Electronic Arts: Why They are Hated?
Whenever the results of surveys listing the worst company in America come out each year, you expect to find Electronic Arts at the top, or near the top of the list. As explained over at runrex.com, EA has developed an unwanted but long-standing reputation for customer dissatisfaction which has seen the company more often than not being voted as the worst company in America in recent times. For many gamers out there, Electronic Arts, or EA, represent what is wrong with the gaming industry, and they never miss the chance to let their feelings known. The only surprising thing is how what is one of the gaming industry’s largest publisher is still standing on its feet, and continues to thrive despite all the hate it gets. EA itself doesn’t understand why it has such a bad reputation, with many of the top brass commenting that that struggle to understand why the company has such a bad rep within the gaming community as covered over at guttulus.com. If you are like the EA bosses and are wondering why the publisher has such a bad reputation, then you are in luck as this article will look to highlight reasons why Electronic Arts are hated.
Money grubbing
While it is safe to say that most publishers nowadays have resorted to various tactics to earn some additional cash from customers, EA takes the cake when it comes to shameless money-grubbing. There was a time when buying a game meant that you would own it to its fullest potential, but because of EA, this is no longer the case. As covered over at runrex.com, in-game purchases, season-passes, downloadable content and so much more have all meant that even when you fork out $60 or thereabouts to purchase a game, you will still get your wallet milked for whatever little change that is remaining. This is one of the main reasons why games hate Electronic Arts so much according to the gurus over at guttulus.com.
Lack of creativity and lazy sequels
Another reason why Electronic Arts has such a bad reputation among gamers is due to their lack of creativity when releasing sequels to popular titles. Gamers complain about how EA prefers to release the same game as many times as possible, with very little alterations to the previous title to see how much money they can milk from consumer’s loyalty to popular titles like FIFA and Battlefront just to mention a few. The fact that EA opts for incremental updates rather than giving popular titles a true update with every new release is another reason why the publisher has such a bad reputation as revealed over at runrex.com.
Buying out the competition
Electronic Arts also seems to be very afraid of competition, mostly since you feel that any developer that manages to get the respect of gamers would blow EA out of the water given the publisher’s bad reputation among gamers. Electronic Arts, therefore, moves quickly to buy smaller companies once they have successfully developed a successful game series with a strong loyal fanbase. Once EA buys these games as discussed over at guttulus.com, the publisher invariably makes changes to them in an attempt to appeal to a broader audience, which ends up alienating the game’s loyal fanbase, leading to poor sales, and eventually, EA ends up closing the company that they bought after which they sit on the IP which prevents anyone from continuing the series. This is one of the main reasons why many gamers and studios hate Electronic Arts, and why the publisher has a reputation as being a soulless money-grubbing organization.
Poor customer service
While many companies and organizations still hold the old adage that “the customer is always right” to be true, Electronic Arts are among the few that buck this trend. The publisher’s almost non-existent customer service as outlined over at runrex.com has earned it very few fans and has contributed to its bad reputation in the gaming industry. While EA has always had poor customer service, this has become more of an issue as the gaming industry has shifted from brick-and-mortar sales to digital downloads, a topic covered in detail over at guttulus.com. This shift has opened up EA’s customers to Origin’s incompetent customer service representatives who would rather ban users than address the issues they are going through with EA’s services. With EA’s poor customer service, it usually seems that you would stand a better chance of getting water from a stone than getting a refund from a mistake that originated from their end. The publisher makes it almost impossible for customers to get any help and it is one of the main reasons why it has such a bad reputation among gamers and why it is consistently voted among the worst companies in the country.
These are just some of the reasons why Electronic Arts is hated, with more on this and other related topics to be found over at runrex.com and guttulus.com.