EA Responds To Its Appearance In the 'Worst Company In America' Poll 208
beerdragoon writes "Electronic Arts CEO Peter Moore has responded to the company's appearance in the finals of the Consumerist's Worst Company In America poll. Moore accepts some responsibility for some of EA's past failings: 'I’ll be the first to admit that we’ve made plenty of mistakes. These include server shut downs too early, games that didn’t meet expectations, missteps on new pricing models and most recently, severely fumbling the launch of SimCity. We owe gamers better performance than this.' However, he ignores or contests many of the common complaints about the company — issues that earned it a spot in the finals for the second year in a row. Quoting: 'Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It’s not. People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period. ... Some people think that free-to-play games and micro-transactions are a pox on gaming. Tens of millions more are playing and loving those games."
Poll is still open, EA vs Ticketmaster (Score:2, Informative)
I'm voting for Ticketmaster [consumerist.com], at least EA makes stuff.
Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM. (Score:5, Informative)
Employee Viewpoint (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nothing will change (Score:5, Informative)
I'll admit, it is a bit depressing seeing games that I would love to play (like Sim City) released under the EA banner and it is sometimes hard to resist buying them to just give them a chance. However, while I might love to play them, I am certain that I would hate playing them as EA products and that turns my depression into simple disappointment.
Ultimately nothing will change until their developers start to leave them due to the sweatshop style working conditions [salon.com]. I have no illusions that my boycott of EA's games will have any impact on their business...there are too many people who love the 'idea' of their titles and will try them repeatedly and get disappointed repeatedly. It does make me a happier person knowing that I'm not wasting my money, though. If conditions improve, Origin is destroyed, and releases improve in quality I would be willing to try again someday (after a SHIT-TON of positive reviews and a month or so break-in period) for a special title but until that day comes, fuckem.
Re:Nothing will change (Score:5, Informative)
I guess they haven't changed. Many years ago I worked for a small game company that had a contract with EA to create a game. Near the end of the project I was working out of one of their offices. I was frowned upon for only putting in 12 hours a day and refusing to work on Sundays. I told them flat out, my brain starts shutting down after too many hours and I need one fucking day a week for myself. I will never ever deal with EA again.
Re:Nothing will change (Score:4, Informative)
I've never heard of a gallery telling an artist what to paint.
Commissions are very common in the art world.