The release of Madden NFL 11 this summer will mark the beginning of a new shift in policy for publisher Electronic Arts—they will sell all the in-game advertisements themselves.

Previously the company had relied on third-party in-game ad specialists, such as Massive Inc. and IGA Worldwide reports MediaWeek. EA’s Senior Vice President of Global Media Sales Elizabeth Harz said the move would allow EA to offer more elaborate,” integrated packages to advertisers.”

Ubisoft’s new DRM scheme, which requires a constant Internet connection to authenticate game sessions, had a bit of a hick up this weekend.

Ubi posted to its Twitter feed this morning apologizing to “anyone who couldn’t play ACII [Assassin’s Creed II] or SH5 [Silent Hunter 5] yesterday.” While the company originally blamed the outage on “exceptional demand,” Ubi stated on its Twitter feed that their servers were “attacked, which limited service from 2:30pm to 9pm Paris time.”

Ubisoft added that “95% of players were not affected, but a small group of players attempting to open a game session did receive denial of service errors.”

Joystiq also points us towards a thread on the Ubisoft forums in which the affected “5%” voice their displeasure.

GP: On a related note, I grabbed Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for the PC this weekend and during the install was prompted to choose my favored method of DRM—disc-based or online authentication (I chose disc-based). In a perfect world there would be no need for DRM, but if it is required, this method of offering the user a choice at least goes a little way towards lessening the impact (and might make DRM-based gaming functionable on an Army base or a cruise ship). Bad Company 2 uses Sony’s SecuROM technology.

As another aside, while the DRM tech worked fine, Bad Company 2 had its own online problems for a little bit yesterday, though their issues appeared to be Punkbuster-related.


|Thanks PHX Corp and DarkSaber!|

Unless your domicile is under a rock you are probably aware that Activision has sacked the two heads of Call of Duty maker Infinity Ward, over what it termed insubordination.

Following their dismissal, President Jason West and CEO Vince Zampella filed a lawsuit against Activision Publishing, alleging that the pair’s contracts were terminated “weeks before they were to be paid substantial royalty payments as part of their existing contracts for Modern Warfare 2.” The suit claims “breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, wrong termination in violation of public policy, and declaratory relief.” 

The duo’s lawyer, Robert Schwartz of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, stated:

Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual 'investigation' into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.”

Additionally, a press release announcing the lawsuit stated:

Modern Warfare 2 is arguably one of the most successful games in history and together with Call of Duty, has generated more than $3 billion in sales for Activision.  In addition, Activision seized control of the Infinity Ward studio, to which Activision had previously granted creative control over all Modern Warfare-branded games.  The suit was filed to vindicate the rights of West and Zampella to be paid the compensation they have earned, as well as the contractual rights Activision granted to West and Zampella to control Modern Warfare-branded games.

In response to the lawsuit, Activision stated that it “was disappointed” and believes that the claims are “meritless.” G4 managed to get their hands on internal legal documents from Activision which indicated that the company is looking for documents to possibly use against West and Zampella.

Here’s what Activision is looking for specifically:

• "Documents regarding past, current or future IW projects, including but not limited to any and all businesses analyses of future projects (e.g. Modern Warfare 3)"
• "Documents regarding any potential 'spin out' of IW, including but not limited to any communications with IW employees, West or Zampella regarding forming a new studio independent of Activision"
• "Documents regarding West and Zampella's communications with Activision's competitors, including but not limited to Electronic Arts"

So, it appears Activision’s actions against the IW pair may have been in reaction to a fear that they were going to jump ship to another publisher or form their own new studio.  Note that when Infinity Ward was formed in 2002, it was made up of a group of former developers from 2015, Inc., who developed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, which was in turn published by Electronic Arts.

Those that need to catch up on the drama should head over to G4, which has been all over the “Fall of Duty” story.

A story on GameSpot features the opinions of Electronic Arts and Aliens vs. Predator developer Rebellion as related to the R18+ videogame rating discussion ongoing in Australia.

