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EA did not mislead consumers about how much player choices would influence the ending of Mass Effect 3, the Advertising Standard Agency has ruled.
The Mass Effect 3 website stated: “Your choices drive powerful outcomes, including relationships with key characters, the fate of entire civilisations, and even radically different ending scenarios.”
However, the ASA received complaints that BioWare and EA had overplayed the extent to which player choices affected the game’s ending.
The ESA has revealed that the complaint has not been upheld, but acknowledges player complaints.
“The ASA acknowledged the complainants’ belief that players’ choices in the game did not influence the outcome to the extent claimed by EA.
“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 EMS 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 ME3, and that those were directly impacted by choices made by players earlier in the game(s).
“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.”
Will EA use the same advertising to promote the upcoming Wii U version of Mass Effect 3?
