This past week Electronic Arts created another controversy by adding intrusive advertisements to EA Sports UFC 4. Frustrations from fans were two-fold. First, fans simply didn’t like that EA put more advertisements into UFC 4. Second, fans found it sketchy that EA added these advertisements well after launch, at a point where professional reviews would be unlikely to note the advertisements. EA has now issued a statement apologizing for introducing the ads and have disabled them from the game.
In its statement, EA first acknowledges the fact that it “turned on” advertisements in UFC 4‘s in-game mid-match replays. EA says that “this type of advertising inventory is not new to the UFC franchise,” though it admits that advertisements have been located in different areas like the main menu or around the UFC octagon ring. From there, EA goes on to state that, “It is abundantly clear from your feedback that integrating adds into the Replay and overlay experience is not welcome.”
Following EA acknowledging the problem and how it came to be, the company issues a direct apology, saying, “We apologize for any disruption that players may have experienced.” And further, EA is acting on its apology. The new advertisements have apparently already been disabled by the development team. In effect, fans made their voices heard clear and the development team responded quickly to appease those frustrations.
EA doesn’t stop there in its statement, however. It also touches on how it’ll work to avoid these types of situations from happening in the future. EA acknowledges that the addition of advertisements to UFC 4 “should have been communicated with players ahead of time.” The implication being that if any such actions will be taken in the future, EA will start a conversation with fans first.
Just because EA is describing how it would approach the situation differently if it could do it all over again doesn’t mean it’s planning on reintroducing the ads, however. EA makes clear that the new ad system “will not be reappearing in the future.” It’s possible that other forms of ad integration will be coming, but as EA notes it will share that information with players ahead of time from here on out.
While the entire situation is coming to an end that UFC 4 players can accept, that doesn’t mean that everything is back to the way it was before. Gaming fans have long memories and will almost certainly remember EA’s actions going forward. And the same can be said about EA. Swift action was likely taken now in part due to past experiences like with Battlefront 2. Hopefully, the experience prevents similar situations from happening in the future.
EA Sports UFC 4 is available now on PS4 and Xbox One.
Source: VGC
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