The Aliens vs. Predator game was originally Refused Classification by The Classification Board before successfully winning an appeal and an MA15+ rating. Rebellion producer Paul Mackman spoke to GameSpot about Rebellion’s position that it would not modify the game to appease censors:

This was important to us and something Sega agreed with, and I think they handled the appeal process very well. It reached a successful result and you guys get to play the game and that's the important thing. The politics aside, [it’s] really not for me to comment on.

Mackman indicated that keeping the game true to the film source was Rebellion’s top priority, “…it's fair to say these are fiendish monsters from outer space and they do commit violent acts. Those are all represented in the films, so I don't think we would be true to the licence if we didn't portray that.”

Electronic Arts, who most recently clashed with the rating board over Left 4 Dead 2, provided a statement on their backing of an R18+ rating category:

Government policies that refuse to rate mature content effectively censor the content that adult players want to play. This shows a poor understanding of exactly who plays interactive games in Australia. The spectrum of gamers is as wide as the viewership of television, movies, theatre, and the readers of books.

A government policy that keeps our games out of stores and forces developers to rewrite code is censorship. Age rating systems are designed to help people make appropriate content choices for the right age groups.

In a related article, GameSpot notes that both the Australian Sex Party and the Pirate Party Australia have thrown their weight behind the introduction of an R18+ videogame rating category, while more traditional parties, such as the Greens and The Federal Coalition, have adopted a wait and see attitude.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam did offer his take on South Australian Attorney general Michael Atkinson however:

I think the position he took to block the rest of the country from moving forward was really unhelpful, and I don’t think he necessarily provided the arguments to back up the position he took.

Thanks Ryan!

As part of a campaign designed to boost recruitment, the French Army introduced a new campaign that uses the slogan “Devenez vous-même” or “Be Yourself,” and directs interested parties to visit the website DevenezVousMeme.com.

The French Army ad appears to have caught the eye of Electronic Arts, as an article on LusoGamer (translated) points out that an ad for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 appears to have somewhat appropriated the French Army slogan. The similarities were not very difficult to notice as the giant ads appeared right next to each other (picture) in a French subway station. EA’s ad directed users towards the (inactive) website DevenezPlusQueVous-meme.com, which translates to “Be More Than Yourself.”

Army General Philippe Pontiès didn’t find much humor in the matter, telling French website Ecrans (translated) that:

We are clearly in a situation of abuse of slogan. So far, our campaign is working very well, we have very good returns.

The General also noted that the army has been advertising in videogames, with good results, and, ironically enough, has advertised in select EA game, such as NHL 10, NBA Live 10 and Need For Speed Pro Street. The General made it clear that the Army advertises only in racing or sports games, never army or military-themed games.

The ad appropriation issue has apparently been resolved through dialog between the Army’s agency and Electronic Arts.


Thanks Emanuel!

Electronic Arts’ Dante’s Inferno will not be released in the Middle East.

EA didn’t even bother to submit the game to censors reports GamesLatest, apparently realizing that a game focused on the nine circles of Hell would be destined for banning, much like the treatment Darksiders, God of War and Grand Theft Auto IV received in the past from the United Arab Emirates.

In a statement, EA said, “Electronic Arts has decided not to release Dante’s Inferno in the Middle East after an evaluation process which is based on consumer tastes, preferences, platform mix and other factors.”

If a circle of Hell had to be applied to this story, the First Circle appears most appropriate—Limbo.

Thanks gellymatos!

As part of its annual awards, the National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers Corp. will honor the founder of GamePolitics with a special award.

Dennis McCauley, who also wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer in addition to manning the helm here, will be receiving a special Honorary Award for his “contributions to the gaming community and gaming journalism.”

Additionally, 209 nominees were announced across 47 categories for awards designed to pay respect to the interactive entertainment industry’s best in the fields of art technology and production. Sony led the way with 47 total nominations, followed by Electronic Arts with 28, Activision with 20 and Eidos with 18.

