EA blasted for "poor game quality"

Gamespot quotes Pacific Crest Securities' Evan Wilson as saying that the EA games brand was tarnished.

The outfit had to delay the release of "Superman Returns" over quality issues and when the game finally made the shops it was pulled to bits by reviewers. Wilson said that poor reviews and quality are beginning tarnishing the EA brand.

This comment is backed by GameRankings.com figures of the average review scores from hundreds of press outlets. It shows that review scores for EA games have been sliding over the last two years.

Wilson said that there were "dramatic swings" in the average PS2 review scores of some of the company's top franchises. Games like Need for Speed had dropped 5.8 points and NBA Live shed 13.1 points over the last two years.

While these falling scores had not influenced sales yet, it was only a matter of time before EA gets a bad reputation, he said.

Games which have been given a good kicking by reviewers have included Superman Returns, Batman Begins, Marvel Nemesis, NFL Head Coach, and Arena Football.

The Godfather game received good reviews but was crippled by development and marketing costs. Wilson said that EA was suffering because it failed an attempt to standardize its studios on the RenderWare engine and had an "excessive employee turnover".

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