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| Official Website = https://ea.com/
| Official Website = https://ea.com/
| Logo = Electronic Arts.png
| Logo = Electronic Arts.png
}}[[wikipedia:Electronic_Arts|'''Electronic Arts''']] (EA) was a game developer and now publisher founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins. It is well known for its simulator titles under the ''Sim'' series (''The Sims,'' ''SimCity,'' ''MySims,'' etc.), titles published under their EA Sports division (''Madden,'' ''FIFA,'' etc.), and their ''Battlefield'' series.
}}[[wikipedia:Electronic_Arts|'''Electronic Arts''']] ('''EA''') is a former video-game developer and now publisher founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins. It is well known for its simulator titles under the ''Sim'' series (''The Sims,'' ''SimCity,'' ''MySims,'' etc.), titles published under its EA Sports division (''Madden,'' ''FIFA,'' etc.), and its ''Battlefield'' series.


EA has received criticism for its reliance on microtransactions, its focus on [[downloadable content]] (DLC), and other business practices that some consumers perceive as excessively unfavorable (predatory and anti-consumer). <!--Editor's note: When we add that ranking system, I'd say they would rank pretty high in consumer unfriendliness.-->
EA has received criticism for its reliance on microtransactions, its focus on [[downloadable content]] (DLC), and other business practices that some consumers perceive as excessively unfavorable (predatory and anti-consumer). <!--Editor's note: When we add that ranking system, I'd say they would rank pretty high in consumer unfriendliness.-->
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===Origin shutdown===
===Origin shutdown===
On April 17, 2025, EA will shut down their Origin client,<ref>https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-sims-4/ea-origin-shut-down</ref> which was the final option for 32-bit hardware to run EA-published titles. While most consumers have already switched to using 64-bit hardware, the [[end-of-life]] of 32-bit support means that vintage enthusiasts, tech historians, and users who previously did not need to upgrade their 32-bit hardware are unable to either install or run the libraries that they paid for.
On April 17, 2025, EA will shut down its Origin client,<ref>https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-sims-4/ea-origin-shut-down</ref> which was the final option for 32-bit hardware to run EA-published titles. While most consumers have already switched to using 64-bit hardware, the [[end-of-life]] of 32-bit support means that vintage enthusiasts, tech historians, and users who previously did not need to upgrade their 32-bit hardware are unable to either install or run the libraries that they paid for.


