EA has tried this before, with predictable results. In 2020, EA Sports UFC 4 included full-screen ads for the Amazon Prime series The Boys that would appear during ‘Replay’ moments. These were absent from the game when it launched, with EA introducing the ads about a month later, thereby preventing them from being highlighted in reviews. It wasn’t long before the backlash led to EA disabling the ads.
Fellow gamers, now is the time to push back on this crap. If you don’t do it now, you’ll live with this forever. They tried doing this in past generations as well, and failed.
Spread the word, tell others. Be vocal! Advocate for this not happening.
And if someone tells you that this isn’t preventable, tell them not to be cynical. Remind them of the other positive changes we were able to have happen recently in gaming, and that in the past when they tried this, the pushback was successful in keeping the gaming companies from doing so.
And remember, some of those you would try to convince are probably astroturfers/bots.
(https://lemmy.world/comment/9975178) (https://lemmy.world/comment/9977246)
Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
EA is on my boycott list since Origin & ME3. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
How many of those have in-game ads though?
There’s a history of pushing back against adding ads into games, that’s different than boycotting the company overall. One can be successful, when another is not.
And having said that, one could even argue that their desperation to make money by putting ads into games (again) is not just about keeping the shareholders happy, but also because of people having boycotted them over the years, depriving them of additional income. You may be making more of a stand than you realize.
Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
I’m saying there’s not really anything more I can do when it comes to EA. The company is already completely down the shitter for me and they’re the ones who would have to gain my trust back. That’s the only possible development. The problem is that many people don’t have a similar spine for actual principles like this, and the majority of people simply don’t even care. That’s why this rotten company is not just still a thing, but continues to do what they’ve done for the last couple decades.
You are already doing your part. Thank you, citizen.
But, you can also vocalize to others, especially the younger generation, that things like ads in games can be pushed back against successfully, as it has in the past. That they don’t have to put up with crap, or think they can’t push back against the monolithic corporation, because its been done before, successfully.
Hell, EA was one of those companies that tried ads in games before, and had to retreat from the pushback from customers.
I always thought that they cared, especially if they are being taken advantaged of, but that it doesn’t rise to a high enough threshold to actually do something about it (they triage it lower on their problem list), and that they feel that they are alone in doing it, so why bother.
What past events have shown though is that if we all do it together, even in a non-coordinated sort of way (organically), then the burden is not that hard individually, and the effort/pushback works well/enough.
Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Remeber if they call you naive or quixotic or an idealist that means they can’t win the argument with normal means and rely on name calling. Act with integrity, it’s worth it!