U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken indicated that she would approve two settlements involving college football and men's basketball players who appeared in NCAA-branded video games developed and published by Electronic Arts, according to two plaintiffs' lawyers who took part in a preliminary approval hearing on Thursday.

EA announced that it is ending support for The Sims 2. The 2004 sequel shipped nearly 20 million copies across all platforms, and released eight expansion packs. While it is shutting down support for the game, EA is offering those with a registered Origin account a free copy of the most-up-to-date version, of the game - The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection.

That will appear in Origin in the next few days before support ends on The Sims 2 July 22. The Ultimate Collection also includes all the expansions and stuff packs, and allows players to transfer their save files.

About two weeks ago, Electronic Arts boss Andrew Wilson talked about what a shame it was that EA made a mobile version of Dungeon Keeper that most fans of the franchise hated with a passion that burned hotter than the fire of a thousand suns.

Yesterday, in an interview with GamesIndustry International, EA Mobile big cheese Frank Gibeau suggests that EA might have innovated too much with Dungeon Keeper Mobile.

When fans of EA's upcoming The Sims game -- The Sims 4 -- heard that swimming pools and toddlers would not be in the game at launch (or possibly ever), they were upset. A recent post from EA's Rachel Franklin on The Sims 4 blog hoped to explain why these things were excluded and calm down any backlash from The Sims community. But it seems like Franklin's rather lengthy explanation has done little to nothing to calm down the community.

An estimated 100,000 college football and basketball players can receive up to $5,000 a year for the use of their likeness in NCAA-based video games, according to a settlement in an ongoing class action dispute. The news comes from Courthouse News who obtained the settlement document this morning.

The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that EA's free-to-play mobile title Dungeon Keeper can no longer be advertised in the region as being "free."

The watchdog agency said that timed in-game events that prevent players from progressing without micro-transactions are why EA needs to make changes in how it advertises the game, according to the ASA's website.

On this week's show hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's health and being reelected by the company's board, a bunch of topics related to Electronic Arts, and whether Microsoft should bother selling the Kinect separately from the Xbox One. All this and more awaits in the latest episode of the Super PAC. Download Episode 104 now: SuperPAC Episode 104 (1 hour, 13 minutes) 84.1 MB.

The class action lawsuit against the NCAA continues, and this week the college sports association brought in an economics expert who carefully inserted the phrases "name, image and likeness" in his definition of pay-for-play during his testimony. On Thursday U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken asked questions about it during the trial. During his testimony she asked economist David Rubinfeld why he kept using the phrase "pay for play" when referring to student athlete payments.

During an E3 interview with EA boss Andrew Wilson, Eurogamer asked the top man at Electronic Arts if he had learned any lesson from the free-to-play Dungeon Keeper mobile game and whether all the negative attention about the overuse of micro-transactions were heard at the very tip-top of the company. Wilson, who became EA CEO in September of last year began his conversation by promising "open and transparent conversations" on the subject.

One of the biggest complaints about Battlefield 4 (aside from the fact that it required Origin) was its technical and connectivity issues at launch that prevented many people from playing the popular shooter. The developers of the next Battlefield game - the cops v. robbers-themed Battlefield Hardline - promise that those issues will be kept to a minimum at launch.

Speaking to PSLifestyle, lead multiplayer designer Thad Sasser said that players should "expect great stability at launch."

Oops. It looks like some Battlefield 3 players may have been banned by accident due anti-cheat multiplayer software Punkbuster. EA issued a very brief statement about the subject today:

"We are investigating an issue of Punkbuster bans that were incorrectly applied to some of our players. Please understand that our game advisors are not able to access or overturn Punkbuster bans, but we're working with our partners at Even Balance to get this resolved as quickly as possible."

EA today announced a new Origin program that gives players limited time with a full game called "Game Time." The promotion gives gamers early access to games for a limited amount of time to play as much of a full game in the promotion as they want. The new program will launch with a free weekend for Titanfall on PC.

Security firm Malwarebytes has uncovered a phishing scheme on Instagram that may have already claimed some victims. The scam takes advantage of the World Cup going on this week, by pretending to be EA support on Twitter and lures people to an Instagram page offering new / exclusive FIFA 14 characters for free as long as you visit the link in the profile.

EA's "On The House" free PC game giveaway for the month is PopCap's popular puzzler game Peggle. To get the free game you'll need to have an Origin account, of course. To get it you'll need to login to Origin and find it in the "On The House" promotional section.

It's E3 week and Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Sony and Nintendo are doing their damnedest to convince us to buy their stuff.

Earlier this week, Nintendo had a digital event announcing it's upcoming games while the other four hosted full press conferences.  Who had the best show?

If you need a refresher, you can read our recaps here: 

Attorneys representing student-athletes who claimed that the NCAA illegally used their names, images and likenesses in Electronic Arts’ series of NCAA-branded sports games have reached a preliminary settlement with the NCAA that would add $20 million to the $40 million settlement reached recently with Electronic Arts.

