In a surprising victory for players of UFC 4, publisher Electronic Arts has announced that they're removing the controversial fullscreen advertisements that were recently added to their sports game. Players were not amused when loading up their full-priced $60 games earlier this week to discover brand new advertisements for Amazon Prime's The Boys flashing on-screen between fights and on top of the game's scorecard. Taking to social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter in huge numbers, the player base made it clear that this was something they wouldn't tolerate, and it seems that EA has responded in kind.
It has become common practice for additional sources of revenue to come to games after launch, particularly after critics have already had their say. UFC 4 sneakily (sketchily?) added these ads in-game a few weeks after launch and reviews without even mentioning the update. Everything from Call of Duty to Crash Bandicoot has engaged in the anti-consumer practice, first advertising that there will be no additional spend required and then adding it in any way once fans are entrenched. This method gained popularity because of Electronic Arts and their bungled launch of Star Wars Battlefront 2, which had a microtransaction system so egregious that it caused the federal government to begin to look into the gaming industry for potentially breaking gambling rules.
In a statement released to Screen Rant and posted on Reddit over the weekend, EA stated that the offensive ad placements (as demonstrated on a Reddit post from r/assholedesign) weren't new to the UFC franchise, but they were more aggressive then they have been in the past. They continued that the fanbase made it clear that this particular ad integration was "not welcome, " and that the disabled ads would not be returning to the game in any capacity. They then acknowledged that they should have communicated this change to players before implementing it and thanked players for their continued feedback.
EA's full statement, given as a reply on a less popular Reddit thread (not the one that blew up, embedded above):
I’m part of the Community team here at EA and I wanted to post here and give you all an update on this situation. Earlier this week, the team turned on ad placements in EA SPORTS UFC 4 that appeared during the “Replay” moments in gameplay. This type of advertising inventory is not new to the UFC franchise, though we have typically reserved displaying ads to specific main menu tiles or Octagon logo placement. It is abundantly clear from your feedback that integrating ads into the Replay and overlay experience is not welcome. The advertisements have been disabled by the team and we apologize for any disruption to gameplay that players may have experienced. We realize that this should have been communicated with players ahead of time and that’s on us. We want to make sure our players have the best possible experience playing EA SPORTS UFC 4, so ad integration in the Replay and overlay experience will not be reappearing in the future. Thank you for your continued feedback on EA SPORTS UFC 4.
The quick removal of UFC 4's ads goes to show that even the biggest companies can respond quickly to consumer feedback or social media eruptions, as it were. In the age of social media, fans have the power to make a stink about any misgivings, and the ones that are truly worth moving on usually rise to the top and get resolved. EA knows more than most companies what it's like to try to move forward with an unpopular idea despite fan backlash, so it's for the best that they find other ways to improve UFC 4 for both the player and the publisher.
UFC 4 is available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.