EA: Worst Company in America?

[Melbosa]

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/04/05/ea-comments-on-worst-company-in-america-poll

Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore has responded to a recent poll in which EA was chosen as a semifinalist for ?Worst Company in America.? (An "honor" it also received last year.)

In a lengthy blog post called ?We Can Do Better,? Moore explained that EA has made mistakes but went on to defend the company.

?Are we really the ?Worst Company in America??? Moore asked. ?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.?

...

Not sure they are the worst company in America, but they might be one of the worst managed game companies...

[Mr. Analog]

They are the worst game company, there can be no doubt.

They have major PR issues which they continually ignore, much like Microsoft however they have many software titles that are going to generate revenue for them no matter how badly they behave.

I think awareness of how bad they really are has finally seeped into the mainstream and I think if they don't start changing some of their more spurious business practises / decisions soon they are going to be punished for it financially.

[Thorin]

The part you quoted makes him seem apologetic.  If you read the whole thing, it's more a "sorry, but ..." post.  That is, he apologizes, but then points out how great EA really is and how they're so popular and how everything they do is turning to gold.  In other words, not an apology at all.

Their actual profits over the last five years haven't been exactly stellar, either: http://ycharts.com/companies/EA/profit_margin

[Mr. Analog]

I feel like there's a shift where we see the big publishers become less important and more litigious, meanwhile the fun stuff is made by small dev teams and released mostly DRM-free in the wild.

A lot of game publishers have their heads up their bums these days, I think the rise of indie game franchises is indicative of a regime change as these larger companies can't really cope with what gamers actually want anyway.

[Darren Dirt]

Not sure they are the worst company in America, but they might be one of the worst managed game companies...

Not sure what difference that distinction makes.

They are the worst game company, there can be no doubt.

They have major PR issues which they continually ignore, much like Microsoft however they have many software titles that are going to generate revenue for them no matter how badly they behave.

I think awareness of how bad they really are has finally seeped into the mainstream and I think if they don't start changing some of their more spurious business practises / decisions soon they are going to be punished for it financially.

^ Mr. A's nailed it imo; there's some companies that are managed badly but they still put out great product and/or make their customers happy. Other companies might be "managed" well but they put out crap and/or piss off their paying customers (and are soon found in history books only, given enough time economic justice arrives on the scene  )

I think awareness of how bad they really are has finally seeped into the mainstream and I think if they don't start changing some of their more spurious business practises / decisions soon they are going to be punished for it financially.

If only that awareness were to have seeped into the noggins of The Suits internally before the torches and pitchforks of the villagers arrived on their doorsteps!

[Mr. Analog]

I think awareness of how bad they really are has finally seeped into the mainstream and I think if they don't start changing some of their more spurious business practises / decisions soon they are going to be punished for it financially.

If only that awareness were to have seeped into the noggins of The Suits internally before the torches and pitchforks of the villagers arrived on their doorsteps!

Until they start losing money they won't give a @%&#, and even then the high up guys will just collect their golden parachutes and bail before they have to take any real responsibility. I'm thinking when they do go down it will be a house of cards...

Like I say, I think the mainstream is starting to figure out what a crap ass company EA is through them just releasing bad stuff. In retrospect I'm actually REALLY surprised they botched SimCity so bad, given that "Sim" games are among the best-selling PC games of all time

Most of us don't crap where we eat, but not EA (apparently!)

[Melbosa]

Not sure they are the worst company in America, but they might be one of the worst managed game companies...

Not sure what difference that distinction makes.

For me I see many other companies rising to the top of title "Worst Company in America", outside the gaming industry.

And I know lots of people who work for various parts of EA (when I started to think about it, I know 13 employees in various ares of EA), as well as following the industry news from EA - it seems that EA's problem is Management based not benefits, work environments, developers or lack of talent.  It seems to stem from people in powerful positions at EA making decisions on processes or production measures that really do not help the company profile at all - at least in the eyes of the consumer.

That is what I meant.

[Thorin]

that "Sim" games are among the best-selling PC games of all time

4 of the 13 top-selling games are Sims 1, 2, 3, and Sim City 3000.  Also, Minecraft is #7 on the list with 10 million sold.  That's $250 million euros gone into Mojang's pockets.  And they've got, what, 17 employees?!  Good idea + good word of mouth + avoid bad PR like always-on DRM functions = PROFIT.

[Mr. Analog]

Pretty much.

Want another eye opener? Look at the sales for Nintendo DS titles and compare that to anything else. New Super Mario Bros has outsold the TOP 5 PS3 titles

Head asplode!

[Darren Dirt]

Pretty much.

Want another eye opener? Look at the sales for Nintendo DS titles and compare that to anything else. New Super Mario Bros has outsold the TOP 5 PS3 titles

Head asplode!

That's cuz Teh Mario = Teh Fun (and replayable)

and kids like to have fun (again and again and again -- I had Lion King on VHS and the tape almost wore out before my son outgrew the watch-multiple-times Saturdays).

[Mr. Analog]

If you look at the sales of the rest of the DS top 10 and compare that with most other platforms (consoles and PCs) you can kind of get a feel for why handheld gaming is so important and why so many devs are making games for mobile phones.

It's crazy!

[Mr. Analog]

It's official now, they even beat Bank of America.

http://consumerist.com/2013/04/09/ea-makes-worst-company-in-america-history-wins-title-for-second-year-in-a-row/

[Mags]

Don't think they interviewed Upside employees for these poles.

[Thorin]

I love the altered logo.

Upside wasn't big enough to get national votes.  Also, Upside's been bought out by SciQuest, I think.

[Tom]