Not exactly an award you want to win
Last year, the Consumerist had it’s annual “Worst company in America” awards, and it seemed like it was going to play out like usual. Someone big like Monsanto, or Bank of America would take the prize, everyone would have a giggle and nothing would happen. Most of those big scary corporations don’t really care if they win.
But then EA wound up winning by a landslide. Touted by many to be a terrible company for their actions with The Old Republic MMO, treatment of their various IPs, and general scummery in the industry is what elevated them to this…lofty position. And what was EA’s reaction?
Well, first it all started with a casual dismissal. Saying things like, “At least we aren’t BoA!” was their rallying cry of choice. But the sheer amount of voices from all over the internet seemed keen on going full-on damage control. Various sites put out articles claiming that EA “isn’t all bad”, followed by a free game promotion on Origin, Electronic Arts’ digital distribution platform. It could even be theorized that the addition of new endings to Mass Effect 3 could have been a response to win gamers back. We may never know.
And now, having just beat out AT&T, it’s starting to seem very likely EA will take the prize two years running. The numbers don’t lie, and so far EA has seemed to beat every opponent by at least 40 more of the vote than their opponents. Next up is EA vs Ticketmaster, and Bank of America vs Comcast. Will EA face their rival from last year, BoA again? Will there be an upset? Or will EA go all the way this year too? More coming when the voting has finished!
