Over the weekend, EA unintentionally made a lot of people happy by accidentally sending out a rewards code that could be used by anyone. EA also angered those who had earned the credit but hadn’t used it by the time EA deactivated the code. Now the company is trying to set things right.

As we mentioned earlier, each person who filled out a survey was supposed to receive a $20 credit at EA’s online game store, Origin. But rather than send out unique codes, EA accidentally sent everyone the same code, one that could be used over and over again. And during an 18-hour period over the weekend it was used repeatedly. That is, until EA got wind of the error and shut that code down.

But what about all those people who had filled out the survey and hadn’t gotten around to cashing in on their reward? The folks at Kotaku have a pretty good round-up of the negative responseso, so it’s safe to say these people were unhappy that they were effectively being punished because of the company’s mistake and other consumers’ bad behavior.

So tonight, EA released the following statement:

Last week, we emailed some Origin users in North America asking them to participate in an online survey, and offered a promo code for $20 off their next Origin purchase in return for completing the survey. Unfortunately, due to some misuses of the promo code, we had to discontinue its use early before its stated expiration date.

We wanted to clear up the confusion: all users that completed the survey will receive an email soon (in the next 1-2 days) which will contain a new code for $20 off a purchase of any EA game on Origin priced $19.99 or above.

Thank you again to all users that took the time to provide us with feedback about Origin.

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