EA Accused of Gaming Battlefield 3 Review Scores

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Don't hope for the game to fail because of any idiocy on the publisher's part. You wanna know what happens when a game fails? The developer gets hurt. Publisher? not so much.

Sorry, that doesn't matter much to me, in the same way that, if I get beat up on the street by a guy, and his friend stands by and watches, I'd expect them both to go to jail.

Going by your metaphor/whatever the guy that beat you up goes free while his friends who stand by goes to jail.
EDIT1: Ninjad on my response... damn!

OT: sounds like EA indeed, wont stop me from buying the game though, I kinda like DICE.

 

[Carnagath]

Don't hope for the game to fail because of any idiocy on the publisher's part. You wanna know what happens when a game fails? The developer gets hurt. Publisher? not so much.

Sorry, that doesn't matter much to me, in the same way that, if I get beat up on the street by a guy, and his friend stands by and watches, I'd expect them both to go to jail.

Going by your metaphor/whatever the guy that beat you up goes free while his friends who stand by goes to jail.

OT: sounds like EA indeed, wont stop me from buying the game though, I kinda like DICE.

Jesus, six people quoted this little phrase since yesterday, and it wasn't even my point, that was on the previous post which everyone ignored. I knew I shouldn't have used analogies on the Escapist, there's something about them that makes nerds go apeshit, like GLaDOS when hit with a paradox. Please, ignore it from now on.

 

[Raso719]

A huge, mainstream game company trying to control how good the reviews for it's game is? Wow this is news? I mean this particular incident is but they do this all the time. Gae Informer runs so many adds for EA and Activsion they're practically a subsidiary. They're not actually going to say something bad about their biggest games that could potentially cost them add revenue.

Now if you could prove that many publishers actually pay off reviewers to intentionally skew the reviews of other games and plot out the genres and titles they invest the most into smearing THAT would be interesting.

 

[RJ Dalton]

I do wish game companies would learn that the appropriate way to ensure your game gets a good review is to make a good game.

 

[AlphaEcho]

EA has a horrible work ethic don't they?

 

[Spud of Doom]

The lengths some publishers try to go to to get better Metacritic scores, huh. I can't say I blame them but you'd think at least they would try to be more sneaky about it (e.g. Call of Duty "press events")

 

[supersword44]

i don't know if anyone said this yet but, im going to come clean. I really don't care i am going to buy this and no amount of faffing it up by EA can make me hate dice.

 

[Twilight_guy]

It'd be interesting to have the last question of a review everyone gets be about whether or not they are a fan in order to try and isolate fan inflation. That'd be an interesting statistic. (and one that doesn't get you in trouble).

 

[Elyxard]

So this is why they specifically advertise towards casuals and "non-gamers", because the actual intelligent gamer knows what scumbags EA are and avoid them at all costs.

This news story is actually the tamest thing to come out of all the news surrounding Battlefield 3. The sheer disdain for gaming that EA has is just unbelievable.

 

[Denamic]

EA, still the leader in the douchebag arena, pulls yet another dick move to stay ahead of Activision.
It shall be interesting to see how the competition responds.
Will we see day 1 non-free DLC of vital game components? Bribes?
Stay tuned, folks.
Only time will tell.

 

[harvz]

the only thing i can think of that EA could be thinking is that there seems to be a perceived rivalry between CoD and battlefield (yer, the devs/publishers arn't helping and are actually encouraging), so I kind of expect user review sites to have a few bombings let off to drop battlefields scores, which is why they want good initial reviews.

I also want to be perfectly clear, the reason i specify battlefield will be bombed is that CoD's fanbase tends to be younger, though lord knows both sides act like 3 year olds.

 

[megapenguinx]

Eh. People who like battlefield will defend this, and people who dont will condemn this.

To me... this seems like it should be illegal as a violation of fair journalism or something, but then again, thats just me. Im sure its not illegal, so it doesnt matter.

It's not, though it is a little shady if a reviewer accepts, gets an advanced copy, then proceeds to gush all over it. Speaking of which, it's annoying as hell when companies send out advanced copies to only a select group of people as if they expect that those people will make their game or product any better.

Pro-tip: It won't, and never will.

 

[Iron Lightning]

Fuck you EA. Fuck. You.

That is all.

 

[instantbenz]

Don't hope for the game to fail because of any idiocy on the publisher's part. You wanna know what happens when a game fails? The developer gets hurt. Publisher? not so much.

Sorry, that doesn't matter much to me, in the same way that, if I get beat up on the street by a guy, and his friend stands by and watches, I'd expect them both to go to jail.

Wow, over-dramatization.

I bet the reviewer pre-questionaire is some type of translation error. Regardless of how easy it would have been to simply say that "whatever your answers are here, you WILL receive a copy if you are a verified reviewer", i think all of the anti-bf3 stuff is just an anti-EA witch hunt. What companies aren't a little evil nowadays?

Further, what harm would answering those questions do? Did being honest ever cross the questioned reviewers' minds?

Nearly everyone who played or watched the beta: "omg grafix ar shit, looks like bfbc2!"
People who did their research: "at launch, they will be using their frostbite2 engine"

Beta noobs: "the game is glitchy as shit"
Beta vets: "did you ever read that it is a beta?"

Bottom line is this anti-BF3 thing is childish and most of the fuel is tears from the CoD fanboys.

 

[TheDoctor455]

This is actually the LEAST underhanded or unsavory thing they've done in the past few years.

That being said... I'm pretty sure EA's official motto is something like...

"EA... there are NO lows we won't sink to."

 

[Scrustle]

Somehow I'm not surprised EA would try and pull this. But I wonder how common this is. I've got a feeling it's a little more widespread than with just one game in Norway. It seems more and more AAA games are getting scores they don't deserve, I think. One of the biggest examples of this are reviews for the NFS series since Shift 1. They have left me very suspicious as to whether critics are being honest. And that series is published by EA too...

 

[CardinalPiggles]

A slightly better review score isn't going to make me buy your game. It's still way too sluggish for my liking.