There’s a huge controversy going on here in the states regarding a bill called “SOPA”, which, if passed, will basically censor the Internet as we know it. It’s a corrupt piece of legislation introduced and supported by corrupt US politicians. However, some gaming companies support the bill as well, companies like Nintendo.
Recently, a number of game publishers and developers have come out against SOPA, the most recent being PC hardware maker Nvidia. Now, a petition demands that EA, the second largest publisher in the world, oppose the bill as well. And it’s no small petition: it’s already been signed by 120,000 gamers.
EA has announced that due to harsh censorship rules in Australia, the upcoming shooter Syndicate won’t see a release Down Under. EA told Joystiq that the game was recently refused classification in the country, which effectively bans it from stores, as most retailers won’t carry games that aren’t classified.
Developed by Starbreeze Studios, Syndicate is an upcoming first person shooter set in 2069, where multinational corporations (syndicates) rule the world and are fighting over dominance. The game is scheduled for release on Feb 21, 2012 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Battlefield 3 developer DICE and publisher EA have announced a video community challenge where players can make an awesome Battlefield 3 video and get a chance to win a trip to DICE headquarters in Sweden. In order to enter the “Only in Battlefield 3″ contest, you have to record and upload an unscripted Battlefield 3 video showing just how great/awesome you are at Battlefield 3. You can check out the full list of rules and regulations for the contest here.
Many different video game developers have made their mark on the community giving hopeful gamers a chance at grabbing the perfect game for them. However, while many games for traditional platforms are priced at $60 there are many games with a much smaller price tag giving gamers a chance at some great gameplay without breaking the ban. One such developer of these games is PopCap who have popular games like Plants vs. Zombies and Peggle.
While PopCap games have grown to be quite popular it seems that the company may be more valuable than we had originally thought. According to recent reports, EA is planning to purchase the indie game developer for a whopping $1 billion. Of course, at this point these reports remain nothing more than rumors so we’ll have to see how this one pans out.
In case you wanted Crysis 2 on Steam today, you’re out of luck: CryTek’s FPS, among other EA titles, are gone from Steam. This is most likely EA preparing to offer its own exclusive titles to its Origin download service, but EA has issues a statement saying otherwise:
According to EA, Crytek “has an agreement with another download service which violates some new rules imposed by Steam, resulting in the expulsion of Crysis 2 from Steam,”, EA told gaming site Giant Bomb. Apparently, new Steam rules forbid certain games from being offered on other services, but this is unconfirmed.
There are still a few AAA titles from EA on Steam, including Bad Company 2, Bulletstorm and Dragon Age 2. EA has said that they intend to have exclusive titles for their new Origin service, including tar Wars: The Old Republic.
EA recently released their financial results for the 4th quarter of fiscal year 2011, and they revealed just how anticipated Battlefield 3 has already become: the game has been pre-ordered seven times more than the previous Battlefield game, Bad Company 2. EA didn’t reveal just how many pre-orders the game received, but we’re sure it’ll translate into a lot of sales — Bad Company 2 sold 7 million units to date, a number which BF3 will certainly surpass.
EA also revealed that a mobile version of Battlefield 3 is coming, but didn’t revel any details or platforms. Expect BF3 to hit the iPhone at first, much like Bad Company 2 did. Although, we’d love to see a decent shooter on the Nintendo 3DS and/or the upcoming Sony NGP.
There’s a huge controversy going on here in the states regarding a bill called “SOPA”, which, if passed, will basically censor the Internet as we know it. It’s a corrupt piece of legislation introduced and supported by corrupt US politicians. However, some gaming companies support the bill as well, companies like Nintendo. 
