What if our most hated publishers folded and would sell off their popular IPs to better publishers?

Looks a lot like a better graphic and non-copyright-infringing version of dungeon keeper. I'll be keeping an eye on this for sure. Thank you for the recommendation =)

Looks more roguelike than dungeonkeeper, but interesting never the less. I'll be checking it out soon for sure. Thank you for the recommendation =)

EA still has some good games, which is why I like them. Its how much they can stick away from the people wanting more cash is the problem, and that isn't unique to EA.

Your plan wouldn't actually work though, publishers do a lot you aren't realising. Which is why most developers are stuck with them.

It's mostly, I think, that they're seen as a bit soulless. They purchased a lot of beloved companies early on (Bullfrog, Looking Glass Studios, etc) and then killed them; they publish games and put a massive EA logo on them despite just being the publisher. They push heavily for region locking.

It's not any one specific thing, just a general feeling that EA is mostly in it to make money.

Whereas, say, Valve, Bethesda, Bullfrog or Looking Glass Studios were genuinely in it to make good games -- everyone has to make a profit to stay in business, yes, but there are people who like their job and who do it because they feel it's something that they really want to do, people lucky enough to be working their dream career and trying to change the world (or just produce something people will love and enjoy) while, hopefully, earning enough to stay in business and feed their family in the process.

Then there's EA. There are definitely a lot of people who are trying to do some cool stuff somewhere in EA; but I think most people feel, at least, that their upper management is entirely based around profit and doesn't really give a damn about games.

(I personally really really hate the people who try to excuse that by saying "well, all business is just about making money lolol!" That's not true. There are people out there who genuinely want to accomplish something, for whom earning enough to keep working on their labor of love is important but not the sole reason they're doing it. Not everyone in the world is a soulless corporate drone or a wage-slave mindlessly pulling a lever for a paycheck. I feel the people who do say "it's all about money, man!" are losers who are trying to pull everyone else down to their level -- if your life is like that, get a better job, moron. Don't assume everyone else has it as terrible as you.)

...with that said, this is just what I think the perception of EA is. I don't actually know enough about their internal workings to say whether that's accurate or not; and blaming them for the death of Bullfrog and Looking Glass isn't exactly fair, definitely -- money may not be everything, but you do have to earn enough to afford making more games in the future, and those companies didn't.

But there was a time when there were a lot of more... hands-on big studios? Again, Looking Glass and Bullfrog and Origin weren't just in it for the money. They took risks -- which is why they're no longer around, of course -- but they produced a lot of really cool and original games in the process.

Bethesda is in some ways the last game studio like that. They're a bit unique in that they're owned by ZeniMax Media, who has big enough pockets to cover their flops (of which there have been several, ones that would have killed them otherwise) while still being hands-off enough to let them really experiment with their games and make things on a scale (and timeframe) that stands out from the crowd. There's a lot of small indie studios to fill the gaps, but if you want to understand the hate EA gets, you have to view it in the context of the companies that used to exist and don't anymore -- which isn't really EA's fault, but... people wish EA didn't exist and that a bunch of smaller, more independent studios like those did, people willing to take risks again.