You may or may not know this, but EA has a bit of an image problem. They are consistently denied awards by their industry peers, they are booed at award ceremonies, and consumers won’t stop bringing up their past.
Gamesindustry.biz has an article talking about the EA Originals program, where the massive publisher has been taking independent developers under its wing and fostering a supporting environment that doesn’t quite match up with the company that built up a reputation for its proverbial graveyard of acquisitions. EA Originals is different; the developers are happy, they are allowed to put out experimental titles and reap all of the profits. All EA takes from sales are enough to cover its costs of marketing and publishing the game.
And yet the company just can’t shed its perception of being a pantomime villain.
“25 years at EA and I still struggle with the external perception that we’re just a bunch of bad guys,” says Matt Bilbey, EVP of strategic growth at EA. “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.”
You can read the entire article here if you’d like, although it seems less like a come to Jesus moment for the developer and more GI.biz running a sponsored piece for EA to pat itself on the back and talk about how great its subscription service is. Maybe if Matt Bilbey paid the minimum attention to the company and what people are saying, he would understand why EA has gained the reputation that it has. Otherwise this reads like another shining example of just how out of touch EA is with its own customers.
MMO Fallout 
