When the worst company in the world couldn't get any worse... : gaming@lemmy.ml

[–] mech@feddit.org 32 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I wouldn't call EA anywhere close to the worst company in the world.
Serious contenders based on their overall effect on humanity would be Monsanto, RTX, Aramco, UnitedHealth and Nestlé.

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 9 months ago (1 child)

It's from PC Gamer, so I think it's safe to say they mean worst gaming company in the world. They could have said that though.

Even limited to gaming, EA, Ubisoft, and Activision have always been pretty much tied for it. Now Activision is part of Microsoft, and I think with both Activision and Bethesda and the shit the latter has caused lately, I think we can bump Ubisoft out. And I think when Copilot gaming rolls out, whatever they're calling that, they'll be worse than EA was before. The problem with EA isn't so much what they were before though, it's what they'll be under SA leadership.

Gaming by megacorps has never been good for gamers, and it's going to get worse. And yet people keep supporting them.

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[–] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

Wtf is copilot gaming?

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)

It's an AI assistant in your game that will help you, tell you where to go and whatnot by using Copilot to help by analysing your game.

Doesn't sound too bad, I mean who cares if they see what you're playing or how (bad) you're playing? It's just weird. Like the generations after mine used GameFAQs, or asked on Reddit, or watched YouTube videos. My generation read Nintendo Power, and shared tips on the playground or at school, whether we read it in a magazine or discovered it on our own. There were 1-900 numbers you could call, but no one I know called them. Maybe the rich kids did? I was forbidden from doing so (by my parents) and I never did. But that was actually another option. Like, Nintendo operated one. I think some of the third-party gaming magazines may have, as well. You could also write in, and maybe they'd publish your letter and a response, but that would take months.

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[–] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

The only way I can see this shit working is like a search engine that do AI summarizing. They can't trained Copilot to "learn" about the newest game. This shit looks more like marketing bullshit than anything, any AI that can search the internet will do just fine.

I think some of the third-party gaming magazines may have, as well. You could also write in, and maybe they’d publish your letter and a response, but that would take months.

LOL, I had some of these magazines but at the time internet was already a thing, sounds painful to wait months for a response on how to beat X game.

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 point 8 months ago

That's my thought as well, that it will just source IGN and other sites and scrape the data.

Also, people calling EA the worst company in the world seem to forget that EA published the Mass Effect trilogy. I just noticed that yesterday, their copyright is at the bottom but the EA logo isn't shown when it (the Mass Effect Legendary Trilogy remaster) boots up. Just the Mass Effect-themed Bioware animation.

EA also published the Rockband games, trying to save the rhythm gaming industry from Activision, which tried to kill it after the developer (Harmonix) left. They got Neversoft (of Tony Hawk games fame) to repackage Guitar Hero 2 with more songs and limp along after it, but once Rockband came out and they added vocals and drums, Guitar Hero was basically done... so Activision flooded the market with slop. I'm not saying EA did anything heroic, they just gave the rhythm game developer a platform to publish on. I don't think Rockband was ever profitable, but they all damn sure tried. Rockband 3 is also one of the reasons you have mods on console at all. It was part of the pilot program for Microsoft's XNA, which brought user content to Xbox users. Games too, but most sucked. The real kicker was that anybody could put songs in Rockband, and some indie bands converted their entire catalogue. PC game modding had been a thing long before, but console users getting fan-made content in a game was simply not a thing before then. Even today, people make custom songs for the modded Rockband 3 Deluxe (which requires a modded console, adds a bunch of quality of life features) or computer ports like YARG (Yet Another Rhythm Game).

When I was a kid, EA published a paint program, Deluxe Paint, on the Amiga. Not really gaming related, but it was an awesome paint program and did stuff you still don't see in drawing/paint programs in 2025, paid or free (DPaint was paid; my father bought it on floppy disk in a cardboard sleeve with a manual and everything).

So yeah. Way worse companies out there. But I'm not gonna excuse the shit EA got into. I do think Microsoft is worse, between Copilot stuff, Activision, and Bethesda.

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