"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
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Member since:2006-02-15
As long as those were their own, personal opinions I would still stand for their right to say them out loud. If they tried to portray their own opinions as the official company word that would be a different matter, but alas, in this case the developer doesn't do that -- he clearly is voicing a personal opinion.
An employee gets paid to do a job, not to guard his opinions that someone, somewhere might not like.
Member since:2011-05-12
I wonder if you have any working, political, military or sports experience.
Some environments require teamwork directed from above. You can not, as an employee, state public opinions and then claim they are "personal" and not the view of your employer. Nobody will buy in to that.
This EA guy can think the Wii U is crap (which is debatable), can tell his wife, his friends, his parents or some random people in the streets. He can not wear an EA shirt and put an opinion like this on a public blog.
If he gets fired I wonder what you will do after your claim to defend his right of free speech.
Member since:2012-08-26
Member since:2005-08-18
And the moment I leave the office for the day they are no longer paying me. What anyone does on their free time and what their opinions are is not the company's business. At all.
That's not saying it's smart to do what this guy did.
Member since:2011-05-12
You are right, but if you start posting those opinions or hobbies on-line and people know what you do for a living things could change.
If for example you are an EA sports developer and start publicly dissing the Wii U in your spare time you'll either lose your job or you're going to have a serious talk with your boss.
Member since:
2011-05-12
I'm sure he's free to resign and he can then spend all day voicing his opinion on a wide range of subjects.
Business is not a democracy, just like for example the army and sports team aren't. They all have goals and objectives, they are not Internet forums where people carry no responsibility and say whatever crap they care to share.
An EA developer calling the Wii U crap damages the relationship between Nintendo and Electronic Arts. It may impact sales, people's jobs and lives. And for what? Would this guy experience unbearable pain if he wasn't allowed to share his opinion on-line?
If you had a company, how would you feel if your own employee called your products crap? Or employees of a business partner criticizing you?
An employee gets PAID to do a job, not to voice opinions damaging his employer.
The Wii did great, millions of people enjoy playing games on it. How can the Wii U, an updated and much better version, be "crap"? Then the original Wii much be crap^2, but apparently it's good enough for many people.