I don't. I think there are a lot of sheep out there that say as such just because everyone else does.

Yes, EA releases a sports games every year, so do a lot of other publishers. 2K, Sony, THQ used to until they went bankrupt, etc. Activision releases a Call of Duty every year, Ubisoft releases an Assassin's Creed every year, etc.

Yes, EA purchases smaller developers and then has later closed the studio itself down, so do a lot of other publishers. Nintendo doesn't name their teams, but they hired a lot of people to work on Kid Icarus Uprising and as soon as the game was done, they laid off everyone. Sony has shut down more of the developers they've bought or formed in the past two years than EA has in the past 10.

Most of the time EA creates high quality games. Even their low budget titles are apparently of high quality. Plants vs Zombies. I've never played so I don't know but hear good things about it. Sometimes they develop cheap cash ins though. Movie tie in games, like Rango the Video Game. Activision and Ubisoft have a ridiculous amount of shovelware they push out. Here are a few from Activision. The Walking Dead Survival Instinct, Battleship, 007 games which aren't exactly shovelware as they're okay, but they're super low budget, etc. Ubisoft has Spartacus Legends, the Imagine series, etc. Type in "imagine" on Gamefaqs search and see the long list of shovelware that comes up. One page and you'll only see 3DS and DS.

Then let's look at times they've screwed up on developing a game. SimCity. They fucked up, yeah. How many days has it been for them to get the issue resolved? Two. Since then the game has been working fine. Everyone who purchased it day one got to choose a free game as well on Origin. Some of them were older games, but Dead Space 3 and Need for Speed Most Wanted were brand new at the time.

Same scenario as above, but many other publishers and developers don't get the games working properly for many months if at all. Do these developers give you anything free, digital or otherwise? No. Sending a civil message to Tecmo Koei about Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus being unplayable a couple stages in not only doesn't receive a refund, it doesn't even receive a reply.

Everyone bitches about EA, but they're just like the majority of others. There are other developers that I think are far more deserving of all the hate.

EA made a bunch of games I enjoyed during the 7th gen. So they get a thumbs up from me.

I think everyone gangs up on them because most of their screw ups are found out unlike other companies. But I think EA is alright.

Some reasons

For a good example of how shameless Electronic Arts is about their lack of original ideas, look no further than Goldeneye: Rogue Agent. After snatching the Bond license away from Rare and churning out an endless procession of uninspired shooters, EA finally decided to just try and trick people into thinking they'd crafted a sequel to the N64 hit. The game wasn’t even based on the movie Goldeneye, it was about a dude with an actual golden eye, which makes literally no sense whatsoever.


The madden debacle:

Bethesda was hired to develop a follow-up to Gridiron! for EA, which the publisher was going to call John Madden Football. Not a bad deal for a studio with one game under its belt!

 Things started getting weird, though, when the game Bethesda developed never actually landed on retail shelves. Suspecting that EA had signed the developer just to get its hands on the physics code underpinning the game, Bethesda eventually sued EA in 1988, demanding $7.3 million in compensation.


 The details of the case have never been made public, sadly, but the suit officially ended Bethesda's part in the Madden series. It's unknown how much of Gridiron!'s code made it into EA's first football game, but a 2002 statement from Weaver reveals a little of his company's stance, as he says "the best selling football game of all time was based in part upon Bethesda's design and physics-based approach to its Gridiron! game"


Paying for reviews:





Forcing developpers of succesfull franchises in making multiplayer...

Mass effect and Dead space were loved before EA forced to make multiplayer in the game that must have cost content that did not made it in the game....

Lucky for Dead space 3 you could buy them with micro transactions but ME3 ended up with a bad ending..



Devs who have have to bring a game every year...or simply to fast to make a good game...

Need for speed/battlefield/dragon age etc;.


Servers who close way to fast, sorry we know you enjoy the game but why you not buy a newer version you can play those online X_X..

Online passes...



You are with them or they are against you....

Ea became big thanks to Sega's Genesis but some time later when DC would come on the market, EA said to SEGA 'We will support you if you stop making sport games'  Sega answered that they can't do that (Sega had amazing sport games) so EA did not supported the DC with their games and that was also a reason why DC did not so well...some still believe DC would have lived longer or survived if EA did not acted like that..



Honestly can go on like this;..

They managed to piss me off more than most others, but they aren't the worst.

Well they are
But they have some of the best studios so we have to keep buying their games.
DICE is the best FPS Company and if you want good FPS you need to buy Battlefield or whatever they pump out.
EA Sports is absolute Garbage especially Fifa but they have no real competitor cause Konami is stupid and doesn't get their stuff together with PES.
Bioware went downhill with every game...Mass Effect turned with every game more into Gears of War.
The Star Wars MMO was rushed too cause EA wanted it to get released as fast as possible while Bioware said they aren't finished.Going F2P was the logical outcome.
Dragon Age became Copy+Paste dungeons and Dead Space went away from the scary stuff to become more action oriented.
As far as we know all those things were a product of pressure from EA.

EA, at least since the start of the 7th gen, are absolute scum.

Destroying good franchises one after another, bleeding the consumer with DLC and micro-transactions, copy-pasting pure shit like FIFA every year...

I would say yes, if only for their size and longevity. '

They have their hands in so much and have been around so long, I cannot think of a single publisher who has "ruined" more franchises imho than EA. I mean..

Need for Speed
Thrill Kill
Madden
NBA Live
Mass Effect
Command and Conquer
Battlefield
Burnout
SimCity
Mercenaries
Wing Commander

That's just off the top of my head. And there is also what they did to the Dreamcast, and what they are doing to the Wii U. Fuck them, I wouldn't miss a gaming beat if they imploded and closed tomorrow.

Hmmm if you guys thought that EA really are the worst assuming the number of people voted yes. Then let me asked another question. How about Activision ? Don't you guys hate Activision too for putting COD every year ? They also did ruined some franchise too * cough * spyro * cough *.

Or how about Capcom for instance ? They messed up a lot in these past couple of years almost leading them to bankruptcy. They killed off their favourable franchise such as Mega Man,Devil May Cry & Resident Evil. Plus if i am not mistaken they are the one that started this on disc DLC in the first place.

i like them but cmon with the sports games the micro transactions.. i havent bought a sport game from nhl 08 to 2013.. and i liked 2013 but i got nh14 for xbox and madden 25 for madden and i feel madden has such lack of game modes..