A joke made by EA's official Twitter account making fun of single player games did not go well for the company – and the internet's reaction forced the company to address its mistake.
Getting on board with a popular meme, EA tweeted (below) "they're a 10 but they only like playing single-player games". The tweet in itself was a little odd, given that EA itself publishes plenty of single player games including Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and The Sims 4, but what started as perhaps just a poorly-chosen joke escalated once the post gained traction.
Twitter users, including the head of EA's Respawn Entertainment Vince Zampella, YouTuber Jacksepticeye, and the Game Awards host Geoff Keighley all shared in the disparagement in the replies, while plenty of others made fun of and criticised EA in retaliation.
Roast well deserved. We’ll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11. https://t.co/PNg4FKOgfB
— Electronic Arts (@EA) July 1, 2022
Some tweets compared Jedi Fallen Order with EA's multiplayer Star Wars game, Battlefront II – which was heavily criticised when it was launched for its microtransactions and loot box system – while others pointed out that EA has recently announced a remake of the (single player) Dead Space and (another single player game) Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
The mostly negative 10,000 quote tweets and nearly 9,000 replies prompted EA itself to acknowledge the blunder. Four hours after the original post, the company tweeted: "Roast well deserved. We’ll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.