EA Responds To Its Appearance In the 'Worst Company In America' Poll

beerdragoon writes "Electronic Arts CEO Peter Moore has responded to the company's appearance in the finals of the Consumerist's Worst Company In America poll. Moore accepts some responsibility for some of EA's past failings: '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.' However, he ignores or contests many of the common complaints about the company — issues that earned it a spot in the finals for the second year in a row. Quoting: 'Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It’s not. People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period. ... Some people think that free-to-play games and micro-transactions are a pox on gaming. Tens of millions more are playing and loving those games."

Comments

Nothing will change

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't the first time they've received such honors and they're still complete and utter bastards.

Don't like EA and where they're herding the gamers? Don't buy their wares.

Simple,
Steve (from beyond).

Re:Nothing will change

[Penguinisto]

Well, there is some good news for EA - Zynga is poised to take the crown from 'em at the rate things are going there.

I mean seriously - ganking existing stock options out from under from employees, working them into the dirt, and then laying off a chunk of them almost at random?

EA must look like a frickin' workers' paradise from that kind of viewpoint.

Re:Nothing will change

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Didn't they win last year? It's sort of a dubious honor, but you know what they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity. ;-)

Re:Nothing will change

[fustakrakich]

Don't buy their wares.

Download their warez...

Re:Nothing will change

[bdwebb]

No mod points but completely agreed. I'm not even pissed at EA anymore because I don't buy their games and give them enough of a chance to piss me off.

I'll admit, it is a bit depressing seeing games that I would love to play (like Sim City) released under the EA banner and it is sometimes hard to resist buying them to just give them a chance. However, while I might love to play them, I am certain that I would hate playing them as EA products and that turns my depression into simple disappointment.

Ultimately nothing will change until their developers start to leave them due to the sweatshop style working conditions . I have no illusions that my boycott of EA's games will have any impact on their business...there are too many people who love the 'idea' of their titles and will try them repeatedly and get disappointed repeatedly. It does make me a happier person knowing that I'm not wasting my money, though. If conditions improve, Origin is destroyed, and releases improve in quality I would be willing to try again someday (after a SHIT-TON of positive reviews and a month or so break-in period) for a special title but until that day comes, fuckem.

Re:Nothing will change

[x_t0ken_407]

I was a Madden fan for over a decade. Finally in '09 I decided I'll no longer buy Madden games b/c it's the same BS every single freaking year, and I'd given them long enough to make me a believer. It's sad really. Unfortunately I'm an avid Battlefield fan -- even though they've fucked that up too since taking over DICE, but at least that's the only game of theirs I continue to buy. I may reach your level though, since BF4 is coming out this year when there is really nothing wrong with BF3 at all and I feel they should just continue adding expansions to that. Oh well :(

Re:Nothing will change

[DrEldarion]

No, that just gives them ammunition. They can see download counts, look for unauthorized server connections, etc. From this, they deduce that the reason their titles aren't selling well is because of piracy, not because of the way they're designing their games and treating their users. And what does that lead to? More extreme anti-piracy measures, of course!

Don't play them at all. Just avoid them altogether. Instead play games from companies that Get It. Then they'll have nobody to blame but themselves.

Re:Nothing will change

[DragonTHC]

Also, don't forget, Peter Moore is the man responsible for the endless spew of madden and fifa games with different rosters and no other changes every year.

You can't fault him as a business man. His business is booming.

This always clashes the games are art argument for me. I've never heard of a gallery telling an artist what to paint.

Yet, the COO of EA is trying to tell it's paying customers, "You're wrong!"

The market is shifting. Gamers, paying gamers are putting out less of their money for AAA titles and spending more on kickstarted indies.

EA has made missteps over the past year which would have destroyed lesser businesses. The MOHW debacle should have gotten way more press than it did. A couple of months from release, EA fires the executive producer and the game never gets finished. They then have to cut the price in half and refund half for pre-orders just to avoid the blowback. And for SimCity, they decided those sort of gamers won't complain as much as FPS players. Giant set of balls.

