“EA has withheld review copies of Battlefield 3 to reviewers whom they thought would give the game a bad score,” says the blog.
“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.”
It appears there was a questionnaire sent out to potential reviewers that asked a number of questions regarding the game (and its competition, in the form of Modern Warfare 3). One of the questions allegedly asks ‘is [the reviewer] a fan of Call of Duty?’ with the answer seemingly going towards your chance of scoring a copy to review.
One Gunnar Bodahl-Johansen, from Norway’s School of Journalism, called EA’s actions “unacceptable” and EA themselves have been quick to apologise. The local marketing manager saying that “this should not have been sent out. We have made ​​a mistake and we apologise.”
“This is not something that neither should have happened earlier or what we intend to continue”.
We’ve asked for a review copy, but have yet to receive an answer. We’re big Call of Duty fans. Gulp.
Via BF3Blog.
colmshan1990
Nothing new here, this is often done, with non-disclosures agreements stopping reviews being published unless they get an exemption (read: high score) another common industry practice.
To be honest, people who are getting this first day won’t have their minds changed by reviews, and people who are on the fence would wait anyway, and get the reviews then.
hazelam
and that makes it ok?
this is a multi billion dollar/pound industry, should we not hold them to some sort of moral code?
“they all do it is” is not a valid excuse.
Bilbo_bobbins
even then most people who wait for reviews, normally wait for a review from a friend, rather than waiting to read online or in a magazine. Word of Mouth is powerful. Which is why I think it doesn’t really matter if EA did give it to them.
hazelam
they’re still buying their “95% from this site” and “10 out of 10 from that site” labels they stick on the box.
you can’t believe that has no effect.
how many people buy these games just by looking at the box in the store?
ScottW-1976
Don’t agree with you at all on this Bilbo, I think the vast majority of purchases for BF3 will come from review scores and 10/10 labels in store rather than word of mouth.
Word of mouth might work for smaller studios/games not looking for huge numbers but when you are taking on the might of COD it’s not going to be anywhere near enough IMO.
Voganlight
Review scores don’t have that much power. In my class, nearly everyone has Call of Duty and plays it every day (except me), yet when I told them that I really liked the Battlefield 3 beta, they went ahead and tried it and liked it so much that they have now all preordered Battlefield 3. The general public is getting bored of the same Call of Duty game every year. I think the sales figures will be quite interesting.
colmshan1990
The reviews are still going to be there.
You just have to wait like you would with a smaller game.
Listen, this happens with every major media release- good reviews are released early, others are released later.
It’s true for books, movies, music, games, etc.
hazelam
if they’re influencing the review process, then it becomes worthless.
they’re cutting off their nose to spite their face.
they influence the reviews, but then people don’t trust the reviews because they’ve influenced them.
and it gives the publisher a bad rep.
and it makes the game look bad if it appears they needed to influence the reviews.
that’s without the moral issue over what pretty much amounts to bribery.
xdarkmagician
EA, the company who once upon a time didn’t like the SEGA licensing deal, so they reversed engineered a SEGA Genesis and threatened to launch their own console that could play Genesis games the day before E3. :)
They should have stuck with the tested tradition of attaching a check to every review copy. lol
Although I’m sure they’er not the only company to refuse review copies to gaming sites they don’t like.
Kennykazey
Shame on you, EA! That’s really crappy, but I guess it’s been going on for ages with a variety of publishers. Still not acceptable though. It puts EA and Battlefield in some bad light, so karma’s a bitch.
Voganlight
Doesn’t this simply happen all the time in the tech industry? Look at what Apple does with certain publications.
NOSAJ19
This reminds of that Soup Man episode of Seinfeld…
NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!…FOR THREE YEARS!!!
aerobes
Oh dear. EA are tripping over their own clown shoes right at the crucial moment. Does the fact that this thing is even in existence mean that they’re concerned about their product? Either way, it’s nearly time to let sales do the talking.
colmshan1990
I have a question for the staff- is review code free, discounted or completely paid for?
Because I can see why they mightn’t hand it out to every site that goes looking for code if it’s free.
As for using this particular tactic in choosing which are the lucky sites…
It’s not exactly the height of integrity, but it seems the industry standard. If even one publisher does it, everybody who doesn’t is handicapped temporarily in some way compared to a game that launches with a metacritic average of 97… (Looking at you, Arkham City. I expect you to be good, but not that good.)
AG2297
Review code is free. Then you also have promo copies which are sent out for free. And copies which can be given away as prizes. Basically, a lot of games are given out for free.
Although of course not everywhere gets given promo copies and prize copies it often depends on the publisher, the site and the PR company.