Battlefield 3 is reportedly banned in Iran, which is hardly surprising because it is Iran. What is surprising, however, is that Electronic Arts thinks the suppression of its product may be a good thing, because it could help stop piracy.
Iran's Combatant Clergy Association is ensuring that street vendors don't sell the game, due to controversial content set in the country's capital city. Over 5,000 young Iranians have reportedly signed a petition against it, claiming that the material is harmful. That's usually bad news for any publisher, but EA is seeing the lighter side.
"In that Battlefield 3 is not available for purchase in Iran, we can only hope the ban will help prevent pirated copies reaching consumers there," a representative told Industry Gamers.
Considering Iranian stores openly sell pirated software, EA is actually using a little logic here. Only a little, however, since now the only way Battlefield 3 can be obtained in Iran is through illegal means. I mean, piracy doesn't really come into it when you can't make money either way.
Basically, since EA can't make any money anyway, it can only hope nobody in Iran enjoys the game at all. Seems a bit spiteful, really.
Contest:
11:00 PM on 11.28.2011 | 
I don't know what to say.
What in the fuck.
OOoh, while you're at it, can Ubisoft join in? I think that would be funny.
If you're wondering what you're going to do with Origin now, I suggest selling DRM wholesale. Don't attach the DRM to any games, just sell the DRM so it can prevent people from playing the game they didn't purchase. It would be just like it is now, only you wouldn't have to spend any money on development costs.
Steam has managed to outweigh its DRM by providing a solid service for free to back it up. Gabe Newell believes this is the best way to fight piracy and also believes in the importance of releasing your games in as many regions as possible to also combat piracy.
EA made Origin to compete with Steam and believes PRECISELY the opposite of Newell in regards to piracy and thinks locking out pirate heavy regions and putting in harsh DRM or obtrusive "services"(battlelog) that are also just another form of DRM are the best way to combat piracy.
That deserves a medal
Keep up the good work.. By that I mean keeping the game out of the hands of paying ppl.. Go one step further and create a shitty online store to sell your games because steam isnt well loved enough by the gaming community.. Success on both accounts huh EA.. Too bad North America wasn't on your ban list too.. Would have kept me from wasting money on what you consider "games"
We could only wish EA would stop releasing games and truly leave it to those who know what they are doing.. Seriously though I don't think any of us would actually miss your games.. I'm also sure that these small development firms would find someone else to become a parent.
Jeez EA, take lessons from Gabe on how to handle piracy.
SEE! Now look what you've done. Caused more piracy to occur. /slowclap
So yay? I guess. At least I got Arkham City for free. hopefully the driver update fixes the DX11 features.
That's EA's logic: at least no one is making money with our stuff.
Well the harder it is to obtain and play our game legitimately obviously that will have a magical effect that prevent's pirate copies from existing.
I swear most of the crap they say has to be for their shareholder's.
Since game getting banned in Iran is probably a negative because it's a loss of an income source. But it's going to stop piracy in the region so we have also stopped a bunch of people pirating our game. So they call it a wash.
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!
The tourists won't be able to buy illegal copies in Iran, that's why piracy will be lower. It will largely increase EA sales because those tourists will have no option to buy the game in their homeland.
Critical thinking doesn't seem to be working out too well for you either, buddy. Whether or not piracy drops in Iran is a moot point when you aren't selling your game there anyway. The piracy rate can drop to zero and you still won't be making a single fucking dime. Even if the dude's right, he still looks like an idiot for suggesting a drop in piracy justifies a total loss of profit.
"The ban in Iran was all according to plan, it was just to stop any piritan' "
If it's banned by the Iranian government and you're caught with it, they'll cut your damn head off right there in your cave's living room.
which makes the reasoning behind this EA's comment even more disturbing...
I wonder what they'd say if the game was banned in Australia or Germany
No because selling pirated games is the legal thing to do in Iran. Banning it means that you just have to use your own measly bandwidth to pirate things which not many people can do that easily. The only games that aren't sold pirated in Iran are the PS3 games and for obvious reasons. That's basically the reason why PS3 gamers are very rare in Iran and people mainly have Xbox 360s because they buy them with modchips from the start. The idea of paying 50$ or more for one game as an idea completely alien to Iranians because they buy their pirated games for 2-5$ each.
Oh, well if you put it that way then yeah.. I can see how it'd work out like that.. But even still, does EA not think pirates will take the more traditional route? Or are they expecting the ban to encompass Iran watching over its internet traffic too?
EA were ever *not* massive dicks?