Electronic Arts is apologizing for the recent decision to delist older entries in the Ultima series from the GOG Storefront, and has promised to both reverse the decision and offer the games for free in a short promotion running through September.
This fracas began back at the end of June when GOG informed customers that Ultima Underworld 1+2, Syndicate Plus and Syndicate Wars, would be delisted from the store. GOG and EA announced the games would be relisted in early August.
Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz, EA vice president of marketing, commercial, and positive play Chris Bruzzo explained that the experience of delisting and relisting the games has led the publisher to rethink how it decides where and how digital games are sold, and it aims to avoid similar dust-ups in the future.
“When making decisions that affect players we take the time to review exactly what the potential impacts are and whether they serve the players best interests,” he told GI.biz’s James Batchelor. “When we delisted Syndicate and Ultima Underworld we missed that step and so didn’t fully consider the players’ perspective.”
Bruzzo said that EA will now be more considerate of player interest in these older titles going forward. He also said that the company was moved by how much love fans had for these older titles.