Various reasons destroyed EA for me.

DRM = They released (almost) yearly NFS and EA Sports games dating as far as the late 90's which I didn't mind. Despite the increasing protection in their games I still (kinda) liked them till 2004 or so. Then they started using SuckURom (Securom) = I bought less and less games since then.

More DRM and Prices = Introduction of the Origin client and 60e a game, this was the nail in the coffin for me.

Online DRM and Lack of Innovation in their games = Sims 3/4 differences umm, what? / Dragon Age Inquisition, excuse me? / Need for Sp.... / SimCity always on Internet requirement - cherry on the cake!

If there hadn't been any DRM I'd probably have bought quite a few more modern games from them.

I'd say their decline started around 2003-2004, the juice dried up and then started destroying other companies and milking off the popular franchises because of their iconic names.

Whole point of origin was to ditch Suc-u-rom & the simcity always on internet connection was because the gane was developed from the ground up to be a quasi-mmo type of game ... But then the marketing department fucked it up by trying to sell it as something else.

On top of which, most of the companies EA bought were failing when EA bought them ... Read something a while back where one of the devs for Lands of Lore 4 said that westwood was essentially bankrupt and that even though it was buggy and unfinished when EA shipped it; Westwood would have closed down anyway and the game never would have shipped at all if they hadn't been bought by EA.

The Fall of EA started when they rushed Ultima IX.

Everything released now is always-online and DRM ridden.

Blizzard also has millions of it's own fans, who will buy anything they put out regardless of it's quality, and will defend the company to the death. So in theory if no one but Blizzard fans bought games from them, they'd still be doing fine.

I wish I could love Blizzard more. But I can't, not with how they are now.

Yes, but that's irrelevant. The market has shown again and again that they are probably the most successful developer that there has ever been.

They shouldn't be. But my voice alone probably means very little.

Hello Games ... LoL

rockstar disagrees with that there ( not too mention nintendo and the mario series who just demolish everything in terms of sales )
gta 5 alone sold more then your whole list together sans wow and possibly heartstone since heartstone is you know pay to win but essentially free
but hey lets not let logic get in the way shall we ?

and not a one trick pony ?
hmmm lets see

diablo 1 a dungeon crawler grindfest
diablo 2 a dungeon crawler grindfest
diablo 3 hey guess what another dungeon crawler grind fest

warcraft an rts
warcraft 2 an rts
warcraft 3 yet another rts
star craft oooh an rts
star craft 2 wow yet another rts

looks like a one trick pony to me
but wait !
what about world of warcraft then ? an mmo ?
still building on that warcraft setting and so does heartstone

overwatch is the first truly new thing blizzard has done in decades but yeah not a one trick pony right ?

not like bioware which is a cookie cutter rpg factory
but thats a different story

also just for fun
here are the sale figures on the gta series
gta 5 65 million
gta 4 25 million
san andreas 27,5 million
vice city 17,5 million
3 17 million
i cant find any concrete figures on 1 and 2
but as a whole gta sold 235 million units

but wait we still have mario to go
mario as a whole sold 528 million units
ill repeat that
half a billion
but lets focus on the main super mario series which still shifted 311 million units
super mario bros 1 40 million
super mario bros 2 10 million
super mario bros 3 18 million
super mario land 14 million
super mario world 20 million
super mario land 2 2.7 million
super mario world 2 4 million
super mario 64 11 million
super mario sunshine 5.5 million
new super mario bros 30.80 million
super mario galaxy 12,69 million
new super mario bros wii 29,79 million
super mario galaxy 2 6,36 million
super mario 3d land 10,73 million
new super mario bros 2 10.25 million
new super mario bros U 5,19 million
super mario 3d wolrd 4,82 million
super mario maker 3.52 million

so blizzard the most succesfull developer ?
yeah no not by a long shot

and im sure somebody will about now want to bring up : thats not fair !
gta is multi platform

so is most of blizzards out put
diablo 1 3 warcraft 1 and 2 had console ports

overwatch is on the consoles

only wow and warcraft 3 were only on pc and even those had mac versions

and im sure its not "fair" that the mario series is only available on nintendo machines
still managed to shift 311 million units though

so blizzard most succesfull developer ? nope
blizzard a one trick pony : yup

I haven't played any Ultima games. Which one is the best?


Indeed, but I crave mostly for Mass Effect. Those Dragon Age 2 DLCs don't seem to be so interesting.

i dont know i only played 4
..briefly

from what i got 5 is the best and 9 sucks the most ass more then a professional ass sucker

And Pokémon series, sold more then GTA, only loss to Tetris and Mario.

Blizzard was good, but not that good anymore.

and call of duty
250 million if i recall correctly
i just used gta because i read up on gta 5 and saw it shifted 65 million units
thats more then 3 years worth of call of duty

blizzard has never been much good
and they havent been great in years
they push out the same old stuff overwatch is their first truly new content in decades

"When you are six hours into playing Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your clip and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you’re really not that price sensitive at that point in time'"

Around this time...

1 trick

2 tricks

2 tricks, so far

ah... 3 tricks

4th trick

5th trick.

So, by your count, Blizzard is at least a 5 trick pony