Electronic Arts is the Microsoft of the gaming world. I can’t stand them and I refuse to buy their games because they truly do not care about their employees or customers. Here are 6 reasons why we should boycott EA.

They ruined SimCity

Electronic Arts bought Maxis back in 1997, acquiring the rights to the SimCity franchise. Ever since that moment, SimCity has sucked. What once was one of the best strategic simulation games was turned into a dumbed down game with SimCity 4. Then it was remade into a game that just plain sucks with SimSocieties.

They resell the same sports game to us year after year

Madden 06, 07, 08, NBA Live 06, 07, 08. They sell us the same game every year with slight modifications and updated rosters. The gameplay for Madden hasn’t really changed in years, and as a result the sales of Madden are starting to drop off. The same thing can be said for all of the EA Sports games. We haven’t truly seen and mind-blowing innovation with these games for over 8 years. Why buy them?

They shut out competition

In 2004, ESPN NFL2k5 hit store shelves at $29.99. Not only was it lower priced than Madden, it was a better game. Threatened by this, EA threw their assload of cash at the NFL and NBA for exclusive rights to make games based on those leagues. Now we are stuck with Madden with no chance of other companies to grow their own better NFL or NBA games.

Luckily another company got the MLB licensing. MLB08: The Show and Major League Maseball 2K8 are really good games. Much better than the MVP line of games were.

Their overseas technical support sucks

Have you ever had problems getting your EA game to work? Try speaking English to their support team. Better yet, try understanding them. Even if it’s something as simple as a problem with a CD key, you probably won’t be successful in getting EA Tech Support to help you at all. Gone are the days where they would actually troubleshoot issues between the game and your video card. Now when you call they just advise you to uninstall and reinstall the game. If that doesn’t work they tell you to get new drivers for one of your multimedia devices.

They treat their employees poorly

After the Enron debacle, we are in an age where ethics matter more than dollars. Back in 2004, EA settled a lawsuit with its employees over unpaid overtime. The suit, filed in 2004 stemmed from employees’ allegations that they were required to work long hours and weekends with no overtime compensation.

EA has made billions and billions of dollars yet they avoid rewarding their employees with the money legally owed to them for overtime. I’m sure for EA employees, this is just a needle in a haystack regarding employee/employer relations.

They fail to manage most of their web pages

EA sells a certain game, then they make a pretty web site to go along with it. After they have taken all your cash, they have no interest in supporting you anymore and they let the web sites go without maintenance or support. A perfect example of this is the Sim Theme Park page. It’s been titled Untitled Document at the top for years. You can’t find a patch for the original SimCity anywhere and if you’re still into the last good version of SimCity which is SimCity 3000, good luck finding any support or patches for that. They also shut down The Sims Online, which sucked but many people bought the game and might still want to play.

It would cost EA virtually nothing to still provide information and patches for these games, but they choose not to. Want add-on’s or patches for your game that’s 7 years old? Screw you! We already have your money!

I was thrilled to be able to pick up MLB 08: The Show for the PS2. I don’t own a PS3 to be able to enjoy this title. The PS3 has been out for 2 years and the PS2 aisle is getting smaller and smaller. I couldn’t even find a USB headset for a PS2 when I went looking for one a few weeks ago. Madden 09 is said to be released for the PS2. Will it be the last? Usually these types of big titles cease being produced by the 3rd year the next generation console is out. But with over 120,000,000 PS2’s in households, and the PS2 outselling the PS3, that trend might be erased.

These things are still attached to TV sets everywhere. Game publishers can still easily reach a large audience by continuing to publish games for the PS2. We might see games published well into the 2010’s. I’m glad. The PS2 is an amazing system and I’m not ready to let it along with all the stuff I’ve bought for it go yet.

I could show you a chart with all of the technical specs for the XBox 360 and the Playstation 3. I could show you a comparison of the graphics for each system. Neither of those things matter though. The only thing that matters is the games. Which system has the best games? Right now, the PS3 doesn’t really have a title that makes it a must have system. The XBox 360 does with Halo 3. This is why the XBox 360 easily outsells the PS3, and will continue to for quite some time.

History repeats itself. If you look at the history of video games, you will see that the success of a system is based solely on the games, not the hardware that runs them. The ColecoVision was better than the Atari. The NeoGeo was better than Genesis or Super Nintendo. In both cases, they didn’t have the game library to back up these powerful systems, and the weaker system outsold the superior one. People bought the NES because you could play Punch Out, Super Mario Bros. and Zelda. People bought the PS2 to play Grand Theft Auto. Today, Halo 3 is the must have game.

The XBox 360 will also continue to have developers making great games for in the future. It is a much easier system for game developers to make games for because it’s based on DirectX. The PS3? Not so easy. In fact, many games were delayed for the PS3 this past Christmas season because developers struggled to get the games completed.

I know my decision is clear. I pick the system with the games I want to play. So stop comparing XBox 360 vs. the PS3. Compare the games instead and then make your decision.