Game of the Year nominees include Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Batman: Arkham Asylum also led the way among games in total nominations, with 17, followed closely by Uncharted 2’s 16 nominations.

A voting body of 640 journalists and writers picked the nominees. Winners will be announced on February 27.

Congratulations Dennis!

A Super Bowl advertisement for Electronic Arts’ Dante’s Inferno game has fallen victim to CBS censors.

An original version of the ad had utilized the tagline “Go to Hell,” but that phrase was deemed to over the top for viewers of this Sunday’s big game and CBS rejected it. The Hollywood Reporter blog reports that EA will instead substitute the more sedate tagline “Hell Awaits” instead.

Another HR blog showcases a few more rejected Super Bowl ads and asks “What's a better value: spending $3 million plus production costs to air a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl or saving that $3 million when standards and practices lawyers at CBS reject the ad and everyone talks about the commercial anyway?”

Tim Tebow’s Super Bowl spots, paid for by Focus on the Family, are still set to air despite protests from pro-choice groups.

Thanks JT!

The Supreme Court of the United States is scheduled to hear the American Needle v. NFL case today and a decision could have an impact on gamers.

The crux of the case has American Needle contending that the NFL’s exclusive apparel agreement with Reebok limits competition and is a violation of the Sherman Act, in part because the NFL's (consisting of 32 privately-owned teams) and NFL Properties' (equally-owned by all 32 teams) agreement with Reebok does not allow for American Needle to negotiate apparel deals with individual NFL teams.

It’s also argued that the exclusive contract with Reebok has led to higher prices for consumers.

The NFL claims that it acts as a single entity, even though it is comprised of numerous teams.

LawsofPlay offers some opinions on the case and what might happen once a ruling comes down.

On the NFL as a single entity:

While there are a number of good reasons to maintain the NFL’s current licensing arrangements, it does not seem to me that the long history of competition between NFL teams–including ticket sales and media rights–supports the idea that the NFL should be considered a single entity.

Things could get weird in the videogame world if the NFL loses the case. LawsofPlay serves up this scenario:

Rather than appealing to a single business or organization, such as the NFLP, publishers would be able to negotiate with individual teams.  While this could lead to more competition in the sports gaming markets, it could also lead to really wonky arrangements–imagine EA releasing an NFL game with 20 NFL teams and a dozen or so fantasy teams to round out the roster while 2K releases a game with the 12 NFL teams missing from EA’s game and a handful of its own fantasy teams.

Additionally:

…publishers could consider the cost to license individual marks and opt only to enter into agreements with the teams that seemed economically “worth it.”  After all, it is possible that a publisher does not derive as much value from including the Lions in their game as they do from including the Packers.

In a blog on EASports.com, President Peter Moore announced that Tiger Woods would remain the face of its videogame golf franchise, ending a month of speculation.

Moore explained the company’s reasoning:

By his own admission, he’s made some mistakes off the course.  But regardless of what’s happening in his personal life, and regardless of his decision to take a personal leave from the sport, Tiger Woods is still one of the greatest athletes in history.

Of course the fact that Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online is nearing release may have played some part in EA’s decision. Removing him from the nearly completed game, never mind extracting itself from a contract with Woods, would no doubt have proven a formidable task.

EA’s decision to stay with Tiger comes in light of AT&T, Accenture Plc and Procter & Gamble (Gillette) all dropping the libido-laden golfer, while Nike, Upper Deck and now EA, have kept Tiger on board.

A Business Week opinion piece says it’s time for Tiger’s sponsors to forgive and forget:

When corporations attempt to set themselves up as moral arbiters, they just end up making themselves look out of touch.

The author argues that in standing by a spokesperson who is going through tough times, “sponsors would emerge with more respect,” adding:

… sponsors have misunderstood why they wanted celebrity endorsements in the first place. They need authenticity, not bland corporate perfection. If corporations aren’t willing to accept that their “ambassadors” are real people, with all the flaws and fallibilities that come with that package, there is no point in having them on the payroll.

