Rough times continue for EA.

Games publisher Electronic Arts has started handing out pink slips in another round of job cuts. It's unclear how many people EA plans to let go, though it appears most of the layoffs are being focused on the publisher's Montreal-based mobile development studio, which had been rumored to be in the process of shutting down. EA said it doesn't plan to close the studio, though it did confirm the layoffs.

Dead Space is among the titles SimCity gamers can choose to download for free.

Electronic Arts (EA) screwed up the launch of SimCity in a big way, and the company knows it. Well, sort of. It's not as though EA had an epiphany that overly restrictive Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes, such as requiring an always-on Internet connection, potentially cause more problems than they solve, and for that it should feel ashamed. But the games publisher is willing to admit that it was woefully unprepared on the server side to enforce its draconian DRM measure, and for that, it's throwing free games at disgruntled customers to compensate.

Who knew that all you really needed to fight the inevitable zombie apocalypse is a well kept garden filled with a variety of plants and those ever-important sunflowers? It's a survival lesson PopCap Games, a division of Electronic Arts, taught us with its highly addictive Plants vs Zombies title, and lest you forgot the power a green thumb wields, the developer plans to launch a sequel in the first half of 2013.

Bioware said it's adding a free-to-play (F2P) option to its online game Star Wars: The Old Republic this fall. The F2P option will give players access to each of the eight Star Wars character class storylines, which they can grind up to level 50. Bioware's pro bono mode will also include unlimited game access and new higher-level game content and features made available through individual purchases or via a subscription.