Is EA's Image and Reputation Forever Ruined With Gamers

On this week's episode of The Trophy Room: A PlayStation Podcast, hosts Joseph and Kyle talk about how they're try to manage God of War 4's hype, and What Sony has learned as a publisher, this generation. Former Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) CEO Andrew House talks about the future of the PlayStation brand, and what he thinks the PlayStation 5 will look like. Star Wars Battlefront 2's loot boxes are back, and EA's CEO Patrick Söderlund, talks about how they need to fix their image with gamers, but is it already too little too late? Lastly the gang talks about being done with Destiny 2, new Bioshock rumors, and much more.
God of War Hype and What Sony does right and Xbox gets wrong: 06:36 - 23:49
Xbox Drive: 23:59 - 25:27
EA's Ruined reputation: 25:28 - 38:37
Kingdom Hearts News: 38:28 - 43:37
Done with Destiny 2: 43:37 - 46:34
PS5 rumors, and Insight: 46:36 - 55:35
Shenmue remastered, New Bioshock, and viewer mail 55:35 - Fin

[PhoenixUp]

What reputation did EA have to ruin?

[porkChop]

2007-2009 EA was pretty great. That's when they were trying new things like Dead Space and taking risks with games like Mirror's Edge. MW2 came and sold incredibly well at the end of 2009, and that's when EA started chasing COD money. Ever since then they've just been circling the drain.

[Derceto]

Um.... they haven't had a reputation worth a crap since the mid 2000's.

If you still have any respect whatsoever for and/or give this company your money in this day and age, well, then you are a moron. Plain and simple.

[TheOttomatic91]

With a majority of the gaming community yes but there are still some willing to give them a shot due to all the valuable IP they have.

[plmkoh]

"Some" willing? I think you'll find the minority is the gaming community with the rest the majority. Their stock prices don't lie, people are buying their games by the truck load.

[AnubisG]

Unfortunately that is true.

SWBF2 sold 7+million copies while the Way Out sold 1 million. Yes, one million is amazing for that small game but EA only looks at numbers and 7 million is more than 1 million so they think that they are justified and the numbers back them up. They look at the bottom line and the bottom line is that uniformed people buy their crap.

[plmkoh]

@AnubisG

Yep exactly, N4G can bitch all they want. The negative signals are falling on deaf ears.

[thorstein]

I'll be happy to take any EA stock off your hands for a low price.

That way, in 10 years I will make a huge profit.

EA isn't going anywhere.

[Hardiman]

They've been the plague to me for years!

[AnubisG]

They ruined it years ago by progressivley ruining their games. Lootboxes were the final nail in their coffin. Used car salesman are working at EA.

[Jinger]

Nah, everyone can come back if they try hard enough. Start doing more pro gamer things and fans will come back. EA has a bad habit of getting on a decent streak, then just hitting a brick wall of terrible ideas.

[OffRoadKing]

The gaming community doesn't really have a reputation for being very forgiving, so yeah probably.

[Silkside]

Any EA game from now on will be wait and see for me. No more pre ordering etc.

I'll happily wait a few days after release to scope the reception of the game before I commit any money to EA

[Hroach616]

I’ve completely stopped buying any of their games. Boycotting them until they start releasing games instead of lootbox/micro transaction ridden “games”.

[EverydayGuy]

They been voted worst company every year, we just need to stop buying their sport franchise to really hurt them.

[SegaGamer]

They are hated, but they are still making a ton of money. This is a case of people being all talk. If you hate EA so much, then stop buying their products.

[rainslacker]

I'm sure a bulk of the people that buy their games will never read what you say here. Or will never read the people that say the same thing elsewhere.

While I'm sure there are those here that complain and still buy their games, to assume that if all of us stopped buying EA games they'd somehow suffer is just not true. EA banks on the big titles, where the average person buying them couldn't care less about their policies or practices.

[rainslacker]

Their reputation in the gaming forums hasn't been exactly glowing going on 10 years now.

So, no, their image won't be ruined, because most people that buy their games don't really care about the crap they pull. Most are either unaware or don't care. They'll play the games because they want to play Madden, FIFA, or some Star Wars game.

[ILostMyMind]

EA had a reputation on MD/SNES era. It is all gone. But they make a lot of money.

[YourGreatUncle]

Not a fan of EA in the slightest but I'll continue to buy NHL year after year because it's the only hockey game on the market.

[PapaBop]

It's not gamers, that ship sailed long ago. It's everyone else now. Having access to such a monster IP means they are going to be closer scrutinised for their practices. If they did the p2w crap with Battlefield as they tried to pull with Battlefront 2, it'd pick up some heat and do the rounds on gaming websites but nowhere near as much as Battlefront 2 did, you certainly wouldn't be hearing from Senators demanding loot box regulations and accusing them of luring children into online gambling. That's the double edged sword of Star Wars, it's an IP for all age groups and thankfully has put EA's greed in all it's glory in full public view and they are starting to realise they done goofed big time hence their charm offensive in recent weeks.

[Knightofelemia]

Only rep EA has is how to charge for a game then litter the game with microtransactions and then saying they learned their lesson.

[nowitzki2004]

Gamers need to learn their lesson and then EA might actually care.

[Knightofelemia]

Only thing EA cares about is cash they only pretend to care when you threaten to go some where else or threaten to boycott a game. Then after the game blows back in their face that's when they really pretend to care about what gamers want.

[Max-Zorin]

People still trust Capcom, after that Street Fighter X Tekken fiasco. EA can definitely redeem themselves.