money has single handedly ruined EA’s reputation.  After EA launched Origin, things started going downhill.  Origin is like Steam but only for their games.  Steam and Origin are places where PC users can purchase games through, but EA made Origin to direct income into their own pockets totally disregarding their consumer base.   Origin has 45 million registered users and EA usually flaunts that figure to prove that they’re big and strong, but most of the users are just Steam users wanting to play EA exclusives.  I guess the heads at EA just can’t rap their heads around that.

Most of the new present day EA titles require an internet connection, which for most of us is not an issue, but it’s unwarranted.  Even if I want to play single player, I have to be connected to the internet.  Some titles, like BF3, force you to open your web browser to play.  I would be satisfied with this if I was attempting to play multiplayer on the game, however utilizing your browser for that purpose is a joke.  Rumors have spread that online-only was implemented as a means to stop the piracy of games.  It is formally known as DRM, or digital rights management.  The president of EA Frank Gibeau said that having users to be connected to the internet for SimCity 5 was not an attempt of forcing DRM down the throats of the developer.  I don’t believe that for a second, because that means there is no reason for having it.  They know no one wants it and all the past games haven’t required an internet connection, so it should be an easy fix.  SimCity5 lost a lot of playtime from people, because the servers were awful and that it required you be online.   Hopefully other companies can draw from their mistakes, because it doesn’t seem like they have any plan on switching up their strategy of maximizing profits a the consumer’s expense.

Company statements

Last this year, EA received this non-prestigious award, and did nothing to change the minds of consumers.   Honestly, I don’t think they will change their ways until less “hardcore” players start to realize the poor quality in their games.  2013 is shaping up to be another EA victory, due to SimCity 5 and the rushed production of Battlefield 4.  EA is forcing developers to take the heat for their poor support and rushed production of games, which is almost hysterical to think about.  The statements put out by the company’s board of the directors further add on to my suspicions about next year’s awards.
One of EA’s money hungry habits is to purchase successful developers, and suck them dry before tossing them aside.  Dice, the producer of Battlefield, is a great example of this, because are now being forced to produce another Battlefield title due to the failure of Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

Although they once produced titles that I will remember forever, I don’t see EA altering its path anytime soon and it’s a sad day for those who play their games.