Earlier this week, social circles lit up when it was discovered that the chat function on the EA app on PC was censoring mentions of ‘ARC Raiders’. In a series of images circulated on social media, it was shown that other game titles could be written just fine, but ARC Raiders was veiled by asterisks, as though it were some dirty term.
I’ve just personally booted the EA app and checked the state of play, and can confirm that I’m able to now send messages related to ARC Raiders.
Glitch or Something Deeper?
It’s possible this was some kind of convoluted glitch, but it’s admittedly not a good look for Electronic Arts.
ARC Raiders is an upcoming extraction shooter from Embark Studios, a company headed by Patrick Soderlund, former EVP at Electronic Arts and once upon a time the CEO of DICE.
ARC Raiders has had some stunning success with playtests this year, and the game is set to be released on October 30, a mere twenty days after Battlefield 6 hits the market.
This week, any references to ARC Raiders were being censored by Electronic Arts on the EA app, and nobody could figure out why. Fast forward to today, and the censorship has disappeared, tested by yours truly mere minutes before writing this:
I can’t say for sure how long the term has been uncensored.
It’s possible this was a bizarre glitch, but given that no other terms or game titles suffered from the issue, it seems strange. I’ve reached out to Electronic Arts to determine if this was a legitimate technical hiccup or if something deeper was happening.
Is it possible that something petty occurred at Electronic Arts, and some burst of corporate jealousy pushed an executive into demanding the term be censored without anyone knowing?
Probably not.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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