I'm sorry, but there are plenty of companies that have made great businesses out of producing less-reliable products.
If I buy a thing - almost any thing - from Walmart, I know that quality of that thing is not the first priority. A hammer from Walmart - theoretically a kind of good that can last forever - is going to be made from worse steel, the grip is going to fall off with heavy use, the wooden handle will splinter, it's going to rust. It will not last as long as a hammer purchased from Home Depot. On the other hand, it will be cheaper. Walmart is making a perfectly good business off of selling such goods.
Walmart chooses to stock lesser quality goods. We accept that as a legitimate business model. But Walmart doesn't come to my house and worsen the goods later on - they don't come and spray the hammer with salt-water to encourage me to get a new one. Digital goods don't fall apart on their own, so companies like EA which want to sell inferior goods have to take affirmative action to make them fall apart ("hey, let's link all our goods to a server, and turn the server off a few months after the good comes out"), and this doesn't sit well with us in our perceptions.
If I buy a thing - almost any thing - from Walmart, I know that quality of that thing is not the first priority. A hammer from Walmart - theoretically a kind of good that can last forever - is going to be made from worse steel, the grip is going to fall off with heavy use, the wooden handle will splinter, it's going to rust. It will not last as long as a hammer purchased from Home Depot. On the other hand, it will be cheaper. Walmart is making a perfectly good business off of selling such goods.
Walmart chooses to stock lesser quality goods. We accept that as a legitimate business model. But Walmart doesn't come to my house and worsen the goods later on - they don't come and spray the hammer with salt-water to encourage me to get a new one. Digital goods don't fall apart on their own, so companies like EA which want to sell inferior goods have to take affirmative action to make them fall apart ("hey, let's link all our goods to a server, and turn the server off a few months after the good comes out"), and this doesn't sit well with us in our perceptions.