Brianemone over at NZ site Geekpulp has inked a letter to EA’s one and only John Riccitello, demanding an explanation for the lack of multiplayer in its Wii title Medal of Honor: Heroes 2.
We’ve done our best to pry an answer from the publisher, but it’s reluctant to step up. Customers are free to return the game for a full refund and EA plans to amend the game’s manual, but it does nothing to appease our sense of justice.
While I’m all for an open letter, it’s unlikely to convince EA to act. The publisher has made it clear that as far as it is concerned, the matter is closed.
You can read the letter in its entirety after the jump.
Dear John (Riccitello)
I am very disappointed with the decision that was made by EA in the USA (as are many others) to remove the online multiplayer functionality of Medal of Honor – Heroes 2 for the Wii. As you might have been aware this was the one feature that had been anticipated by thousands of Wii owners in Australia and New Zealand. The Wii does not have many games that offer a competitive online environment, so removing what was promised to be a great asset to the Wii line-up came as even more of a blow.
I have a few questions that will not get answered without going directly to the source.
Firstly – Why? Why did you remove it completely? Was it because New Zealand and Australia did not have a large enough market to warrant setting up servers and providing the service? Sheer laziness? No-one could be bothered taking the effort to put in the leg work and get the service running? Was it not going to line enough pockets?
Secondly – When? When was this decision made? We did not find out about it until they were being sold in the shops while still being advertised as containing a 32 player online service. Some stores are still advertising that it does infact contain the Multiplayer component. How was such a promoted feature removed without a single person in EA New Zealand or Australia knowing about it? I literally had to put in the disc to find out that the feature had been totally removed.
The Pal regions generally get a raw deal when it comes to release dates, but gimping the game to remove the one feature that would set it apart from the rest is ridiculous. EA have started making changes for the better in the last year by introducing new IP’s and games that are genuinely fun, but things like this make me wonder if anything has changed at all.
Perhaps EA is still just after the quick buck and trying to cash in at our expense.
I invite gamers that take exception to being treated like second rate cash cows to speak up. Offering a refund for the game is not sufficient, we need an explanation as to why this happened, we need to know why you think it is OK for us to be treated with less respect than our UK/US counterparts.
I hope that you take this onboard and realise that should this sort of behaviour continue you will find that not only will people not buy the games that you try and sell with less features, but informed gamers will avoid your collective products due to the bitter after taste of being treated with little respect. Also consider the grief that it will have caused to EA NZ and EA Australia both of which do the best with what they are given. It’s not in the game John.
Yours Sincerely
Brianemone
Dear John, an open letter to EA [Geekpulp, thanks Carl]
Leave a Reply