Peter Moore announced at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany today that the company will be bringing its digital distribution service Origin to the Mac and several other platforms. Moore also claimed that over 21 million people were now using EA's service. Of course, if you play an EA game it is mandatory that you use Origin, which certainly drives up user numbers.

Valve Software today officially announced that its digital distribution platform Steam will expand its software offering to include creativity and productivity software offerings. Steam is one of the top digital distribution platforms for PC and Mac game software in the world.

"The 40 million gamers frequenting Steam are interested in more than playing games," said Mark Richardson at Valve. "They have told us they would like to have more of their software on Steam, so this expansion is in response to those customer requests."

Over the weekend fans were delighted to learn that they could pick up the PC version of Square Enix's popular RPG, Final Fantasy VII for $12.70 on www.finalfantasyviipc.com, but then started having problems with the DRM system it uses, SecuROM. When players tried to start the game, the SecuROM DRM failed to authenticate their purchase. Naturally those who bought the game were quite irate.

The party is over for game developers that use "deceptive names or icons" that cause confusion or blatantly trick consumers into believing that a product represents a particular brand on the Google Play Store. Google has updated its developer program policy agreement for its Google Play Android store with a warning to developers trying to trick customers: "Apps must not have names or icons that appear confusingly similar to existing products."

In an announcement made this morning over at the official Steam web site Valve Software revealed a change to its Steam Subscriber Agreement that makes it so that subscribers can no longer file class action lawsuits against the company (Federal Arbitration Act). Under the terms of the new agreement, Steam users agree not to form a class action lawsuit against the company, using a "dispute resolution" process to deal with complaints on an individual basis (arbitration).

In a recent "Ask Me Anything" question and answer session with the Reddit community, Minecraft creator and Mojang founder Markus "Notch" Persson weighed in on Microsoft's upcoming operating system. His comments echo previous comments from Blizzard and Valve concerning the operating system's marketplace for software.

A fake Android version of Chair Entertainment's Infinity Blade 2 has somehow managed to get into the Google Play Store. The fake game went up in the store July 28 as a version 1.0 release. The iTunes App Store lists the version as 1.2 and is a 1.03GB file. Of course the real reason we know it's a fraud is because Chair Entertainment hasn't released Infinity Blade 2 on Android yet.

While some in the Linux community have lauded the idea of Steam coming to the popular open-source operating system, some like Richard Stallman think it is not a good idea. Richard Stallman is better known as the founder of the Free Software Foundation and the GNU operating system. He has said publicly that charging users for DRM-protected games on an open-source platform is "unethical".

We ignore the taboo of the number 13 to present you with Episode 13 of the Super Podcast Action Committee. We have no fear in us. This week Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about Gamers Against Bigotry, GameStop's plans for selling used digital games in Europe, the Humble Music Bundle, and Gamasutra's article about developers working in war-torn countries.

GameStop is apparently paying close attention to the recent decision by the European High Court that digital purchases could legally be resold. Speaking to GameSpot, GameStop CEO Paul Raines said that the video games retailer is seriously looking into the idea of creating a business out of reselling digital downloads in Europe, but cautions that it is too early for him to say if it is something they will get into. At this point the company is simply investigating the idea.

Valve Software's Gabe Newell isn't the only one that thinks Windows 8 is a "catastrophe" for game makers, apparently. Responding to Newell's speech made earlier this week at the Casual Connect game conference where he made some disparaging remarks about the upcoming operating system from Microsoft, Blizzard's executive vice president of game design Rob Pardo had similar words for Microsoft.

Stardock Software announced that it will ditch boxed retail releases for two of its upcoming games, making them available only online through digital distribution partners. Their next two games, The Political Machine 2012 and Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, will only be available as downloads. This sea change is due mostly to the success of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, which was not released at retail but managed to break sales records at Stardock anyway. The game became the fastest-selling title in the company's history.

In a statement on Facebook, game developer Madfinger Games claims that the piracy rate for its Android zombie shooting game was "unbelievably high." The game had been priced at a mere 99 cents, but the developers say that the low price point didn’t stop pirates from stealing the game and using it for free.

As a result the company has announced that the Android version of the game is now completely free to play and enjoy. When we say free, we do not mean "free-to-play," for the record.

Yesterday we reported on Chinese mobile developer Entertainment Game Labs being accused by Runic Games president Travis Baldree of stealing art and sound assets from his company's popular action-RPG Torchlight. After getting some unwanted attention from the press and from fans, the company said today that it will modify "some parts" of its iOS MMO Armed Heroes Online.

Epic Games producer Tanya Jessen has said that the company has not ruled out the possibility of requiring that users always be connected to a server in order to play its upcoming zombie survival game Fortnite. While digital rights management is a factor, Jessen says that what the company does will be more dependent on gameplay and platform.

