After Delaying Battlefield V Release Date, EA DICE’s Open Beta Censors “White Man”
The new beta for [easyazon_link identifier=”B07DMGBZ39″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Battlefield V[/easyazon_link] is under way after EA DICE announced the game’s official release date would be delayed. And users playing the new beta have discovered the game is censoring a number of innocent words including variations of “white man,” “DLC,” and “Nazi.”
Reddit user Sara_Solo uploaded a photo showing how the word “white man” was censored.
YouTube user AngryJoeShow tried it himself during the Beta and recorded it on video:
EA community manager Jeff Braddock responded to the censorship in a post on the Battlefield V forums:
“One of the new features we’re working on is a profanity filter in-game to reduce toxicity.
That being said, we have heard some complaints that the filter is blocking words that aren’t profanity or shouldn’t be blocked, like “DLC”, etc. and isn’t blocking some words that should be (obviously, I will not be providing examples of these.)”
He added:
“Please note: This is a work-in-progress and we will be taking this feedback to tweak the sensitivity of the filter and improve its usage without censoring relevant conversation.
Healthy discussion is what drives improvement in our games, and we’d never want to impede that.Thanks for bringing your concerns to us regarding the current iteration of the profanity filter and we’ll keep working on it.”
This censorship comes in the wake of EA delaying Battlefield V, EA DICE General Manager Oskar Gabrielson announced the game would be delayed a month. It would launch on November 20, 2018 instead of its previously scheduled release date of October 19, 2018. Gabrielson explained they delayed the game to “make some meaningful improvements to the core gameplay experience, including adjusting the gameplay tempo, improving soldier visibility and reducing player friction.”
However, this announcement came after a report from CNBC suggested Battlefield V would be a “serious disappointment.” In fact, they reported that Battlefield V lagged behind the new Call of Duty by 85% in pre-sales. They added, “This is very far off the tracking levels of previous Battlefield titles in 2011, 2013, and 2016. With a release date directly in between CoD and RDR, we worry that BFV could be headed for a similar fate as 2016’s Titanfall 2, which got squeezed out by its launch date directly between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.”
While the CNBC report suggested the low sales were due to competition, EA insulted their own customers following the release of the trailer at E3.
Former EA Chief Creative Officer Patrick Söderlund told fans not to buy the game after they criticized the historical accuracy of the game.
“And we don’t take any flak. We stand up for the cause, because I think those people who don’t understand it, well, you have two choices: either accept it or don’t buy the game. I’m fine with either or. It’s just not ok.”
Söderlund would leave the company in August.
EA DICE isn’t the only major video game company that has waded into a censorship controversy. Ubisoft came under fire for Rainbow Six Siege where they were banning players for “toxicity.”
Do you buy EA DICE’s explanation that their profanity filter is malfunctioning?
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