BioWare "answering the call" of Black Ops 2 players with Mass Effect 2 discs

Yesterday we reported that around 1,000 buyers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 had discovered their disc 2 contained not more military manshoot, but BioWare's space epic Mass Effect 2. Embarrassing for Activision, sure - supplying their customers with one of their rivals biggest franchises probably wasn't high on their key strategies - but it was always going to be EA's reaction that proved the most interesting.

Do they press the big red "deploy lawyers" button, or the smaller, dustier "have a bit of fun with it" button? Fortunately, for now, it appears to be the latter. Bioware have issued a blog post to the affected players, questioning whether it was a mistake or "an omen."

"If the universe thinks that you should be playing Mass Effect right now, who are we to argue?" In that spirit they've guaranteed to give the first 50 people to send them a picture of their swapped disc to community@bioware.com a free code for the entire Mass Effect trilogy.

Of course, as this video shows , the affected discs were still printed with a standard Black Ops 2 picture. But surely no-one would think to send a picture of a regular old disc in the knowledge that nobody could tell the difference. Right?

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.