Re:Nothing will change

[bdwebb]

How about direct employee perspectives: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Electronic-Arts-Reviews-E1628.htm Also, while you work for a competitor and don't really know what conditions are like in the many divisions of EA, I have two friends who do work for them in separate divisions and both say that the working environment is one of extreme stress, constant worry about your job, and requires that you work between 60 and 80 hours a week non-stop without overtime. If you complain about the hours, tough titty...you want to keep your job. While this may not necessarily be a real sweatshop as in children assembling shoes for $1/day for 12 hours (it's called a metaphor), even working for a competitor you have to pity those studios who have been bought up and absorbed into the giant shit machine that is EA. Talk about a night and day paradigm shift.

You don't like their games? Don't buy them. You don't like the games my employer makes? Don't buy them. But sweatshops are sweatshops. I strive to be a great developer on great games for people that love games, but the sanctimoniousness tone of gamers these days with an outside perspective on how our industry really ticks makes it increasingly more difficult.

I have a fair perspective on how the industry ticks and I'm saying, without sanctimony, that working for EA (maybe not in all divisions) sucks ass - from the mouth of the employees themselves. You may make awesome games...I'm not insulting you.

And don't worry, you shouldn't have illusions about your boycott - there are enough folks like you who paint massive companies or countries or organizations with broad brushes that they actually do have an impact. So you can be happy your scatterbombs do impact the performances of games and get well meaning studios closed and reopened elsewhere (rebranded, because apparently, this is very confusing for people like you.) You might not take down EA, but you can be glad you'll probably be very very slightly responsible for an EA studio here and there to get shutdown for under performing just because of the monolithic brand they were operating under even though you wanted to play such and such a game.

Wait...didn't you just say to not buy their games if i don't like them? I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I said I'm already doing. You want to blame me for getting studios shut down because they are part of a giant mismanaged corporate entity?? Who's being sanctimonious now? Ultimately it is probably better for them because they can find a job at another developer like yours where they have a good work environment, can make some money, and can take pride in what they do as you do. As I said, and you reconfirmed - I have no illusions that my impact on their sales means a damn thing. The whole reason I don't purchase their games is because each one that I've tried in the last ~6 years has been garbage or riddled with issues regardless of how excited I was to play it or how much I wanted to like it.

I just think it's fucking retarded to claim you're into games and think that railing against EA as a whole will lead to some kind of corporate meritocracy in the industry. You think you're playing games? You're the one who's being played.

Again, I have no illusions that some meritocracy will form out of my protest. I'm didn't claim I was pulling a Gandhi and going on a hunger strike dude...I have been disappointed with their games repeatedly and so I don't buy their games anymore. I said, in a nutshell, that it was their mismanagement of their giant corporate machine that kills their games and that it would take their developers leaving for greener pastures to force some real change at the company. Your last statements are just silly but I have this to say: If you think that the conditions at EA are just something that you have to deal with to be a developer in your industry, and if your employer treats you like EA does its employees, then you work in a soulless environment that saps all of your creative drive and you are the one being played my friend.

Re:Nothing will change

[rossz]

I guess they haven't changed. Many years ago I worked for a small game company that had a contract with EA to create a game. Near the end of the project I was working out of one of their offices. I was frowned upon for only putting in 12 hours a day and refusing to work on Sundays. I told them flat out, my brain starts shutting down after too many hours and I need one fucking day a week for myself. I will never ever deal with EA again.

Re:Nothing will change

[mister_playboy]

http://imgur.com/a/gW7F9

Does EA's CEO have any response to the fact that SimCity's "simulation" is so trivial that optimal play involves have 100% residential zones, no taxes, and no services of any kind?

A 5th grader with a pencil and a piece of paper could come up with a more realistic simulation that this.

