EA

According to an official invitation sent to GameSpot, Electronic Arts and DICE plan to "celebrate a new era of Battlefield" at an upcoming Battlefield 4 event in San Francisco on March 26 at 7 p.m. PT. The event occurs during the 2013 Game Developers Conference that takes place from March 25-29.

For those craving more information about the upcoming shooter, well, there isn't much to work with at the moment.… Read more

Complain about freemium all you want, but that isn't stopping the momentum behind Real Racing 3.

Despite early complaints that Electronic Arts had turned a beloved franchise into a nickel-and-dime operation, Real Racing 3 has proven to be a solid title for the company. EA told CNET that downloads of the game in the first week exceeded the total for the first two games combined.

Some of the other statistics are impressive: 350 million races have been completed since the game launched late last month. On average, 25 million races are completed each day, with players spending an average … Read more

An anonymous developer who worked on the new SimCity has revealed that the game does not do most of its calculations "in the cloud," directly contradicting what developer Maxis and publisher EA have repeatedly claimed.

In defending the troubled game's always-online requirement, the game's makers have said an offline mode would not be possible, due to "a significant amount of calculations" being done in their servers. Not true, the source told respected PC blog RockPaperShotgun.

"The servers are not handling any of the computation done to simulate the city you are playing," … Read more

SimCity's launch may be long remembered as a complete disaster, but in a new update, Lucy Bradshaw, General Manager of Sims creator and EA subsidiary Maxis, aimed to alleviate the sour mood by promising to fix the connectivity calamity and deliver a free game as a peace offering.

"To get us back in your good graces, we're going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio," said Bradshaw. "On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an e-mail telling them how to redeem their free game."… Read more

Can anyone put the fire out in SimCity?

Three days after launch, the SimCity drama continues to unfold as some gamers still find themselves battling busy servers, long queues, and unexpected disconnections. Gamers and the press continue to intensify scrutiny of EA's handling of the situation (and SimCity's requirement for an always-on Internet connection -- even in single player mode), which seem widely recognized as a colossal failure.… Read more

Good luck trying to move into the new SimCity.

Ever since the city management game launched on Tuesday, countless gamers have found themselves battling error messages and random disconnections that prevent them from experiencing what SimCity was supposed to deliver in the first place -- fun. In response, publisher Electronic Arts says it's working around the clock to try to fix the problems and add more servers so people can play without worry.

SimCity Senior Producer Kip Katsarelis issued the following statement to frustrated builders last night, hoping to soothe their nerves:… Read more

Kristian Segerstrale, Playfish co-founder and executive vice president of Digital at Electronic Arts, is moving on.

TechCrunch published an internal memo sent by EA chief John Riccitiello yesterday announcing Segerstrale's departure. In the letter, Riccitiello said that the Playfish co-founder has "elected to return the world of startups where we first met him."

Segerstrale confirmed the news on his Twitter feed yesterday, but declined to say where he might be headed.

Segerstrale was one of the founders of Playfish, the social-game developer that EA acquired in 2009 for $400 million. He stayed on at EA, helping the … Read more

PLAYA VISTA, Calif.--Electronic Arts is betting big that it can make more money by giving its games away.

The company plans to offer Real Racing 3, its marquee mobile racing game, for free to iOS and Android customers on February 28. That marks a dramatic shift for the franchise, which previously charged a hefty amount for the console-quality game. Real Racing 2 for the iPhone still costs $4.99.

The change underscores a move toward a business known in the mobile industry as "freemium," or games that are freely offered but have the option of in-game purchases … Read more

Samsung and Electronic Arts-owned mobile game publishing house Chilliingo have signed a deal aimed at increasing the number of apps delivered to Samsung's application marketplace.

The program is called 100% Indie and is a joint venture between Chillingo and Samsung. The initiative gets its name from the surprisingly attractive deal the companies are offering developers: 100 percent of the revenue earned from their applications in Samsung Apps for the first six months they're available. After that, developers will need to hand over 10 percent of the revenue. That share grows to 20 percent and finally 30 percent in … Read more