EA Sports pledges to combat in-game racism

EA Sports has pledged to combat in-game racism in a statement posted over the weekend.

“We’re constantly taking action to maintain a culture of inclusion,” began a statement posted to Twitter. “Toxic behavior changes and evolves rapidly and we recognize that we need to do more to actively monitor and remove those individuals who perpetuate racist, xenophobic, homophobic or sexist behaviors in our games.”

EA Sports will review in-game filter lists to attempt to prevent players from naming created players and teams with racist slurs, something its titles have been known to allow for years (see below). Moreover, additional tools and resources will be made available to help report, review and remove racist players from franchises including NHL, Madden NFL and FIFA.

“But we won’t stop at these actions because we know we need to do better,” the statement continued. “We will keep listening and continue to take steps that can make an impact in fighting bias, discrimination and injustice. We are also reviewing the policies and steps we can take across our entire portfolio of games and we will share more with you in the coming weeks.”

Last week, EA CEO, Andrew Wilson, told employees the publisher would donate $1 million USD to organisations promoting anti-racism, promising to match personal donations made by employees.

EA Sports NHL makes individual statement

The EA Sports NHL account followed suit with a post of its own.

“Chel shouldn’t be a place for any form of hatred, bigotry or racism,” its statement reads. “We have manually actioned on thousands of accounts to date, but it hasn’t been enough, and that’s on us.

“This is only the beginning. We want to be a force in promoting inclusive and equal hockey culture and we will continue to take the proper steps towards achieving that.”

NHL 20, FIFA 20, Madden NFL 20 and NBA Live 19 are all available now.