Report: EA Bribed Star Wars Battlefront Reddit Mods to Remove Negative Posts

When a hotly anticipated title such as Electronic Arts' upcoming Star Wars Battlefront is announced, gamers understandably become excited. They look to gaming websites for new information on the game, and join communities such as Reddit to talk about it, and the excitement builds.

Sometimes, there are things about a game that could be concerning, or negative, and these communities serve as a medium to discuss these concerns. But, according to a report from now ex-Reddit moderator, Unwanted_Commentary, the Star Wars Battlefront subreddit has not been a place for negative discussion.

In a post on the subreddit r/KotakuInAction, Unwanted_Commentary (from here on noted as U_C) describes the nefarious plot. Certain moderators of the subreddit were given alpha access to the game, in exchange for signing an NDA not to talk about it or allow anyone (including non-moderators) to make any Alpha posts. U_C also alleges that the moderation team were given Star Wars merchandise and tickets to a Star Wars festival in exchange for this action, and leaked a Skype chat allegedly showing the head moderator calling for posts suggesting they were bribed to be deleted because "the sticky proves we're going to stop doing it".

U_C also posted a Skype chat alleging that EA employees were suggesting who and what posts to moderate. The full r/KotakuInAction post also includes accusations of monetizing YouTube videos and alleged astroturfing by EA employees or subreddit moderators, who responded to negative comments by drumming up its positives, such as “cinematic experiences”.

While the Star Wars Battlefront subreddit team has not specifically addressed individual allegations, they did acknowledge that there was corruption in a post looking for new moderators.

We likely will never know the full story behind this situation, due to the veil of secrecy covering the story, but if these allegations are true, it sends a terrible message that Electronic Arts will do anything for positive coverage, including censoring and discrediting any negative coverage. Regardless of whether or not Star Wars Battlefront turns out to be a good game, these allegations suggest that EA is willing to do anything to make you believe it’s a good game. And since this is coming from the same company that manipulated Dungeon Keeper reviews to keep its review score high on mobile app stores, it’s hard to give EA the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Electronic Arts has not commented on the allegations.