This is a very quick post about modern PR practices and how every single medium-to-large-scale video game and entertainment media website cannot be trusted never-ever-never. Ever.
Disclaimer: I don't play sports games, especially soccer games. I just don't care about football. This post is exclusively about dirty PR practices employed by commercial companies and the PR agencies they work with.
The Case
On September 25th, EA Games released a new title in their well-known sports game series named "FIFA 19". I won't get into the details of what a controversial product it ended up being. If you're interested, please refer to the following videos by YongYea: one, two, three.
I'm here to talk about how the game scored at one of the better-known review sites out there — Metacritic.
Here's the FIFA 19 for PS4 page at Metacritic in its current state (Oct 5th):
Ports of the game for PC, XBox 360 and other platforms do not fare much better, and don't differ that much, so I'll just focus on the platform with the most reviews and critic scores — PS4.
Note the sharp disparity between "Critic" and "User" scores for the product.
EA is a big commercial entity, and its CEO knows the company needs to maintain good sales of its products. The most common way to do so when it comes to review websites and social networks has always been... paid reviews. It's no shock to anyone: everyone is aware that at least 15-30% of all reviews on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt, so to speak.
The Reviews
As a web project manager working for a public commercial company, I have an understanding of how to approach paid reviews — how to create new virtual users and make the best use of those accounts as well as existing ones.
And I can definitely tell you this is not how you do it.
And another:
And another:
Nothing special. Just your most basic dumb "virtuals" which, when profiled, can be easily identified as fake users created specifically to promote a single electronic product. There are plenty of these on most EA titles, especially in the FIFA series...
Dirty Tactics
But it seems like EA's methods don't stop there. Check this one out:
How about this one:
Notice anything interesting?
Sure, I do! Check out the scores these paid users leave on a competitor's product. Pro Evolution Soccer is a sports game series published by Konami. And what do you know, here's how Pro Evolution Soccer for PS4 scores at the moment:
79/100 vs 7.2/10 user score.
Huh. This looks... a bit more believable than what we're seeing for FIFA 19, don't you think?
So here's how I see it: EA is playing both sides:
- promote your own product with fake 8-10 out of 10 paid reviews;
- drown the competitor's product with 1-2 out of 10 paid reviews.
But don't be too quick to pin this solely on EA.
I bet PES' publisher is also not a saint, as you'll see below.
Why Are You So Negative?
Just to be fair, let's take a look at several profiles of the users who left all those negative reviews for FIFA 19. You know... For Great Justice!
Here are the profiles of a few of the first posters from the user reviews page:
This one is either a very angry player who decided to create an account specifically to bash the latest bunch of EA games, or a virtual created by a competitor's PR team to lower the scores. Go figure.
I swear this guy is legit.
This one seems legit as well. You can read his reviews — they're not generic and are quite specific when it comes to pointing out strengths and weaknesses of various products.
Jeez... This guy seems to have a particular gripe against EA Games. Note the duplicate reviews. It's either a virtual or a lazy user with a personal vendetta. I bet on the former.
Seems legit. Note how the user praises and bashes both PES and FIFA, pointing out specific pros and cons for both series.
Looks familiar, doesn't it? Learn from the pros: drown the competition, right?
And there are lots and lots of users with only 1 game reviewed, that being... You guessed it! FIFA 19.
A few notable specimens: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. All like this one:
Looks totally legit. Right, Konami? Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to speculate.
Or did I...?
What Happens Next
What's surprising to me is that EA gave up on its paid reviews rather quickly. There's only a handful of 10/10 reviews for FIFA 19 — that's rather weak. Seems like EA gave up much sooner than they did with Mass Effect Andromeda, for example.
Here's where it gets even more interesting.
Starting Monday, October 8th, the Metacritic review page for PS4 FIFA 19 is going to change — and will, probably, in one of the following ways:
- EA has actually gotten rid of its paid-review PR campaign for the game. This is a very unlikely scenario, because the FIFA series is EA's biggest cash cow ever and no negative reviews or bad press shall affect sales of the game and in-game loot boxes! I mean, that's what I'd do if I were EA. It's like: "Hey, we're already the scummiest bunch, why not go down in flames... from the burning $100s! Ha-ha-ha!
- A more likely one: EA PR and Legal (why not?) will use their excellent diplomatic skills, and all those negative reviews will just... disappear! Vanish into thin air. Like it never happened. That's why I've grabbed a complete snapshot of all user reviews currently posted and am making them available here: FIFA 19 Metacritic user reviews as of October 5th.
Sold-Out Rotten-Hearted Game and Entertainment Media
I'm aware that it's no breaking news that everything and everyone is for sale. It's up to the highest bidder to take advantage of the corrupt media outlets and promote their product or agenda.
I just want to take this opportunity to call out every outlet that gave this product a score higher than 80 when it's apparent (even to me!) that it's just a reskin of the previous title in the series as well as a quick cash grab, especially when you take the loot box drama into consideration.
I will now thank you for reading my sudden rant and leave you with the list of the ones to avoid (at least I know I sure will):
P.S. I don't care whether FIFA 19 and PES do well or not. I just want to make sure the PR agency watchdogs out there — the ones doing regular community reaction analysis and reading this post — know that we know what you're doing. You're the scum of the Earth, and these practices are what ruin fair competition online. And you bastards are the ones to blame.
Fuck you.