What is the most scumbag gaming company in your opinion?

[Indigenously Abled]

Any company that participates in 'timed exclusivity,' though this is mostly in the console space.

Any company that requires a proprietary distribution platform for their titles (steam, orign, gfwl (RIP) etc).

Any company that buys a smaller developer, guts the staff, and continues releasing IP associated with the absorbed company.

Microsoft.

[callipygoustp]

EA imo has been detrimental to gaming. No studio is perfect, but EA.... yeah, evil.

[Alvito]

EA takes the cake for me. My worst run in with them was when I ordered a game through them. I was charged for 1 and sent 2. I tried to do the right thing and contacted them that I was sent a 2nd copy and was willing/wanting to return it to them as long as they sent me a prepaid label or something to do that. They then told me I would have to mail it to them on my own dime or they would charge me for the 2nd game. That was the last game I purchased for them until SWTOR suckered me in and well if you played that at launch you know how that went.

[Jester Joe]

You can completely pass on buying a new character in SFV(or even buy them with in game currency) yet they're only $5.99 and have far more work put into them then a fucking mount. Meanwhile capcom gets shit on as greedy while blizzard gets a free pass from fan boys.

A/B is the most money grubbing of the AAA publishers, not even close. Minimal work for maximum profit is what they try to accomplish. There are mobile devs and asian PC devs that are worse but in the AAA realm no one tops their greed.

Actual content vs a mount. A better comparison would be the skins.

And Capcom has more than SFV they're for.

[Deleted]

Hands down 1000% EA. I don't even know how people can argue that other companies are worse???

[MrPaladinGuy]

Bethesda was recently added to my version of that list and climbed up the ladder more than expected, but it's not at the top.

[Tech614]

Actual content vs a mount. A better comparison would be the skins.

And Capcom has more than SFV they're for.

What actual content? If you don't want to play as the character online you gain nothing by buying them.

I didn't bring up the skins for your own sake because they make the argument even more ridiculous. Those skins are $3.99.

Capcom does have more then SFV but their prices and DLC prices are pretty much industry standard across the board. A/B on the other hand... not so much. The CoD season passes alone cost more then most games capcom release. WoW has a fucking cash shop on top of monthly sub. Overwatch of course has loot box cancer. Should we bring King into the mix as well? Didn't think you want that...

[SL1200]

Blizzard has to be right at the top. They got the gold selling, microtransaction,. and pay to win thing going on top of a subscription game.

[Icechaosss]

What actual content? If you don't want to play as the character online you gain nothing by buying them.

I didn't bring up the skins for your own sake because they make the argument even more ridiculous. Those skins are $3.99.

Capcom does have more then SFV but their prices and DLC prices are pretty much industry standard across the board. A/B on the other hand... not so much. The CoD season passes alone cost more then most games capcom release. WoW has a fucking cash shop on top of monthly sub. Overwatch of course has loot box cancer. Should we bring King into the mix as well? Didn't think you want that...

A mount is something completely optional to purchase. If you want to learn to play against certain characters in fighting games, you take them to the lab and learn what's safe/unsafe and how to react to certain moves. Literally no comparison here for characters vs mounts. Everything else I agree with, to a point.

[khazmodan]

EA and whoever owns Candy Crush...who is that again?

[Queen of Hamsters]

What does "scummy" mean? Is it just "a company who's games I no longer enjoy", or actually scummy practices? I think people should give reasons WHY they think a company is scummy, would be interesting to see companies outed. Or is "scummy" often down to feels rather than tangible, actual practices by a company?

As for myself: I've only ever had bad experiences with EA. Zero or extremely bad customer support and game titles that have rarely worked properly. I especially look back with fondness on that time when a demo of theirs for a new The Sims 3 expansion was out, and the fucking thing instantly deleted ALL save files for your actual game. ALL of them. Everything from families to customized content. Fun times.

