Electronic Arts Major Scandal

[Unstoppable]

MAJOR NEWS. Electronic Arts has been caught bribing Austrailian Gamepro by giving them $$$ to give Supreme Commander a 50% score. We all know that the game is already a game of the year candidate. Shame on your EA. This means WAR. Time to gather the troops and prepare for battle. This time you have crossed the line into oblivion. >=[

 

http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/11566...ry_Scandal.html

 

This is just a rumor though. Maybe it's bullshit. Dam rumors!

Edited March 8, 2007 by Unstoppable

[SneaksieDave]

I'm doubting even those douchebags would go that low. Maybe talk about it or hint about it or even joke over a corporate dinner, but to actually carry it out would be risking their good nam...

 

Oh, wait a minute, EA? Oh hell yeah.

[Crispy]

EA may be bastards, but they're not that stupid.

Update: We're happy to report that the person who started the bribe rumor on the Gamespot forums has now claimed it was a lie, so we've removed mention of the rumor from this story. Their rumor post has also now been removed at Gamespot, and mention of it on the Gas Powered Games forum has also gone.

[Nyarlathotep]

That EA would do that is entirely too plausible for comfort, and the idea that most gaming magazines would gladly accept even more so.

[sparhawk]

It should be well known that game companies bribe the mags to get good ratings. Usually I guess they are doing it by "buying" advertisment space though.

[SplaTtzZ]

Yeah I always thought it was pretty common for game companies to 'bribe' to get better reviews,particularly larger magazines; mostly because there is a bit of grey area in what constitutes a bribe. It happens in the movie industry doesn't it?

 

Never heard of a company bribing a mag to lower a competitors games' score though, I daresay that breaches the Trade Practices Act in Aus and the ACCC would be all over EA. Though perhaps they don't have much interest in the industry? I wouldn't bank on that though, and I don't think EA would either.

 

In my opinion it's quite plausible that Supreme Commander is only worth a 5/10; it's just a remake of Total Annihilation, they didn't even upgrade the graphics.

[Macsen]

I remember reading in N64 Magazine a few years ago (it's now a Wii magazine) that they'd refused some kind of incentive from a games company to lift a score. It needen't be money, just more access to future games in development perhaps?

[demagogue]

There's a known history of music publishers bribing radio stations for play-time of songs; every once and a while you hear about it. I don't think game producers are necessarily above it any more than the music industry, esp as the whole game industry seems perpetually on thin ice.

I would think that EA is a little too established and risk-adverse to be that stupid, though.

But it could be like the Nixon syndrome ... so established you get paranoid.

[Gildoran]

I was under the impression that the way game companies bribe game reviewers into giving good scores isn't by "purchasing advertisements", but rather by giving them early access to new games. Since gamers seem to be more interested in hearing about new games than about reviews, any smart magazine will prioritize early access over accurate assessments.

[Domarius]

Bribing for reviews always happens, though I think maybe less now that people catch on.

 

It's easy to tell, when the stuff they report as bad, isn't even a problem.

 

In one case, I remember reading a review of a game that heaped praise on it, and when I bought the game based on the review (young and naieve) it was not like they described, and when I read it again, it became glaringly obvious that they'd just read the manual and based the review off that - complete with mis-interpretations from the bad Jap to ENg translation of the manual! Eg. "You can bend and stretch to fill the screen!" in the review, came from "You can morph from one side of the screen to the other" in the manual, which was actually describing how your drones could travel from one side of the screen to the other :/ Pretty damning.