- Reaction score
- 1,691
For the past two years, Electronic Arts has been named the “Worst Company in America” by Consumerist readers… and it stands a damn good chance of winning the award again this year. Every time this happens, it sparks a round of self-righteous, finger-wagging lectures about how EA doesn’t deserve to be named America’s worst company since it hasn’t, say, caused a calamitous environmental disaster or aided and abetted massive financial fraud. But while it’s literally true that EA’s alleged crimes against consumers aren’t on par with those of BP or JPMorgan, it also undersells EA’s remarkable achievement: That is, it’s managed to make people incredibly angry by selling them video games.
I mean, really think about that. Video games are a form of fun entertainment that are designed to give us a thrilling sense of escapism from our daily lives. The fact that a video game developer could treat its customers so poorly that they’d flock en masse to name it America’s worst is impressive no matter which way you slice it. I’m trying to imagine a craft brewery or a nightclub eliciting similar hatred from customers and I just can’t see it.
The latest EA controversy, in case you haven’t been following, has been the recent release of classic game Dungeon Keeper for mobile devices. While the game is billed as “free-to-play,” many gamers have complained that it is essentially unplayable unless you make several in-app purchases.
Read more here.
I mean, really think about that. Video games are a form of fun entertainment that are designed to give us a thrilling sense of escapism from our daily lives. The fact that a video game developer could treat its customers so poorly that they’d flock en masse to name it America’s worst is impressive no matter which way you slice it. I’m trying to imagine a craft brewery or a nightclub eliciting similar hatred from customers and I just can’t see it.
The latest EA controversy, in case you haven’t been following, has been the recent release of classic game Dungeon Keeper for mobile devices. While the game is billed as “free-to-play,” many gamers have complained that it is essentially unplayable unless you make several in-app purchases.
Read more here.