Support NeoGAF

[Duxxy3]

Don't worry, they'll win it back. With NFS always online, along with the same for Mirror's Edge 2 and they are already well on their way to reclaim the title.

 

[Rebel Leader]

Comcast is still far worse. At least EA still makes decent games that people want to buy.

Comcast never took your home

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Anybody feel like discussing the article instead of stroking their pet peeves about the Consumerist's bracket challenge?

He knew customers were unhappy, but when he sat down and listened to a customer lash out at a service agent, it struck him. Some executives had been dismissive of customer complaints and even looked at the worst company votes as a fluke. They couldn't be any more.

Over the course of that two-day meeting, Wilson discussed the importance of taking risks with new franchises and creative games.

As this meeting happened in 2006 (before you lol about how safe they play it now) do you think this was taken to heart? Looking at their catalog of such 'big risks with new franchises' I see:

Hellgate: London (2007)
Rock Band
skate.
Mirror's Edge
Spore
Brütal Legend (probably not a big risk for EA iirc)
Dragon Age: Origins

And so on. Looks like they lived up to that ideal with a lot of new IP in two years of releases. Shame that the rest of the company's behavior has caused them to shrink down on that directive in the years since.

Analysts say EA needs to begin fielding entirely new games, with fresh storylines and different characters for customers to obsess over. "They have been doing some interesting things and I am excited for upcoming titles," said Zachary Reese, a senior editor at UFF Network, a group of video game fan sites. "I hope they start to take more risks."

In the next year, Wilson said he will appease critics by laying out his vision for the future, which involves making games available on every device imaginable, from a smartwatch to a smart TV. EA has already begun exploring offering games through partnerships with cable companies, for example. And it's begun focusing development on creating games players want to play for months or years on end.

'fuck analysts' - EA

 

[Chopper Dave]

It's the hypocrisy. Why are people even voting for such an award. Why is there celebration in the negativity of something?

Personally, I'm both intrigued and flabbergasted at the lack of context that so many people in this thread show. There's a big part of schadenfreude that makes me enjoy the debate but outside of that I'm just mentally shaking my head at it all.

I'm not seeing the hypocrisy. The point is for people to casually voice their dissatisfaction or disgust in an American company via some silly poll. What makes you say people are celebrating these companies as opposed to criticizing and lambasting them? Gaming enthusiasts caught wind of the poll and rallied to condemn EA. Nobody had any wide-eyed hope that the results of the poll would correct legitimately corrupt companies so they just voted for something closer to their personal interests.

The worst American company award has been discussed so much on GAF. Time and time again people get hung up about people thinking EA is literally the worst company in America. It's just a group of people wanting to get a poke at a company that sold them some buggy games. They happen to be sizable and like minded enough to be counted. Most people have better perspective than what this poll would superficially lead one to believe.

 

[Pandy]

What exactly has changed though?

.

 

[godhandiscen]

Söderlund went back to his office in Sweden and faced a new challenge. There was an unexpected hiccup in the development of a highly anticipated new title, a futuristic war game called Titanfall. Söderlund had been trying out the game on the newest Xbox, the Xbox One, released in November 2013, and it was going great. But an engineer whose job was to ensure the game's quality said it wasn't running well on the older Xbox 360, originally released in 2005.

So he tried it and immediately knew it wasn't acceptable. The animations weren't running fast enough, and when he shot a virtual bullet, it didn't seem to hit at the right time. "We couldn't ship this," Söderlund said. So he asked EA's executive team to push back the launch by a few weeks.

Eighteen days might not sound like much, but delaying a big-budget game is no small decision. It isn't just a matter of keeping boxes off store shelves and sending an apology email to eager customers. Companies commit to advertising blitzes on TV, radio and the Internet. Shelf space and shipping partnerships are set months in advance. Changing things last minute can cost millions of dollars.

Cynical GAF swore to me this delay was a strategy by Microsoft to get people to buy the X1 version.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=764732

Anything to get you to buy a one.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

Still the worst video game company.

That'd be Ubisoft.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

EA was never the worst. A lot of companies are destroying lives through sheer greed. Maybe EA makes a bad game now and then, but nothing at the level of Monsato or BoA.

Ubisoft stepped up their game to take that title.

This is gonna be a good read.

