Electronic Arts taps out to player backlash against UFC 4 in-game ads

By Aaron Mamiit September 6, 2020

Electronic Arts was forced to dial back the introduction of in-game ads to EA Sports UFC 4, following massive backlash from players.

UFC 4 players voiced their disappointment and outrage against the appearance of real-world ads to UFC 4 in a Reddit thread, which showed a clip featuring an ad for Amazon’s The Boys Season 2 while within a match. The show’s logo also appears in the middle of the octagon, and briefly on top of the timer at the bottom of the screen.

Players were outraged that the in-game ads appeared more than two weeks after UFC 4‘s launch on August 14, which meant that reviews for the game would not mention the ads.

Further escalating the backlash was the fact that UFC 4 is a full-priced game. While ads have become a norm in the video game industry to earn revenue for free-to-play games, players questioned the presence of ads in UFC 4 when they already paid $60 for it.

Electronic Arts responds to UFC 4 backlash

It did not take long for Electronic Arts to respond to the backlash, with a representative of the company posting on Reddit that the ads have been disabled.

“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,” the representative said in a Reddit post.

“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 representative added.

It was unclear, however, if the removal of the in-game ads means that they will not return in some other form in UFC 4 in the near future. Digital Trends has reached out to Electronic Arts to confirm whether the in-game ads will return, and we will update this article as soon as we hear back.

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