Many game companies strive for realism when creating games based on real-world locales. Topography, architecture and landmarks are given detailed consideration and review. Military games even look at uniforms, weapons and hardware to provide the most realistic experience possible for the gamer.

So how could a company that puts so much effort into those details screw up the language on signs in a map? Apparently that's what happened with the Karachi map in Modern Warfare 2, as a Pakistani reader at Kotaku picked up on the faux pas, noticing that Arabic was used instead of Pakistan's Urdu language.

According to reader Saad:

"Infinity Ward probably thought, 'Oh hey its a Muslim country so Arabic is the language,'" says Saad. "To someone who doesn't know urdu won't be able to tell the difference," Saad explains. "It's like Spanish and English, I guess. Some letters are same, some are different but the words are completely different."

GP: Urdu is nowhere to be found on the map, only Arabic. Someone obviously didn't do their homework and its mistake for a game already wrapped in enough controversy, be it calculated and planned or not.

The class-action lawsuit by college quarterback Sam Keller against the NCAA and EA Sports was front and center over the weekend in an eight-minute segment on ESPN's Outside the Lines.

The suit is contesting the use of college athlete likenesses in the EA Sports' NCAA Football franchise without the permission of the athletes. Even though the game does not use the players' names, according to NCAA rules, the game does go to great lengths to match the look and actions of a particular player to the number they wear. However, the names can be downloaded and applied to the game using EA's Locker Room function.

The show chats with Keller and his attorneys, and talks to game journalist Aaron Boulding, who seems to have been added to represent the views of EA Sports and the NCAA. Both entities declined to be interviewed for the piece, but the show did delve into the court documents to present the legal stance of the parties.

The show also took a look at fan reaction, which blasted Keller and his mediocre stint as QB at Nebraska.

While the show didn't break any new ground on the lawsuit, it did a good job of rounding up the available facts to get anyone up to speed who hasn't been aware of it.

Best of lists are so 1999.

While 2009 was a great year for gamers and an unbelievable quantity of great titles were released, there were some marketing tactics and campaigns that caused anger, dismay and head-scratching among consumers and the media alike.

Set on Stun, noting that these “are the ones that angried up our blood and became stains on the internet,” runs down the Top 5 Worst Videogame Marketing Campaigns of 2009.

Coming in at the top (the bottom?), was Evony, the online game with a litany of complaints against it, not the least of which is using advertising images featuring scantily clad females that have nothing to do with the actual game at all.

Set on Stun scathed:

…you sued people who reported on your gold-spamming and malware, you spammed blogs with comments, you ripped off image assets from other games, you and your sniveling CEO complained about people shining the light on your deceptive practices.

Dante’s Inferno from Electronic Arts came in at number 2 on the list. The marketing campaign generated controversy at every step, causing Set on Stun to write, “Dante’s Inferno & EA seemed to try to piss off anyone who came even close to caring about their game, a game by all accounts, should be pretty kick-ass.”

The marketing for Dante’s Inferno was fascinating to watch unfold. Gamers, and even the media, became so rattled after a while, that every time a bizarre story surfaced on the Internet, people immediately wondered if it was a plant/front for the game. Sometimes it was.

Professional and industry opinions on the campaign were split as well, as witnessed in a bipolar Ars Technica headline for an excellent overview of almost everything Dante’s Inferno threw at the press.

Shoot even went so far as to name Wieden +Kennedy, the firm behind the Dante’s Inferno marketing, as its Agency of the Year.

Head over to Set on Stun to see the rest of the list.

Any other campaigns you can think of that didn’t make the list?

Atlanta is one of a handful of locations Electronic Arts is considering for a new development studio as it attempts to find more developer-friendly locales in a bid to cut infrastructure costs.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle notes that Louisiana and Florida are also in the running for the new location, while Texas has already been ruled out. The new studio would employ up to 300 people and perform tasks that are currently done in the more expensive state of California.

