Star Wars: A PR Awakening

Star Wars is one of the largest and most profitable franchises in the world. So as you can imagine the long awaited video game, Star Wars Battlefront II, caused quite the commotion upon release. However, it wasn't received with all the glory that the developing company, Electronic Arts, had hoped. Instead, they were met with widespread criticism regarding their "micro-transaction"method for gameplay. Gameplayers who purchased the game at a price of $60, do not have access to the iconic characters in the Star Wars Franchise. Instead, they have to credit up to 40 hours of gameplay, or purchase the characters at a cost.

Star Wars Battlefront II Video Game

Obviously, this was not received well by the gaming community who felt that Electronic Arts were exploiting the community for their own greed. The Verge which is a popular News and Media network wrote on the controversy and stated, "while EA is encouraging players to pay money to essentially skip this process. Is the company just being nakedly hostile and money-grabbing?" Comments like this were posted all over Reddit, which is an online forum very popular with the gaming community. Electronic Arts decided to respond on the forum and soon realized that their response was not welcomed.

According to many customers of EA, the company does not do a great job listening to their consumers and taking their suggestions. EA chose to respond in a forum where there was a lot of animosity and frustration and their response which can be found here, did not come off as apologetic but was instead seen as a justification. This relates back to the course text when it says that PR is a two way process and listening to the customer is an important tool when handling a PR issue. EA has a history of doing the opposite of what their customers want in pursuit of more profits. Unfortunately, they will learn that the inability to listen to their base, will lead to a departure of their most valued supporters.