Oh, EA. It’s really not been the best year for the infamous publisher so far, what with all the recent backlash around Madden 21 – in addition to the game being downright bad this year, and the nonchalant reaction from the developers around the criticism. Now it’s an outrage of a different flavor this week, surrounding UFC 4‘s use of in-game advertisements during replays.
For all those unaware of what went down, a disgruntled Reddit user by the name of u/Ydino shared a video in an interestingly-named subreddit where an ad for Amazon’s The Boys came up during an in-game replay. Now, the use of interrupted ads is not a foreign concept – mobile games are an often-used example of this. The problem is that UFC 4 is a $60 game and these ads were introduced more than a month into the game’s life cycle.
EA decided to add full-on commercials in the middle of gameplay in a $60 game a month after it's release so it wasn't talked about in reviews
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Now in EA’s defense, it’s fair to say that these ads aren’t massively intrusive. They are, however, noticeable. Enough so that players have made their opinions known in abundance, and now EA has responded by removing them from UFC 4. In a statement to Eurogamer that also appeared under the original Reddit post, EA said the following:
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.”
What are your thoughts on in-game ads? Too much advertising, or is it not a big deal? Tell us your thoughts, and stay tuned at The Nerd Stash for all your news, reviews, and more!