Georgia introduced legislation last year that would enable videogame developers to qualify for tax credits of up to 30%, a top reason EA is considering the state according to spokesman Jeff Brown, “The tax credit is definitely one of the things that attracted us to Georgia.”

He added, “If we can find an abundance of talent and a pipeline through a local university that gives us access to talent in both art and engineering, that’s where we start. rest of it is really a cost equation.”

The article claims that Atlanta is home to 70 computer game makers, most of whom are in the Atlanta area.

Hi-Rez Studios Chief Operating Officer Todd Harris attested to Georgia’s developer friendly attitude, saying, “The economic incentive act that was passed is very, very compelling and one of the nation’s best.” Hi-Rez is located in Alpharetta, Georgia and currently working on a game called Global Agenda.

As the sordid details of Tiger Woods’ personal life continue to unfold in the national media the question arises: will Electronic Arts stick by their videogame cover boy?

While EA issued a statement a week ago saying that it wouldn’t dump Woods, the media frenzy surrounding Tiger’s transgressions continues to grow and more information is revealed seemingly everyday, all of which could influence EA’s stance.

A Forbes column contains the opinion that Tiger’s days are numbered as an EA spokesman, going so far as to say that “Tiger is done as a corporate pitchman” overall, regardless of what companies sticking by him are currently saying now.

The columnist also believes that the Tiger scandal will force companies to do full diligence on a spokesperson before choosing them:

…companies that throw big money at athletes are going to do a lot of research on them to make sure they are not phony (or make risk-adverse decisions based on information they do have) and funnel their endorsement dough at popular athletes whose image will not blow up.

Some of these athletes may not even be among the best in their field, but they will typically be in global sports and not be ticking time bombs.

Forbes writes that no other golfers carry enough buzz among consumers to fill Tiger’s shoes. Certainly however, EA could find a new PGA pro to build its game around if events warranted. Phil Mickelson might be the perfect choice, though he may need to work on his fist pump to take it to Tiger’s level.

What do you think? Should EA keep Tiger on board?

While his opponents may have wish he had fled, as previously reported, Edge Games CEO Tim Langdell is back in the news and stirring up more trademark trouble.

Develop notes Langdell’s return and the subsequent removal of Mobigame’s Edge by Mobigame iPhone game from the iTunes Store for the second time. Langdell and Edge Games were not impressed with Mobigame appending their name to the name of the game, telling Develop, “Clearly, if Sony tried to use the mark ‘iPod by Sony’ they would hardly expect Apple not to take action to protect their mark ‘iPod’. In trademark law adding ‘by (name)’ to another company's registered trademark does not mean a company can use that trademark without being guilty of willful infringement.”

An Edge Games statement claimed that Mobigames has had an offer since May to change the name of the game in question, with no money exchanging hands, an offer that was "repeatedly refused."

In September of this year, Electronic Arts turned the tables and targeted Langdell and Edge Games with a Consolidated Petition for Cancellation over a series of trademarks registered to Edge Games, including “The Edge,” Gamer’s Edge,” “Edge” and “Cutting Edge.”

An Edge Games rep (or Langdell himself) told Develop that Edge has filed a petition to dismiss EA’s action, adding, “Despite rumors to the contrary, Edge Games has either won every dispute in the past 20 years over the mark Edge or has settled amicably with the other party ending the dispute with an agreement in Edge Games' favor.”

The Mobigames title in question reappeared in the iTunes store this morning (for the U.S. and U.K. territories), under the new moniker Edgy.

A Texas-based company has filed a lawsuit alleging that a group of game makers violated its patent related to voice recognition technology.

Filed on November 10 in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, plaintiff Bareis Technologies, LLC names Ubisoft, Inc. Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc., Electronic Arts, Inc. and Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. The lawsuit revolves around a U.S. Patent for “Optical Disk Having Speech Recognition Templates for Information Access,” which Bareis owns.

