Much to the surprise and amusement of many, EA was voted as the ‘Worst company in America’. EA received this unpopular title in a consumer affairs blog survey which was participated by fans of different age groups. It was surprising that the company scored more than others like Bank of America and BP on the “Golden Poo” scale.
Reacting to the whole incident EA executive Peter Moore release a statement:
“Yes, [being named Worst Company in America] was ridiculous. And this was also the time of sub-prime mortgage crisis; banks are dumping hundreds of thousands of people out onto the street. You try and be defensive and say this is stupid, this is ridiculous; and then you go, ‘Maybe there’s a kernel of truth here.’ Maybe this is a moment we can step back, look in the mirror, look at who we are, look at how we’re perceived, and figure out what we need to do to do something about it. Perception is reality so if their perception is that we’re not a company that puts players first, then how do we change that?”
Moore’s surprise of being voted as a company which is more worse than Bank of America and other companies which have destroyed lives is legitimate. It is utterly ridiculous too. However, he assured that the company is guilty and ready to take the responsibilities of their problems and try to fix them.
He added,
“Then we made a deliberate attempt to say, ‘Fine, how do we go forward here?’ And the mantra that we came up with was this concept of player-first. To this day, in fact this morning, in meetings, questions are always asked–what do we need to do here? When do we ship that? What type of experience does this need to be?–somebody will say, but is that player-first?”
It seems like EA has got a much needed reality check and it is high time for them to step up and get back on the right track.