[Silent_Buddha]

Even though this features one of the largest game publishers in the world, I didn't want to pollute either the console or PC forum with the potential flaming wreckage from this.

I do find it highly amusing however. Anyone familiar with NCAA's March Madness for college basketball in the US will be familiar with the bracket setup.

http://consumerist.com/2012/03/a-rou...finalists.html

Why is this so amusing to me? Well, it is EA's very first year where it qualified for the bracket and yet it has completely demolished all of its competition in making a run to the Final Four. It will face a much tougher opponent in AT&T, however. While on the other side of the bracket you have 2 juggernauts, Bank of America and Walmart, duking it out to see who gets to go to the finals

Regards,
SB

[Alexko]

To be fair, if they didn't group companies into categories, the top 4 would probably be all the banks.

[Silent_Buddha]

I wouldn't be so sure about that. In 2011 BP beat out BofA. And BofA only got that high because they had bought out Countrywide Insurance which had been a previous winner. In 2010, Comcast came out on top. In 2009, it was AIG.

2011 was the closest year a bank came to winning it. But it might be a sign that consumers are getting fed up. Perhaps they'll take home the "coveted" trophy this year.

Regards,
SB

[zealjuniorwarrantofficer]

worst company how about every one with those nice golden parachutes self appointed ceos can corrupt and destroy each others companies by appointing each other to the board of directors, and kill shareholder value. Just look at what happened at apple in the absence of Jobs.

Or the financial collapse of the stock market, those bankers deserve decapitation or head shots, like they do in china turn those parachutes of gold into ashes death penalty burn in hell and turn to ashes you greedy bastards that stole billions from us all.

[Grall]

EA won the Golden Poo. Bet they're absolutely tickled pink over there at Evil HQ...

Then again maybe it's well deserved, with all the Origin shenanigans, not to mention killing off the original Origin, Bullfrog, Looking Glass (or was that someone else? I forget...), and now the ludicrously expensive weapons unlock for Battlefield 3, which apparantly costs more than the game itself at retail. Holy smokes!

It's not as if there's a lack of reasons as to why they did win...

[Silent_Buddha]

Not to mention Westwood Studios. As well as driving Bioware down the drain and shifting them away from what made the company popular with it's core fans in the first place.

Oh wait that's the same thing they did with Origin, Bullfrog, and Westwood Studios. They've already merged Bioware with Mythic. And who knows how much longer they will last.

They also turned Phenomic (previously makers of some fantastic RTS games) into a browser game developer. But even with EA's hands in the pie, I have to say Phenomic are doing a pretty good job with the C&C Browser game. I'm sad that we'll likely never see another proper game in the Spellforce franchise. Or even the Battleforge IP.

And Looking Glass wasn't ever part of the EA stable. So can't blame EA on that one.

Then again EA aren't the only ones that have killed off sudios. They just killed off some of the most beloved developers. Although I think even without EA's meddling, Origin was on the path for imploding. Chris Roberts and his games as movies drive was a huge drain on developement funds. Too much money spent on Hollywood actors.

As to them winning. Holy cow it wasn't even close.

Last year BP edged out BofA by the narrowest of margins. EA completely dominated BofA as the worst company in America.

I'm going to guess the recent Mass Effect 3 debacle still being fresh in people's minds probably made their vote all the easier to make. And for older voters Syndicate being a slap in the face for anyone who played the first two games in the franchise probably didn't help either.

And one last thing. It would have been interesting if Activision had been in the bracket as well. To see which company would have been tops. I'd say EA probably still would have won but by a narrower margin over Activison than over BofA.

Regards,
SB

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I lol'd at this comment:

snowtires
April 4, 2012 2:02 PM


Their full response will be released later this month as a $9.99 download.

[Grall]

Oh man.

Made in jest, everybody understands that, but it hits the truth. That's why it's so funny.

[Demirug]

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

They also turned Phenomic (previously makers of some fantastic RTS games) into a browser game developer. But even with EA's hands in the pie, I have to say Phenomic are doing a pretty good job with the C&C Browser game. I'm sad that we'll likely never see another proper game in the Spellforce franchise. Or even the Battleforge IP.

I could not comment the situation on other EA studios. But the decision to make strategy browser games was done by Phenomic not by EA. At this time properly no one at the central organization have even though about this market. Anyway EA let their internal studios mostly do what they want as long as they make profit. Even without EA another Spellforce from Phenomic was and is highly unlikely. But this is another story. And there would no BattleForge without EA. EA was the only publisher who was willing to invest money in this idea. Unfortunately it was more niche then anyone thought.

Originally Posted by Silent_Buddha

Then again EA aren't the only ones that have killed off sudios. They just killed off some of the most beloved developers. Although I think even without EA's meddling, Origin was on the path for imploding. Chris Roberts and his games as movies drive was a huge drain on developement funds. Too much money spent on Hollywood actors.

The studios weren’t killed after EA have bought them. In the past it was common to rename them (the EA city studio timeframe). If there were multiple studios in the same area they were moved together in one building but they were still separated teams. So most of the C&C games were still made by Westwood as example. Since quite some time the studios keeps their names and even most of the teams in the old city studios have now their own name again. But that’s mainly an external thing as from the inside they teams were already independent before.

[Davros]

who do you work for Demirug ?

[Demirug]

Originally Posted by Davros

who do you work for Demirug ?

EA Phenomic. The German EA Studio.

[Davros]

How can we know you havnt been borgified

[Silent_Buddha]

Originally Posted by Demirug

I could not comment the situation on other EA studios. But the decision to make strategy browser games was done by Phenomic not by EA. At this time properly no one at the central organization have even though about this market. Anyway EA let their internal studios mostly do what they want as long as they make profit. Even without EA another Spellforce from Phenomic was and is highly unlikely. But this is another story. And there would no BattleForge without EA. EA was the only publisher who was willing to invest money in this idea. Unfortunately it was more niche then anyone thought.

Shame about Spellforce. I still replay them from time to time. And at least kudo's to EA for backing Battleforge. Good game that I spent entirely too much money on.

Regards,
SB

[Davros]

well they are the masters of nickel and dime-ing their customers....

[homerdog]

I don't even get the attraction of expensive DLC. For 10 or 15 dollars I can buy a whole game on Steam.

[Alexko]

Originally Posted by Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.

I lol'd at this comment:

Genius!