===Lootboxes===
===Lootboxes===
  See also: [[EA Lootbox Controversies]]
  See also: [[EA lootbox controversies]]
Multiple games published by EA in recent years have garnered significant controversy over what is essentially legal gambling. This is most commonly seen in EA sports titles and their "Ultimate Team" modes, which has players using in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world money to buy card packs, in order to potentially get high-value player cards. This monetization method, considered by many to be "predatory", most notably introduced controversy within the modern release of ''Star Wars Battlefront 2'', wherein the most powerful character in-game, Darth Vader, could only be obtained through this lootbox system.<ref>https://www.pcworld.com/article/3231668/gaming/loot-boxes-ruining-gaming.html</ref><ref>http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-09-star-wars-battlefront-2-has-a-loot-crate-problem</ref><ref>http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-10-12-thinking-outside-the-loot-box</ref> It was not until several weeks after the backlash that EA would tone down these lootboxes by changing loot pools.<ref>https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/star-wars-battlefront-ii-changes-its-loot-box-plans-but-is-it-enough/</ref><ref>https://www.vg247.com/2017/10/13/after-beta-controversy-dice-has-better-clarified-the-loot-crate-system-in-the-final-version-of-star-wars-battlefront-2/</ref> Lootboxes remained within the title until [[Disney]] directly instructed EA to stop because of gambling concerns.<ref>https://www.wsj.com/articles/electronic-arts-pulls-microtransactions-from-star-wars-battlefront-ii-after-fan-backlash-1510936871</ref> <!--Honestly deserving of an article considering the sheer insanity of EA here--><!--Concept section:
Multiple games published by EA in recent years have garnered significant controversy over what is essentially legal gambling. This is most commonly seen in EA sports titles and their "Ultimate Team" modes, which has players using in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world money to buy card packs, in order to potentially get high-value player cards. This monetization method, considered by many to be "predatory", most notably introduced controversy within the modern release of ''Star Wars Battlefront 2'', wherein the most powerful character in-game, Darth Vader, could only be obtained through this lootbox system.<ref>https://www.pcworld.com/article/3231668/gaming/loot-boxes-ruining-gaming.html</ref><ref>http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-09-star-wars-battlefront-2-has-a-loot-crate-problem</ref><ref>http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-10-12-thinking-outside-the-loot-box</ref> It was not until several weeks after the backlash that EA would tone down these lootboxes by changing loot pools.<ref>https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/star-wars-battlefront-ii-changes-its-loot-box-plans-but-is-it-enough/</ref><ref>https://www.vg247.com/2017/10/13/after-beta-controversy-dice-has-better-clarified-the-loot-crate-system-in-the-final-version-of-star-wars-battlefront-2/</ref> Lootboxes remained within the title until [[Disney]] directly instructed EA to stop because of gambling concerns.<ref>https://www.wsj.com/articles/electronic-arts-pulls-microtransactions-from-star-wars-battlefront-ii-after-fan-backlash-1510936871</ref> <!--Honestly deserving of an article considering the sheer insanity of EA here--><!--Concept section:
At the moment, The Sims 4 holds EA's record for game with the most DLC for sale, with a total of $519.97 for expansion DLC being sold at $40 a pop, and a grand total of $1064.45 for all DLC. Purchase of these DLCs are necessitated since compared to the previous entry in the series, The Sims 3, there is a lower amount of content in TS4's base game.
At the moment, The Sims 4 holds EA's record for game with the most DLC for sale, with a total of $519.97 for expansion DLC being sold at $40 a pop, and a grand total of $1064.45 for all DLC. Purchase of these DLCs are necessitated since compared to the previous entry in the series, The Sims 3, there is a lower amount of content in TS4's base game.
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===DRM===
===DRM===
EA holds the record for most pirated game with the title [[Spore]], which was directly because of EA's usage of [[SecuROM]], and was one of the earlier known titles to introduce always-online [[digital rights management]] (DRM).<ref name=":0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ltfyqD3lM</ref> Some releases of Mass Effect also put to use SecuROM, and would instill excessive limits, such as a 3-install limit that cannot be refunded via uninstalling, only raised via customer service calls, not to mention a recurring validation system that required that the game should have its activation code run every 10 days.<ref>http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/83689-Mass-Effect-Spore-To-Use-Recurring-Validation</ref> While their use of SecuROM died off in the mid-2010s, they merely switched to a piece of DRM that has been far worse for consumers, [[Denuvo]]. One significant EA title that has used this DRM is ''Star Wars: Jedi Survivor.'' <!-- Need to add more examples later here -->
EA holds the record for most pirated game with the title ''[[Spore]],'' which was directly because of EA's use of [[SecuROM]], and was one of the earlier known titles to introduce always-online [[digital rights management]] (DRM).<ref name=":0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ltfyqD3lM</ref> Some releases of ''Mass Effect'' also used SecuROM, and would instill excessive limits, such as a three-install limit that both could not be refunded by uninstalling and could only be increased through customer-service calls, and a recurring-validation system that required that the game have its activation code run every 10 days.<ref>http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/83689-Mass-Effect-Spore-To-Use-Recurring-Validation</ref> While its use of SecuROM died off in the mid-2010s, the company merely switched to DRM that has been far worse for consumers, [[Denuvo]]. One significant EA title that has used this DRM is ''Star Wars: Jedi Survivor.'' <!-- Need to add more examples later here -->


