EA or Activision...which do you feel makes the better games?

[Hadrian]

EA & Activision both seem to be publishers that people seem to hate, hell EA even won a "worst American company" poll which was voted by people who didn't know anything about the other companies nominated.

Both companies make decisions that seem to say "fuck you gamer" and both have swallowed up great developers only to drop them if a game doesn't do as well as they hoped.

Both have highly valuable franchises that not only sell well but rate very highly amongst gamers and the press, but which out of the two do you feel make the better games?

Here are some notable games that each publisher are well known for:

Activision:
Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man, Modern James Bond, Pitfall, X-Men, Transformers, H.E.R.O., Quake & Skylanders. I guess you can now put Diablo 3 & StarCraft in there as they do own Blizzard...and really just to make it look like they have more good franchises.

http://en.wikipedia....ctivision_games

EA:
Mass Effect, FIFA, Madden, Strike Series (Desert, Jungle etc), Medal of Honour, Battlefield, Command & Conquer, Wing Commander, Need For Speed, SSX, Dead Space, Sim..., Sims, Burnout, Crysis, Rock Band, Harry Potter, Dungeon Keeper, Black & White, Dragon Age, Fight Night, James Pond, NBA Live, NASCAR, NHL, Populous, Road Rash, Skate, Tiger Woods, Ultima.

http://en.wikipedia....onic_Arts_games

 

[Fudge]

Buisness practice wise, Activision hands down. They don't really do anything cheap, there games just sell very well. EA has online passes, a fuckton of DRM, Origin, complete lack of longterm support on consoles. Games wise, EA has more games, but then again there both just publishers, not developers, so that's not a really good argument...

 

[Hells Malice]

EA tends to butcher any game it comes into contact with, Battlefield 3 and Dragon Age 2 being great examples. Their little "lets make our own Steam!" movement was also questionably hilarious.

Both companies are completely moronic, so i'd say I hate 'em both equally.

Buisness practice wise, Activision hands down. They don't really do anything cheap,

...wat?
They killed off several series because it took too much effort to make new games, compared to the profit they received.
Guitar Hero falls into that one, that game took minimal effort and sold like hotcakes, but nope...took too much manpower to rehash, so it was cut.

Now all they do is have devs rearrange a few perks and resell CoD every year.

Yeah. Great business practices.

 

[triassic911]

The games are better from EA imo because I have enjoyed them. That said, I have not purchased any EA title since Battlefield 3 and will try not to buy further games made by either company.

 

[DarkStriker]

I dont like either of them. A company that renames things making it look new or a company that add useless annoying thing we all know we will hate. Not to mention their both a big fan of giving out overpriced DLC/Expansion.

 

[Hadrian]

Buisness practice wise, Activision hands down. They don't really do anything cheap

Are you shitting me? Have you seen their Wii output? Especially the ton of "Wii 1st" crap that included some horrible monkey title and a complete maiming of Pitfall, it was as if they thought the Popcorn Arcade games were a good idea. Also those last two Transformer games they did on the console must have taken a whole month to be developed. Also their business practices have been pretty shocking Bobby Kotick has been the worst thing to happen to video games.

 

[raulpica]

EA, just because I still have hopes for a new Ultima game.
Which will be complete crap.
And I'll start hating them.
A LOT.

Oh, and don't forget Dungeon Keeper

Anyways, I have all the Blizzard games except for Diablo III (which I'll be getting anyway when it drops a bit), so I'm biased towards Blizzard Even if I seriously hate WoW.

I'm pretty much indifferent to their business practices, as I tend to buy games from both of them regardlessly. I just avoid "AAA" series like Battlefield or CoD, so shady DLC jobs don't effect me.

 

[Gahars]

Well, EA does have Bioware. The Mass Effect series alone gives them the edge for me.

 

[chains_of_androm]

I am not sure how EA was the worst company, even worse than BoA which had a major hand in creating the economic mess we are in now?

 

[Clarky]

oh god, its like asking who would you vote for, the giant douche or the turd sandwich. Activision have published some great games but there problem is milking it far too much, like with Tony Hawks, Guitar Hero and now a days Call of Duty. EA while having acquired some great developers usually tend to have the kiss of death with great studios like Bull Frog and Westwood Studios, so i do fear for Bioware somedays. I suppose I will go for Activision in this vote

 

[Hells Malice]

oh god, its like asking who would you vote for, the giant douche or the turd sandwich.

That isn't a difficult decision at all.
Turd sandwich is the obvious choice.

 

[Thomas83Lin]

I guess my vote goes to EA simply because of C&C, though i haven't played one in ages, big fan of Ultima also

 

[pubert09]

I would have to say EA because of Rock Band. I play Rock Band 3 all the time!

I also don't really like the Activision games listed.

 

[koimayeul]

Got a liking for EA with Bioware stuff over the two contestants.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

EA for their BioWare games (not DA2 really but DAO and Mass Effect are awesome). They also have a bit more diversity than Activision since Activision has really gone downhill with their superhero games and they really haven't done much else notable outside of Blizzard games, James Bond stuff (Goldeneye 007 was awesome), and CoD (which I don't quite enjoy but really don't hate).

 

[machomuu]

I think EA's companies make the better games, as they've basically made a monopoly of the Video Game Industry. The amount of companies under their wing is astounding, and Activision doesn't have too many company that make good games anymore, and while I feel that EA is greedier than Activision, and ultimately a worse company when it comes to its consumers (which was something that I almost threw up admitting), I think EA is the clear winner in the "Better Games" category.

 

[Taleweaver]

I think this poll is pretty pointless. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I get the impression that the actual games are really made by departments or even different companies. And that EA and Activision aren't doing anything but throw money at them in the hope to get it back with a revenue. I can't but read the "makes the best games" as "gambles the best to have the games produced YOU like".

This isn't like movies that are made or produced by someone who leaves a clear mark on the end result. Both are just trying to get a monopoly on video games in general, so they can set the price.


That aside, it would be a hard pick for me. Activision's franchises tend to get milked a lot more, but since voting against them would be also a vote against blizzard, I can't pick it.
EA isn't much better. They have more games I like, but C&C went downhill since EA took over westwood studios (note: perhaps this is my personal grudge and is it just that I don't like the direction it took).

 

[awssk8er]

Both have their pros and cons, but I have to say both kind of suck now (Minus Blizzard).

Activision used to be amazing back when Tony Hawk was actually good, but has gotten a lot worse.

EA was never that amazing in my opinion. Both companies have made many poor decisions that have pissed off gamers.

It's not really fair to rate publishers because it's different from developers. Publishers have an inconsistent quality of games because they just publish them.

 

[Deleted_171835]

EA in a nutshell

 

[machomuu]

^No! I was going to post that

Bah, anyways, I actually thought that video was perfect, not only was it incredibly well done, but it also so accurately represented EA that...it was just plain perfect.