EA Exec Responds To "Worst Company In America" Controversy

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Whether we agree or not, most of us know why Electronic Arts has the dubious distinction of being the "Worst Company in America." With that said, do any of you really think this "put players first" initiative will help them shake that title? Or do you think this is all just lip service?

"You try and be defensive and say this is stupid, this is ridiculous; and then you go, 'Maybe there's a kernel of truth here.' Maybe this is a moment we can step back, look in the mirror, look at who we are, look at how we're perceived, and figure out what we need to do to do something about it. Perception is reality so if there perception is that we're not a company that puts players first, then how do we change that?"
 
Was going to test my new 144hz monitor in BF4 and the Origin client will not connect, so yea, right now they are the worst.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5icko
like this
amddragonpc said:
Sounds more like stock-holder first, not player-first.
Click to expand...

Which is the primary goal of every company's management team... make money for the owners; that said customer service oriented companies tend to fill the pockets of the stockholders this day and age.

rezerekted said:
Was going to test my new 144hz monitor in BF4 and the Origin client will not connect, so yea, right now they are the worst.
Click to expand...

Might be bad timing with the BF1 open beta bogging it down.
 
Can anyone honestly play the devil's advocate and find one company that put out a game (post EA acquisition) that was a critical success? Westwood Studios and Bioware come to mind when thinking about the opposite.
 
That's like Comcast saying "We're going to put the customer first to change our image"....Nine months later they are mulling charging you $30/month to not track your surfing habits and selling them to third parties.

So I'll believe it when I see the following:

1. Quit screwing your employees over on work hours and bonuses.
2. Stop buying companies only to shut them down
3. Quit releasing buggy games like Sim City online (which was complete and total crap)
4. Make Origin games playable offline.

BTW: I bought not 1 but 3 copies of Sim City 4. Your simcity.exe connects to the EA site and goes, "oh you registered it more than 3 times", so I'm going to silently disable your software without telling you why. (I see what you bastards did to the files and registry) (Well yeah, I love that game and ported across multiple machines)...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
DigitalGriffin said:
That's like Comcast saying "We're going to put the customer first to change our image"....Nine months later they are mulling charging you $30/month to not track your surfing habits and selling them to third parties.

So I'll believe it when I see the following:

1. Quit screwing your employees over on work hours and bonuses.
2. Stop buying companies only to shut them down
3. Quit releasing buggy games like Sim City online (which was complete and total crap)
Click to expand...
Really the main problem is being overly greedy. Every single one of those items is because they a) get more money doing that and b) because they can.
When they say they put players first, they really mean they put the player's wallets first. Skirting labor laws and failing to deliver on promises comes in a close second and third.
 
iQuasarLV said:
Can anyone honestly play the devil's advocate and find one company that put out a game (post EA acquisition) that was a critical success? Westwood Studios and Bioware come to mind when thinking about the opposite.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by critical success? Cause EA is making bank. So what its formulaic, full of dlc and microtransactions? Enough people are buying it that it makes them money hand over fist. Plus, honestly aside from the minority, people like it enough to buy it. They don't complain through. Honestly, considering this is a online poll I doubt it really is one of the worst companies in the U.S. Maybe in the video game community, where votes can be flooded by fakes or linked to reddit.

Disclaimer: I like their games.
 
I rarely boycott companies but have done so with EA for the past several years. That won't change until there are concrete and lasting changes in the company's behavior.
 
What I hate about EA is they routinely shut down servers to games that require them in order to run after a few years, making them impossible to play, then turn around and makes more games like that. They've shut down Battleforge, Need For Speed World, Darkspore, Battlefield Heroes, etc. Battleforge in particular was a solid game, doesn't matter, no one can play it now because EA doesn't care.

I guarantee you in a few years they'll be shutting down Need For Speed 2015, Titanfall, SW Battlefront and basically any other game that relies on a central server and you can't run offline, then you'll never be able to play them again. A game company that kills games so that you can't buy or play them after a couple years is certainly a candidate for a worst game company.
 
Steve said:
With that said, do any of you really think this "put players first" initiative will help them shake that title? Or do you think this is all just lip service?
Click to expand...
Ask again in 5 years.
Even if they do have a change of heart, it has to last.
 
nothing will ever change while they are a publicly traded company. As far as I'm concerned any business that goes public simply means the original owners (the ones with the vision of being a great company who treats its customers and employee great) decided they were done and wanted to cash out. Once that happens it becomes a shareholder first company which is sad since the shareholders don't do a dam thing to keep a business running. All they do is vote in a CEO that will squeeze every dime out of the customers and employees to increase the price of their shares. Since shareholders are not on the employee payroll the only way they can make money is to do what I said, steal it from the employees and the customers.
 
Respect is earned, not given. EA needs to do the right thing first and then we'll talk. With the bullshit around BF1, I can't see EA earning anyones trust for a few years.
 
