Besieged from all sides, Electronic Arts has capitulated 
and made a last minute change to its upcoming reboot of “Medal of Honor,” removing the ability for players to assume the role of the Taliban in the game’s multiplayer mode.
Greg Goodrick, executive producer of the game, announced the decision in a blog post Friday morning, citing feedback from military families as the reason for the move.
Bowing to pressure from consumers, the military and retailers, 
Electronic Arts has made a last minute change to its upcoming “Medal of Honor” video game and will no longer allow players to play as the Taliban in the game’s multiplayer mode.
Citing feedback from friends and family of fallen soldiers, the company on Friday announced in a blog post that the enemy in the multiplayer component of the game would be renamed “Opposing Force” to mute the controversy.
[In this Gamasutra editorial, editor-at-large and veteran game journalist Chris Morris looks at the escalating war of words between Electronic Arts and Activision – and the detrimental effects the dustup can have on the video game industry.]
There’s a reason politicians are so despised in this country. One party spends so much time squabbling over disagreements with the other party that everyone’s focus on their main job – ensuring the smooth running of the country – falls by the wayside.
It’s only fitting, then, that as the midterm elections near, the two biggest parties in the video game industry have decided to express their mutual loathing towards each other.
“Medal of Honor,” the revival of one of Electronic Arts biggest franchises, has been taking a lot of fire lately. But now the publisher is ready to go on the offensive.
For the past month, several parties have targeted the title after it was disclosed that gamers could play as the Taliban in the game’s multiplayer mode.
While ads in video games may not be popular, they are effective.
A new study by Nielsen finds that targeted advertising can result in a substantial increase in sales – and that could spur companies who have been sitting on the fence to jump into the gaming world.
The study looked at in-game Gatorade ads in six EA Sports titles, including the last two installments of the company’s “NHL” franchise and the 2007, 2008 and 2009 versions of “NBA Live”. People who played those games increased their household dollars spent on the sports drink by 24 percent.
While August sales figures gave the video game 
industry yet another dose of bad news, at least Electronic Arts had something to smile about.
Software sales for the industry as a whole fell 14 percent last month to $403.5 million, according to NPD Group. That’s the worst performance for the month in three years and more than twice as bad as what some analysts were expecting.
Video game publishers aren’t fooling themselves. They
know August is going to be the latest in a string of awful months for the industry.
Sales numbers will be released roughly two hours after the market closes Thursday – and they’re expected to be grim. Michael Pachter, managing director of Wedbush Securities, predicts software sales will drop 6 percent compared to 2009 to $445 million. Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets is expecting things to be even worse – forecasting a 10-15 percent decline.
“FarmVille” has sure grown a lot of gamers. A new study by The NPD Group 
finds that 20 percent of the U.S. population has played a game on a social network at one point or another. That works out to 56.8 million Americans.
Thirty-five percent of those players are new to gaming, having never previously experimented with any form of video game.
Try as it might, the video game industry 
just can’t catch a break this year.
Sales are down 8 percent year-to-date from 2009’s disappointing numbers. Even the most optimistic analysts are now saying that the best investors can hope for is a flat year. And this week has brought new signs that could indicate further weakness—specifically for Electronic Arts and game retailer GameStop.
Electronic Arts is counting heavily on its Medal of Honor
franchise to help boost revenue in the holiday quarter, but as the title gets closer to launch, it’s finding itself in the crosshairs of game industry critics.
Set in modern-day Afghanistan, the latest version of the franchise casts players as a Tier 1 Operator, a relatively unknown branch of the Special Forces, fighting the War on Terror. Developers say they are striving to present the conflict in an authentic manner, with respect for the soldiers. But the disclosure that gamers could play as the Taliban in the game’s multiplayer mode has raised a few eyebrows.
Chris Morris: Journalist 