Opinion: Can EA really be the worst company in America?

EA has once again managed to unleash the anger of the Internet. (Photo Source: The Consumerist)

For the second year in a row, EA has received the dubious honour of being crowned the "worst company in America" in The Consumerist's yearly poll.

Last year, EA rode a wave of discontent that surged across the Internet in response to the ending of Mass Effect 3, among other concerns.

Among the competition that EA soundly defeated last year was the company responsible for the worst oil spill in the history of the planet. No kidding.

This year the issues are different, but the Internet's reaction is much the same. Reddit and 4chan have been hotbeds of support from the beginning, spreading the word to try to have EA regain the title.

Among the many discontents cited are Battlefield's multi-DLC model and the catastrophic launch of SimCity: a launch which, as Kotaku reports, is still in shambles.

This year the likes of Ticketmaster, Comcast and Bank of America were defeated by EA in the final rounds of the contest. While I see a big difference between dubious home foreclosures and not being able to log into a fictional city, apparently a lot of other people did not.

Perhaps Chris Matyszczyk said it best in his recent article on the topic over on Cnet:

Being voted "Worst Company in America" is really closer to being voted "The Company That People Who Are Online A Lot Hate Most," which isn't quite the same thing.

It seems clear, then, that netizens have declared EA to be the worst company in America, but I question whether this is really the case.

In fact, I contend that not only is EA not the worst company in America, but not even the worst game company.

EA is a massive company with a large market share. They have made games which have received critical acclaim right alongside the ones which became the crucibles of the Internet's rage.

Of course, the failures stand out the most, especially when they happen on a scale like the recent SimCity troubles or when they mean that your 300 million dollar flagship MMO is, in your own words, "a disappointment".

They do not have a perfect track record, but then no game company which has been around as long as they have does.

And in fairness to EA, they have tried to fix their mistakes when possible. Even if amending their entire business strategy to fit the whims of the Internet wasn't possible, they did try to respond to complaints about individual products.

The new Mass Effect 3 ending DLC came out, it was free, and it tried to resolve players' concerns. It may not have been perfect, but there was a response.

Am I saying EA is a great company? No, I'm not.

Their current sales strategies are woefully unpopular with the savvy gamer (pile on that DLC!), they have had several botched launches in recent memory and they have a frightening habit of snatching up small developers.

Origin remains a pale shadow of the competitor it is trying to emulate, regardless of the registered users that EA claims.

Those numbers, by the way, seem a bit disingenuous when a lot of your games can only be played on that platform: they're not using Origin for the features it offers, but because you have literally given PC gamers no other option.

But the worst company in America?

I don't see it. Maybe I need my hyperbole-vision goggles.