The games specifically called out as infringing in the complaint are Ubi Soft’s Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Jungle Storm, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2, and Tom Clancy’s EndWar, SCEA’s SoCom: U.S. Navy SEALs, SoCom II: U.S. Navy SEALs, SoCom III: U.S. Navy SEALs, SoCom Combined Assault, EA’s NASCAR 06 and NASCAR 07 and Disney’s Phonics Quest.

The plaintiff is seeking a jury trial and “all damages caused by the infringement of the ‘407 patent, which by statute can be no less than a reasonable royalty.”

A reddit user has created a striking visual representation of what *could* happen if net neutrality laws are shot down.

The image is based tiered pricing plans that some cable and Internet companies currently offer (lending, perhaps, an increased measure of reality to the illustration) and imagines, for example, websites such as Hulu and YouTube as part of a "Hollywood Tier," available for $10 over the price paid for basic Internet service.

More relevant here is the rendering of a “Playground” tier that includes Valve’s Steam platform, World of Warcraft, Gametap, Electronic Arts and Real Arcade, offered for a $5 surcharge. Yikes!

The International Nanny Association (INA) isn’t feeling overly matronly about an achievement said to be in the upcoming Electronic Arts game Dante’s Inferno.

According to UGO, the “Bad Nanny” achievement is designed to reward players who slaughter “a yet undetermined number of unbaptized infants,” leading INA to say that the game component was “created out of poor taste and bad judgment.”

The group continued:

INA is opposed to video games that promote and encourage players to "kill" babies, even in fantasy play. It is our opinion that this type of play may promote violence towards children. The name of the trophy or achievement, "Bad Nanny," is offensive to our association in that we strive to promote and educate the public regarding the selfless work nannies do to support families by providing quality in-home child care."

INA urged its members to email the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) with concerns and complaints. The ESRB responded, noting that the game has not yet been rated, before adding:

…it should be understood that our job is not to censor potentially tasteless or objectionable content nor dictate to publishers what type of content they may include in their games. ESRB’s role is to objectively evaluate a game’s content and assign age and content ratings that will be helpful in allowing consumers to make informed choices.

Australian gamers will have to make do with a modified version of Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 as the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) board again denied the title classification following a re-review of the game.

A three-member panel of the board declared that the game could not be accommodated within the MA 15+ classification, reaffirming an earlier decision. Valve and distributor Electronic Arts had appealed the earlier judgment, but as a backup they also submitted a toned down version of L4D2, which received an MA 15+ rating. The edited version removed depictions of decapitation and dismemberment.

Further commenting on the original, Refused Classification version, the board said:

…it was the Review Board’s opinion that there was insufficient delineation between the
depiction of general zombie figures and the human figures, as opposed to the clearly fictional
‘infected’ characters. This was a major consideration of the Review Board in determining the
impact of this game on minors.

A media release on the subject from the OFLC can be viewed here (PDF).

A handful of game companies and retailers are listed within Newsweek’s Green Rankings list, which rates the Top 500 environmental companies in America.

While the list, with 500 entries, is hardly exclusive, each entrant was awarded an overall hard numeric score. The company that fared the best overall? Hewlett-Packard with a Green Score of 100, followed by Dell in second with a 98.87.

In the gaming (and related) business sector, Microsoft came in at #31 with a score of 83.79, followed by retailers Wal-Mart (#59) with a score of 80.38 and Best Buy (#61) with a score of 80.33. GameStop clocked in at #228, with a score of 71.37, with Electronic Arts (#381) and Activision Blizzard (#416) following. EA and Activision Blizzard had scores of 65.58 and 63.80 respectively.

Image via otherpower.com

EA Sports President Peter Moore has labeled the videogame industry’s current reliance on disc-based media as a “burning platform.”

Speaking at the PLAY Digital Media Conference, Moore also thinks Microsoft will be the first console manufacturer to go all digital, reports IGN, even though such a move is years away. Speaking on digital distribution he stated:

As a concept, do you stay on the platform and face certain death, or do you jump into the water and face probable death? Most of you would choose probable death, so you start moving towards a hybrid model of digital distribution.

