EA Atones For Years Of Anti-Customer Behavior By Accidentally Giving Away Thousands Of Games For Free

Image courtesy of Shep to the rescue

Mass Effect 3

Video game publisher Electronic Arts is the reigning Worst Company In America for, among other things, its history of nickel-and-diming customers by withholding content only to sell it later as marked-up add-ons. It’s only fitting that someone at EA screwed up and released a code that allowed people to score thousands of games for the low price of absolutely nothing.

The code, which was supposed to be a thank-you gift to select individuals who filled out a survey, allowed the user to download a free game EA’s online game store, Origin.

Except, someone out there noticed that the code was not unique, but was identical for everyone. Which meant that it could be used repeatedly to download game after game after game.

And once that news hit Reddit, well you can imagine the dog pile that happened as customer after customer copied-and-pasted their way to freebie versions of the following:

Dead Space
Dead Space 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age: Awakening
Dragon Age II
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
NFS Shift
NFS Hot Pursuit
NFS Undercover
NFS Shift 2 Unleashed
NFS World ($20 speed boost credit included)
Medal of Honor
Littilest Pet Shop
Burnout Paradise the Ultimate Box
MySims
Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight
Command & Conquer 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising
Mass Effect 1
Mass Effect 2
Battlefield 2 Complete Collection
Battlefield 2142 Deluxe Edition
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam DLC
Battlefield Bad Company 2 SPECACT Kit Upgrades
FIFA Soccer 12
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
Sim City 4
SimCity Societies
SimCity Societies: Destinations
Mirror’s Edge
Mirror’s Edge DLC
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Shank
Shank 2
Spore
The Saboteur
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix™
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows™ – Part 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows™ – Part 2
Bulletstorm
Sims 3 add-ons

Amazingly, it took about 18 hours before EA noticed the goof and deactivated the code. As CNET’s Charlie Osborne points out, while plenty of people made out like bandits on this deal, the customers who actually completed the survey but hadn’t gotten around to using their code may be up a creek without a free paddle.

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