At some point over the last week, Electronic Arts took a game already full of ads—it’s a sports game, it comes with the territory!—and added more. Only this wasn’t an in-world kinda deal, it was a literal commercial flashing around in the middle of a fight.
Princess Peach’s Leading Role And More New Releases
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You can see an example in the gif above, with the flashing logo—appearing after quick mid-round action replays—accompanied by matching ad placement in the middle of the octagon.
Once folks noticed, a Reddit thread popped up and quickly moved to 90k likes and a comfortable spot on the site’s front page. Reddit’s collective “durh EA bad” default mindset obviously contributed there, but it’s also some genuine bullshit, given the fact previous series’ ads have been relegated to menus and not the middle of a fight.
Responding to the backlash, EA’s community team posted a statement:
So they’re gone and won’t be coming back, which is nice.
While we’re on the subject, and because I’m in the middle of reviewing 2K21, this is a good time to remind you that the NBA 2K series has been running lengthy, mid-game and unskippable Gatorade commercials for years now, and they are 10x worse than this (you can see one near the bottom of this post).