Ubisoft's in France.

 

[nynt9]

While the "worst company in America" stuff was an amusing farce at best, they're definitely the worst company in gaming. They were, and still are.

Author might be looking to quit journalism and work as PR at EA, this would explain the article.

 

[Enilced2]

Ubisoft's in France.

Canada*

 

[Shining Sunshine]

Canada*

They're founded and based in France. That's where their HQ is.

They're not an American business, so they don't qualify in this list.

 

[SuperLeviathan]

I don't understand how they were even considered for the "Worst Company in America" award. Is Monsanto not technically US-based or something?

 

[Omega]

This is what people should be taking away from this article rather than the constant stream of cynicism that I'm reading. Sure, EA still has a long way to go to become "good guys" in the industry. It's just nice to know that they got the message at least.

Nope. We should waste time talking about how they never should have "won" in the first place

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Don't worry, they'll win it back. With NFS always online, along with the same for Mirror's Edge 2 and they are already well on their way to reclaim the title.

I keep seeing this but those anyone has a link?

It would break my heart if true.

They're founded and based in France. That's where their HQ is.

They're not an American business, so they don't qualify in this list.

There also not remotely close to being the worst.

 

[Arion]

Ubisoft became worse and took their place

 

[Asd202]

Still the worst video game company.

Ubi is worse IMO.

 

[Massa]

I don't understand how they were even considered for the "Worst Company in America" award. Is Monsanto not technically US-based or something?

Well, there's more traffic on the gaming side of NeoGAF than on any forum dedicated to discussing the things Monsanto does. What does that say?

 

[AHA-Lambda]

They didn't really stop, they just kept their mouth shut for a while and Ubi and Konami have taken the stage.

 

[AyaisMUsikWhore]

Welp, recently they haven't been so bad. I feel like so far they haven't really irked me off per say vs the way ubisoft does currently and I think that's a good thing. So I guess they have changed in some ways.

Battlefield Hardline was a success.
Despite GAFs opinions, globally DAI sold amazingly well and had amazing reviews.
EA Access has really proven itself in a way and shows they are sort of dedicated to making it easier to enter their ecosystem.
Despite Simcity being gone, it birthed a better game in cities skyline which is much appreciated.

I can't think of anything wrong besides the Sims 4 which personally for me a huge step backwards but so far so good.. And also BF4 launch which was bad, but has gotten extremely better since.

 

[Skux]

Nice to see they did a not-so-Undercover Bosses and tried playing their own games and dealing with customer service. Executives rarely have an idea of what it's like on the ground level with devs and staff.

 

[mreddie]

Only because Comcast outdouched everybody.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Despite Simcity being gone, it birthed a better game in cities skyline which is much appreciated.

Why does EA deserve credit for a Paradox Interactive game?

 

[Mindlog]

I take back anything I ever said about voting for EA.
Clearly I was wrong.

Had no idea that would actually bring about change.

 

[The Albatross]

In the thread: Nobody reads the OP or the article and makes snarky comments.

Why? Because we actually hate videogames and the companies that make them

 

[test_account]

That's what I mean. The western world actually, as a whole, felt the ramifications if a few banks fucking up because of their own wallets, a few companies did irreversible damage to our nature that our kids will have go deal with. But nope, let's attack a shitty publisher that doesn't really matter in the long run.

On the positive side,EA being voted as the worst company shows that people have it very good. I mean, if the worst thing is some DRM and bugs in games, then the overall situation for people have to be very good.

 

[Markitron]

I'll forgive them for Dead Space 3 if Battlefront is good. Lucky for them that Ubisoft are far worse than them lately.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

What exactly has changed though?

Mobile money and they ain't killed a great studio lately.

 

[Octavia]

On the positive side,EA being voted as the worst company shows that people have it very good. I mean, if the worst thing is some DRM and bugs in games, then the overall situation for people have to be very good.

That's because the people who have been fucked over legitimately by the real bad companies don't have the time, money, or ability to sit on a computer and vote in online polls about how their lives were destroyed.

 

[LowerLevel]

Comcast is still far worse. At least EA still makes decent games that people want to buy.

Seriously this! So utterly disappointed I have NO other options where I live except DSL... Just knocking on wood they don't try to pull data limits out their smelly buttocks! I literally wrote Verizon twice if they plan on adding FiOS here (just for a different option and add competition).

