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EA’s Peter Moore on their Worst Company in America vote: Why, and that they’ll do better

Electronic Arts’ Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore took to EA’s blog to address the company’s second potential “Worst Company in America” vote in as many years. Moore takes the title on the chin, explaining why he thinks EA will be issued the honour for a second year running, and committed to improving the company’s reputation.

“Let me cut to the chase: it appears EA is going to ‘win.’ Like the Yankees, Lakers and Manchester United, EA is one of those organizations that is defined by both a legacy of success, and a legion of critics,” said Moore. “Are we really the ‘Worst Company in America?’ I’ll be the first to admit that we’ve made plenty of mistakes.”

“These include server shut downs too early, games that didn’t meet expectations, missteps on new pricing models and most recently, severely fumbling the launch of SimCity,” Moore admitted. “We owe gamers better performance than this.”

Moore also insisted a large number of votes came from anti-gay campaigners who were responding to same-sex romances in titles like Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

“In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT characters in our games,” Moore explained. “This week, we’re seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America. That last one is particularly telling. If that’s what makes us the worst company, bring it on. Because we’re not caving on that.”

The Consumerist has responded to Moore’s claims, essentially dismissing them. “EA received hundreds of nominations from Consumerist readers this year, by far the most of any contender in the bracket, but not a single one mentioned anything about sexual orientation. Consumerist does not condone homophobia or hate speech of any kind, and our readers understand the Worst Company contest and nominate businesses based on their merits,” they offered.

Regardless, Moore has committed to doing better. “So here’s my response to this poll: We can do better. We will do better. But I am damn proud of this company, the people around the globe who work at EA, the games we create and the people that play them,” he concluded.

You might not agree with everything EA does — SimCity was a travesty, we’ll admit — but for every debacle there’s a positive like the EA-sponsored conference like Full Spectrum. With Moore’s passion on top of that, it’s hard to fault the publishing powerhouse.

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Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.