While Moore added that it could take up to a decade for physical media to disappear, he asked:

The important question is, what does the next console look like? Does it actually have a disc drive?

The developer of an iPhone game targeted for its use of the term “Edge” by extreme-litigant and Edge Games CEO Tim Langdell believes that Langdell’s lawyers “have fled.”

Mobigame head David Papazian told EuroGamer that Langdell “has absolutely no legal grounds” for his trademark infringement claim and that Langdell never actually sued Mobigames for past sales.

The Mobigame in question, Edge, has been republished on the Apple Store, under a slightly new name—Edge by Mobigame.

Electronic Arts filed suit against Langdell and Edge Games over the latter’s trademarks, an event Papazian termed “amazing.”

In a further twist, Papazian also accuses Langdell of infringing on a Graeme Devine (former id Software developer and ex-chairman of the IGDA, now an Apple employee) copyright, for an Edge Game iPhone title called Firebirds. Firebirds is a copyright owned by Devine claims Papazian, who also charges Langdell with stealing art for the game off of Deviant Art.

News.com.au reports that a resubmitted and modified version of Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 has been granted a rating by Australia’s Office of Film and Literature Classification board.

The original version of the zombie-killing title was refused classification by the PFLC, rendering it unreleasable. The edited version has received an MA 15+ rating. Distributor Electronic Arts told the website that it still holds out hope that the resubmitted full version of the game would receive classification and that is the version it would still prefer to release.

The OFLC's full report (PDF) on the modified Left 4 Dead 2 title contains consumer advice of “strong bloody violence,” though the board noted that “the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment.”

In the Board’s view “the element of violence in the game has been sufficiently modified.”

Via: Edge-Online

Image Via: Cheezburger.com

A new Electronic Arts videogame testing facility located on the Louisiana State University campus has the state of Florida worried about a full-court press to lure developers to the Bayou State.

While EA was not looking to open a new testing center, reports the Orlando Sentinel, incentives signed into law earlier this year by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) were “too good to pass up.”  The facility at LSU should eventually grow to comprise 200 part-time student workers and 20 full-timers, some of who moved over from Maitland, Florida-based EA Tiburon.

Craig Hagen, EA's director of government affairs for North America, offered:

Florida is at risk of not being competitive with other states relative to these incentives programs. I understand the fiscal pressure that Florida faces, and it is a difficult thing, but they need to realize the economic incentives are what should grow the economy and turn the pressure down."

The article also notes that in order to prepare its students for jobs with developers, LSU is now offering a digital-media-based curriculum.

DRM issues shouldn’t affect the Will Wright-designed Spore videogame in its feature film incarnation.

Variety reports that 20th Century Fox has acquired film rights to the Electronic Arts title, with plans to make a computer-generated animated motion picture. Ice Age and Robots director Chris Wedge is aligned with the project, while EA Entertainment’s Patrick O’Brien and Maxis VP Lucy Bradshaw will serve as executive producers.

Other EA properties currently being adapted to film include The Sims, Army of Two, Dante’s Inferno, Dead Space and Mass Effect.

Electronic Arts continues to find itself a lighting rod for lawsuits, with at least three additional actions against the game maker documented by GameSpot.

Former University of North Carolina basketball player Byron Bishop has filed a suit, one seeking class-action status, against the NCAA, its licensing division and EA, charging that the defendants “conspired to violate the NCAA's own by-laws prohibiting the for-profit use of amateur athletes by including likenesses--but not names--of current athletes in its NCAA-branded games.” Similar lawsuits have been piling up against EA.

NFL superfan John Big Dawg Thompson, a member of the Cleveland Browns Dawg Pound, charges EA with the “unauthorized and unlicensed use of the images, likenesses, characters and persona of plaintiff’s Big Dawg character” in Madden NFL 2009. Thompson, who has appeared as Big Dawg “for nearly 25 years,” seeks a “reasonable sum” in excess of $25,000.