[reimmi2016]

EA, activision, bethesda is going down that path lately

Definitely ea at the top, they killed my most beloved franchise from childhood.... Bullfrog, populous, RIP

[Queen of Hamsters]

Blizzard has to be right at the top. They got the gold selling, microtransaction,. and pay to win thing going on top of a subscription game.

Cash shop: Demand, it sells services and cosmetics.
Gold selling: Allows people to sub for gold, and buy Battle.net balance for in-game gold, thus paying games/services with gold.
Microtransactions: There's the character boost, but it's highly priced and doesn't take you to max level until at the very end of an expansion

So... where's this "pay to win" thing? I must have missed it. Where can I pay to have a character fully decked in BiS gear, sliding through Mythic progression like it's nothing, every mount I seek, every achievement, guaranteed raid spots at all and all that jazz?... Not that I'd call that "winning" at the game in any shape or form, just as how people buying real money boosts for Curve or shit like that ain't considered winners.

[TheDestinatus]

EA and whoever owns Candy Crush...who is that again?

Blizzard owns candy crush

EA games is number one without contention. Killing developers, not supporting their content, pushing garbage social justice content and massive microtransaction abuse.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Blizzard owns candy crush

EA games is number one without contention. Killing developers, not supporting their content, pushing garbage social justice content and massive microtransaction abuse.

Isn't it Activision?

Either way, I stay clear of that crap. Got to a certain level, realized it was made with booster purchases in mind, and never touched it again.

[TheDestinatus]

Isn't it Activision?

Either way, I stay clear of that crap. Got to a certain level, realized it was made with booster purchases in mind, and never touched it again.

Activision Blizzard announced on November 2, 2015 that it would acquire social gaming company King, creator of the popular casual game Candy Crush Saga, for $5.9 billion.

Essentially same thing.

[SL1200]

Cash shop: Demand, it sells services and cosmetics.
Gold selling: Allows people to sub for gold, and buy Battle.net balance for in-game gold, thus paying games/services with gold.
Microtransactions: There's the character boost, but it's highly priced and doesn't take you to max level until at the very end of an expansion

So... where's this "pay to win" thing? I must have missed it. Where can I pay to have a character fully decked in BiS gear, sliding through Mythic progression like it's nothing, every mount I seek, every achievement, guaranteed raid spots at all and all that jazz?... Not that I'd call that "winning" at the game in any shape or form, just as how people buying real money boosts for Curve or shit like that ain't considered winners.

If you're willing to pay. You can have all that. If you can't see it already. I'll never be able to convince you.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Essentially same thing.

Eh, some say just Activision, others Activision Blizzard. Guessing it's the same deal with King as with the others though.

- - - Updated - - -

If you're willing to pay. You can have all that. If you can't see it already. I'll never be able to convince you.

... How? How can I have all those things by paying? I'm actually asking you for what you base your argument on here, so try to convince me how WoW is pay to win.

The only ways I see in which one could get stuff done in-game by paying (through the nose), ain't exactly widely accepted as "winning" at the game... There are no boosters to buy which would allow my guild to have an easier time downing bosses. There are no boosters that could increase my luck with drops. There are no boosters that would give me unfair advantages or power over people not paying, in fact, the people getting those same things through playing the game better than myself, would always be considered the winners...

Edit: After researching, it's clear that the stamp of "P2W", doesn't apply to this game. Carry on.

[Ranch]

In my experience nexon, their business model for games was already as scumbaggy as it gets but at one point they actually got hacked and lost all their login info and instead of telling the players they just put out a lil suggestion / tip thing that you should change your password every once in a while which people obviously ignored since it wasn't made clear that it was an urgent issue.

This lead to a ton of people losing their shit, and because nexon uses thee scumbaggiest microtransaction models I've ever seen this translates to people losing a ton of money. They also spaghetti code their games apparently so there was no way for them to refund / give players back shit they lost after they got hacked.

I was fortunate in that I didn't get hacked before I found out about this, but it was enough to make me stop playing any of their games and refuse to in the future.

Fuck Nexon

[MORGATH99]

bugisoft of course