Hvert år foretager en række analyserfirmaer en række tests, der skal afgøre hvordan forbrugerne har det med verdens største firmaer. Herunder tager de masser af parametre i betragtning, såsom at kigge nærmere på nyhedsdækning, foretage rundspørger blandt forbrugere, anmeldelser fra ansatte via portaler som Glassdoor, samt resultater fra American Customer Satisfaction Survey Index. Resultatet er nu ankommet, og højt på listen finder vi denne gang en spiludgiver - EA.
24/7 Wall Street har offentliggjort deres resultater for det forgangne år, og listen indeholder de mest hadede firmaer i USA.
På toppen af listen finder vi blandt andet Equifax, der i 2017 mistede hundredetusindvis af kunders personlige informationer i et hacker-angreb. Derudover er det University of Phoenix, NFL og Fox Entertainment Group der sidder på toppen. Hvem kommer lige efter på en femte plads? Jo, det gør Electronic Arts.
Undersøgelsens officielle udtalelse omkring EA er som følger:
"Electronic Arts, or EA, has been making highly successful video games for decades. EA has produced dozens of wildly successful franchises, including "The Sims," "Battlefield," and "Need for Speed," and the annually-sold, fervently-purchased sports titles, Madden and FIFA. While it has helped shape the face of gaming, EA has also unfortunately earned a reputation as the industry's evil empire. There are many examples of EA buying up smaller studios or operations for a specific game and then either stripping the game of its originality or running the studio into the ground.
The company added to its infamy recently during the early release days of the latest installment of another of its big franchises, "Star Wars Battlefront II." EA released an early access version of the game, and immediately drew widespread ire from gamers, who discovered that unlocking some of the more popular characters required over 40 hours of gameplay or spending hundreds on in-game purchases. The public outcry surrounding the perceived greed led the studio to temporarily suspend in-game purchases."