Would a list help you understand more clearly? This is very relevant to this thread so that people understand what the money is actually supporting when they purchase a game with megapublisher involvement. Here's an old copypaste that isn't even comprehensive:
Late ‘80s: EA had files 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."
1994: EA pressures Bullfrog 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.
1995 - EA pressures Bullfrog to rush Magic Carpet II to market over the objections of Peter Molyneux, resulting in a buggy game.
1998 - EA acquires Westwood Studios. Many Westwood employees quit in protest.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2001 - EA closes developer Kesmai. Did you like the Air Warrior game series? Sucks to be you.
2001 - Bullfrog Studios 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).
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.