EA not trying to be “a corporate beast”, says CEO

[Radaney]

Luckily I don't really like any of their new games so I don't really care about them any more.

[McNeil]

EA can act like a real scumbag at times, but in the end they are ''just a company trying to make money. Why would Blizzard get away with that excuse and not EA?

I still like most of their franchises, though they haven't had good luck with their latest games (Command & Conquer cancelled, Dead Space 3 being pretty bad). Though also some good titles like Dragon Age Inquisition and the Battlefield games.

They are far from the ''worst company ever'' that people like to vote for, I'd still rank Ubisoft and Activision as worse.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I wouldn't give a shit about them, if it weren't for them holding bioware hostage.

[Deleted]

EA is evil. Don't buy EA games.

Id normally agree with that but Dragon Age 3 is really good.. and so is the Mass Effect series. I dont agree with their microtransaction milking policies though so I generally pick those up a year after launch maybe when I get all for 30 bucks. Or just hoist the black flag so to speak:P

[Xargoth6634]

I don't think people make a clear enough distinction between DLC and Day 1 DLC. You can't make a legitimate argument that when you buy a game you're owed every post-release bit of content for it, but what a lot of gamers (myself included) is when games ship and then immediately afterwards (or within a month or so) there's this DLC dump for cash that really should've been included with the game but now you have to pay for. That may be LEGAL, but it's completely dishonest. What pisses a lot of us off isn't that companies plan for DLC/season pass/whatever, but that in many cases they have extra content ready to go at launch that they don't include with the game just to nickle and dime the customer.

[Gib Lover]

EA can act like a real scumbag at times, but in the end they are ''just a company trying to make money. Why would Blizzard get away with that excuse and not EA?

Where have you been, Blizzard gets (rightfully) shit on every time they do something dumb. Blizzard however has never reached EA levels of scumbaginess. I don't recall Blizz shutting down Pandemic on the eve of a game release and scrapping said game

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I wouldn't give a shit about them, if it weren't for them holding bioware hostage.

Bioware's been trash for years, with or without EA.
Every time they release a game I hope it will be good, then it isn't. The last great game they put out was Mass Effect 2 and that was what, 6 years ago now?

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Id normally agree with that but Dragon Age 3 is really good.. and so is the Mass Effect series. I dont agree with their microtransaction milking policies though so I generally pick those up a year after launch maybe when I get all for 30 bucks. Or just hoist the black flag so to speak:P

ME 1 and 2 are classics, 3 was decent for the most part. Dragon Age 3 is okay at best. The writing has gone way downhill, even if the gameplay is improving from the massive dip of Dragons Age 2

[Deleted]

ME 1 and 2 are classics, 3 was decent for the most part. Dragon Age 3 is okay at best. The writing has gone way downhill, even if the gameplay is improving from the massive dip of Dragons Age 2

If I had to rate the DA games, Id probably go with 3(best), then tie between 1 and 2. 3 may have some silly things but its massive and you have to make so many big choices that matter to me as a player. Im like 210h in right now, havent even got to the DLC content yet.

[May90]

ME 1 and 2 are classics, 3 was decent for the most part. Dragon Age 3 is okay at best. The writing has gone way downhill, even if the gameplay is improving from the massive dip of Dragons Age 2

Strange. I liked writing in ME3 more than in ME1/2, and writing in DAI was brilliant IMO - it was the gameplay that I had issues with, but the story itself was great.

The highest rated Bioware games tend to have relatively generic stories and characters, it is the world development, the companions, the side quests that make their games shine. Really amazing stories tend to happen when other developers take the base set by Bioware and try to expand it in the direction they are interested in, or when Bioware itself takes its older games and gives them new directions. I didn't really like the story in Baldur's Gate games, but Planescape: Torment has the best story I've ever seen. Neverwinter Nights 1 story didn't appeal to me at all, while NWN2 one and, especially, its first expansion were MUCH better. KotoR 1 had a usual "good vs evil" story; KotoR 2 was way deeper. Dragon Age: Origins is widely acclaimed as one of the best RPGs of all time, but what was its story in a nutshell? "There is a huge dragon we need to kill. We must assemble our forces and lead the armies against this bastard". Apparently story writing isn't what Bioware wins people over with.

[Deleted]

Strange. I liked writing in ME3 more than in ME1/2, and writing in DAI was brilliant IMO - it was the gameplay that I had issues with, but the story itself was great.

