(1) Activision and Electronic Arts talked smack back and forth over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 last year. It looks like we can expect the same this year as an EA product manager had some choice words for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 after the game was revealed on Tuesday night.

After the Black Ops 2 trailer debuted, EA global product manager Kevin O'Leary took to Twitter to opine, "Poor [Black Ops 2] you look tired, you should take a year off and rest."

While Electronic Arts does not have another Battlefield title to compete with Call of Duty this year, it does have Medal of Honor: Warfighter due out on October 23 for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Interestingly, it was never the development teams for the competing titles that had anything negative to say about their rivals. It was always the executive and management team that participated in the verbal war of words with EA often being the instigator.

source: http://www.examiner.com/article/ea-calls-call-of-duty-black-ops-2-tired

(2) http://sadpanda.us/images/947341-DCMNFAF.png

Star Wars: The Old Republic has dropped from 1.7 million active subscribers to 1.3 million, publisher Electronic Arts said today in an earnings statement.

That's a loss of nearly 25% for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or 400,000 subscribers.

In its Q3 earnings statement earlier this year, EA reported 1.7 million The Old Republic subscribers. Today, that number is down to 1.3 million.

One explanation for the drop could be simple: Launch-day subscribers stopped playing once their free 30-day trials were up. However, EA has not made any mention of that possibility.

source: http://kotaku.com/5908338/star-wars-the-old-republic-loses-400000-subscribers

ULTRA-CHAOS says: why i think people leaves Star Wars The Old Republic
after play guild wars 2 beta key

Last week the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a follow-up bill to SOPA that wants to erode your personal privacy. The bill, itself, is palatable enough that Facebook and Microsoft gave it their seal of approval, and it's already got a kick start towards passing into law. So what would life be like if CISPA were part of our reality?

Note: This is a fictional narrative based on what we believe the U.S. might be like if CISPA is passed into law, based on an in-depth discussion with Derek Bambauer, Associate Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. This story hasn't happened, but we've created it to illustrate one probable future.

I Am Not Who You Think I Am

I am not a child pornographer, but you've probably heard otherwise. Everyone tells the story a little differently. Sometimes my classmates say I chose to drop out of the private college I'd wanted to attend since the day I understood ambition, and others believe my departure was the result of an expulsion. I'm not sure whose choice it was anymore, but ultimately it doesn't matter. You don't actually have to be a bad guy—you just have to be painted like one.

Back in early March 2013, a 12-year-old girl uploaded a copy of Toy Story to share with a friend she met online who lived overseas. That friend shared the movie with others, and suddenly it was heavily downloaded across the globe. The girl who shared it had no idea, but when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) caught wind of her actions, they pressured the government for information. Just a year earlier you'd see internet service providers, web apps, social media services, and most corporations act cautiously before turning over private information about their clients—12 years old or otherwise. Then CISPA passed, and safest thing for any corporation was to provide the government with what they asked. Because cyber security was never clearly defined in the law, the possibility of intellectual property theft was a justifiable cause for investigation. The government took the girl's information and provided it to the MPAA. Days later, a lawsuit was in place. At first I didn't believe this because it sounded so ridiculous, but then I remembered that a similar suit was filed against a 12-year-old girl for downloading music in 2003. And then something impossible happened to me.

I Drew the Wrong Card

I never had aspirations of becoming a writer, but my parents were both hard workers and always insisted that I'd be best served in any profession if I spent my time on writing and math. Being the geek that I am, math came easy but I wasn't so fortunate with words. It's one of the reasons I chose my college. It was known for its communications school, and every major was required to study several dimensions of writing. Incoming Freshmen were required to take two essay-writing courses during their first year. Most students were averse. I was excited.

The course options varied from the dull to the dramatic, so I wasted no time registering for an essay class simply labeled "Controversy." Each month we wrote a short argument about subversive topics selected at random. Every student drew a small card from a brown paper bag. Most of my classmates wanted the card that read "legalize marijuana." I wanted more of a challenge, and I got one. My card read, "reform child pornography law."

At first I was a little concerned. It seemed incredibly wrong to even argue against any laws that served to prosecute child pornographers, illustrators, or anything that sought to sexualize children. But after a little research, I discovered that many of the laws were vague and too broadly applied. They were written in a way that allowed the government to prosecute and convict alleged deviants based on flimsy evidence. It wasn't much different from CISPA, which was signed into law highly due to its broad language.

read more: http://lifehacker.com/5908120/an-alternate-future-where-your-privacy-no-longer-exists

EA's embattled CEO John Riccitiello isn't above admitting his mistakes, nor is he above admitting those of his company. That honesty was in full swing during an episode of NPR's Morning Edition today where he spoke to EA's social business. "We would like to be number one in every possible area, in every geography. That's a grand ambition. We're not there yet," Riccitiello said.

