EA: The Worst Company In America - 2012

For those who are worried about the mainstream media picking up on the Alliance Panel fiasco at Fanfest this year because of the poor reporting of the gaming media, don't be.  The MSM will soon have another gaming company in their sights: Electronic Arts.

EA won the 2012 Golden Poo award from Consumerist.com as the worst company in America.  EA managed to beat out Bank of America and AT&T for the title.  The Consumerist had this to say about EA:

"After more than 250,000 votes, Consumerist readers ultimately decided that the type of greed exhibited by EA, which is supposed to be making the world a more fun place, is worse than Bank of America's avarice, which some would argue is the entire point of operating a bank.

"To those who might sneer at something as 'non-essential' as a video game company winning the Worst Company In America vote: It's that exact kind of attitude that allows people to ignore the complaints as companies like EA to nickel and dime consumers to death.

"For years, while movies and music became more affordable and publishers piled on bonus content — or multiple modes of delivery — as added value to entice customers to buy, video games have continued to be priced like premium goods.

"There have even been numerous accusations that EA and its ilk deliberately hold back game content with the sole intent of charging a fee for it at a later date. It's one thing to support a game with new content that is worth the price. It's another to put out an inferior — and occasionally broken — product with the mindset of 'ah, we'll fix it later and make some money for doing so.'"

Speculation in the comments is that gamers upset with EA organized themselves and crashed the contest.  Unfortunately for EA, the mainstream media have picked up the story.  Forbes, to no great surprise, picked up the story as it definitely has the potential to affect the business community and stock prices.  And this after news sources like The Guardian picked up the controversy over the ending for Mass Effect 3.

But the shine of the MSM is about to hit EA again over plans to introduce same sex romance in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  The controversy is nothing new to gamers as Massively covered the Family Research Council's statement back in January.  But as Forbes' Dave Thier reporting on not only the latest on the SW:TOR controversy but Bioware's damage control efforts on Mass Effect 3, I would not be surprised if other news outlets pick up the stories.  Can Bill O'Reilly be far behind?