Nenu said:
Ask again in 5 years.
Even if they do have a change of heart, it has to last.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they have gone through this at least 2 times in recent memory. They actually do some minor things to try and earn player trust back and then do something 10 times worse. I'm still salty over the Bioware acquisition and how they've dragged their name through the mud.
 
Don't say it. Show it. Prove that you're customer first. Make changes. In a year you can say that you've been customer first and ask for feedback.

"We've been working on a "Customer First" approach for the past year. How are we doing?". That'd be much better for me.

Right now, it's lip service. Bring this thread back to life in a year and we'll ask if it's lip service or if he was serious.

It's the same ol' song and dance. So many companies have said the same thing and failed miserably. Just do it. Make those customer first changes. Then announce it. If it wasn't lip service and bullshit, we'll know.

That whole "if it happens once, shame on you..." stuff? I got to 5 times, maybe. Shame on me. Now, I refuse to pre-order EA games. I'll wait a while to buy them. I am eager for BF1, but EA's reputation has me waiting to play. Beta is great, but I've been duped there before, too.

Customer First? Prove it.
 
100% marketing driven lip service. I would respect them more if they just came out and said "Yeah we fucking suck, so what? Stop buying our games".
 
DigitalGriffin said:
That's like Comcast saying "We're going to put the customer first to change our image"....Nine months later they are mulling charging you $30/month to not track your surfing habits and selling them to third parties.
Click to expand...

lol that stupid commercial has gotten me 6 months of free tv and internet so while it's 100% false advertisement i can't really complain and will continue to abuse the shit out of it until they get rid of the commercial..
 
All the guy can talk about is 'perception' and how to alter it. Meaningless corporate BS. He either doesn't understand the problem or he's just mocking angry gamers from atop his piles of cash.
 
This was supposedly already an initiative one to two years ago. What's changed since then?

The only EA game I still played was SWTOR, and for the game being good, it was run by bean counters, and their community manager is the worst sort of douchebro who only stokes community tensions or flat out ignores them. If that's EA trying to become great again, then glad I stopped playing that shit show.
 
I don't think I've played an EA game since Dragon Age: Origins. Can't say I've missed anything.
 
Haters gonna hate, and that is just fine with me. You think any of the EA execu-tards lose a second of sleep over what us unwashed masses want?
 
Burticus said:
Haters gonna hate, and that is just fine with me. You think any of the EA execu-tards lose a second of sleep over what us unwashed masses want?
Click to expand...
Who are you and why do you care?
I ask because you appear to have a stake in EA.
Otherwise, why stand up for this?
 
iQuasarLV said:
Can anyone honestly play the devil's advocate and find one company that put out a game (post EA acquisition) that was a critical success? Westwood Studios and Bioware come to mind when thinking about the opposite.
Click to expand...

Dragon age: origins and inquisition come to mind. Also had good fun with Crysis 2 and 3

I do enjoy some of EA's games, but I avoid buying all the DLC crap that should have been in the game to begin with.

If the game is good I'm open to play it regardless of who brings it out, even though I have some reserves about some of their practices/business tactics. I do have more games on origin I got for free then that I bought :p
 
They need a paradigm shift into a social-media-centric, consumer-facing, viral engagement approach to enhancing their auditable deliverables to the highly coveted millennial market.

... see? any idiot can run a major corporation...
 
They're just applying lube to their cock. It's easier to thrust deeper first time around that way.
 
I can't comment on EA's games because I haven't played games for years, but they sure do treat their employees like crap and it's clear they couldn't care less.
 
This is all pure lip service. I doubt they will change a single thing. I refuse to buy titles that have EA on it and will continue to do so. Even if it means skipping Titanfall 2.
 
Maybe they'll actually:
A. stop abusing their programmers with slave labor practices
B. actually fix the bugs in their software

Probably not...
 
SighTurtle said:
What do you mean by critical success? Cause EA is making bank. So what its formulaic, full of dlc and microtransactions? Enough people are buying it that it makes them money hand over fist. Plus, honestly aside from the minority, people like it enough to buy it. They don't complain through. Honestly, considering this is a online poll I doubt it really is one of the worst companies in the U.S. Maybe in the video game community, where votes can be flooded by fakes or linked to reddit.

Disclaimer: I like their games.
Click to expand...

They make money hand over fist because they pay for exclusive rights. If you want to play any NFL game or Star Wars game going forward, you don't have a choice. Is it all EA's fault? No. The NFL and Disney had people bid for the rights.

Furthermore EA can make a game like Madden, say "it's in the game". Even say they will have this Colin Kaepernick situation addressed in the game for political purposes but still can't get Bill Belichick's face in the game. They can't do it because he wasn't at a coaches union meeting, I'm sorry did all the players in the game go to the meeting? I refuse to buy games made by EA, apparently it doesn't matter but I feel good with my stance. More people should have a backbone, we wouldn't have to just take what we're fed all the time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top