===Spore===
===''Spore''===
  Further reading: [[Spore]]<!-- I believe there is far more controversy to document inside a dedicated article. I also recommend mentioning Darkspore and Spore Adventures, since both of these are directly affected by what EA does with Spore itself. -->
  Further reading: ''[[Spore]]''<!-- I believe there is far more controversy to document inside a dedicated article. I also recommend mentioning Darkspore and Spore Adventures, since both of these are directly affected by what EA does with Spore itself. -->
Spore retains a historical 1.7+ million pirated copies,<ref>https://www.ncesc.com/gaming-pedia/how-many-times-was-spore-pirated/</ref><ref>https://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913/</ref> directly related to the usage of [[SecuROM]].<ref name=":0" /> In more recent years, Spore's server access was locked down to EA accounts<ref name=":1">https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=582350678</ref>, mostly thanks to a free Steam key exploit. This has led to various problems for legitimate consumers who merely wanted to play the iconic game and its sibling Darkspore, since according to guides,<ref name=":1" /> users can only have a singular install of the game on any device, they must hold an EA account that uses only alphanumeric passwords, and the CD key must be redeemed on the user's EA account.<ref>https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002333209-Spore-How-to-get-access-to-online-features?product=gog</ref> This has brought concern among the community, leading to community-run tools to circumvent these server problems.<ref>https://sporecommunity.com/</ref>
''Spore'' retains a historical 1.7+ million pirated copies,<ref>https://www.ncesc.com/gaming-pedia/how-many-times-was-spore-pirated/</ref><ref>https://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913/</ref> directly related to EA's use of [[SecuROM]].<ref name=":0" /> In more recent years, ''Spore'''s server access was locked down to EA accounts,<ref name=":1">https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=582350678</ref> mostly thanks to a free [[Steam]] key exploit. This has led to various problems for legitimate consumers who merely wanted to play the iconic game and its sibling ''Darkspore,'' since according to guides,<ref name=":1" /> users could only have a singular install of the game on any device, were required to have an EA account using an alphanumeric password, and needed a CD key to redeem on the user's EA account.<ref>https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002333209-Spore-How-to-get-access-to-online-features?product=gog</ref> This has brought concern among the community, leading to community-developed tools to circumvent these server problems.<ref>https://sporecommunity.com/</ref>


===License exclusivity===
===License exclusivity===
With various [[Intellectual property|intellectual properties]], from Star Wars<ref>https://gamerant.com/ea-no-longer-star-wars-exclusive-publisher-lucasfilm-games-ubisoft-bethesda/</ref> to the NFL, EA has forced their way into holding what is essentially an artificial monopoly over large genres of the industry. Their exclusive licenses with various football organizations, such as the AFL and NFL, resulted in an antitrust lawsuit against EA.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20110510050257/http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_documents/0611_nfl_ea_wm.pdf</ref> This ended in a $600K settlement, but did not resolve the primary problems caused by EA's exclusive deals.<ref>https://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080612-lawsuit-flags-ea-for-illegal-procedure-on-football-monopoly.html</ref><ref>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/ea-punts-gives-600k-to-former-football-star-in-madden-nfl-rights-flap/</ref> NCAA players brought additional lawsuits against EA, alleging that it was not authorized to use their likeness in their games. These suits were also settled out of court.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/sports/ncaafootball/ea-sports-wont-make-college-video-game-in-2014.html?_r=0</ref><ref>http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/23859858/ea-sports-settles-likeness-suits-thousands-of-current-former-players-eligible-for-money</ref><!--Diminishing quality section here?-->
With various [[Intellectual property|intellectual properties]], from ''Star Wars''<ref>https://gamerant.com/ea-no-longer-star-wars-exclusive-publisher-lucasfilm-games-ubisoft-bethesda/</ref> to the NFL, EA has forced its way into holding what is essentially an artificial monopoly over large genres of the industry. Its exclusive licenses with various football organizations, such as the AFL and NFL, has resulted in an antitrust lawsuit against it.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20110510050257/http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_documents/0611_nfl_ea_wm.pdf</ref> This lawsuit ended in a $600K settlement, but did not resolve the primary problems caused by EA's exclusive deals.<ref>https://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080612-lawsuit-flags-ea-for-illegal-procedure-on-football-monopoly.html</ref><ref>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/ea-punts-gives-600k-to-former-football-star-in-madden-nfl-rights-flap/</ref> NCAA players brought additional lawsuits against EA, alleging that it was not authorized to use their likeness in its games. These suits were also settled out of court.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/sports/ncaafootball/ea-sports-wont-make-college-video-game-in-2014.html?_r=0</ref><ref>http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/23859858/ea-sports-settles-likeness-suits-thousands-of-current-former-players-eligible-for-money</ref><!--Diminishing quality section here?-->


