In June, EA removed Ultima Underworld and Syndicate from GoG, the only place where they could be digitally purchased. GoG announced this “at the request of the publisher,” but no one understood what Electronic Arts had to do with decades of games.
About 1.5 months later, EA reversed its decision and brought the games back to GoG, even bringing them back, and by September 3, anyone who wishes will be able to add them to their library for free (Ultima Underworld 1 and 2, Syndicate Plus and Syndicate Wars).
Chris Bruzzo, vice president of EA, said that “when making decisions that affect players, we spend time studying what their potential impact will be and assessing whether it is in the best interest of the players. We skipped this step when we removed Syndicate and Ultima Underworld from sale, so we didn’t really look at it from a player perspective.”
And when the reaction from the players was intense, they realized they’d made a mistake and regretted it. Bruzzo also said EA would then “make an assessment that highlights the player perspective prior to such removal decisions.”
“We’ve seen these games very popular, and more than two decades after their release, we realized that we had to reintroduce them to the players,” Bruzzo said. How does removing a game from sale help anyone, that part is already a mystery.