EA wins worst company of the year awardFollow

They may not be more damaging than BoA, but they sure are more hated.

I've never thought much of EA, either love or hate, but I did take notice whenever they acquired a well known game company and I knew they had been largely responsible for the DRM and DLC suffering gamers now experience. It's hard to see their business model as anything but opportunistic and injurious to consumers. I don't believe I've ever purchased an EA game--they just don't make the kind of games I enjoy--but I know many here are begrudgingly enthusiastic about their product line (particularly Bioware) and the sense of the situation I'm receiving is that people buying EA games now will only feel enough ire to complain yet not enough to close their wallets.

Worst company in America, no. Worst gaming company in America, yes. The way they treat their customers is akin to the way the average person treats an ATM machine. All EA cares about is money, which is all well and good for their stockholders, but not so much for their customers.

This survey revealed the shocking truth: more internet gamer dorks respond to silly internet polls than people who've lost their homes to foreclosure.

relevant:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314

If I find out that Square Enix had anything, anything at all, to do with what happened on Hitman: Absolution, I will beat some Japanese business men into the next century.

Part of me hopes it was all IO's decision. Shorter travel distance...

Edited, Apr 10th 2012 3:04am by Mazra

SE bought IO Interactive, so I guess it's like EA and BioWare, or Activision and Blizzard. They might not be developing the stuff, but they're financing it and the top hats decide what the money is spent on.

My issue with the game is that David Bateson (voice and model of Agent 47), Vivienne McKee (voice of Diana) and Jesper Kyd (composer) have been cut from production. Bateson, who has voiced the main character since the beginning was never contacted about reprising his role in the fifth game. He didn't know about the production until a fan contacted him about it, and IO has ignored all his questions about the matter. Last I heard, he'd been muzzled and can't comment on anything due to "legal reasons." I don't know why McKee and Kyd were cut, but without the voice actors from the previous four games (three for Diana) and the composer (whom you probably know from Assassin's Creed), the game isn't a Hitman game.

The cherry on the top is that the original developers of the franchise are no longer with IO Interactive. Different development team, different voice actors and different soundtrack. Recipe for fail.

I didn't know Mordin's VA got replaced until I looked it up, and I still have a hard time noticing the difference. Replacement did a good job, but yeah, changing VA sucks. Especially when it's done for no apparent reason.