A new year means a new chance for companies to repeat the mistakes that others made in the old years…

For instance, if you recall, at the end of 2006, Microsoft decided that the best way to get people to review their new O/S - Vista - was to send them a free laptop to test it on. Was this seen as a bribe by some? No, it was seen as a bribe by most, and resulted in some bad publicity.

Apparently game publisher Electronic Arts has decided to go the same route, according to the popular online comic Penny Arcade, along with a review copy of their new ‘Orcs and Elves” game, they sent a new black Nintendo DS, just to make sure that the reviewers were able to play it. Here’s the comic, and note the email that the guys sent back to EA. A potential reputation management issue for EA? Sure, they’re getting called out here for pretty much the same issue that Microsoft ran into. I’ve already seen this comic showing up on social media sites, all they need is people to start blogging about it using words such as bribery in the copy, and who knows what may start to show up in their branded search results…

Comic by Penny Arcade