Valve: EA is Not Evil

"It is funny that you read the stories about EA being this evil empire or whatever; our experience has been completely the opposite. We see the folks as being very similar in terms of their mind set as we are and they are very adult, or progressive if you would like, about how they interfaced with us and how they can help and where their value is and their relationship."

[Relin]

I can definitely see EA being a great business partner, considering their resources, but I don't see most gamers complaining about how poorly they work with other studios: it's their effect on the industry as a whole that worries me.

Have they been improving lately? Hell yes: the new Madden has improved dramatically, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space are changing things up, Burnout Paradise was a great step forward for the franchise. It's a good start, but I don't wanna see them burn out due to over-exertion.

[therealwillie]

yes there is the odd game that comes out good... burnout is great. theres not that many good games coming from e.a inhouse, but thats neither here nor there
now if valve and e.a have such good relations then why don't they sort out the orange box............ valve blames e.a, e.a blames valve round and round the merry go round, this is nothing but bullllllllll

[Statix]

I don't care bad or good their products are (although, in the case of EA they're generally pretty mediocre). It's their business practices and mentality of buying out the competition that DISGUST me.

[Infernus]

EA have released some great games, Burnout Paradise, most of their sports titles, C&C3, then we have Mirror's Edge and Dead Space coming out.

So they CAN make good games but they often seem to prefer to buy out the companies that are making good games and publish their games and make money that way. They bought out Bullfrog (Stopped them making Dungeon Keeper 3 and put the devs to work on FIFA or whatever else they had lined up in their sports department), then they got Westwood (Many devs broke away and set up Petroglyph who've been quite successful with Star Wars: Empire at War and Universe at War: Earth Assault) but I speak from personal experience in the C&C forums there was a LOT of hate over there for a long time, there's still an overall feeling of a lack of respect for EA there. There were some threads filled with insults and the like about EA, Westwood and C&C3. They calmed down eventually but EA brought it upon themselves.

I could go on, but it's just plain boring listing things. Personally I don't hate EA, I do like what they've done with the C&C franchise and Burnout games. However, I didn't appreciate their influence on Timesplitters: Future Perfect (Preferred the arcady feel of TS2), haven't bought a FIFA title for over 5 years (Preferred the arcady feel of PES) and although they've been relatively relaxed about Spore, Maxis was yet another company they bought out and pumped out Sims games like nobody's business lol. Even though Sims 2 was a good game I have to admit.

EA is the definition of a Marmite company. You either like them or you hate them, sometimes you'll agree with the devs and like their games sometimes they go in completely the wrong direction and you'll hat them for it. There's no steady ground with EA really, I think hate is a strong term here but if people have been screwed over by them I can completely understand why they'd feel that way.

[mistertwoturbo]

Infernus said it best.

[cp68]

http://orangeboxpetition.co...

is that not evil? getting the shaft for 8 months (and counting)?

[RecSpec]

It's only one game...(OK three games)

[Tyler Durden]

was told to say that or they would never see their family again

[deeznuts]

They also bribed Gabe Newell with a box of twinkies, just in case the family threat didn't work ....

[hotrider12]

EA is plainly evil no matter what u guys say they r evil!!!!!!

[hotrider12]

how do we know undercover going to be great?? it might be like pro fu'king streets that game was lame as hell!!!

[Chubear]

.. ofcourse they're not :/

[Hagaf22]

ea is not evil, neither is valve, they are fantastic companies with the consumers every want and need in mind. they would never do anything other than what the fans want

/end sarcasm

[aubradley]

They aren't evil per se, more like intentionally malevolent.

[Bnet343]

No one here knows about the business side of things. It's not a popularity contest they are trying to win. I am not on the "hate EA" bandwagon and most people on that are hypocrites.

[Dark General]

Per se, but i do dislike em. I know the exclusive deal to the NFL rights, the NFL is as much to play as EA but got damn they brought almost every sport. What's left only the NBA? I dislike what they have done with Madden and Live to a lesser extent by pushing out damn there the same thing each year. I still like some of their games (Mirrors Edge, Black, Facebreaker) but i still harbor disdain for them because of the NFL thing. Their game quality is getting better though.

[Vip3r]

Valve would say this seeing that EA bought them a few years ago. That and they both shame the same level of hate towards the PS3.

[AllroundGamer]

couldn't have said it better, + they share the same lame programmers, that have problems with the optimizations.

[SpartanGR]

Look who's talking. V[A]LV[E]. The next EA wannabe

[Statix]

What does EA treating one of their bigger business partners nice (*cha-ching*) have anything to do with them not being an evil, monopolistic, buying-out-the-competition company?

[andron]

Tell that to all those who bought The Orange Box on PS3.....

[Isaac]

According to valve, Sony is the evil one, that is why they relegate the ports of their games to EA.

[RecSpec]

Evil? Possibly, but then again, business is evil isn't it?

[Baka-akaB]

I dont care if EA isnt evil ... after all rats arent evil neither , doesnt stop them from being a huge nuisance .. just like EA

besides valve isnt kidding anyone . Hatred for EA might not suddenly change because of valve's games , rockband , and 2 possible good titles out of 20 ...

It's quite likely Valve and Bioware titles would remain the same , no matter who publish them . They are too big devs with too many followers to mess with . The only harm they could do to them would be milking up some franchise , like DICE is doing with 5 battefield titles in developpement .

At the end of the day anyway , on a mass effect 2 or half life 3 ... the name people will remember isnt EA .

[EnforcerOfTheTruth]

LOL Valve themself is evil

[n00bzRtehgey]

valve rules.

EA sucks.

[Tacki]

I can't say I HATE them...

However, the whole NFL thing I'm still not happy about AT ALL. IMO Sega's 2k series was a hell of alot better (and more realistic) than the Madden games. I've never liked Madden and probably never will though.

Now thinking about that again... I'll say I strongly dislike them.

[highps3]

Both can go fly a kite. Although atleast EA is making a new Fight Night whoo hoo...

[ikkokucrisis]

...Valve is

[nirwanda]

Rage against the machine are the a great band like the way the pic has been altered with the EA logo

[mariusmal]

Rage against the machine ftw :D