Electronic Arts/YMMV

• Broken Base: A reputation in recent years for churning out cookie cutter sequels of their big franchises, along with poor quality licensed titles and a newfound habit of disabling their games' online features through shutting down servers has hurt their bottom line.
  • Face Heel Turn: ...which has resulted in an ongoing attempt by the company to recapture some of their early glory days with some well-received original titles, along with a partial return to their old, publishing-only form with the release of Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend. (Only to intentionally conceal the gameplay against the wishes of Tim Schafer, and almost bankrupting him by canceling the sequel.) This has turned them from being a hated symbol of everything wrong with the industry to a... moderately-liked symbol of a freak hybrid of all that is right and wrong with the industry at the same time.
  • Its second turning point? Origin (EA's attempt at Digital Distribution, starting from Battlefield 3). German consumers pointing out that this is essentially glorified spyware, periodically scanning the contents of your hard drive while active. Not to mention their draconian ban happy policy (according to Rock Paper Shotgun, someone has banned for being insulted and banned for posting the Me Gusta face) and the bugginess of the Origin (released as Beta) client itself (the password recovery system even broke after one server crash). Everyone quickly turns on EA and declares them worse than Activision ever was.
  • And then the internet voted them the Worst Company in America in 2012. Mounting criticism of excessive DLC, continuing Executive Meddling, working conditions, questionable PR practice and the noticeable fall from grace of BioWare since their acquisition has convinced many that EA has reclaimed their crown as the supreme assholes of the gaming industry. Furthering their bad image, EA's reaction to receiving this dubious honor pretty much amounts to "Haters gonna hate."
• Internet Backdraft: The ending of Mass Effect 3 was less than well received, and many blame directly EA for it, suspecting that Mass Effect 3 was released early because of EA putting pressure on Bioware. And let's not talk about the DLC character and the others DLC to come, which have mixed reactions. Sadly, we will never know for sure how much EA influenced Bioware during Mass Effect 3's development.
  • Before then, there was Origin, a "digital distribution platform", but German consumers pointed out that it is essentially spyware. Also Origin's ban-happy policy (according to Rock Paper Shotgun), and the fact that using the Origin name itself is an insult to the former glory of Origin Systems (which was bought and "killed" by EA).
• Memetic Mutation: Kelly Hopkin's "Surprise Mechanics" and "Kinder Eggs" quote about Loot Boxes ascend the ladder into this trope.
• Scapegoat Creator: Because of their status as a video game publisher as well as their controversial past publishing decisions, people tend to see the "EA" logo on some games and then proceed to lodge any criticisms about the quality of the game itself at them when they merely funded the development and marketed it, with only a few EA-published titles (Dragon Age Origins) escaping this, although they didn't entirely escape it in some regards.
  • Misblamed: This also has caused several misconceptions, like how Wing Commander 2 and Ultima Online was all their doing when it wasn't.
  • Publishers have a bigger role in development than people think, especially when they operate as the parent company. "Merely funding and marketing" is a major misconception.