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EA Wins "Worst Company In America" Award

The website Consumerist recently held a tournament-style campaign where fans could vote for what they think is the worst company in America. Publisher Electronic Arts won.

EA beat out Bank of America for the honor in the final round of voting. "After more than 250,000 votes, Consumerist readers ultimately decided that the type of greed exhibited by EA, which is supposed to be making the world a more fun place, is worse than Bank of America's avarice, which some would argue is the entire point of operating a bank," the website said.

Consumerist began its "Worst Company in America" reader poll in 2007. Past winners include: RIAA, Countrywide Financial, AIG, Comcast, and BP.

“We’re sure that bank presidents, oil, tobacco and weapons companies are all relieved they weren’t on the list this year," EA said in a statement sent to Game Informer. "We’re going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide.”

Did EA get the short end of the stick here? Is there a worse video game publisher out there? Let us know in the comments below.

[Source: Consumerist]

Comments
  • thats...really funny
  • Wow, gamers are really pissed. I'm glad that people realize the depths to which EA will sink. But I don't think they're socially more reprehensible than the banks or the private contractors.
  • .....Congratulations?
  • good, they deserve it. introduce the online pass code, promise us an mmo revolution by ripping off wow. stomp all over battlefields usually awesome singleplayer. yeah, definitely deserve it.
  • I'm going to celebrate this news by smashing a watermelon with a big hammer!
  • Earned it.
  • Wow, people were really pissed off with Mass Effect 3.
  • "EA Wins "Worst Company In America" Award" NO WAY! Activision deserve this prize ;). EA is just doing very good these years! A few years ago i would say: Yes that is right, now... NO WAY
  • Bioware, dice and all the others should stand up to ea
  • I doubt we can really call them the worst. The worst company is probably the one we never hear of until it's all too late. . . .
  • Ouch. I've always dreamed of working for EA mostly because I am a huge fan of the Need for Speed franchise. Now that they've been requiring pass keys for everything online-based, they've been making me pretty frustrated.
  • EA- Electronic Ass (no, not the good kind)
  • It is really sad though, a company that is "supposed" to entertain us has pissed that many people off. online passes for everyone
  • I suppose that's what you get for making the online pass mainstream. My relationship with them is a love/hate one. I hate some of the things they do such as the online pass, but at the same time I love many of the games they make.
  • Companies like Activision and Capcom have been big jerks in the past, but when it comes to EA, you just can't beat classic evil.

  • Thats really pathetic. I understand EA has some bad business practices but not everything they do is as evil as people make it out to be, Online passes for example. I dont see how any adult who works for a living can fault them with the Online Pass. They want money for their product just like everyone else..

    There are businesses out there that torture animals (not trying to get all PETA but its true..) and people are more upset at EA for having to pay 10 bucks for Day 1 DLC. How sad this country is.
  • I dunno, EA has been off of my short list for a while now, replaced by Activision. I'm not quite sure what they've done this past year besides pump millions into advertising for Battlefield 3. Pretty hilarious though that a game company garners more negativity from fans and consumers than banking and investing ones, especially considering the current economic fiasco.

    Added on: There are companies out there that deserve it much, much more. Apple's associations with Foxconn (although they are going through renovations recently) for example. EA may be evil in the gaming industry, but there are worse things. It's weird to see EA put up next to the likes of BP and AIG; controversial online passes, developer treatment, and game endings really aren't as bad as what those two aforementioned companies are notorious for.
  • Well, they did start the stupid online pass stuff
  • Unfortunately, they deserve it...
  • Y'know, for the worst company in the country, they still make good games.

    Edit: While they do primarily handle funding/marketing/etc., they can still influence the overall game if they choose, which begs the question: Is it just a coincidence that many of EA's games are successful?
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