Re:Nothing will change

[AmiMoJo]

More extreme anti-piracy measures could play into our hands though. Only once they get so annoying that large numbers of ordinary gamers start to care, like they did with SimCity, will things change. In other words the only fix is to make them hit rock bottom first, perhaps even go bankrupt, in the hopes that they or others will learn from the mistake.

Re:Nothing will change

[GameboyRMH]

I like his argument about the SimCity DRM.

"I know this appears to be my dick screwing you in the ass. It looks like a dick, feels like a dick, is attached to me at the crotch and is thrusting into your ass, but I can't be any clearer, it's not. Period."

Re: Nothing will change

[Tamerlin]

First off, I despise sweatshops and have left companies because of that mentality. That said, I findit increasingly difficult to sympathize with people who tolerate those conditions, especially when they're for specialized skills like game programming. The company can't replace an entire team, so if the entire team says no to unpaid overtime, the company is stuck doing what they want. Ergo, EA gets away with treating its employees like shit because their employees let the company do so.

Re:Nothing will change

[stepdown]

I've never heard of a gallery telling an artist what to paint.

Commissions are very common in the art world.

Strictly DRM

[David89]

There was plenty of proof that the Always Online was purely a form of DRM not necessary for the gaming aspect of the product.

Re:Strictly DRM

[Derek Pomery]

Well, supposedly the server does game saving (which probably would have required a small amount of effort to make cloud based in the first place), and syncing a small amount of information about city stats between players (this last one was trivially spoofed and apparently is the thin justification for making it always-on multiplayer online).

I'd say they went out of their way to break offline play.

FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme ... We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. We did it because we're a**holes.

Fixed that quote for you.

Re:FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

People still want to argue that EA is a good company. We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period

Oh good

[Experiment 626]

"Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It’s not."

If the always-on thing isn't there as a copyright enforcement thing, a crack to remove it won't run afoul of the DMCA. Thanks for giving your blessing on that, EA.

Re:Oh good

[sehlat]

Actually, the true test of that attitude will be when somebody actually publishes a crack that lets players save their games locally and never talk to EA.

If they go after that person, they'll either be forced to use the DMCA, which will amount to an admission that always-on IS a DRM scheme, or the lawyers will have to find some very creative grounds for suit.

I'm betting on the lawyers' creativity, to be honest.

Re:Oh good

[wisnoskij]

I really do not think that Sim City is a big enough game to get people to rewrite large sections of its code to get it to work offline. When servers are used to do more then verify a copy of the game it becomes very work intensive to create a crack. And from what I understand some of the game logic is even done in these servers.

Re:Oh good

[Wildfire Darkstar]

That was EA's claim, at least initially. They appear to have been lying, or at least overstating the case substantially. The only things that seem to absolutely require an active connection are resource trading (which a lot of players never do, anyway) and the cloud-based save system.

As I understand it, the game has already been cracked to work offline. The only reason it hasn't gotten more attention is because the inability to save makes it less than perfect for regular play.

Re:Oh good

[BitZtream]

It was made playable offline about 3 hours after the asshole claimed it was not possible to play it offline.

Pretty much every single statement about the always-on bit has been proven to be a all out lie.

Not...a DRM scheme

[Anonymous Coward]

"When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck" -James Whitcomb Riley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_typing

Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[jaskelling]

In the end, it doesn't really matter what you say or how often you deny that it's a DRM scheme. It's how your customers see it now, it's how they react and interact with it, and that's what it will be. Your ineptitude & outright idiocy brought this on yourselves, so you can stop calling your customers liars & ignoramuses - and just fix your crap. You know, try to do something competent and classy to improve your image. Or you can just keep doing what your doing and see yourself on this same list next year and every year, EA.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Hsien-Ko]

One word: Origin. I'll never forgive them for Origin.


....and by that, I mean the events that happened in 1991.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[cbhacking]

Down with DRM! We hate your DRM! We demand you use our preferred DRM!

s/Steam/Good Old Games/

(or any other non-DRM vendor).

