note: this is just a collection of info and starting points posted by an Anon in one of the threads on /v/. it's not actually an article or anything and it's not reflective of what the website will host, the final product will be dry, fact based and sourced.
Late ‘80s: EA had filed a frivolous lawsuit against Origin. Forced into a costly out-of-court settlement, Origin execs asked Trip Hawkins why he had allowed the suit; he responded, "This is just business. This is the way we're going to win." The Escapist - The Conquest of Origin
Can't find a source for this. The Escapist Article mentions it but doesn't provide a source of the claim and doesn't go into any detail.
The only litigation with these two parties I could find were a class action lawsuit against both of them regarding Ultima Online.
1994: EA pressures Origin to rush Ultima VIII: Pagan. Richard Garriott claims the game was "forcibly badly slashed & shipped", "cutting out huge swathes of the game all the way to the point where the cloth map was completely unrelated to the map of the real game because we threw out so many bits and pieces of it." The resulting game was viewed by series fans as a disappointment. Richard Garriott gets introspective on his past creations
1995 - EA pressures Bullfrog to rush Magic Carpet II to market over the objections of Peter Molyneux, resulting in a buggy game.
Can't find a source on EA meddling with Magic Carpet II.
1998 - EA acquires Westwood Studios. Many Westwood employees quit in protest. Former Westwood Developer Talks About Electronic Arts, EA’s Acquisition & Westwood’s Unnamed Project
All it says is that the merger was out of Westwood's control due to some competition laws.
1998 - EA acquires Virgin Interactive. Remember them? They used to make games based on Disney movies, as well as that 7up Cool Spot game. Well, they used to. They were currently working on an anticipated and controversial game called Thrill Kill. When EA acquired Virgin, they declared Thrill Kill too violent to be released, and killed it. They wouldn't even sell the game to another publisher, either. EA kills 'Thrill Kill' game before release
1999 - EA pressures Origin Systems to cut corners and rush Ultima IX: Ascension to market, over the objections of the development team, resulting in a buggy game that many fans felt was unfinished. How did EA respond to the game's poor reception? They canceled all of Origin's planned projects and forced the developer to relocate, despite that many of their employees couldn't due to their family. Origin Systems limped on until 2004 when it died. Did you like the Ultima, Wing Commander, or Jane's Flight Sim series? Sucks to be you. Wing Commander hasn't existed since (save for Wing Commander Arena, which is nothing like the earlier games), and the only Ultima games released were a few Free to Play titles.
I can find lots of hobbyist websites that say this stuff but no real source.
1999 - After being one of Sega's staunchest supporters for years, EA shows the Sega Dreamcast virtually zero attention. If you got a Dreamcast and were hoping to enjoy EA's latest big game, you were probably out of luck. EA not supporting the Dreamcast
2000 - Westwood Studios' Nox, which was intended to be a multiplayer magical combat game inspired by Gauntlet, Magic the Gathering and Mortal Kombat, was released as a straightforward RPG at EA's insistence. But, hey! The game still turned out pretty good! Then EA got the IP rights to the game and removed server support for it, killing it. Nox Interview
2001 - EA closes developer Kesmai. Did you like the Air Warrior game series? Sucks to be you. The Kesami Legacy
2001 - Bullfrog Productions merges with EA UK and is essentially shut down. Did you like the Populous, Theme Park, or Syndicate series? Sucks to be you. No more games in these series have been released (aside from handheld ports). History of Bullfrog Productions
2002 - EA pushes for long-running strategy series Command and Conquer to be made into an FPS for some reason, resulting in Command And Conquer: Renegade. When the game bombed, EA shut down Westwood Studios.
2004 - EA closes Maxis's Walnut Creek studios and integrated them into EA's Redwood City offices. Maxis's logo was subsequently seen minimized increasingly more on their own products as EA's branding took over. EA also meddled with the products' development, naturally.
2004 - Multiple EA employees sue EA for forcing them to work long hours without overtime pay. EA settled the lawsuit for $30 million.
2004 - EA signs an exclusive deal with the NFL, the NCAA, and just to make things complete, the Arena Football League. This means, for all intents and purposes, that they are the only company that can release major football games. I mean, other developers could, but what would the point be, when consumers clearly prefer the actual teams and players? Not only did this give EA what amounts to a monopoly, but it killed the NFL 2K series, NCAA Football 2K series, and NFL Fever series. Did you like those games? Sucks to be you.