Well it has weird bugs, the gameplay itself is ok but needs a lot of management to be enjoyable.(lots of noob traps when designing your parties gear and abilities). But stuff like some objects and NPCs that couldnt be interacted with, lunge and slash upgrade making the game crash to desktop, floating objects and adventurers camping in the middle of the river were noticeable sure.

[Biotec]

EA can act like a real scumbag at times, but in the end they are ''just a company trying to make money. Why would Blizzard get away with that excuse and not EA?

Well, Blizzard doesn't buy up studios, run them into the ground and then rape the corpse of their IPs. Did you see what they did to Dungeon Keeper?

"just a company trying to make money" doesn't excuse anything. Selling a game with half the content at full price is criminal, and then expecting people to pay another $50+ for the rest of the content is just downright evil. At this point EA is just making a living off of Madden and FIFA because they know there are about 30 million people who will buy the same game every year.

Activision isn't much better and Ubisoft is probably about the same as them, but that doesn't excuse any of them. All of these companies are cancer to the industry. It just happens that EA is the biggest cancer right now.

[zealo]

Strange. I liked writing in ME3 more than in ME1/2, and writing in DAI was brilliant IMO - it was the gameplay that I had issues with, but the story itself was great.

The writing in DA:I was ok, aside from gameplay complaints id say the problem have more to do with how the villain can come across as a joke and general pacing, filler ratio in side content, also does some weird things in terms of plot structure.

One can only hope they paid attention to TW3 if they're going to stick with the open world structure.

[Afrospinach]

EA is evil. Don't buy EA games.

That is tough, they hold a lot of the best franchises hostage.

I'm willing to give him the benefit of doubt there for now,

I hope your body is ready.

EA is a business, though. They have to make money or you'll get no games at all.
That said, I feel they've done a better job the last couple of years.

Oh please. They have been customer hostile for years now, as the OP says eating up devs and shitting out their carcasses. Nowhere in the business manual does it say damage you customer relationships, preferably irreparably. They act they are a monopoly and I highly suggest people actively boycott them but see point A.

[Deleted]

EA is better than current Valve at least.

[Leadsop]

I stopped playing SWTOR when the 'Patch Notes' always started out with 2 pages of what was new in the cash shop... and then a couple of patch notes at the end. That irritated me beyond belief.

[Graeham]

I wouldn't give a shit about them, if it weren't for them holding bioware hostage.

Bioware are almost equally to blame. Any criticism against EA applies to Bioware - regardless of all the good stuff that Bioware did in the past. For whatever reason it sold itself out - because every deal in the corporate world is a two way street and they knew exactly what they were getting into given what happened to other publishers.

[warzerotwo]

EA is a business, though. They have to make money or you'll get no games at all.
That said, I feel they've done a better job the last couple of years.

I would be perfectly fine with never seeing another Mass Effect game if it meant killing off industry diseases like EA.

[Gadzooks]

EA can act like a real scumbag at times, but in the end they are ''just a company trying to make money. Why would Blizzard get away with that excuse and not EA?

I still like most of their franchises, though they haven't had good luck with their latest games (Command & Conquer cancelled, Dead Space 3 being pretty bad). Though also some good titles like Dragon Age Inquisition and the Battlefield games.

They are far from the ''worst company ever'' that people like to vote for, I'd still rank Ubisoft and Activision as worse.

What they did to SimCity is an outrage and a damnable shame. I see EA as "Where good games go to die".

I refuse to consider buying an EA game until I read reviews of people actually playing them. I currently don't own any EA titles, as a result.

[Deleted]

What they did to SimCity is an outrage and a damnable shame. I see EA as "Where good games go to die".

I refuse to consider buying an EA game until I read reviews of people actually playing them. I currently don't own any EA titles, as a result.

The last SimCity is not that bad. I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed both Cities XL and Cities Skyline, the latter having dozens of flaws and no content at all, but still being praised somehow, I guess it is just because it stands against the big evil EA

Sometimes I just feel like people want to shit on big companies just for the sake of doing it.

[zito]

I'm surprised after ME3, Simcity and Sims 4 that anyone would buy anything from EA again. Oh wait I'm not. People are stupid. They want to be nickled and dimed.

[May90]

I'm surprised after ME3, Simcity and Sims 4 that anyone would buy anything from EA again. Oh wait I'm not. People are stupid. They want to be nickled and dimed.

? ME3 is my second favorite game of all time. How does it make me stupid?