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The arms trade? Oil companies polluting the planet? Bankers bringing us to our knees? Companies that sell those absurd magnetic health bracelets? No, these are not the real corporate wrongdoers.
It’s been an award winning start to 2012 for EA, and now the super publisher can add another accolade to the list – the 2012 Golden Poo.
The honour was bestowed upon it by American site The Consumerist, the readers of which voted in a number of polls to decide upon the eventual winner”. Amazingly, EA trumped Bank of America in the final poll winning 64.03 per cent of the vote.
After years of being ignored and relegated to steerage, game-players have voted to send a message to Electronic Arts and the gaming business as a whole: Stop treating your loyal customers like crap,” the site reads.
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.”
EA, to its credit, has responded to its award in admirably flippant – yet arguably, very accurate – fashion.
"We’re sure that bank presidents, oil, tobacco and weapons companies are all relieved they weren’t on the list this year,” EA Corporate Communications John Reseburg told Games Industry. We’re going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300m people worldwide."
For context, note that EA has scored Ten UK All Formats No.1’s in 2012 alone, releasing three chart-toppers on the trot – SSX, Mass Effect 3 and FIFA Street.
At the time of writing, EA titles occupy four of the top five spots in the UK Charts.
