EA says it does not understand why it is so hated

EA Games is a controversial company… it created several good games and earned its fame with them, but it also got rid of several good teams, shelved many franchises and, more recently, embraced microtransactions heavily, which turned games with great potential, such as Star Wars, into “pay to win” games that spoil the player’s experience.

The company is also known for pressuring its internal teams to rush the development of some games, causing incomplete and buggy games to reach the market. The reason EA Games is hated by a large part of players seems quite obvious and “jumps out at you”, yet the internal view some employees have of the company is totally the opposite, as is the case of the company’s EVP of strategic growth, Matt Bilbey, who said in an interview with GamesIndustry:

“25 years at EA and I still struggle to understand the outside notion that we are a group of bad people. We love creating and playing games. Unfortunately, when we make mistakes, the world knows because of our size and scale.”

Matt also defends the company by saying that they do not produce or support only AAA games, and even have a program to encourage the development of smaller games:

“EA Originals are also games that we don’t create in the larger part of EA or don’t create enough. So, although there is a philanthropic part, it was a way for us to connect with talent with smaller ideas. When you are in a company and have had successes and mistakes around live-service microtransactions, free-to-play, which regions, which partners to work with, which animation engines… it is really good for the teams to sit down. EA Originals developers and you can really give real advice. That really makes you feel good. It is advice to help them not make the same mistakes. ”

They say the worst blind man is the one who doesn’t want to see… what do you think?

Source: Eurogamer / GameIndustry