Mass Effect 3 advertising 'not misleading' ad watchdog concludes

An advertising watchdog agency has cleared Electronic Arts in an investigation whether the publisher's Mass Effect 3 ads misled gamers about how their actions would impact the ending of the game.

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Vocal haters of the Mass Effect 3 ending won't be happy, but an advertising watchdog agency has cleared Electronic Arts in an investigation whether the publisher's ads for the game misled players about how their actions would impact the finale.

A ruling from the Advertising Standards Agency determined that, while EA may have overreached a bit in its claims in a Mass Effect 3 ad that "decisions you make completely shape your experience and outcome," the three endings were different enough and the outcomes were determined by how the players performed in the three games.

The ASA, which got involved after complaints about the ads, continued (via CVG):

"We also acknowledged that there appeared to be a large number of minor variations in the end stages of Mass Effect 3, and that those were directly impacted by choices made by players earlier in the game(s). Whilst we acknowledged that the advertiser had placed particular emphasis on the role that player choices would play in determining the outcome of the game, we considered that most consumers would realise there would be a finite number of possible outcomes within the game and, because we considered that the advertiser had shown that players' previous choices and performance would impact on the ending of the game, we concluded that the ad was not misleading."

BioWare will be releasing Extended Cut DLC for free later this summer that offers a bit more explanation of the ending.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 13, 2012 12:00 PM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Mass Effect 3 advertising 'not misleading' ad watchdog concludes.

    An advertising watchdog agency has cleared Electronic Arts in an investigation whether the publisher's Mass Effect 3 ads misled gamers about how their actions would impact the ending of the game.

    • reply
      June 13, 2012 12:09 PM

      Awesome. Let the haters be hatin! I thought the ending was fine.

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        June 13, 2012 3:31 PM

        The ending sucked but I hardly put that on the realms of false advertising.

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      June 13, 2012 12:15 PM

      The complaints some gamers levy are truly embarrassing. There are so many more egregious instances of false advertising every day than this stupidity.

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        June 13, 2012 12:28 PM

        [deleted]

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          June 13, 2012 2:07 PM

          yes, but at least that was just a stupid internet poll that's easy for nerds to sperg on

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        June 13, 2012 9:11 PM

        I think maybe...just maybe...someone at EA/Bioware took a note regarding this entire fiasco.

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      June 13, 2012 2:05 PM

      [deleted]

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      June 13, 2012 2:33 PM

      DLC ending right here:

      the game will read your save game from every previous Mass Effect game. It will figured out every single NPC you interacted with in any way, then have a montage of every single one dying. then credits as shep dies4reel

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      June 13, 2012 10:29 PM

      I didn't mind the ending so much... well beyond the one weird part the Normandy. Most I didn't feel satisfied with the ending because of the utter lack of additional story about the people's of the galaxy after the final event. What the FU happened to everyone and everything? Bleh.

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      June 13, 2012 10:30 PM

      what the hell? the ending may be shit. it might be the worst, most cop-out ending of all time. that doesn't mean the customers are entitled to some specific level of ending quality.

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      June 14, 2012 12:59 AM

      The only really misleading thing about ME3 for me is the "you will get all endings only playing SP", while it has been proven that 4k EMS, needed for all endings, is not possible in SP alone and you have to play mobile apps and/or MP to get it. Which was a really dick move to get people into paid apps and microtransactions.

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