Battlefield 3: EA Accused Of Fiddling The Ratings
Reviews can sometimes affect the sales of any media, including video games. So, there is that niggling possibility that a publisher may try to manipulate the data. This time, the Norwegian press is accusing Battlefield developer EA, or least its Norwegian branch, of such manipulation. According to the Norwegian press, EA is involved in some sort of review score scandal. This means that the studio did not give out review copies of Battlefield 3 to publications that they it suspects will give the game low scores. Norway’s NRK news, according to a BF3 Blog translation, reports that media outlets such as GameReactor and Gamer.no were not given review copies. In fact, they were denied those copies.
Screenshot from Battlefield 3 - Operation Metro (Credit: DICE)
Before the distribution of review copies, EA had issued survey questionnaires to several outlets. These questionnaires that ask about the potential reviewers’ experiences with different shooter games, such as the Battlefield 3 beta and Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 3. So, one cannot help but wonder if those questionnaires also determine which outlets should be given review copies or not. I am sorry but we are really wondering whether the Norwegian press has it right.
EA Norway marketing manager Oliver Sveen has since apologized for their methods. He said that they should have not distributed those surveys. So there really is something about those survey questionnaires. For now, fans should be pretty excited about the fact that next week, Battlefield 3 gets released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Bad or good reviews, we are heading out to get our copies.
- Share article with other networks
