Maybe you should listen to what those outsiders are saying. EA ships half baked games for full price and loads them with the most scummy and deplorable monetization models in existence (looking at you too Activision.) I haven't heard wonderful things about the working conditions come crunch time either. It's not difficult to understand.
And let's not forget the now (in)famous "surprise mechanics" debacle. EA deserves every bit of their current public image.
That said, I also suspect they don't care. They make money off their properties, and as long as that is working for them, they can continue to have their jobs.
Oh yeah, that much is obvious.
They're a publicly traded company that needs to continually meet analyst targets or the stock tanks. It's a lot harder to align yourself to customer expectations when the market is constantly pressuring you for more short term revenue, even at the cost of long term goals and motivations.
Period.
Few - if any - at the 'C' level are a game developer or likely even a gamer. Their job is to make a profit selling potatoes or car parts - it doesn't matter.
What EA and any company of that scale needs most at the top is people who are interested in large-scale workflows, IP management, and labor issues. Some aspects of these things are tied to the creative and intellectual parts of the work, others aren't. But the point of being that big should be to capitalize on unique opportunities to do R&D or push larger-scope experiences. It's not the nickel and diming that makes for lasting success.
Then you haven't been paying attention. I'm a gamer, so I see the criticisms all over the place.
> EA is a large business (~30B market cap) and subject to the same sorts of challenges of any business at that scale.
There are plenty of entertainment companies with much larger market caps that have succeeded without relying on getting children to gamble.
> From my perspective EA is a federation of mostly autonomous studios trying to "find the fun" in an increasingly competitive entertainment landscape.
Replace "find the fun" with "find the money", and completely scratch out anything to do with autonomy, and you'd be correct.
> Even if you manage to create a compelling core experience, bringing that to market is a challenge even at EA's scale.
The vast number of successful indie developers would like a word with you.
Honestly, your comment just reeks of being out-dated. Everything you said may have been true 20 years ago. In the 90's, I would have considered EA to be a respectable studio. But today? They're the most anti-consumer company out there, even worse than Comcast.
I've never understood the cynical way certain people view EA from the outside. EA is a large business (~30B market cap) and subject to the same sorts of challenges of any business at that scale. From my perspective EA is a federation of mostly autonomous studios trying to "find the fun" in an increasingly competitive entertainment landscape. Even if you manage to create a compelling core experience, bringing that to market is a challenge even at EA's scale.