Steam is just another form of DRM. Can't play on two machines at once, even on different games, if they share Steam accounts. Can't resell or loan games. Can't play games without an internet connection to Steam (either current, or recent within the time limit on Steam's offline mode). Can't play games if Steam's service goes away. Can't play games if Valve decides they don't like you and kills your Steam account. Can't play games if somebody jacks your Steam account and you can't sign on anymore.

Since the point at which I wanted to re-sell a game that I felt Valve had damaged the gameplay experience of beyond repair, and was unable to do so due to the DRM, I have refused to purchase any more Valve products and try to avoid even buying anything through Steam, because they get a cut of that and it shows support for a DRM scheme. Don't "buy" DRMed products! This isn't a new problem, yet for some reason people keep buying Steam stuff anyhow...

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it works fairly well. The registration procedure is modest, you can recover your logins, you can play offline, and you don't need to keep original media lying around. You can download when you want, on as many computers as you want. You just can only play on as many as you bought licenses for the game. There's no rootkit, the application is lightweight and unobtrusive and robust, and there's an enormous and growiing variety of older and low cost games still available.

This is what DRM should be. It limits your use, but it gets you good support and free installations as needed.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Vancorps]

I agree with you completely. Steam is an example of a DRM scheme though that actually provides other benefits rather than just breaking perfectly good software. Personally I don't use it but I know a whole lot of people that do.

He's got a point

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the same poll that last year judged us as worse than companies responsible for the biggest oil spill in history, the mortgage crisis, and bank bailouts that cost millions of taxpayer dollars.

There is a lot wrong with EA, but saying they're the worst company is fundamentally bullshit.

Re:He's got a point

[Anastomosis]

I agree, the title "Worst company in America" is definitely worded badly. It's from the Consumerist, which means it's the company with the "worst customer service" or "worst attitude toward consumers" or something along those lines, basically. The investment banks causing the mortgage crisis may have great customer service, who knows? Most Americans don't deal with them on a daily basis, so they're not ever going to win this poll. And BP is not an American company anyway, but no one was complaining how they treated customers. Regardless if most of them are conscious of it are not, EA systematically treats their customers like resources to be mined rather than partners in a mutually beneficial relationship. No one (or at least no one significant) there understands the golden goose principle.

If you've seen The Wire, it reminds me of when Avon Barksdale is at a party at a club and two guys walk in high (his customers most likely) and he looks at them in utter disgust, then has them thrown out. That's why you have been winning this poll, EA. You're the supplier, and we're the junkies, and since there is a cohort of "addict" customers that will continue to purchase your product regardless of how you treat them, you maintain the status quo.

Re:He's got a point

[dgatwood]

This is the same poll that last year judged us as worse than companies responsible for the biggest oil spill in history, the mortgage crisis, and bank bailouts that cost millions of taxpayer dollars.

There is a lot wrong with EA, but saying they're the worst company is fundamentally bullshit.

Ah, but intent is 9/10ths of the law (at least in criminal cases). Those oil companies didn't intend to spill lots of oil. Sure, they were negligent, but not malicious. The banks who bought those bad mortgages did not intend to lose billions of dollars. (Now the folks who sold the mortgages, on the other hand....)

By contrast, most of the criticisms of EA come from what appears to be fairly deliberate actions, not mere negligence. That makes them way worse than most of the other companies alluded to above. Worst company? No. Among the worst? Quite possibly.

This is the mantra

[spire3661]

Always-on is absolutely necessary for them. They make WAY more money by forcing everyone to trade privacy for functionality. Everything else is completely secondary.

Re:This is the mantra

[MitchDev]

They can't make money if we don't buy the garbage...

Nothing about refunds?

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought SimCity in the preorder, and I've only been able to play twice. $71 for two hours of poor game play will piss off people enough to never buy your products again. By refusing to give refunds for what is obviously broken and unplayable, you have lost customers for life.

