14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts is accused of trying to influence and condition the reviews for the upcoming Battlefield 3 first person shooter, as the PR department of its Norwegian branch has sent special questionnaires to members of the media that want early copies of the game, asking them things like their preference between Battlefield or Call of Duty.
Battlefield 3 is getting ready to be released next week so it's usual for media outlets to ask for early copies and get their reviews ready just when the game is being released into stores.
While this usually entails just getting in touch with the PR representatives of the publishers and supplying your address, for Battlefield 3, EA has asked media representatives to take part in an online survey.
The questions asked by EA cover all sorts of things, from the reviewer's past experience with the Battlefield franchise, to his preference between it and the Call of Duty series. Check out the full list below, courtesy of PC Gamer.
Did the reviewer personally review Battlefield: Bad Company 2 or Black Ops? What score did he give it? What is his past experience with Battlefield? Is he a fan of Battlefield? Is he a fan of Call of Duty? Has he been playing BF Franchise? BFBC2? 1943? BF2? Has he expressed enthusiasm or concern for BF3? What are they? Did he play the beta? Did he enjoy it / get frustrated with it? What is his present view on the game? As you can see, EA conditions the release of review copies pretty blatantly, so you can imagine the waves this questionnaire generated when it hit the web.
EA's Norway marketing manager, Oliver Sveen, made an official statement afterward, saying that the survey was sent to media outlets due to a human error.
"It is a human error that was sent out," he said. "We have made a mistake and we apologize. It is not something that should have happened earlier or [that] we intend to continue."
EA, as a whole, didn't comment on the issue and, so far, it seems that the questionnaire was only sent out to Norwegian media representatives. Hopefully, for the sake of Battlefield 3 and the public image of EA, this sort of behavior will stop and the company will let reviewers do their actual jobs.