Electronic Arts has scored another dubious honor with its ranking as the fifth Most Hated Company in the United States. The list of top 20 most hated companies was compiled by 24/7 Wall Street that uses factors including major events, customer satisfaction surveys, employee reviews in determining ranks. EA is fifth after Equifax, Fox Entertainment Group, NFL, and University of Phoenix. Further, it ranks ahead of companies including Sprint, Cigna, Wells Fargo and The Trump Organization.
Here is what USA Today had to say about EA's ranking:
Electronic Arts, or EA, has been making highly successful video games for decades. EA has produced dozens of wildly successful franchises, including “The Sims,” “Battlefield,” and “Need for Speed,” and the annually-sold, fervently-purchased sports titles, Madden and FIFA. While it has helped shape the face of gaming, EA has also unfortunately earned a reputation as the industry’s evil empire. There are many examples of EA buying up smaller studios or operations for a specific game and then either stripping the game of its originality or running the studio into the ground.
The company added to its infamy recently during the early release days of the latest installment of another of its big franchises, “Star Wars Battlefront II.” EA released an early access version of the game, and immediately drew widespread ire from gamers, who discovered that unlocking some of the more popular characters required over 40 hours of gameplay or spending hundreds on in-game purchases. The public outcry surrounding the perceived greed led the studio to temporarily suspend in-game purchases.
You can read the full list of Hated Companies at the USA Today link above or head to 24/7 Wall Street.
Via GameRant.com