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson opened the EA E3 press conference by showing off Aliens Isolation - a new shooter set in the Aliens universe (a universe that no one seems to be able to make a decent game in) - and the new Star Wars Battlefront game. The company didn't show off any live demo play throughs during the show, instead opting to offer behind-the-scenes documentary style vignettes and loads of trailers.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer opened Microsoft's E3 Xbox briefing to talk about nothing but games. Microsoft avoided talking about sales numbers, upcoming Xbox Live features, and entertainment; focusing exclusively on all the games coming out by year's end and 2015 and beyond. The company spent its 90 minutes talking about and showing games through sizzle reels and live action demos. The company also focused on many of its core franchises coming out this year.

Reminder: You can watch the biggest E3 press conferences on Twitch, starting at 9:30 am PST (that's 12:30 pm EST) with Microsoft's big E3 event.

Later today Electronic Arts will host its press conference, followed by Ubisoft, and then way later in the evening Sony will host its event for the show.

The Electronics Entertainment Expo is next week and kicking it off is a round of press conferences where the biggest publishers will try and dazzle you with game announcements and spectacle in an attempt to win your dollars.

Of course, these presentations rarely go off without a hitch.  Everything from technical failures such as Nintendo's Skyward Sword demo from 2011 or EA's Battlefield 4 false start last year to horrible hosts such as "Mr. Caffeine" from Ubisoft's 2011 presser and Jamie Kennedy who MC'd Activision's show in 2007.

Attorneys representing student-athletes who claim Electronic Arts illegally used their likenesses in the company’s popular NCAA Football, Basketball, and March Madness videogames filed a motion on Friday to approve a settlement. The settlement, if approved could award thousands of dollars in settlement payments to affected players, according to law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro.

Electronic Arts has announced its plans to shut down online services for 50 titles by July. Included in the list (full rundown below) are five older Battlefield games, Bulletstorm, three ageing Command & Conquer games, three Crysis titles, five FIFA games, multiple MySims titles, and some NASCAR and Need For Speed Games.

Electronic Arts and ISP Comcast are believed to be negotiating a game streaming deal, according to five independent sources speaking to Reuters. According to sources speaking to Reuters, Comcast will give some customers the ability to buy and stream EA titles through Comcast's new X1 operating system. X1 is only available in certain areas covered by Comcast at the moment.

Electronic Arts has activated in-game items purchases with real money in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. The micro-transactions allow consumers to purchase in-game money from the game's Sticker Shop that can be spent on new packs of upgrades. EA announced the move on Friday night at the end of a blog post detailing the recently released free updates for the game, such as the Wild West-themed Zomboss Down pack. More free content is on the way, according to EA.

Origin's 'On the House Program' is offering Battlefield 1942 for free this month. The game is free to download and keep, no string attached - except that you have to install and use EA's digital distribution platform. Last month EA gave away Dead Space for free.

EA plans on continuing to release full games, expansions, and more at no cost for the foreseeable future.

Glu's GameSpy Technology announced earlier this month that it planned to shut down its multiplayer services on May 31, leaving games like Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 without a multiplayer solution for players.

More than 800 developers and publishers made use of GameSpy's services over more than a decade online, including Capcom, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Epic, Ubisoft, and Konami. Nintendo previously announced plans to cease online services for Wii and Nintendo DS, which made use of GameSpy Technology, on May 20. of last year.

BioWare says that it can't offer downloadable character DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisitor because of the controversy surrounding on-disc downloadable content. Some see the excuse as a big FU to fans who have complained in the past that they shouldn't have to pay extra for content already on a game's disc.

EA's Origin digital distribution platform will soon ditch physical media and will only sell digital media after April 4. Prior to this change consumers could buy both physical disc-based and digital versions of games through Origin. After April 4, they will only be able to buy games that can be downloaded.

"What does this mean for you? If you're among 99 per cent of our users, absolutely nothing," Origin wrote on its website. "Your shopping experience hasn't changed one single bit."

Electronic Arts has launched a new promotion similar to Microsoft's Games With Gold for Xbox Live. The new promotion is called "On The House," and gives away a free game from time to time. The only catch is that you have to be a registered user of the company's Origin digital distribution platform.

"We're gamers, too," EA said. "We appreciate you making Origin your gaming home... and besides, who doesn't like free stuff?"

The first game available to consumers for free is the horror action survival game Dead Space.

Those thinking that Electronic Arts would win The Consumerist's 'Worst Company in America' award (or the "Golden Poo" as they like to call it) for the third year in a row will be disappointed to hear that the publisher of The Sims, SimCity, and Battlefield 4 has been knocked off in the first round of the playoffs by Time Warner Cable. EA was knocked out in the first round of the tournament, with its competitor Time Warner Cable receiving 51.2 percent of reader votes.