EA apologises for EA Sports UFC 4 intrusive full screen ads

[HEXUS]

It injected ads for Amazon show 'The Boys' into action replays in a US$60 game.

Read more.

[Tabbykatze]

They're not sorry, they were testing the waters to see if they could drop them in and were likely very ready to remove them if the backlash was minor or so.

They want as many income revenue streams as possible and if they had scoped this with any focus groups of people will at least 2 brain cells to rub together, I'm willing to bet money they would have said no i wouldn't want to see it.

However, they likely did do a focus group but they worded it like "an unobtrusive ad flash while playing" and being very deceptive about how it would be presented...

[Hoonigan]

Adverts in games aren't new, and there's money to be made from them. Racing games putting paid sponsors on the side of race tracks for example, but this is just beyond a joke.
EA know what they're doing, and they have people cornered by their dominance within this sector, owning the IP for football, NFL, NBA, UFC, etc. etc., so where do people really go?
It only feels like 5 minutes since the whole lootbox issue, it's clear they're not learning their lessons and are in this purely to generate as huge a profit as possible, regardless of their impact on how enjoyable the gaming is.

I won't be buying another EA game for as long as I live.

[excalibur1814]

"Additionally this 'feature' was't be discussed"

????

[excalibur1814]

EA destroyed Command & Conquer, then messed with Plants Vs Zombies (Which WON game of the year) by making PvsZ 2 a mess of 'grind or pay to win'. Sim City Buildit? Disgusting. Another grind game where it's heavily stacked against the player.

We keep on buying!

[LSG501]

EA destroyed Command & Conquer, then messed with Plants Vs Zombies (Which WON game of the year) by making PvsZ 2 a mess of 'grind or pay to win'. Sim City Buildit? Disgusting. Another grind game where it's heavily stacked against the player.

We keep on buying!

Unfortunately 'excessive grind to make you pay' seems to be a huge trend with games at the moment, even premium ones where you pay to get the game... whatever happened to the 'fun' aspect of a game.

It's kind of understandable with free to play games but even they can go too far, one of the games (f2p warframe) I've been playing for around 4 years just released an update and I just can't even be bothered to play it because the entire update is just so grindy in it's design it's off putting... it wouldn't be bad if the new update is actually 'new' but it's essentially just a rehash of 2 earlier open worlds with the worst aspects of each added in.

[big_hairy_rob]

well we can't sell you loot boxes, so we'll just push adverts on your instead...

This mentality (and overwhelmingly boring & repetitive game-play) is why I do not buy AAA games.

At some point, AAA publishers seem to have forgotten that games are meant to be fun...

[ilh]

As absurd as it is to have adverts in this fashion (I don't mind adverts on the side of a race track as Hoonigan mentioned as it makes the track look more like the real life counterpart), the advert in the video is on for such a short time that I couldn't even read what it was all about so why bother?

[chj]

As absurd as it is to have adverts in this fashion (I don't mind adverts on the side of a race track as Hoonigan mentioned as it makes the track look more like the real life counterpart), the advert in the video is on for such a short time that I couldn't even read what it was all about so why bother?

Yeah the speed of it is like subliminal advertising. What's next, putting adverts into the music played backwards?

[YazX]

They're not sorry, they were testing the waters to see if they could drop them in and were likely very ready to remove them if the backlash was minor or so.

They want as many income revenue streams as possible and if they had scoped this with any focus groups of people will at least 2 brain cells to rub together, I'm willing to bet money they would have said no i wouldn't want to see it.

However, they likely did do a focus group but they worded it like "an unobtrusive ad flash while playing" and being very deceptive about how it would be presented...

Spot on!

[QuorTek]

If I pay for the game, then they can buzz off with their adds... if they give the game entirely for free.. including season passes and whatever other crap... sure... can try the game for free and own if for free with the ads going.... if I really like the game I can buy it and get rid of them.... though dont think would like much from EA as it is.

[Yoyoyo69]

They're not sorry, they were testing the waters to see if they could drop them in and were likely very ready to remove them if the backlash was minor or so.

They want as many income revenue streams as possible and if they had scoped this with any focus groups of people will at least 2 brain cells to rub together, I'm willing to bet money they would have said no i wouldn't want to see it.

However, they likely did do a focus group but they worded it like "an unobtrusive ad flash while playing" and being very deceptive about how it would be presented...

So true, they 100% are not sorry. The ads would still be present now, if the post hadn't drawn much attention.

The only thing they will be doing now, is trying to figure out a way to put them in and getting away with it next time.

[Yoyoyo69]

EA destroyed Command & Conquer, then messed with Plants Vs Zombies (Which WON game of the year) by making PvsZ 2 a mess of 'grind or pay to win'. Sim City Buildit? Disgusting. Another grind game where it's heavily stacked against the player.

We keep on buying!

Unfortunately 'excessive grind to make you pay' seems to be a huge trend with games at the moment, even premium ones where you pay to get the game... whatever happened to the 'fun' aspect of a game.

It's kind of understandable with free to play games but even they can go too far, one of the games (f2p warframe) I've been playing for around 4 years just released an update and I just can't even be bothered to play it because the entire update is just so grindy in it's design it's off putting... it wouldn't be bad if the new update is actually 'new' but it's essentially just a rehash of 2 earlier open worlds with the worst aspects of each added in.

Most devs have taken this path, it is greed and nothing more.

Ubisoft used to be the worst culprit, they're still bad, but many more devs are just as bad now.

Amongst the worse are Rockstar, my one time favourite developer.

I'm now hoping ProjectCDRed can scale up quickly and create new IP, but I guess I'll have to make do with the few IP they have currently.

[Moonister]

Too much money in the gaming industry saddly damaged quality of games. Cut throat profit at all costs business ppl running these companies and make decision about these games. Most of these people probably never played any game in their life. The result - zombie like, soulless shells that are pretty on the outside (graphics, marketing) and fuggly and shallow carbon copies on the inside.

Yet someone is buying this rubbish!
My theory is that kids have too much disposable income and time and little common sense. Cut the pocket money and things will improve in no time ;-)

[Output]

Adverts in games aren't new, and there's money to be made from them. Racing games putting paid sponsors on the side of race tracks for example, but this is just beyond a joke.
EA know what they're doing, and they have people cornered by their dominance within this sector, owning the IP for football, NFL, NBA, UFC, etc. etc., so where do people really go?
It only feels like 5 minutes since the whole lootbox issue, it's clear they're not learning their lessons and are in this purely to generate as huge a profit as possible, regardless of their impact on how enjoyable the gaming is.

I won't be buying another EA game for as long as I live.

I believe 2K actually have the NBA one.

In theory it's not exactly surprising, as many areas of sports broadcasts are sponsored, but just because people watching have to put up with it in the broadcasts, it doesn't mean they would want to put up with it in a game portraying the sport - especially with how much the game may have cost them to buy.

[ik9000]

Too much money in the gaming industry saddly damaged quality of games. Cut throat profit at all costs business ppl running these companies and make decision about these games. Most of these people probably never played any game in their life. The result - zombie like, soulless shells that are pretty on the outside (graphics, marketing) and fuggly and shallow carbon copies on the inside.

Yet someone is buying this rubbish!
My theory is that kids have too much disposable income and time and little common sense. Cut the pocket money and things will improve in no time ;-)

If you didn't grow up knowing better existed what do you expect? It's like people who only drink Bells whisky, or who think that cadbury is luxury chocolate etc.