EA boss: ‘Games should court controversy’

Game creators should spark outrage from the national press in order to promote product, a key EA executive has said.

Electronic Arts’ Games Label boss Frank Gibeau said his firm “loves Fox News”, after the broadcaster last year dedicated airtime to condemn EA’s Medal of Honor game.

In August, Fox News ran a segment entitled ‘Video Game Lets You Be the Taliban’ – an accusation that, despite its sketchiness, pushed Medal Of Honor into the commercial conscience of the masses.

“Controversy isn’t a bad thing”, Gibeau said in an interview with IndustryGamers.

“I personally believe you should court controversy,” he said.

The extraordinary claim would imply that EA has surreptitiously incited moral outrage in the past.

At least three games published by EA have previously attracted Fox News coverage. On top of the Medal Of Honor frenzy, the newsgroup has dedicated airspace to Bulletstorm and Mass Effect.

Gibeau cooled his claim by insisting controversy should be created “in a way that matches the creative integrity of the game”.

“You shouldn’t do it in a gratuitous way,” he said, “but if it matches the creativity of the game [you should]. I loved it when Fox News did the ‘lesbian aliens in Mass Effect’ news angle. I love when they covered the Taliban In Medal Of Honor; I loved it when they covered the Bulletstorm stuff.

“In each one of those cases, it was true to the game and we were trying to do something creatively. The fact that their point of view is different than ours and represented an audience out there is fine by me. I felt we could stand up and defend what we did and be aggressive about it and be proud of it."