Tomorrow, 12th March, and Saturday, 13th March at 8:00GMT/9:00 CET:12:00 (midnight) PST, EA will take the servers down, this time we will come up with even more hardware with more capacity to handle all the BFBC2 traffic. Once the maintenance is complete you will experience an improvement to your online experience.

This will be extended maintenance to allow the new hardware to be installed and affect all three platforms (PC, PS3 and Xbox 360).

Since launch a week ago, BFBC2 has already put EA servers through the following stress:
The 4 different soldier types have gathered a score of more than 34 Billion.
There's been more than 400M kills made.
1.3M roadkills
Squads and Teams have assisted each other to 6.2 Billion points.

Now we are adding more capacity to let you smash those numbers multiple times over in the weeks to come.

While the core of the dev team here at DICE as well as all the back-end teams at EA are 110% focused on stabilizing the game experience we do have some other, great news to reveal. Today we’re happy to announce the release date of the second VIP map package for Battlefield: Bad Company 2! It will be made available on the 30th of March on all platforms at no extra cost to all of you who’ve got your VIP codes entered in the game. VIP Map Pack 2 contains the following:

Arica Harbor Conquest mode - US Command launches a break through action directly at the Russian base. Collateral damage is of no consequence. Capture and secure tactical positions in Conquest Mode across the vast Arica Harbor map.

Laguna Presa Rush mode - The valley and surrounding mountains possess a strategic value in the battle for South America, and an infantry assault supported by light armor vehicles is likely by both armies as US forces defend the nearby Dam.




VIP members will be able to expand on the deep and ever changing sandbox experience, which in itself provides near endless hours of entertainment, by having new content to keep things fresh. It also plays a vital part in making sure you, the players get proper value for the money you’ve invested in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. This is why these map packs are available at no extra cost, contradicting the industry standard and what our direct competitors are doing. Of course, it also helps avoid segmenting the community, making sure everyone can play together having the same maps available. There will be future paid downloadable content as well but these packs will focus on expanding other parts of the game experience rather than the selection of maps available for the basic game modes. We’re dedicated to taking care of this product for a long time – helping you avoid “mapathy” without getting nickel-and-dimed.

... [Read More]

After optimizations and restarts yesterday, we had been stable across all platforms. Unfortunately, we encountered another outage at approximately 9:30 AM PST today.

- X360 was severely impacted, and the service is being restarted. It should be back online and we are monitoring closely.
- PC had an outage, but the service is offline currently and the service is being restarted. It should be back online and we are monitoring closely. We will then start checking the quality of the customer experience to determine possible next steps.
- PS3 appeared to have a brief outage, but has quickly recovered and the services is functioning properly at this time.

All teams are actively engaged in diagnosis and remediation. We are adding additional services to alleviate load. Despite having a major infrastructure in place, the peak traffic this weekend has been huge, 400% higher than any other Battlefield's peak simultaneous users. The teams will continue to monitor the services closely. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates on the latest developments as they are relevant.


SOURCE

Activision and Infinity Ward have both been publicly quiet about what happened between the two companies yesterday. It can, however, be confirmed that both heads of the studio, president Jason West and CEO Vince Zampella, have confirmed they're no longer with Infinity Ward.

UPDATE 12:02 AM: Double Fine's Tim Schafer, who had his own troubles with Activision over the release of Brutal Legend, recently commented on Twitter about what's happening between Infinity Ward and Activision.
"Getting mad at Activision for this kind of thing is like getting mad at an ape for throwing feces," said Schafer. "It's just how the beast communicates."

UPDATE 11:20 PM: It turns out Activision may have showed their hand in this matter earlier today.
In an SEC filing made this morning, Activision cited a human resources investigation into "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward."
Based on the information we currently have, at least one of those employees may have included Infinity Ward CTO Jason West. It's possible Vince Zampella is the other unmentioned employee.
"This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation," read the filing. "At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company."

UPDATE 11:11 PM: Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling has vaguely addressed the situation.
"I should also say, while I appreciate all the calls, tweets, messages and hearing my ringtone a lot," said Bowling on his Twitter account, "they're in vain - as I have no info."

UPDATE 10:07 PM: More developments on the situation at Infinity Ward have come to light.
A screen shot surfaced from Infinity Ward CTO Jason West's Facebook page at Kotaku with the status update "Jason West is drinking. Also, unemployed." I can confirm from a source that's friends with West that update did actually come from West's account.
West also updated his ... [Read More]

As of today, a new version of Steam is available through a public opt-in beta, open to all Steam users. This Steam update provides several major upgrades to the platform's core functionality. We've overhauled the Steam user interface to enhance the way you already buy and play games, adding more info about the things that matter — getting games, playing them with friends, and staying current in the gaming world.

If you already have Steam installed on your computer, you can take part in the beta by clicking this link and then selecting "2010 UI Update" under Beta Participation. If you don't have Steam installed, download it today.

Following is a preview of the beta — read on to see what's new. When you're done reading, try out the beta, then head on over to the forums to let us know what you think.