Command & Conquer is a popular real-time-strategy franchise, though clearly not popular enough for EA to go ahead with the free-to-play version it had been working on. They've sacked the project after a disappointing round of alpha testing.

Well, folks, EA's finally gone and dropped their Online Pass program. In case you weren't aware that this was a thing, the publisher was essentially holding multiplayer and similar video game features behind a gate that was meant to help promote anything but used game sales. That's dead and gone, at least going forward. That said, the fact that EA's officially discontinued the Online Pass so close to Microsoft's next-gen console reveal is worrisome.

If you love games where you pretend to kill your friends and strangers over the Internet, then you're probably down with EA's Battlefield series. Battlefield 4 is coming out this Fall, but EA has plans for even more sequels to the game. Kind of a lot of them, in fact.  They recently registered Battlefield domains ending in numbers 13-20, so gaming site Rock Paper Shotgun did them exactly one better and registered Battlefield21.com.

Electronic Arts has been on a losing streak lately. Their launch of SimCity 5 was a nightmare. They just won their second Consumerist Golden Poo Award in a row for being the worst company in America, and now they're closing down what were once popular Facebook games. The Sims Social, SimCity Social, and Pet Society all posted goodbye statuses to their Facebook pages informing players they have until June 14th before the games are gone for good. Considering the drop off in play, this probably won't upset that many people.

Every year Consumerist asks the Internet to participate in a survey to find the worst companies in America, and this year it's video game maker Electronic Arts. They "won" last year's survey too, making them the first company to ever win consecutive Consumerist "Golden Poo" awards. It appears the Internet has some kind of ax to grind against the purveyor of such games as Battlefield, Madden NFL, and Mass Effect. Why do you hate EA so much, Internet?

Earlier this month Electronics Arts more or less admitted their launch of SimCity 5 was a complete disaster, and as an apology to angry gamers, offered to give them a free game. For some reason they didn't say which game or games that would be, just that a free game was going to be offered. They've finally come through with a list, and as Rollin guessed, it includes Battlefield 3, but that's not the only game spurned SimCity players can get.

Electronic Arts has done a terrible job with the launch of the newest SimCity, and things have just gotten worse since someone hacked the game to show that it can run offline, calling into question EA's claims that forcing players to be online in order to play is required for the game to run properly, and not just sneaky digital rights management.

To state that the launch of the latest SimCity video game has gone poorly for Electronic Arts would be putting it kindly. Despite what they assure us were their best efforts, the PC game has been plagued with server issues from the moment it went live. They've been scrambling to correct this matter, and things seem to be smoothing out, but the majority of this past week was a hellish one for virtual cities everywhere. Well, EA knows they "done goofed," and they're going to offer a free game to everyone that's had to deal with their shenanigans.

Video game publishers Ubisoft and Electronic Arts are up to something that can only be described as bewildering. Ubisoft will be selling third-party games (i.e. not their own) on their online store, Uplay. Odd, but simple enough. They're also going to be selling their own games on competitor Electronic Art's online store, Origin. Huh? No, wait, I have a theory.

When it was announced that Electronic Arts would be partnering with gun companies for the latest outing of their Medal of Honor franchise, the vast majority of those following along let out a collective sigh. "Great," people said to each other, "Another reason to blame video games for gun violence." EA has finally agreed in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre and pulled the links to gun retailers from the Medal of Honor: Warfighter site. All it took was a national tragedy for them to realize their mistake.

As we reported yesterday, a few of those wanting to get in on some Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 PC action were surprised to find that their second disc was reading as a copy of Mass Effect 2. Players could still enter their serial key into Steam in order to download it, but the disc itself is pretty much useless. Not only does it mean the game can't be installed, but there's no serial key included for Mass Effect 2. Not to let this wonderful PR opportunity go to waste, BioWare has since offered a free PC copy of Mass Effect Trilogy to those affected.

Today is the day. A vast number of gamers will be excitedly mashing buttons on controllers thanks to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 hitting shelves. Many keyboards may be suspiciously silent, however, thanks to a little problem with the PC version's second disc. Following traditional installation instructions, the game asks for Disc 2 in order to complete its setup. Unfortunately, it looks like some of these discs are actually copies of Mass Effect 2 instead. Oops.

It looks like Electronic Arts will have to chalk up this past weekend as unintentional free advertising for their Origin network. See, the video games giant handed out a coupon code worth $20 -- only good on Origin -- to those that took a survey about their digital distribution service. This is not an uncommon thing to do in the industry, and EA has a history of such coupons. Unfortunately, they may have got more than they bargained for this time. Users discovered that they could reuse the coupon, and it wasn't unique to them, so the Internet acquired thousands of games on Origin for free.

When the name Battlefield: Bad Company is uttered, it certainly doesn't bring to mind an hour long mix of action and comedy television. This is apparently not the case with Fox, however. Electronic Arts is milking the franchise for as much as they can get. The show, simply titled Bad Company, will be written by John Eisendrath and star the characters from the video game. At least there's that.

When Electronic Arts bought up PopCap Games back in July of last year, folks made jokes about how EA would push things like Bejeweled DLC that changed the color of the gems, but the laughter contained a kernel of truth. There was always some concern that a purchase would mean PopCap employees losing their jobs. It's taken a bit, but those concerns have finally come to fruition: PopCap Dublin has been closed, leaving 96 former employees without a job.

Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, co-founders of popular developer BioWare, have announced that they're retiring. This might be why little tidbits have been confirmed recently, like the title for the next Dragon Age; the company doesn't want the duo's retirement to come at a time when all is quiet otherwise. Keep in mind, Electronic Arts still owns the company, so it's not like this changes things. BioWare will continue be just as terrible or glorious as they have been of late. Zeschuk and Muzyka are putting all that behind them.

It has finally happened. Electronic Arts and BioWare have come to their collective senses and announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be going free-to-play in the fall. Never fear, however, if you really want to give them your money. Non-paying players will only be able to advance to level 50, whereas those that continue to subscribe will earn other benefits. Even so, it will now officially be free to the masses.