Two days after the NCAA announced it would not be renewing its football video game partnership with reigning two-time Worst Company In America champ Electronic Arts comes confirmation that the gaming giant will indeed continue to make college football games, but they simply won’t carry the “NCAA” brand. [More]
video games
NCAA: EA Won’t Be Making Our Football Titles Anymore (But It May Continue To Make College Games)
By 7.17.13
While we know in our heart that winning a second consecutive Worst Company In America title was the most heartbreaking moment for video game publisher Electronic Arts, this news has to come a pretty close second. The NCAA, which had an exclusive arrangement with EA to produce the wildly popular NCAA-branded college football game, has decided it won’t be signing a new contract with EA. However, it doesn’t look like it’s the end for EA’s association with college football. [More]
New Grand Theft Auto Game Will Steal 8GB Of Your Xbox 360’s Hard Drive Thanks To Mandatory Install
By 7.2.13
First the good news about the upcoming Xbox 360 version of GTA V (or Grand Theft Auto 5, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) — even though it’s shipping on two discs, you’ll be able to play the whole game without swapping discs in and out. The bad news, especially for those with smaller or full-up hard drives — GTA V will require that you install the entire 8 GB of the first disc, whether you want to or not. [More]
Microsoft Decides Maybe It Doesn’t Want To Ruin Xbox One, Removes Restrictions
By 6.19.13
Well that was fast. Not even two weeks after Sony announced its upcoming PS4 gaming console wouldn’t have the insane restrictions on used and resold games that Microsoft had instituted for its new Xbox One device, reports say the boys from Redmond have decided that maybe some of their policies weren’t exactly the greatest ideas. [More]
Microsoft Hopes Publishers Will Provide More Value To Consumers If Xbox One Games Can’t Be Resold
By 6.13.13
Microsoft continues to try to convince concerned consumers that the highly restrictive policies for lending out, reselling, and giving away Xbox One games are actually just the next step in entertainment evolution and that we’ll all come to thank the company for what it’s doing. [More]
Take That Microsoft: PS4 Will Not Restrict Used Games, Won’t Require Internet Connection, Also $100 Less Than Xbox One
By 6.10.13 — Updated: 6.11.13
While Microsoft got all the press on Monday morning for announcing the availability of its upcoming Xbox One console, Sony finished the day at E3 with a huge middle-finger to Microsoft, confirming it won’t stop you from selling, buying or giving away your used games (at least the ones on disc). [More]
Latest News About Xbox One And Used Games Only Muddies The Waters
By 6.7.13
Among the major concerns Xbox users had about the unveiling of Microsoft’s newest console, the Xbox One, was whether or not gamers would be able to play used games. Some retailers who make mountains of cash selling old games also have reason to worry. The company is now attempting to clear up those concerns, but it is really just making the picture murkier and testing the boundaries of copyright law. [More]
Movie Studio Set To Comb Desert Landfill For Notoriously Terrible ‘E.T.’ Atari Game
By 6.4.13
There is a legend, a legend of a magical place filled with millions of copies of the notoriously terrible 1982 E.T. title, among other failed Atari games. According to gamer lore, after the title flopped, millions of Atari cartridges were buried somewhere in the desert of New Mexico, perhaps in an attempt to forever bury the shame of the game’s extreme terribleness. Now one film company has been granted the rights to search a landfill in a quest to see if the legend is real. [More]
EA Cutting Prices, Eliminating Online Passes For Existing Games
By 5.30.13
Reigning two-time Worst Company In America Electronic Arts recently announced that its future game releases would not include the much-hated Online Pass program, which charges a fee to owners of used games to access online content, but there were still questions about whether it would keep the program alive for existing games. Now we have an answer. [More]
EA Killing Off Its Much-Hated “Online Pass” Program
By 5.16.13
Last month, Consumerist voters chose video game publisher Electronic Arts as the Worst Company In America for the second year in a row. Whether the company listened or not, we have no idea, but it is doing something that will make some gamers happier. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart: Old Crap Isn’t As Useless As it Seems
By 5.6.13 — Updated: 8.15.13
Sometimes, the items that the Raiders of the Lost Walmart dig up aren’t quite as useless as they seem. They’re still pretty terrible, and the odds are very poor that a person who uses the obsolete video or gaming system required is going to walk in the door. But they’re not quite as useless or obsolete as many of the items we feature in this series. [More]
EA Triples Original Payouts In Settlement Of Football Games Class-Action Suit
By 4.17.13
If you bought an EA football game — Madden NFL, NCAA Football, or Arena Football — between 2005 and 2012, here’s some good news. Not only are you due a few bucks thanks to a class-action settlement with the reigning two-time Worst Company In America champ, but the dollar amount of the individual payouts to affected consumers have been tripled. [More]
Anyone Who Scoffs At Video Games Probably Never Bought One Worth $15,000 For Only $7.99
By 4.17.13
There are the rare yard sale finds that once brought to light, no one’s that surprised that they’re worth something — a painting by a famous artist, a baseball card from the days of yore, a set of Chinese rhinoceros cups, whathaveyou. But while it might never be featured on Antiques Roadshow, there are other gems hiding out there, like an old Nintendo video game that could be worth as much as $15,000. [More]
Walmart Banking On Return Of Nintendo GameCube, Still Charging $40 For Game From 2006
By 4.15.13
We know there’s a market for classic games and game consoles out there, but one Walmart is holding steady on the price for a Nintendo GameCube title that was released seven years ago. [More]
Stadium To Encourage Urine-Covered Floors And Walls With ‘Video Game’ Urinals
By 3.26.13
I’ve made no secret of my love for the Philadelphia Phillies organization, but I’m not exactly thrilled with the announcement that one of the team’s minor league affiliates has decided to become a guinea pig for a video game system that uses one’s urine stream as a game controller. [More]
EA Says It Rejected Offline Play For SimCity Because “It Didn’t Fit With Our Vision”
By 3.15.13 — Updated: 3.18.13
The brouhaha over Electronic Arts’ decision to require an Internet connection in order to play its highly anticipated SimCity 5 game continues, and the latest words from the company executive at the center of this mess probably won’t do much to calm matters. [More]
EA Admits Its Own Stupidity, Will Give Away Free Games To People Who Bought SimCity
By 3.9.13
After days of being the gaming world’s punching bag for its failure to foresee that it was woefully unprepared for the number of users who would want to begin playing the long-awaited latest edition of SimCity, the folks at EA, the reigning Worst Company In America, are apologizing and admitting they made a stupid mistake. [More]
EA Backtracks A Bit On The Whole “Microtransactions In Every Game” Thing
By 3.6.13
A good part of the reason that Electronic Arts is the reigning Worst Company In America is the video game publisher’s increasing use of nickel-and-diming customers through microtransactions. The company took a lot of heat recently when the CFO declared that all its games would feature these in-game purchases for a wide range of add-ons, but now he’s is saying that’s not exactly what he meant to express. [More]