2004ish: I'm not sure how to condense this article but EA is partly responsible for killing Free Radical Design
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-free-radical-vs-the-monsters (archive https://archive.is/ySUyr)
2005/2006: Many core DICE members quit after being pushed around by EA too much during Battlefield 2 development.
2006 - In Need For Speed: Carbon, EA tested the waters of charging players to not play their game. Players can pay money to unlock cars that are already in the game, instead of unlocking them the standard way. Later games in the series would continue to include this as well.
2008 - Spore gets shipped with SecuROM, a DRM software that limits the number of times you could install the game, despite that nowhere in the game's box or instructions are players notified of the software being present. It could've been worse, though - they were originally going to require that the game re-authenticate online every 10 days. On top of all of that, the game leaves files on the computer even after it is uninstalled. This has led to multiple class action lawsuits. Needless to say, all of this was over the objections of creator Will Wright.
2008 - Burnout Paradise gets DLC that gives gamers who pay an advantage against others. Additionally, the Big Surf Island expansion alters menus and stuff even if players haven't bought it, leading to menu selections that players can't use without getting a sales pitch for the expansion.
2009 - EA used NCAA players' likenesses in their games without the players' permission
2009 - Dragon-Age Origins adds a character into your camp who tries to sell you the expansion in-game. Because nothing helps to create immersion like a sales pitch for more game content!
2009 - EA closes Pandemic Studios. Did you like the Mercenaries, Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, or Destroy All Humans series? Sucks to be you.
2009 - Madden NFL 10 nickels and dimes gamers with its Madden Ultimate Team mode.
2009 - NCAA 10's dynasty accelerators gave players with bigger wallets a way to bribe their way to get advantages over other players.
2009 - Changes to Battlefield Heroes in 2009 ensured that players essentially have to open their wallets to get better guns if they want to remain competitive.
2009 - The Sims 3 releases with a bunch of optional for-pay content on day one, very likely withheld from the game to make an extra buck.
2010 - EA introduces 'Project Ten Dollars', an initiative to curb used game sales by requiring those with a new copy of an EA published game to input a code to access the game's online mode. Those who buy the game used, with the code already used, are forced to pay an extra $10 in order to access the game's online modes. EA put an end to this practice in May 2013.
2010 - EA removes the ability to play as the Taliban in Medal of Honor, an otherwise forgettable FPS, despite that it made sense in the context of the game's setting and story.
2011 - "Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2" ad campaign.
2011 - EA pushes Bioware to rush Dragon Age II for release over the objections of developers. The result was a piss poor sequel.
2011 - Star Wars: The Old Republic was rushed to release. Many complained that the game was lacking in content.
2012 - Mass Effect 3's voice acting budget was slashed, causing characters to be cut. Additionally, executive meddling has been accused of being one of the causes for that game's disappointing ending. Oh, also, on-disc DLC. And to get all of the game's in-game expansion content, you're looking at spending $170. Thanks, EA!
2012/2013: Nintendo reaches out to EA for help in setting up online infrastructure for the Wii U. EA then tries to get Nintendo to use their Origin system for everything. When Nintendo tells them no, EA not only backs out of all their Wii U ports but has developers in their employ blatantly lie about its capabilities and why they won't develop for it.
2013 - The latest Simcity release's "Always-Online" fiasco, with the publisher luring reviewers to write misleading reviews by requiring that early reviews be done in EA's own offices. And then when the servers went down at launch, EA doubled down on claims that the game really, really required that online connectivity and totally wasn't just for DRM purposes (which was almost certainly an outright lie).
2013 - Real Racing 3 is released as F2P, making gamers pay to reduce wait times (instead of just for, you know, actual content).
2013 - EA terminates Sims Social, Pet Society and SimCity Social on short notice, screwing over players who put money into in-game content only to find that it will soon be unusable.
And this list ain't even comprehensive. According to that piece of shit Luke Plunkett at Shitaku, EA stole the code to Bethesda's Gridiron! sequel for Madden and then the game was never released.
In 2015 the COO libelled people using the hashtag GamerGate, a consumer revolt https://archive.is/fq8TW