===Buyouts and closures===
===Buyouts and closures===
In order for EA to hold its high position, it has been known to buy out its competition.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20191230013406/https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/02/01/bad-reputation-americas-top-20-most-hated-companies/1058718001/</ref> Often, this has led to the detriment of the companies they buy out,<ref>https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2012-apr-04-la-fi-mo-electronic-arts-worst-company-consumerist-20120404-story.html</ref> and by extension, the media which they release. A historical example, Westwood Studios, which pioneered the RTS genre with the ''Command & Conquer'' series, was shut down about 5 years after its purchase by EA, and its notable franchise was left abandoned years later, with entries either delisted or broken after GameSpy-based DRM were broken circa 2014.<ref>https://www.pcgamer.com/reddit-compiles-terrifying-list-of-games-affected-by-gamespy-shutdown/</ref> While their habit of buying and closing studios has thinned since 2008, it similarly closed Visceral Games, the developer of ''Dead Space,'' in 2017.<ref>https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/17/ea-shuts-down-visceral-games/</ref>
In order for EA to hold its high position, it has been known to buy out its competition.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20191230013406/https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/02/01/bad-reputation-americas-top-20-most-hated-companies/1058718001/</ref> Often, this has led to the detriment of the companies they buy out,<ref>https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2012-apr-04-la-fi-mo-electronic-arts-worst-company-consumerist-20120404-story.html</ref> and by extension, the media which they release. A historical example, Westwood Studios, which pioneered the RTS genre with the ''Command & Conquer'' series, was shut down about five years after its purchase by EA, and its notable franchise was left abandoned years later, with entries either delisted or broken after GameSpy-based DRM were broken circa 2014.<ref>https://www.pcgamer.com/reddit-compiles-terrifying-list-of-games-affected-by-gamespy-shutdown/</ref> While its habit of buying and closing studios has thinned since 2008, it similarly closed Visceral Games, the developer of ''Dead Space,'' in 2017.<ref>https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/17/ea-shuts-down-visceral-games/</ref>


==References==
==References==
<references />
<references />

Revision as of 20:39, 25 January 2025

Electronic Arts
Basic information
Founded 1982
Type Public
Industry Video Games
Official website https://ea.com/

Electronic Arts (EA) is a former video-game developer and now publisher founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins. It is well known for its simulator titles under the Sim series (The Sims, SimCity, MySims, etc.), titles published under its EA Sports division (Madden, FIFA, etc.), and its Battlefield series.

EA has received criticism for its reliance on microtransactions, its focus on downloadable content (DLC), and other business practices that some consumers perceive as excessively unfavorable (predatory and anti-consumer).

Controversial practices

Origin shutdown

On April 17, 2025, EA will shut down its Origin client,[1] which was the final option for 32-bit hardware to run EA-published titles. While most consumers have already switched to using 64-bit hardware, the end-of-life of 32-bit support means that vintage enthusiasts, tech historians, and users who previously did not need to upgrade their 32-bit hardware are unable to either install or run the libraries that they paid for.

Lootboxes

See also: EA lootbox controversies

Multiple games published by EA in recent years have garnered significant controversy over what is essentially legal gambling. This is most commonly seen in EA sports titles and their "Ultimate Team" modes, which has players using in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world money to buy card packs, in order to potentially get high-value player cards. This monetization method, considered by many to be "predatory", most notably introduced controversy within the modern release of Star Wars Battlefront 2, wherein the most powerful character in-game, Darth Vader, could only be obtained through this lootbox system.[2][3][4] It was not until several weeks after the backlash that EA would tone down these lootboxes by changing loot pools.[5][6] Lootboxes remained within the title until Disney directly instructed EA to stop because of gambling concerns.[7]

DRM

EA holds the record for most pirated game with the title Spore, which was directly because of EA's use of SecuROM, and was one of the earlier known titles to introduce always-online digital rights management (DRM).[8] Some releases of Mass Effect also used SecuROM, and would instill excessive limits, such as a three-install limit that both could not be refunded by uninstalling and could only be increased through customer-service calls, and a recurring-validation system that required that the game have its activation code run every 10 days.[9] While its use of SecuROM died off in the mid-2010s, the company merely switched to DRM that has been far worse for consumers, Denuvo. One significant EA title that has used this DRM is Star Wars: Jedi Survivor.

