EA Sports UFC 4 Gets Complaints About In-Game Ads, EA Responds to Backlash
Plenty of gamers were upset when in-game ads began popping up in the new EA Sports UFC 4 game. The MMA sim title just arrived on August 14, and when it first came out, there were no advertisements like that showing up. However, a few weeks later, they began to appear, promoting a new Amazon Prime Video release. EA has since responded to the user complaints.
EA Sports UFC 4 in-game ads popped up weeks after release
It’s not out of the ordinary for sports teams and venues to carry a number of signs, banners, and other ads for various products. The UFC Octagon itself usually features various company’s names on the mat or on the bars. However, gamers were outraged when EA Sports UFC 4 began to run in-game advertisements. Those ads were to promote a new season of Amazon’s series The Boys.
Those ads popped up on the screen as seen in the tweet below. In addition, The Boys’ ad was on the Octagon mat. It also was said to appear above the timer at the bottom of the screen briefly.
It brought plenty of complaints from gamers, with a thread starting up on Reddit. The chief complaint was that the new UFC game cost $60, to begin with. Also, the ads started to show up weeks after the game’s release date, meaning early reviewers wouldn’t see them.
“Thats fucking bulls**t, i have zero problems with that in a freemium [game], but when i pay that much i expect better,” one commenter said.
“Coming soon for UFC 5- full length commercial breaks so you can really experience the realism,” another Redditor said.
EA responds to backlash over advertisements
They heard the backlash and have now acted to make things better in the game. Reportedly, EA has now dialed back the ads in the EA Sports UFC 4 game. An Electronic Arts representative posted on Reddit, apologizing for the ads interfering with the gameplay experience.
“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,” EA’s rep posted.
“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,” the rep said.
The EA Sports UFC 4 game is available for Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One.
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