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UPDATE (9/6/20) - EA has responded to the fan outcry caused by intrusive ads in UFC 4 on Reddit and has confirmed that they "have been disabled by the team and we apologize for any disruption to gameplay that players may have experienced.” The full statement is as follows;
"I’m part of the Community team here at EA and I wanted to post here and give you all an update on this situation. Earlier this week, the team turned on ad placements in EA SPORTS UFC 4 that appeared during the “Replay” moments in gameplay. This type of advertising inventory is not new to the UFC franchise, though we have typically reserved displaying ads to specific main menu tiles or Octagon logo placement."
"It is abundantly clear from your feedback that integrating ads into the Replay and overlay experience is not welcome. The advertisements have been disabled by the team and we apologize for any disruption to gameplay that players may have experienced. We realize that this should have been communicated with players ahead of time and that’s on us."
"We want to make sure our players have the best possible experience playing EA SPORTS UFC 4, so ad integration in the Replay and overlay experience will not be reappearing in the future. Thank you for your continued feedback on EA SPORTS UFC 4."
Original story follows.
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EA has put in-game ads into EA Sports UFC 4 a few weeks after release, and its fans are not happy about it.
Reddit user Ydino shared a clip of the in-game ads, which do seem intrusive, and they note that it was added "a month after it's [sic] release so it wasn't talked about in reviews."
Additionally, Ydino brings up that UFC 4 is a $60 game and not a free-to-play title that is using ads in lieu of charging the player an entry fee.
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This particular clip features marketing from Amazon's The Boys' second season. There is a full-screen advertisement during replays, its logo appears on the octagon, and it also appears above the timer on the bottom of the screen.
EA Sports UFC 4 was released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on August 14, 2020. In our review of UFC 4, we said "is a largely iterative sequel that tightens up some looser parts, makes a few smart tweaks here and there, and doesn’t rock the boat all that much. And in that sense, it’s a success. Longstanding problems still remain in the ground game and some dated visuals, but without any competition for the title, EA Sports UFC 4 still remains the king of combat sports."
At launch, UFC 4 did feature microtransactions in the form of an in-game currency called UFC Points. These UFC Points can be used to buy cosmetic items, but have no impact on the game. Additionally, there were brands featured on the octagon, but the full-screen ads recently seen were not.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.