14 DAY TRIAL // The British Advertising Standards Authority has made its decision concerning Electronic Arts’ marketing campaign for Mass Effect 3, saying that the company isn’t guilty of false advertising, despite the complaints of customers who were disappointed by the fact that their decisions didn’t affect the end of the game.
Mass Effect 3 came out last March and, since then, the game caused a huge controversy among players, many of whom felt betrayed by EA and BioWare, who had promised during different ads that their decisions would affect the ending of the game.
After receiving multiple complaints, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) from the UK started a probe into the matter, in order to see if EA falsely advertised Mass Effect 3.
The association has now posted its findings and revealed that, while some players believe their choices had no effect in the end, the conclusions delivered experiences that were different enough to be considered separate endings.
"The ASA acknowledged the belief that players' choices in the game did not influence the outcome to the extent claimed by EA,” the ASA said. "However, we considered that the three choices at the end of the game were thematically quite different, and that the availability and effectiveness of those choices would be directly determined by a player's score, which was calculated with reference to previous performance in the game(s)."
"We also acknowledged that there appeared to be a large number of minor variations in the end stages of Mass Effect 3, and that those were directly impacted by choices made by players earlier in the game(s)."
The conclusion of the probe is that, while EA placed a larger-than-needed emphasis on the role of decisions in the game, these choices did affect the ending, so it wasn’t lying to consumers.
"Whilst we acknowledged that the advertiser had placed particular emphasis on the role that player choices would play in determining the outcome of the game, we considered that most consumers would realise there would be a finite number of possible outcomes within the game and, because we considered that the advertiser had shown that players' previous choices and performance would impact on the ending of the game, we concluded that the ad was not misleading," the ASA added.
Electronic Arts and BioWare are going to deliver some more closure for fans who felt wronged by the ending this summer, when they’re going to release a special Extended Cut DLC.