Spore

Further reading: Spore

Spore retains a historical 1.7+ million pirated copies,[10][11] directly related to EA's use of SecuROM.[8] In more recent years, Spore's server access was locked down to EA accounts,[12] mostly thanks to a free Steam key exploit. This has led to various problems for legitimate consumers who merely wanted to play the iconic game and its sibling Darkspore, since according to guides,[12] users could only have a singular install of the game on any device, were required to have an EA account using an alphanumeric password, and needed a CD key to redeem on the user's EA account.[13] This has brought concern among the community, leading to community-developed tools to circumvent these server problems.[14]

License exclusivity

With various intellectual properties, from Star Wars[15] to the NFL, EA has forced its way into holding what is essentially an artificial monopoly over large genres of the industry. Its exclusive licenses with various football organizations, such as the AFL and NFL, has resulted in an antitrust lawsuit against it.[16] This lawsuit ended in a $600K settlement, but did not resolve the primary problems caused by EA's exclusive deals.[17][18] NCAA players brought additional lawsuits against EA, alleging that it was not authorized to use their likeness in its games. These suits were also settled out of court.[19][20]

Buyouts and closures

In order for EA to hold its high position, it has been known to buy out its competition.[21] Often, this has led to the detriment of the companies they buy out,[22] and by extension, the media which they release. A historical example, Westwood Studios, which pioneered the RTS genre with the Command & Conquer series, was shut down about five years after its purchase by EA, and its notable franchise was left abandoned years later, with entries either delisted or broken after GameSpy-based DRM were broken circa 2014.[23] While its habit of buying and closing studios has thinned since 2008, it similarly closed Visceral Games, the developer of Dead Space, in 2017.[24]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-sims-4/ea-origin-shut-down
  2. ↑ https://www.pcworld.com/article/3231668/gaming/loot-boxes-ruining-gaming.html
  3. ↑ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-09-star-wars-battlefront-2-has-a-loot-crate-problem
  4. ↑ http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-10-12-thinking-outside-the-loot-box
  5. ↑ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/star-wars-battlefront-ii-changes-its-loot-box-plans-but-is-it-enough/
  6. ↑ https://www.vg247.com/2017/10/13/after-beta-controversy-dice-has-better-clarified-the-loot-crate-system-in-the-final-version-of-star-wars-battlefront-2/
  7. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/electronic-arts-pulls-microtransactions-from-star-wars-battlefront-ii-after-fan-backlash-1510936871
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ltfyqD3lM
  9. ↑ http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/83689-Mass-Effect-Spore-To-Use-Recurring-Validation
  10. ↑ https://www.ncesc.com/gaming-pedia/how-many-times-was-spore-pirated/
  11. ↑ https://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913/
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=582350678
  13. ↑ https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002333209-Spore-How-to-get-access-to-online-features?product=gog
  14. ↑ https://sporecommunity.com/
  15. ↑ https://gamerant.com/ea-no-longer-star-wars-exclusive-publisher-lucasfilm-games-ubisoft-bethesda/
  16. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110510050257/http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_documents/0611_nfl_ea_wm.pdf
  17. ↑ https://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080612-lawsuit-flags-ea-for-illegal-procedure-on-football-monopoly.html
  18. ↑ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/ea-punts-gives-600k-to-former-football-star-in-madden-nfl-rights-flap/
  19. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/sports/ncaafootball/ea-sports-wont-make-college-video-game-in-2014.html?_r=0
  20. ↑ http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/23859858/ea-sports-settles-likeness-suits-thousands-of-current-former-players-eligible-for-money
  21. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20191230013406/https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/02/01/bad-reputation-americas-top-20-most-hated-companies/1058718001/
  22. ↑ https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2012-apr-04-la-fi-mo-electronic-arts-worst-company-consumerist-20120404-story.html
  23. ↑ https://www.pcgamer.com/reddit-compiles-terrifying-list-of-games-affected-by-gamespy-shutdown/
  24. ↑ https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/17/ea-shuts-down-visceral-games/
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