Poll is still open, EA vs Ticketmaster

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm voting for Ticketmaster, at least EA makes stuff.

Re:Poll is still open, EA vs Ticketmaster

[j-turkey]

I'm voting for Ticketmaster, at least EA makes stuff.

I'm with you, and am glad that someone else posted this first. I can't stand Ticketbastard, and they have exclusivity agreements with most of the venues in my country. This means that they will receive a fee for ever live performance that I want to attend, regardless of whether or not I want to use them. Fees on top of fees on top of fees that are already included in the ticket price. They haven't done much to curb the secondary market; there is no incentive for them to do so.

They add absolutely no value, and have done little to bring ticket sales into the digital age. Thanks for nothing, Ticketmaster. You guys suck more than any other company in the country.

Awful...absolutely awful company

[GodfatherofSoul]

They've had products with glaring bugs that exist for years, yet never seem to shame them into fixing. Their multiplayer games are hopelessly hacked and they only release rare patches. I was a big fan of BF2142 and while the game play was excellent, the 1st release was so bad you could only play 1 or two rounds in a row before the game crashed. The update system is so bugged, I couldn't even play it now if I wanted to.

EA is like a guy who beats the crap out of his wife, but doesn't think it's a big deal because she hasn't left him...yet.

Two can play that game

[swimboy]

Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It’s not. People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period.

EA continues to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is not a DRM scheme. It is. EA still wants to lie about it. We can't be any clearer - it is. Period.

If it looks like a duck...

[saveferrousoxide]

We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period.

No, not "Period." Tell us what it is then! Simply ending the discussion isn't received well by the 8 and up crowd.

Employee Viewpoint

[ohnocitizen]

To say nothing of what the company is like to work for.

Re:Gaming company executive doesn't get it

[MightyMartian]

It sounds like a psychopath saying "Sure, I'll admit there's some scuffs on my shoes, but the blood on my hands, I swear to God those people wanted to die!"

They are doing what a company should NEVER do...

[mark-t]

... which is to blindly state that the public is wrong.

Because now it doesn't matter if they are wrong.... they've completely screwed the pooch with the people who expressed their negative opinion on the matter.

Eventually, of course, they'll have to rationalize the whole thing to themselves by concluding that these people's opinions simply don't matter to them anyways.

Way to go there, EA. Awesome PR. You will, I'm afraid, be eating those words eventually. Unfortunately, probably not before a whole lot of people lose their jobs.

Re:Worst Company in America? Really?

[the eric conspiracy]

Unlike EA the customers and stockholders of Monsanto and Phillp Morris are generally happy.

Dear stupid Fucker from EA:

[MitchDev]

"'Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It’s not. People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer – it’s not."

BULLSHIT.

The multiplayer is the root problem

[jonwil]

The root problem with the new SimCity is not the always-on DRM crap (regardless of what it might actually be), its the fact that they took the game that basically created the god-simulation genre and ruined it by making it multiplayer-only with limited city sizes and other crap.

Re:Gaming company executive doesn't get it

[meta-monkey]

Yeah that's pretty much it. "We can do better! But we're not going to change any of the things we're doing poorly."

That said, really, the reason SimCity is a bomb is not the DRM or the server issues, but the fact the game itself is a phenomenally broken, unfinished piece of garbage. See my comment history for lengthy rants from the 2nd week of March.

If it walks like DRM and it breaks games like DRM.

[Tridus]

Then it's DRM. Period. We can't be any clearer on this.

EA management's chronic inability to understand such basic things is truly remarkable.

BIG ass hole

[uvajed_ekil]

I always say: If you find yourself in a BIG-ass hole, stop digging, or you'll look like a big asshole. Apparently Peter Moore disagrees with me, or just likes looking like a big asshole. Way to use an apology to make yourself look like an even bigger asshole, Pete.