Mass Effect 3

THE BUZZ: EA has reportedly received several thousand letters and emails criticizing their inclusion of lesbian and gay content in its games.

People have been sending the letters and emails threatening to boycott the publisher’s games if it doesn’t remove same-sex relationships. EA has stated it refuses to be influenced by these threats. Some critics claim that EA is being pressured to include the contentand is forcing it on children, while others say that EA is deleting all anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) posts from its official forums.

Jeff Brown, VP of corporate communications at EA, told GameIndustry.biz:  ”Every one of EA’s games includes ESRB content descriptors so it’s hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn’t about protecting children, it’s about political harassment.”

“EA has not been pressured by any groups to include LGBT characters in our games. However, we have met with LBGT groups and sponsored industry forums to discuss content and harassment of players in online forums. In short, we do put options for same-sex relationships in our games; we don’t tolerate hate speech on our forums.”

EGM’s TAKE: We applaud EA for standing up for its beliefs and not succuming to pressure from small minded people. It’s actually quite sad to see hate mail in regards to this subject in the 21st century. EA are simply giving everyone a chance to play out a game as they wish, and isn’t that what games are designed for? We want to remind everyone that games are best when designed without barriers and can simply fuel our imaginations. Anything is supposed to be possible in these worlds, so why can’t players have the choice to have whatever kind of relationship they want?