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Electronic Arts can't catch a break.

Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson today took aim at the mega-publisher, criticizing it for calling a recent release of games on Steam an "Indie Bundle." Persson argues that Electronic Arts, a major publisher and developer, cannot possibly be a so-called "indie" or independent developer and should not characterize its release as such.

"EA releases an 'indie bundle'?" Persson wrote this morning on his Twitter feed. "That's not how that works, EA. Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical b------s."

EA'… Read more

The message Rock Band for iOS users received yesterday alerting them to the fact that the game would be rendered unplayable at the end of this month was sent by error according to the company.

In a statement provided to CNET this afternoon, Electronic Arts said the message was a goof:

"Rock Band for iOS will remain live - the in-app message users received yesterday was sent in error," the company said in a statement. "We apologize for the confusion this caused. We're working to clarify the issue that caused the error and will share additional … Read more

Update at 5 p.m. PT: EA now says that the message to users was an "error" and that the game will continue to be playable. See the full story on that here. Original story follows:

Owners of EA's Rock Band app for iOS are discovering a nasty surprise today: the game they bought has just weeks to live.

Reported on by The Guardian and first spotted by Rockbandaide, the software -- which is still for sale at $4.99 -- today began serving up a pop-up message that says "Dear Rockers, On May 31, Rock … Read more

Remember what the NFL was like this time last year? The league was in a state of suspension. Free agency didn't start until the late summer. Meanwhile, EA showed off Madden 12 and its first-ever fan-voted cover athlete Peyton Hillis amid speculation over whether there would even be a full NFL season.

A year later, everything couldn't be more different -- except for Madden, that is. In the first hands-on play time with the new version scheduled for release sometime in the late summer, you'd be hard-pressed to tell what, if anything, had changed. Except for presentation.… Read more

Electronic Arts might soon cut between 5 percent and 11 percent of its staff, according to a new report.

Derek Andersen over at Startup Grind is reporting, citing "multiple sources," that the gaming publisher is planning to lay off between 500 and 1,000 employees. Andersen doesn't know exactly when the layoffs will be announced, but he says that they could come down as early as this week.

When examining EA both now and over the last few quarters, it might not be all that surprising that the company is looking to lay off employees. During its … Read more

Game maker Electronic Arts is adding more diversity to its new multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic -- characters in same-sex relationships and plot lines.

Because of this, the company is coming under fire from some unlikely contingents for the gaming world -- anti-gay conservative groups such as the Florida Family Association and the Family Research Council.

"There were no LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] characters in any of the Star Wars movies," the Florida Family Association declared on its Web site. "So if BioWare, the maker of Star Wars video games, adds LGBT … Read more

Can Electronic Arts possibly be a worst company than, say, Bank Of America? Can it possibly offer more troubling customer service than even Facebook?

It seems that, in more than a few eyes, it can. For it has just been voted by readers of Consumerist as America's worst company. Yes, the worst. The very worst. The most irredeemably awful company of all.

The Hollywood Reporter tells me that some people were rather upset that Mass Effect 3 had a rather less satisfying ending than "The Sopranos." In conclusion, the customers stopped believing.

Gamers, just like any other … Read more

While Netgear and D-Link introduced their approaches to app-supporting and cloud-enabled networking products at CES 2012, Cisco, which didn't have anything to announce at CES, turns out to be the first to materialize the new concepts.

Cisco today unveiled a line of Linksys Smart Wi-Fi routers that promises to change the face, and the body, of home networking.

The Linksys EA4500, EA3500, and EA2700 -- the "A" designation being short for "app-enabled" -- look like models in the earlier E Series but have more-powerful hardware and support Cisco Connect Cloud, the next generation of Cisco … Read more

A sign we live in the future: the next SimCity requires an Internet connection to launch the game, Maxis lead designer Stone Librande said in a recent interview with Joystiq.

Origin, everyone's favorite game distribution punching bag, must run on the computer to launch SimCity. After the initial Origin log-in, you can play SimCity offline without an always-on Internet connection.

The emphasis on an online experience revolves around the expanded multiplayer element, which includes a global economy, regional opportunities, and wide-area issues (pollution, disasters, etc.). This development may startle some veterans of the city builder, as one typically built cities and regions in an offline environment when playing previous versions of SimCity. … Read more