Beware of EA games

[Ruldra]

Remember that online pass thing they started putting in their games? Well it was recently discovered that those passes expire after a certain date, even if you bought the game new. After it expires, you need to buy another one for 10 bucks. So this online pass not only completely fucks over users who buy used games, but the expirating passes turns the games into a subscription model.

More about it here.

[nem]

Umm, the problem is that unused codes are expiring, not already used ones. If you've used a code, you're set for online play for as long as EA keep the servers up (how ever long that might be).

It's still a dick move, especially since Hot Pursuit is a fairly recent game, but this really can't be compared to a subscription based model at all.

[Ruldra]

Whoops you're right, my bad. I thought it also applied to used codes. Still makes you reluctant to buy their games though.

[Blackbird]

More importantly, EA's Origin software includes spyware. I wouldn't let an EA game anywhere near my computer.

[louisg]

Why do people buy this shit again? There are so many good games that aren't DRM'd out the ass and whose companies don't try to screw you.. AND aren't a cross-marketing hell-hole with licensed music and Snickers ads or whatever scattered around the game.

[Udderdude]

And here I was avoiding EA all this time because their games are shit. :3

[xbl0x180]

And here I was avoiding EA all this time because their games are shit. :3

+1

[Krimzon Kitzune]

And here I was avoiding EA all this time because their games are shit. :3

[Blackbird]

EA's made good games recently. Or rather, sub-developers that were bought out and placed under EA's corporate umbrella have.

Between EA and Activision, I wonder if there are any notable US game developers left that haven't become part of the "evil empire".

[Stormwatch]

EA jumped the shark when they stopped calling themselves Electronic Arts.

[Skykid]

People buy EA games?

[SuperGrafx]

People buy EA games?

Glad to say that I don't.
I avoid them like the plague. Just like anything made by Sony!

[Moniker]

Yeah, it's a shame that a once-great dev like Bioware has apparently become completely corrupted by the EA model. That said, I'll certainly cave and buy Mass Effect 3 and probably the next Dragon Age game... Although DA2 was such a burn.

[nem]

People buy EA games?

People avoid good games due to publishers?

Shadows of the Damned, Bulletstorm, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge, Burnout, etc; then and now EA produce some good stuff.

[louisg]

EA jumped the shark when they stopped calling themselves Electronic Arts.

Hell yes. Them and Activision used to be great companies with an emphasis on giving the creators a lot of credit. They were probably the earliest example of treating game creation as, well, creative-- as opposed to treating game developers as just a bunch of faceless engineers doing a job. I feel like an old Boomer generation rock n roll fan when I think about how cool their gatefold covers were, and how now all EA knows how to do now is sell lots of crap to kids. But that company really doesn't represent what they represented in the mid-80s.

People avoid good games due to publishers?

I don't see why not. If you don't like the business practices of a publisher, why give them money? There's no shortage of amazing games to play out there!

[xbl0x180]

People buy EA games?

Glad to say that I don't.
I avoid them like the plague. Just like anything made by atlus!

[CMPXCHG8B]

People avoid good games due to publishers?

Shadows of the Damned, Bulletstorm, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge, Burnout, etc; then and now EA produce some good stuff.

EA doesn't produce anything anymore.

They buy companies and turn them into franchise factories until that name has been tarnished so badly nobody wants to buy their sequel crap anymore. Then they find someone else and do it again.

The games they have influence on turn to crap faster then a snowball melts in hell. They bought out Westwood. The first thing they did was to fuck up the company (over which some big names jumped ship) and push out Tiberium Sun before it was even finished. Compare C&C (Tiberium Dawn) or Red Alert- both fairly serious and fun games- to C&C 3 (C&C 4 doesn't even count it's so far off the mark) or Red Alert 3.

Even Bioware is exhibiting severe signs of EA rot too. Mass Effect 1 was a brilliant, brilliant game. Probably my most favourite game. Ever.

Mass Effect 2, an "EA" game (ME1 was produced before and for a short time after the EA acquisition), traded expansive universe-exploring planet roving missions and quests with lots of gun upgrades, armour upgrades, and chicks wearing proper space armour with real footwear... For a linear corridor with some god-aweful dialogue, no gun upgrades, a pathetic excuse for an armour upgrade system, and bimbos wearing skin-tight latex and high heels (which is precisely what they did to Red Alert 3, if you've ever seen the advertising behind that game).

EA is one of the most evil, vile companies on the planet right now. The only good thing about EA is that they haven't bought out VALVe yet, because when it comes to sequels, VALVe is just about the only company on the planet that does it right these days.

-CMPX

[louisg]

EA is one of the most evil, vile companies on the planet right now.

Let's keep things in perspective. I mean, they haven't been involved in toppling governments or producing napalm yet.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Shox, Burnout Paradise, SSX3... What's not to buy about them?

People buy EA games?

People keep playing F1 2000 with various mods to this day.

[CMPXCHG8B]

Let's keep things in perspective. I mean, they haven't been involved in toppling governments or producing napalm yet.

Some recent EA games are like napalm for your mind.

-CMPX

[DJ Incompetent]

And here I was avoiding EA all this time because their games are shit. :3

After Bizarre Creations was killed and I got Rock Band 3, I went full boycott of EA, Activision, Betheda, and Zynga.

1 year in, still doing ok. I've saved like 3 million dollars.

[Mortificator]

People avoid good games due to publishers?

I don't see why not. If you don't like the business practices of a publisher, why give them money?

You could just buy used.

[DJ Incompetent]

online pass. $10 would still go to them.

[Mortificator]

My post did come off as kind of stupid, didn't it? I was referring to the older games from the rest of nem's post, and probably should have quoted that too.

[Paradigm]

Fuck me... you'd rather miss out on games from good developers which you may be interested in simply for the sake of depriving a publisher of a single sale? One completely insignificant sale which won't make even the tiniest bit of difference to a billion dollar company such as EA. I'm not a fan of their practices myself, but it's fairly obvious who comes off worse in that situation. I'd love to say I admire your moral crusade and don't find it utterly pathetic, but that would be a lie.

[DJ Incompetent]

Yes. Sales move the business. Only sales move the business.

Seems to be about ten people in this thread doing that-thar boycott. That's ten completely insignificant sales, ah, ah, ah.


I like the "can you..." games; not the "you can..." games. It makes avoiding those companies pretty easy.

[Zeether]

EA died for me after they shut down the PC store for Burnout Paradise. Also, NFS The Run is shit.

[Estebang]

Someone get EA to release Soukyugurentai on XBLA, I'm sure they still own the license.

[mesh control]

LOL

That would be hilarious.

"Terra Diver/Battle Garegga double pack"

[Moniker]

Fuck me... you'd rather miss out on games from good developers which you may be interested in simply for the sake of depriving a publisher of a single sale? One completely insignificant sale which won't make even the tiniest bit of difference to a billion dollar company such as EA. I'm not a fan of their practices myself, but it's fairly obvious who comes off worse in that situation. I'd love to say I admire your moral crusade and don't find it utterly pathetic, but that would be a lie.

For me, it's not so much that I boycott their games out of principle, or really boycott them at all. I just have been getting burned with the business side interfering with the gaming side of the product, to the point where I'm just not interested in said product anymore. I bought all/nearly all the DLC in DA:O and Mass Effect 2, and now I just don't want to have anything to do with DLC-based games. It may be a model that works really well in today's market, but even when I enjoy it, in retrospect I really feel like it dilutes the original game. Not really concerned about EA's bottom line.