I'm going to go way out on a limb here and give at least the PA guys the benefit of the doubt here (I didn't read the entire thread). I find it really hard to believe that they 'sold out' when they've obviously lost potential revenue in the past by not only disallowing intrusive ads on their sites, but also never taking advertising dollars from something they didn't think was of high enough quality for them to endorse or had huge potential to be so.
I can say I've definitely thought they've been asshats at various times, but I can't really think of many, if any, entertainers and successful business owners who have had a stricter policy of clarity and honesty with their fan base. I also don't know much about the inner working of the video game business and have no idea how much of their soul they had to sign away when they set up the deal for this game, but I seriously can't see those two sitting there and being like "We'll make more money and no one will care" or "fuck the little guys, we're rich now!". They know exactly who their fanbase is, and I just can't see them thinking that they'd be getting away with it.
I don't want to be an apologist (especially for them) but it really just seems really out of character to me, so I wouldn't be suprised if something was up that was not only out of their control, but perhaps not even known to them. Then again, maybe they just really are huge asshats and I certainly agree with Scott in that there is entirely too much dick sucking going on in what I read on that thread. If you disagree with EA doing it, you should disagree with PA and Hothead games doing it. It's the concept that is repulsive, not the perpetrator.