Earlier this month, the European Court of Justice ruled that game publishers cannot stop European consumers from reselling their downloaded games.  Not only that, but a publisher may have to facilitate such a transaction by allowing the recipient of the sale to download their “used” copy from its website.

Oh yeah, they’re going to love that.

According to Gamasutra a hacker based in Russia has made life difficult for Apple and its App Store. Apparently the Russian hacker has found a way to work around the iOS in-app purchase system, which lets him or anyone that might get their hands on his hack to download the premium version of a game for free. On Friday, hacker Alexey V.

David DeMartini, the man in charge of EA's Origin platform, said in a recent conversation with MCV that he knows that some hardcore gamers have "issues" with his company's digital download service but wasn't all that surprised with the negative reaction.

If you bought an Ubisoft game available as part of Steam's massive Summer Sale, you may experience what users are feeling right about now: angst and rage. Apparently some players who bought Ubisoft games have found that they cannot play them because of uPlay, the online service in charge of validating DRM in many of Ubisoft's titles.

If you would prefer to spend your hard-earned cash on digital goods but also want to trade-in some of your used games too, then GameStop is offering a deal worth mentioning. For the remainder of Steam's massive summer sale trade-ins at GameStop will net you an additional 30 percent in value if you put that credit towards the purchase of a Steam gift card. The deal runs until July 23.

The highest court in Canada has delivered some depressing news for music and other rights holders today: they can't charge additional fees to educators, video game makers, and Internet service providers. In a ruling on multiple cases today the Supreme Court of Canada struck down five cases that had to do with tariffs.

Valve Software's business development chief Jason Holtman finally offered a response to what EA Origin boss David DeMartini said last month about Steam sales "cheapening intellectual property." At the time DeMartini said that EA's digital distribution platform would not copy Steam's frequent and deep discounting sales tactics.

CD Projekt RED announced that The Witcher series has managed to hit a major milestone: over 4 million copies sold to date. The numbers come from the collective worldwide sales of The Witcher for PC and Mac, and The Witcher 2 for PC and Xbox 360. The Witcher 2 will soon be available on Mac systems. The Witcher games on PC and Mac are DRM-free, which we'd like to believe was a contributing factor in the strong sales for the series...

We hit a milestone this week - our 10th episode of the show (although we could argue that it is actually the 11th or 12 episode of the show if you count the lost episodes we determined to be not suitable for public consumption)! This week Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about patent wars, the European Court's ruling that digital games can be resold, Verizon's claim that net neutrality violates its first amendment rights, the controversy over Blizzard banning some Linux-using Diablo III players, and a whole lot of other interesting topics.

The European Court of Justice has made a ruling that could cause lots of problems for publishers in Europe. The highest court in Europe has ruled that game publishers cannot stop European consumers from reselling their downloaded games.

"An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his 'used' licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet," the ruling read. The Court said the exclusive right of distribution covered by a license is "exhausted on its first sale".

In an age where acronyms such as SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, CISPA, CSA, and more put fear into the hearts of Internet users all over the globe it's time that someone stand up and clearly define what rights we should have on the Internet. Like the Continental Congress did when America declared Independence way back in 1776, the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) and other advocacy groups have come up with our own version of a "Declaration" for the Internet age.

Electronic Arts plans to be one-hundred percent digital, and according to one EA executive, and says that the NPD Group's monthly reports are "irrelevant." EA Games president Frank Gibeau told Games Industry International in an interview published today that the company is moving towards a digital-only future.

Sony Computer Entertainment has acquired Dave Perry's cloud-based gaming service Gaikai for an estimated $380 million, the company announced this morning. Before the Electronic Entertainment Expo there were rumors circulating that Sony was going to buy a cloud-based gaming service - or at the very least announce that it was building one of its own. Another rumor last month was that Gaikai was looking for a buyout to the tune of an estimated $500 million. It turns out that all the rumors were true.

The Battlefield 3 Premium service, which was announced during E3 last month, has managed to garner 800,000 customers since its launch a little over two weeks ago. The service offers two-weeks of early access to all the game's expansions (and full access when they are released), at a cost of around $50. The service also gives Battlefield 3 players access to special exclusive DLC, access to strategy guides, videos, and special experience weekend events just for Premium members.

According to a new study by research firm NPD Group more U.S. gamers are warming up to the idea of buying their games online - thanks mostly to "lowered barriers of entry." The data comes from the NPD Group's new Online Gaming 2012 report. The report found that about 75 percent of U.S. consumers who play games online acquired at least one game during the first quarter of 2012. The survey also found that the percentage of gamers who say they prefer downloading or buying titles online has increased considerably (35 percent) compared to last year (25 percent).