Originally Posted by nategator

From a consumer's point of view, I would have to say that EA gets a little bit of an unfair rep. They seem to be very aggressive in pricing this past year with their outside retailers and generous the freebies ($20 credit for filling out a survey is nice).

Of course, if you are part of the more lucrative full-freight or pre-order crowd you have been getting shafted by EA's DLC and online game code practices for some time. But I'm part of the market that tends to reap the benefits because otherwise we just end up renting or buying used so we get by without paying much.

And dev-wise, EA has had a terrible reputation for the last decade. But I think that's common with all the major publishers who happen to not be Valve and Blizzard. I read somewhere, however, that because they're so beloved and infused with talent the company culture turns you into a workaholic anyways -- it's more of an internal thing rather than a management driven thing.

What's interesting is that I've never heard anyone complain about working for Rockstar or Bethusda so I guess they must be doing something right. Or they have terrifying lawyers with excellent non-disclosure agreements