'People like to hate EA, I don't know why'

In a recent interview, founder of Hazelight Studios wrote that his
company --developer of the recently released "Split Fiction" game,
which has been getting quite good reviews - has had a very good
relationship with publisher Electronic Arts, and that he doesn't
understand why it receives so much hate.*

Oh, you innocent summer child, shall I count the ways? Bullfrog.
Origin. Westwood. Mythic. Visceral. Pandemic. Great studios all,
bought out and shut down by the beast.

Not enough? Lootboxes. Microtransactions. Endless live-service
madness. In-game gambling.

There's more, of course. Origin, or the EA App, or whatever that drek
they keep shoving in our face is called. The disastrous debut of
"Spore", with its onerous 5-installations-forever limit. Or 'there's
no way it could possibly run without an always-on online-connection'
release of "SimCity" in 2013.

Shall I mention games like "Ultima Forever", a terrible MTX heavy
mobile game that shat upon the Ultima legacy (followed up with similar
assassinations of the "Command & Conquer" and "Dungeon Keeper" games)?
Or the publisher's insistence, against developers preferences, that
their in-house Frostbite engine be used in games that would have been
better off using something else. Or just all of its half-assed sports
titles, each little more than a minor revision of the previous but
with a more current roster and incompatible with last year's MTX
purchases.

Or maybe it's just how they mistreated their employees, earning the
corporation the 'worst company in America' title over multiple years.
It's constant battles against SAG-AFRTA for not paying its
voice-actors? The disastrous handling of their feud with
West/Zampella? The massive layoffs the company keeps performing even
as its profits soar?


No, I can't imagine why people have such a dim view of the publisher.
It's great that Hazelight has a great relationship with EA, but most
people aren't just looking at 'how a company deals with its partners'
but at the overall picture, and EA does not come out of that
examination smelling like roses. It's earned its reputation.




The sad thing is, I still think EA is one of the _better_ triple-A
publishers... because the rest of them are even worse!









* if you click it, they will load
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/people-like-to-hate-ea-i-dont-know-why-split-fictions-josef-fares-says-he-has-a-good-relationship-with-his-publisher-but-nobody-believes-him/