Forbes: EA is worst Company in America
Holy crap...
If you'd told me last year, or even last month, that I would see this kind of article in FORBES of all places. I'd have thought you were pulling my leg.
Not so. Here's a few tidbits (but read the whole article):
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The results of The Consumerist’s “Worst Company in America” bracket are in, and as I predicted, Electronic Arts managed to beat out Bank of America for the title.
I won’t spend any more time talking about whether that’s a deserved result. I wrote yesterday that a company whose misdeeds resulted in home foreclosures and loss of income outweigh abusive DLC and DRM practices, but that’s beside the point now.
EA’s “win” here is a clear reflection of just how passionately gamers hate the brand. They flooded the Consumerists polls to ensure that they earned the top spot (over such other despised brands as Comcast, AT&T and Walmart), and you have to wonder what, if anything is going on at EA HQ today.
You might guess that they’d just shrug off the mantle. They’re a huge company, and who cares what some website poll says? They’ve been reading hatred on forums for years now, what’s different with this new round of scorn?
The truth is, hate for EA is approaching a critical mass. I’ve often talked about how far gamers can be pushed when it comes to the medium they love. I speculated that companies like EA are pushing the buttons of gamers on purpose, to see what they will and won’t tolerate. And by tolerate, of course, I don’t mean rant about on forums. I mean what they will pay for.
The most recent example would be the Day One DLC pack for Mass Effect 3. The description implied to players it was “essential content,” and as such, raised the price of the game from $60 to $70 for fans. It was a test, and for how much the pack sold, it was a success.
Then there’s the Mass Effect 3 ending, which I personally believe was meant to be yet another test. It was left cryptic and unclear, and as such, ripe for a DLC expansion. Now, with how angry players have gotten over the ending, they might have to scrap what they were planning. To release a paid DLC pack to “fix” the lackluster ending would turn fan anger into downright fury. But again, it would probably sell. EA continues to push the bounds of what’s acceptable to gamers, and their winning this poll is an indicator they’ve gone too far. But the next marker must be a decrease in sales, or else all the rage is for nothing.
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The complete list of EA’s acquisitions over the years is massive, and they’ve killed many beloved brands in the process. Recently, Bioware seems to be their latest casualty, as the company now seems more dominated by EA’s influence than ever.
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I believe EA is a destructive force in the industry as their goal isn’t the make gaming more accessible and respected as a medium. How can you argue that video games are art, when pieces of the story are cleaved out to be sold separately? This is why the titans of the gaming industry like EA are passionately hated, while movie studios and TV networks don’t draw nearly as much ire. 3D price gouging seems downright generous when compared to the tricks companies like EA are using to wring more money out of consumers.
But the players are the only ones who can truly stop EA. If you think they’re going to read The Consumerist today and have a sudden change of heart, you’re kidding yourselves. The practices you hate will remain in place until it’s proven they no longer work.
If you want to topple EA, don’t vote in a poll. Vote with your wallet.
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Wow. The level of scorn here is... Wow.
(golf clap)
I've also been looking around for some hints as to whether sales of ME3 are suffering or not. As you might expect, the info is hard to come by. But there are some interesting rumblings from the retail stores. Some anecdotal reports are that Mass Effect 3 has been often been drastically reduced in price or offered reduced price as part of a bundle in order to get the stock to move. Mind - these reports are not universal. Some stores report continued brisk sales. But I want to see what the overall numbers are at the end of the quarter. (Maybe why ME3 was released right at the cusp of the current quarter?)
I am of the current opinion that this whole fiasco is going to start biting Bioware and EA in the ass, sooner rather than later, in the only place that they can really feel it.