 

[NoPiece]

Anybody feel like discussing the article instead of stroking their pet peeves about the Consumerist's bracket challenge?

As this meeting happened in 2006 (before you lol about how safe they play it now) do you think this was taken to heart? Looking at their catalog of such 'big risks with new franchises' I see:

I think you were looking at the wrong date - "Five months after taking over, on February 12, 2014, Wilson gathered 146 of the company's top leaders at EA's headquarters." So we are just over a year in, and really won't see if they are taking creative risks for a while (probably several years). What we've seen since then hasn't been risky at all, Battlefront, NFS, more Mass Effect..

Seriously this! So utterly disappointed I have NO other options where I live except DSL... Just knocking on wood they don't try to pull data limits out their smelly buttocks! I literally wrote Verizon twice if they plan on adding FiOS here (just for a different option and add competition).

So why is Comcast so bad? I used to have FIOS, which was better, but now I'm stuck with Comcast and it is fine. They've even boosted speeds twice in the last couple years.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Mobile money and they ain't killed a great studio lately.

Maxis though

 

[Tain]

Wait, I thought the only reason they delayed titanfall on 360 was because they wanted people to buy an Xbone for it?

lol, I forgot about this gem

 

[mj1108]

EA didn't stop. Comcast just became even worse.

 

[Harmen]

EA's the first to actually take it legitimately.

Because now they can use it for positive trust-earning PR that they have changed and were inspired by the criticism.

And they never were the worst company, not even close. Also, they actually still made quite a few solid games in those "worst" years even.

 

[Head.spawn]

I think you were looking at the wrong date - "Five months after taking over, on February 12, 2014, Wilson gathered 146 of the company's top leaders at EA's headquarters." So we are just over a year in, and really won't see if they are taking creative risks for a while (probably several years). What we've seen since then hasn't been risky at all, Battlefront, NFS, more Mass Effect..

New games aren't going to pop up a year later. Those games you mentioned have been in the works for years already.

Try back next e3 or the year after for the fruits of their labor.

 

[serversurfer]

They never were.


Edit fuck, is it were? Or perhaps was?

Depends. Here in the US, a company is generally thought of as a single entity, so we say, "It never was." In the UK, a company is considered to be a collection of individuals, so they say, "They never were."

Personally, the latter makes more sense to me, so I try to use the plural form, but sometimes I slip up and use the singular. Really, you're fine either way. Just don't mix them, and say stuff like, "It never were," or, "They never was."

 

[GravityMan]

Eh.

I don't think that the Consumerist "worst company in America" poll was ever meant to be taken all that seriously. It was just a silly internet poll, nothing more. Some angry gamers (as usual) overreacted, and it appears that Larry Probst also overreacted.

That said, EA was (and still is) a company that has occasional moments of good and more frequent moments of bad.

 

[test_account]

That's because the people who have been fucked over legitimately by the real bad companies don't have the time, money, or ability to sit on a computer and vote in online polls about how their lives were destroyed.

Probably . I was thinking primarily about those voted for EA.

 

[Jessmo111]

They ran out of developers to ruin?

 

[CambriaRising]

They are still pretty frickin' bad.

 

[grosvenor_92]

EA certainly wasn't the best but they weren't the worst either. They still have a long road ahead of them though in terms of winning back customers

 

[LowerLevel]

So why is Comcast so bad? I used to have FIOS, which was better, but now I'm stuck with Comcast and it is fine. They've even boosted speeds twice in the last couple years.

Average at best customer service, techs that don't show on time, and inconsistent service. The last being the worst offense as the first two aren't a constant. It gets really annoying when a tech tells me that the connection from the pole wasn't "installed correctly" and then proceeds to make things worse just so we get a tech from the initial install company (TriWire) to come in and "fix" said problem. 4 days to take care of something that should/could have been taken care of the first day. BTW, I'm referring to when we bought the house. Wife wants another 3 lines for upstairs and I dread making the call personally...

/rant

On topic, I rather like EA Access. Decent service so far.

 

[Aselith]

Are the applications that allow you to post on GAF usable without an internet connection?

Grab your pitchfork and start yelling at Mozilla?

You can still play single player offline, boss, stretch harder.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/965637