Electronic Arts, which 
has struggled with its basketball titles for the past couple of years, now has another hardwood woe: One of the game’s all-time greats.
Former Boston Celtic center Bill Russell has sued the company over the use of his likeness in its “Tournament of Legends” feature in the NCAA basketball franchise.
Electronic Arts 
really wants to screw up your last minute Christmas shopping this year.
After months (or years, even) of anticipation, the company has finally unveiled the launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic — and it’s a bit of a head-scratcher.
We certainly have no 
problem getting caught up in the fun of playing games, but the people who create them have their pocketbooks to worry about, too. In this column, finance expert and GameSpy contributor Chris Morris guides you through the tricky corridors the gaming industry’s financial side, touching on big-time business decisions and how they matter to the common gamer.
Not too long ago, publishers tended to turn their noses up at social games. Mafia Wars? Poker? Sure, they were mild distractions to entertain people in-between status updates… but a viable economic force? No way! Then FarmVille took off — and the bubble began growing. Big-name developers and executives began defecting. And publishers began investing. Flash-forward to today: No one’s foolish enough to say social (or mobile) games are going to replace console releases anytime in the foreseeable future, but at the same time, no one’s foolish enough to consider the field an afterthought anymore, either.
Electronic Arts, of course, is the biggest publisher to immerse itself in the social network gaming waters. Between its 2009 acquisition of Playfish (which consisted of a $300 million offer with an additional $100 million earnout) and its buyout of PopCap earlier this year (for $750 million and additional earnouts that could ultimately push the price over $1 billion), EA’s not taking the new casual gaming movement lightly.
While the Xbox 360 
and PS3 versions of Tiger Woods 12: The Masters have been received fairly warmly, the PC version is in the rough. The thick stuff.
Graphics are subpar. The features are lacking. And fans, who have been waiting for a new PC version of the game since 2008, are livid. Now it appears that publisher Electronic Arts is trying to soothe the angry masses.
Fans of EA Sports games 
tend to be a dedicated lot, but now the publisher is launching a program that will help it find the most dedicated.
The company’s just-unveiled Season Ticket program will give die-hard fans the chance to get a three-day head start on new versions of Madden, FIFA, Tiger Woods, NHL and NCAA Football games as well as discounts on any downloadable content.
But that access comes with a price – and a catch.
For the most part, 2011 
has been a pretty crummy year for video game sales.
Other than April, every month has shown declines. For the year, the industry is 10 percent behind 2010’s pace. That puts video games retail on track for its third consecutive year of negative growth — the first time that has ever happened in the gaming world.
As retail sputters, more and more publishers are looking to downloadable games to help fill the gaps.
A little over a year ago, Electronic 
Arts and Legendary Pictures announced an agreement to make a live-action, big screen adaptation of the BioWare’s Mass Effect. Since then, though, things have been pretty quiet.
It looks like the silence will be broken on July 22nd.
Electronic Arts is hoping 
for first blood in the slugfest of realistic military action games this fall.
The publisher announced at its pre-E3 press conference that “Battlefield 3” would hit shelves Oct. 25, two weeks before Activision releases its much-anticipated “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” Both titles are expected to be massive hits this holiday.
EA is digging deeper into
the digital distribution space.
The company has completely revamped its online store, expanding its focus and renaming it ‘Origin’ in the process. The move will put EA in direct competition with Valve Software’s dominant Steam service — and, in some ways, Apple’s GameCenter.
As the video game industry 
prepares for its annual trade show, known as E3, it’s carrying a lot of baggage.
Social networking and mobile games continue to eat away at the market share of traditional publishers. A crucial Supreme Court decision, which could fundamentally change the way the industry operates, looms over its head. And many companies find themselves at a critical juncture in their evolution.
Chris Morris: Journalist 