Why EA Games Suck

EA Games is a video game company with a really bad reputation.  Although they are the 2nd biggest game company in the US, this is mostly due to their ability to buy the competition. Over the years they have taken over twenty gaming companies and ether fired the employees or used them as supplemental manpower to develop there  flagship franchises like Madden and FIFA

Along the way they have killed innovative game development for the sake of churning out popular games and endless sequels. Case and point Dream Works Interactive massively successful Metal of Honor games. EA acquired Dream Works and  when the metal of Honor game didn't reach the sales model EA wanted the game was killed and the studio closed. Of the over twenty studios EA has acquired they have killed off thirteen of them

EA latest disaster is Anthem. In 2007 EA bought the well respected BioWare who's previous games

included Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate and  the Star Wars Knights of the old Republic games. Anthem was scheduled for a seven year development window, but in year five EA told BioWare to release the mostly unfinished game. The game that EA had been hyping as the end all-be all of space shooters was released to bad reviews, poor sales and pissed off customers who pre ordered the game.  

The real problem with EA Games is simply they are a game company that's not run by gamers. EA chief is Larry Probst. Mr. Probst formerly helped run  Clorox and Johnson & Johnson, he isn't a gamer and doesn't even own a gaming system.  This is the man making decisions on your gaming experiences. I wouldn't want a gamer designing my medical or cleaning supplies, can you imagine a ten part side quest to clean your counters or a band aid power up to stop the bleeding? I also don't want cold business executives running an emotional experience that is considered art by millions of people. 

We understand that gaming is very big business, surpassing the Music and Movie industry, but gaming is still an interactive and highly personal experience and in that way it is unique. It is not a passive experience, rather something we create within ourselves and the good gaming studios know this and have found a balance between art and money. It is our hope EA doesn't come for them too.

Consumerist awarded EA with the title of "Worst Company in America" along with its Golden Poo award . EA is a publicly traded company with 8.58 billion in assets. In the time it took to write this article EA acquired UK gaming company Codemasters, known for their racing and simulation games for 1.2 billion dollars.

by Ted Dolby

Gamilon Staff Writer