The Worse Game Company: Activision/Blizzard or EA?

[x Tame Impala]

Both companies have had their major warts on the industry. Both generate tons of revenue and have arguably a permanent position in the videogame heirarchy.

Consider whatever you'd like: quality of their games, usage of micro-transactions, consumption of smaller gaming studios, monopolizing the market, social scandals, etc...

Which of these two do you feel does more harm to gaming and why?

Click to read more...

 

[93LEAFS]

I was never big into Blizzard and the only Activision game I played a ton of was Tony Hawk. EA I was a dedicated gamer of their sports games for year until they decided Ultimate Team was the only thing worth investing in. The only things I look forward to from EA going forward are Fallen Order 2 and the next Skate game. So, EA causes me way more frustration and annoyance, but I haven't bought one of their sports games in 3 years. Whereas I used to always buy Fifa, NCAA football, and likely a Madden or NHL a decade ago (part of it is age, part of it is hating the product). You could also probably add Ubisoft to this list considering there love for games as a service, microtransactions, and the abundance of sexual harrassment allegations.

 

[Commander Clueless]

In terms of who is worse for game development, I think EA is still king. In terms of who is worse for their employees, Actilizzard is certainly making their case...

 

[Seedtype]

I never really had much respect for EA, but I did have a ton of respect for Blizzard. So I guess I would have to go with Activision/Blizzard being the worst.

 

[Albatros]

EA comes across as a generic greedy corporation, Blizzard's controversies go far beyond that.

 

[Jussi]

Why not both?

 

[Oogie Boogie]

Why not both?

Pretty much this

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Launch 'em both into the Sun with every executive duct taped to the doors.

 

[tbcwpg]

I'd have to say that EA probably is the worse game company by leading a charge towards pay to win, microtransactions, etc etc

Blizzard is just a far worse company in general though and it goes beyond just the gaming industry.

 

[Blitzkrug]

EA, despite their god awful consumer practices is apparently a pretty good company to work for. Lots of people on the inside have said the work/life balance is good and they actually put their money where their mouth is when it comes to equality in the workplace.

Blizzard is shit on how they treat their consumers and their employees. Easily them

 

[K Fleur]

I vote Ubisoft.

 

[MK9]

EA.

SOE is in the conversation for the SWG trainwreck / destruction.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Both can go eat a bag of dicks.

 

[PeteWorrell]

Ubisoft should be in the conversation. I am also shocked to see how many people are still fooled into thinking that Activision Blizzard is still the Blizzard of old. Even after learning the truth, many still have a misguided sense of loyalty to the brand. It is probably a big reason why they still keep that name so that they can milk the ignorance/nostalgia for as long as possible.

 

[John Price]

EA

Even with recent information about Blizzard

 

[DMB06]

I guess I have a bias since I've been playing Blizz games since I bought D2 back when it originally released, but I'd say EA is far worse and represents everything wrong with gaming. Look at the Sims series, you need a second mortgage just to buy the game and all DLC....should be illegal to charge so much.

Blizz games are well supported and when it comes to multiplayer, Overwatch is maybe the only game I've ever played that doesn't have a massive cheating problem. It also feels like a single player game with how good the servers are, hit detection is the best I've ever seen and I've been online gaming since the early days of Medal of Honor Allied Assault.

Having said that, Overwatch is unbalanced trash and I'll never play it again but my other points remain.

If I could snap my fingers and one of Blizz or EA would cease to exist I'm eliminating EA a million out of a million times.

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

EA with all its scandals just walks away from them business as usual. If they’re was ever a chance to cancel them it would have been during the Whole Star Wars pay to win scheme they tried pulling.

They just gutted hackers mining FIFA coins. They’re larger then life.

Blizzard, on the other hand, are cracked. They will have a hard time coming back from these accusations and if a employee committed suicide from harassment there really needs to be an investigation deeper then what’s actually happening.

And the Cosby suite photos ain’t helping them at all.

Will they be completely cancelled? Nope, but OW lobbies are at a record wait and WoW isn’t as polluted as it usually is even with the FF MMORPG killing them.

I think Blizzcon is a thing of the past moving forward

 

[SpookyTsuki]

EA for sure.

 

[SuperScript29]

Why is this even a comparison? Should be pull out EA's graveyard? Such a shame what they did to BioWare.

 

[Cush]

Business model/practices: EA

Scumbag behavior: Activision

 

[Memento]

EA because they've ruined more games for me than Activision/Blizzard. Dead Space was an amazing two-part series...until EA decided to make the third game in the trilogy a FPS instead of survival horror, which was the game's calling card that separated it from every other game and made it good. And the shit DLC ending (that you had to pay for, of course) was the last thing in Dead Space. Why? Because the third game didn't sell enough.

BioWare / Mass Effect is another example of them ruining everything they touch. And then there was the bugged start of Mass Effect: Andromeda, which they also went away from because it didn't sell enough - and, in my honest opinion, ME:A had so much untapped potential.

EA has ruined Madden and NHL games. The latest Madden game is a bugged mess, from what I've heard. Honestly, the last actually-good Madden was 07 on the original Xbox; it had so much creativity. But now they've gone away from that...for what? And then they basically destroyed NHL 2K (a very good series) by claiming sole ownership over all of the games, all the while screwing over people who just want a good NHL game.

EA is a bunch of con-artists playing the long game, selling shit that's bugged, charging people to fix it, and all the while promising they'll change, they'll get better, when you know they won't.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

It's always ironic to see Activision in these sorts of threads because they were originally founded by developers desperate to receive proper credit for their work and escape the utter tyranny of their employer. Within a few decades, Activision has become worse than the long-dead company from which their original founders were trying to escape.

EA is EA. No more needs to be said because they've been consistent in their utter contempt for the consumer for many years.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

EA is a bunch of con-artists playing the long game, selling shit that's bugged, charging people to fix it, and all the while promising they'll change, they'll get better, when you know they won't.

I can imagine how this conversation goes in the boardroom:

Person: Should we stop delivering bugged software and charging the consumer to fix it?
Executive: Have our revenues dropped and/or do we have any indication the consumer will not continue to pay to do so?
Person: No.
Executive: Next topic.

Honestly, I can't say I blame them. A company's objective is to make money, it's on the consumer to vote with their wallet.