2. They Care What Their Customers Think (Sometimes)
EA, like all businesses, care about their reputation. They dont want potential consumers being turned off by unfounded rumours rising from business mistakes, as EA, like so many other publishers in the industry, are absolutely terrified of their buyers. The first example of this is way back in the nineties when they cancelled a game called
Thrill Kill because they judged it to be unnecessarily violent and thus felt its release would make people disrespect the company, theoretically resulting in decreased sales of future titles. Now, while EA missed the point of the game completely, mistaking symbolism for mere titillation, it does demonstrate the company wanted their consumers to be happy and felt the game would contribute to the negative, appealing exclusively to a crowd they didnt want as part of their demographic. Obviously this was a mistake as, particularly in the nineties, people bought games for being games, rather than because they liked or didnt like the publisher. Releasing Thrill Kill would have given them an opportunity to reach out to the Mortal Kombat fans and bring in a ton more money, yet they decided against it because of shallow reasoning and ever-present fear. They thought they were doing the right thing however, so like Lenny looking after his pet rabbit they do mean well, its just sometimes they squeeze their audience too hard and accidentally snap its neck. A better example of their care for consumer opinion is how they handled the ending of Mass Effect 3. (No Spoilers) Originally the games three endings were near identical, their only real difference being the colour of an explosion, outraging fans by leaving them dissatisfied with the atrociously vague and anticlimactic ending. It seemed like the developers got bored and just knocked the ending to this epic trilogy out in a lazy tea-break, so understandably there was a huge outcry from those who followed the series from beginning to end. EA, in response, allowed BioWare to release a free DLC for the game that consisted of a longer, more satisfying ending, portrayed in a very similar style to what you might get at the end of a Fallout game. Now, whether EA deliberately held this real ending back with the intention of selling it as DLC later is unclear, as its just as conceivable that it was made post launch with some of the profits made from the title, but the fact they responded with free additional content shows the publisher cared enough about Mass Effects audience not to desert them or leave them unsatisfied. Obviously this was probably because they didnt want to lose sales for future releases in the franchise, yet whatever the reason the point remains that they did act on the consumers behalf in their time of outrage, something one could not conceive Capcom or Sega ever doing.