But then he got much, much more honest. "When it comes to Facebook, while we're number two, I'd say we're a distant number two. I mean, the other guys have lapped us three times," he said, referencing major social player Zynga. Riccitiello said EA is in the entertainment business, while his competition in social is in the data business, which he's had a hard time cracking. But he may not have to, according to his predictions.

"They're not really in the entertainment business. I think that will eventually die. Consumers want to be entertained, they don't want to be data managed," he said. Rather than model EA's future social business on that of the data-driven giants, Riccitiello hired up EA's first chief technology officer, Rajat Taneja, and is trying to get ahead of the Zyngas of the world before they take their next steps.

He told the Morning Edition that EA is planning to "apply techniques like machine learning and neural nets, to figure out what will happen next so that we can tailor the game and experiences to delight our customers." Wait ... what? In reality, this means using data for predictive modeling, which can help figure out what you'll like before you, er, like it.

Also in the report: Riccitiello wouldn't confirm or deny his company's plans to axe approximately 1,000 jobs in the near future, but he did say the company's internal statistics will see a shift from one of every eight employees being an engineer to one in two. Sounds like a bad time to be a concept artist at EA.

source: http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/riccitiello-hip-to-eas-social-failings-id-say-were-a-distan/

Nexon Co. (3659), the Tokyo-based pioneer of free-to-play computer games, is in talks to distribute Electronics Arts Inc.’s next “FIFA Online” title in Asia, rather than to buy the U.S. company, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

Electronic Arts, based in Redwood City, California, is considering using Nexon’s online servers and developers in Asia, particularly South Korea, for the game, said one of the people, who sought anonymity because the matter is private. The goal would be to apply Nexon’s expertise in persuading players to spend real money on virtual items such as team jerseys and player-experience points, the person said.

The sides aren’t discussing a merger, according to the people. Electronic Arts (EA) surged 6.1 percent on April 26 after Maeil Business in South Korea reported Nexon was seeking to acquire the second-largest U.S. video-game publisher. A partnership for the unannounced FIFA title, Electronic Arts’ most popular sports franchise worldwide, could come as early as June, one of the people said.

Owen Mahoney, chief financial officer for Nexon Global, declined to comment, as did David Tinson, a spokesman for EA Sports.

“We’re extremely pleased with how Korean fans have embraced ‘EA Sports: FIFA Online 2,’” Electronic Arts said in an e-mailed statement.

Nexon, the largest free-to-play game company operating in Korea, would give Electronic Arts a bigger partner in the market. The company hosts millions of players daily and tailors games to different markets and languages, and is working to expand in Japan and China, two countries Electronic Arts has targeted for growth.

Neowiz Deal

In Korea, the game is currently distributed by South Korea’s Neowiz Games Corp. (095660), which signed a deal with Electronic Arts in 2006. The relationship with Neowiz isn’t exclusive, one of the people said. Electronic Arts and its affiliates have a 14.7 percent stake in Neowiz, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Electronic Arts fell 0.8 percent to $15.75 at 10:04 a.m. in New York trading. The shares have declined 23 percent this year before today. Neowiz added 4.5 percent to 26,900 at the close in Seoul. Japanese markets, where Nexon trades, were closed because of a holiday.

In some markets, Electronic Arts, the maker of “Madden NFL” and “The Sims,” has struggled with “FIFA Online.

The company published an updated version as ‘‘EA Sports: FIFA Online’’ in the U.S. and Europe in 2010, then shut down online play in March 2011 without saying why.

In China, Electronic Arts ended an exclusive agreement with local publisher The 9 Ltd. in late 2010, and shut down the game in the country last year.

Nexon Sales

Nexon, which began business in December 1994 in South Korea, went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December, in a $1.2 billion offering that was the largest of the year in Japan. The company’s 2011 sales were nearly double those of Neowiz.

Nexon gets about 90 percent of sales from games that run on personal computers, and is seeking to expand on tablets and mobile phones. Through December, the company had 80 million active users who spend an average of about $17 a month on virtual goods.

source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-03/nexon-electronic-arts-said-to-discuss-game-not-buyout.html