Fight Night Round 4 is at the center of the next lawsuit, with Fighters Incorporated, LLC suing EA for the “unlawful” use of three of Fighters Inc.’s boxers’ images in that title. Fighters Inc. further claims that EA induced several fighters to breach their contracts with Fighters Inc., then “dared Fighters Inc. to sue EA, suggesting EA was too big and powerful to challenge in court.” Fighters Inc. seeks damages of around $25.0 million, plus court costs.

Downloads:
Complaint for John Big Dawg Thompson vs Electronic Arts Inc. (PDF)
Complaint for Fighters Incorporated vs Electronic Arts Inc. (PDF)

Aggressive trademark defender Tim Langdell has found his company on the receiving end of an Electronic Arts trademark battle.

Langdell, the CEO of Edge Games Inc., has been notorious for his attempts to stop the use of the word “edge” by other game developers in their titles. As a result of what some might term his overzealousness, a petition was started earlier this year to have Langdell removed from his spot on the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) board, a post he eventually resigned from in August.

DowJones reports that Electronic Arts Inc., and its subsidiary EA Digital Illusions CE AB, have filed a Consolidated Petition for Cancellation against a series of trademarks registered to Edge Games, including: “The Edge,” Gamer’s Edge,” “Edge” and “Cutting Edge.”

At the center of the fight is the EA-published and EA DICE-developed Mirror’s Edge game. EA claims that Edge Games has continuously threatened to sue EA over the game’s title, even though EA DICE owns U.S. common law trademark rights to the term Mirror’s Edge.

One of EA’s arguments is that Edge Games did not utilize “The Edge” trademark in commerce, a statement it attempted to backup with a graphic showing a Snoopy computer game (pictured left), complete with “The Edge” labeling. EA noted that the game was for the Commodore Amiga platform, a system that “on information and belief, was discontinued years before the filing of the application.” The application was filed "on or about" March 22, 1996.

For those interested, TIGSource has been keeping a running tally of information related to Tim Langdell and Edge Games.

Ex-football stars Herb Adderley and Jim Brown seek to formally support Samuel Keller in his lawsuit against NCAA Football game maker Electronic Arts Inc.

Keller, a college quarterback at Arizona State and Nebraska, filed suit against EA earlier this year charging that the game maker and the NCAA unfairly used images of college players in the NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball series of games.

The Associated Press reports that Adderley and Brown wish to file a “friend of the court” brief in support of Keller. Brown, who had filed a similar lawsuit against EA in regards to his depiction in EA’s Madden titles, saw that lawsuit dismissed in Los Angeles last week, as U.S. District Court Judge Florence Marie-Cooper compared videogames to realistic paintings of athletes:

The Madden NFL video games are expressive works, akin to an expressive painting that depicts celebrity athletes of past and present in a realistic sporting environment

Adderley was lead-plaintiff in a class-action suit against the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) that resulted in a $28.0 million dollar verdict last November.

In light of the refusal of the Australian Classification Board to classify Left 4 Dead 2, some authorities are rethinking the country’s game ratings.

While R18+ ratings exist in Australia for films and other media, videogames still top out with a MA15+ rating, meaning that games that fall outside the spectrum can’t be approved for sale.

Adding an R18+ rating would require the agreement of all Australia’s attorney generals, but News.com.au reports that at least one member of that group is holding out, South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson. Atkinson’s take:

It certainly does restrict choice to a small degree, but that is the price of keeping this material from children and vulnerable adults. In my view, the small sacrifice is worth it.

Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls disagrees, saying that Australia is “out of step with the world,” adding:

It seems inconsistent that in Australia adults are allowed to view adult-only films which have been classified R18+ by the Classification Board, but not computer games with equivalent high-level content.

Valve and Electronic Arts have appealed Left 4 Dead 2’s refusal of classification.