Why EA is Evil

Many people are down on big companies. It’s easy to hate them because they’re everywhere and they’re bound to do something that bothers you. There is a sliding scale of evil in major corporations, GameStop is on one level because they force you to preorder games or they wont sell you them but Walmart is a whole different kind of evil - kicking out mom and pop shops destroying lives and forcing people to work for terrible wages, which interns forces them to shop at the store they work at… sorry, got a little side tracked. Where was I? Oh yes. EA.

EA is somewhere in the middle. Higher than GameStop, slightly lower than Walmart. You want definitive proof? Of course you do.

Today is Wednesday November 14, 2007. Need for Speed Pro Street is for sale in stores today. Wanna know what else in for sale? Need For Speed Pro Street Downloadable Content on Xbox Live Marketplace. Not just any old DLC, progression enhancing content. 4 bundles – Ultimate Preformance Bundle, Tuner Car Bundle, Sport Car Bundle, Muscle Car Bundle – totaling 2000 MS points; that’s $25.00 in real money. Every single one of these bundles unlocks things you can rightly get by playing through the game.

The bottom of the description of all four DLC packs reads:

“Note: all cars in this bundle can be achieved without purchase by progressing through Career. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.”

So not only do I pay sixty bucks for a game, if I want to unlock the stuff in it, EA expects me to pay 25 dollars more. Or play the game. EA’s response? “We want to give gamers the choice.” Choice is good. And if you truly wanted to give us the choice they would be free and available on the opening menu.

And all this comes the day before Live turns 5 years old. As much as I enjoy what Live has become, sometimes I think back to the simpler days, and yern.