Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Best thread ever material? If so, translate and post over there.
There have been some unfortunate developments with EA Norway and the way they’ve been handling access to Battlefield 3 review copies. According to Norway’s top news outlet, NRK, EA has withheld review copies of Battlefield 3 to reviewers whom they thought would give the game a bad score. A number of Norwegian gaming outlets, including popular ones like Gamer.no and GameReactor, have been refused review copies of Battlefield 3 due to their review scores of past Battlefield games.
Furthermore, EA inquired potential reviewers of Battlefield 3 to see whether they were Call of Duty fans, whether they played the beta and if they were frustrated with the beta. You can see the full list of questions above.
EA’s actions in this case have been criticized by Norway’s top journalists, like Gunnar Bodahl-Johansen from Norway’s School of Journalism, calling EA’s actions “unacceptable”, adding, “It is a sad situation for both EA and game journalism that it appears that this is normal.”
EA has been quick to issue an apology, with EA Norway marketing manager Oliver Sveen saying “this should not have been sent out. We have made a mistake and we apologize. This is not something that neither should have happened earlier or what we intend to continue”.
Black said:What I find weird is that this is news to many of you. Same ol, same ol circlejerk. "Journalists" cream over shitty games, publishers give them more material to cream on and GAMERS are happy because they're playing 10/10 gotys because they're too dumb to rate games on their own.
MetalCraze said:EA, Ubisoft, Eidos and Activision on notable advertisement websites (known also as "game review websites") are in fact publisher-controlled bullshit
deus101 said:HAH! Norway brings the....
BF 1942 came out in 2002. The first CoD came out in 2003.MetalCraze said:It's an absolutely correct point of view.
BF3, just like BFBC before it, is a CoD clone. BFBC utterly failed to reach marketing figures of CoD - but with BF3 being openly positioned as a Call of Duty game - the risks are higher.
So what?hoopy said:BF 1942 came out in 2002. The first CoD came out in 2003.
hoopy said:BF 1942 came out in 2002. The first CoD came out in 2003.MetalCraze said:It's an absolutely correct point of view.
BF3, just like BFBC before it, is a CoD clone. BFBC utterly failed to reach marketing figures of CoD - but with BF3 being openly positioned as a Call of Duty game - the risks are higher.
If anything it'd be in EA's best interests to extend a gesture of good faith to any affected magazines/websites... or all of them, for that matter. Better coverage and relations, hiring on better PR guys to help answer questions and be more open, communicative, and honest, etc. This is a really shitty thing to happen, but if they're smart, they can turn what is a major PR disaster around into a positive provided they take the right moves to remedy the situation. Of course, it's EA, so I doubt we'll ever get more than a completely phony and half-assed "we're really, really sorry" from them, considering their track record.Jaesun said:Someone remember when the Preview Copies go out to websites, see if http://e24.no/media/spilljournalister-r ... s/20111124 get one.
hoopy said:The changes aren't anywhere near enough to qualify BF3 as a CoD clone. You're grasping at straws.
sea said:If anything it'd be in EA's best interests to extend a gesture of good faith to any affected magazines/websites... or all of them, for that matter. Better coverage and relations, hiring on better PR guys to help answer questions and be more open, communicative, and honest, etc. This is a really shitty thing to happen, but if they're smart, they can turn what is a major PR disaster around into a positive provided they take the right moves to remedy the situation. Of course, it's EA, so I doubt we'll ever get more than a completely phony and half-assed "we're really, really sorry" from them, considering their track record.Jaesun said:Someone remember when the Preview Copies go out to websites, see if http://e24.no/media/spilljournalister-r ... s/20111124 get one.