Video game giant EA has had its share of controversy over the past few years. And in some sense has developed a less than favorable position with many fans and consumers within the gaming world. Their past fiasco that happened with Star Wars Battlefront II couple years ago is one example that gave some the impression that the company wasn’t looking out for the best interest of gamers and that the game had an unnecessary amount of loot boxes that made EA look money hungry.
The loot boxes were removed before the game’s public release after a bit of community backlash but the incident sparked a whole new debate about the subject of loot boxes. Battlefield 4, also had a rough launch but both of these titles turned out to be widely profitable in the long run with Battlefront 2 selling over 9 million copies within its first front and Battlefield 4 exceeding on both consoles and PC.
You can also add Anthem into the mix that was plagued early by server issues and other bugs that even went as far as to crash whole systems, but despite the difficulties EA promises that they remain committed to making the game great. However, recently Matt Bilbey, EA’s EVP of strategic growth stated that he struggles with how EA is viewed as the “bad guys” of the gaming industry.
He commented that since EA is one of the most established, and widely known publishers that their mistakes are often blown out of proportion due to their size. “25 years at EA and I still struggle with the external perception that we’re just a bunch of bad guys. We love making and playing games. Unfortunately, when we make mistakes on games, the world knows about it because it’s of a size and scale.”
He also added that since the company is growing many may think that they are becoming more “disconnected from new and original ideas. He alluded to the EA Originals Program who is responsible for smaller games such as A Way Out, and Sea of Solitude. Stating that it’s their way of interacting with talent and those smaller ideas.