Recently, EA delisted a handful of titles from the GOG storefront which included Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld 2, Syndicate Plus, and Syndicate Wars which caused a bit of ruckus among fans online. EA has since relisted all these games, and marketeer Chris Bruzzo told GamesIndustry.biz about what caused the removal of these titles.
The matter of fact is that EA forgot to take players of these classic titles into consideration and as a result – these titles were removed from the storefront. Bruzzo expresses his gratitude for players’ interest in these games decades after release, and EA has started a promotional offer which gives these games for free until September 3.
“When making decisions that affect players we take the time to review exactly what the potential impacts are and whether they serve the players best interests,” Bruzzo said. “When we delisted Syndicate and Ultima Underworld we missed that step and so didn’t fully consider the players perspective.”
“From the level of interest players showed in delisting these games, it was clear that people still wanted them to be available, so we did two things. The first was to ensure that going forward we have a process in place that considers the player perspective in listing decisions. The second was to relist the titles and make them available to as many people as possible with a month-long promotion.”
EA is by no means perfect, but has shown signs of improvements following the botched release of Star Wars Battlefront 2 in 2017. It still makes a few missteps here and there – with ridiculous pricing for next-gen versions Battlefield 2042 and FIFA 22, for instance. You can read more about the company’s recent moves and stature through here.