EA is being lambasted by both gamers and industry veterans for publishing a tweet that appears to mock people who only enjoy single-player games and refuse to give multiplayer titles a chance. “They’re a 10 but they only like playing single-player games,” the publisher tweeted yesterday, a statement that was inspired by the popular meme format in which TikTok users rate someone with a number but ends it with a negative trait that might reduce their score. EA’s tweet has drawn the ire of at least a handful of industry heavyweights since its appearance on the company’s official Twitter account yesterday, including Vince Zampella, founder of Respawn Entertainment, who reacted to the message with a face palm emoji—something that should come as no surprise to anyone who’s familiar with the EA subsidiary’s acclaimed projects, which include Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a single-player adventure. Santa Monica Studios’ Cory Barlog, who’s currently working on the highly anticipated sequel to God of War, also chimed in to defend single-player games. EA now claims that gamers who prefer single-player games are an 11.
They’re a 10 but they only like playing single-player games
— Electronic Arts (@EA) June 30, 2022
🤦🏼♂️
— Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) July 1, 2022
single-player games forever❤️
— cory barlog (@corybarlog) July 1, 2022
Roast well deserved. We’ll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11. https://t.co/PNg4FKOgfB
— Electronic Arts (@EA) July 1, 2022
Almost immediately, the tweet went viral in a very bad way, as EA was apparently trying to dunk on single player games, which makes little sense for a number of reasons.
While yes, EA is reliant on multiplayer hits these days from Apex Legends to FIFA to Madden, this is a company who has brought us both the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, and recently released Jedi: Fallen Order, where a sequel is literally being made as we speak. All excellent single player games.
And their multiplayer track record is certainly far from spotless, from the last two Battlefront games, to Battlefield 2042, to Anthem, the abandoned BioWare co-op multiplayer shooter which actually started trending yesterday after this tweet.