Well, EA's been having a hell of a March, hasn't it?

After one of the single most face-palmingly disastrous product launches in the history of video games, long-time Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has resigned from the company, accepting full responsibility for this year's projected less-than-favorable financial results.

Riccitiello will be hanging around for a few weeks.  After that, former CEO and executive chairman Larry Probst will take over while a replacement CEO is found (my money's on Probst ending up with the job).

Electronic Arts has earned the dubious distinction of being named a contender again this year (it won last year) for the annual Consumerist award, the 2013 Worst Company in America award. EA will have some stiff competition this year including Bank of America, AT&T, Ticketmaster, Comcast, PayPal, and Sallie Mae - amongst many others. Some notable inclusions for this year include Carnival Cruise (for its “Poop Cruise”), JC Penney, and Anheuser-Busch.

Long-time Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello resigned from the company today and will leave EA by the end of the month. Former CEO and executive chairman Larry Probst will oversee EA's operations until a suitable replacement can be found. Riccitiello will also leave his position on the EA board. He will receive 24 months salary as part of his departure deal.

Riccitiello oversaw EA's growth from 1997 to 2004, then leaving for venture capital firm Elevation Partners. He rejoined in 2007 to take on the role of CEO.

Whatever anyone thinks of SimCity, the proof is in the early numbers, and those early sales numbers from the first two weeks of the game's release show that the game is doing pretty well despite a rough online launch week. EA said that during those first two weeks of release SimCity sold more than 1.1. million copies. The company said that the majority of those copies were sold through digital channels. This does not surprise me at all considering that everyone I asked today said they had made a digital purchase.

On this week's show we talk about Congressman Frank Wolf's hearing this week to slam "violent video games," changes being made to the ESRB, the ESA's plan for a PSA campaign, the latest SimCity news, and the results of the latest GamePolitics poll. Download Episode 45 now: SuperPAC Episode 45 (1 hour, 12 minutes) 66.6 MB.

A new SimCity mod detailed in a YouTube video and later explained in-depth on a Reddit thread reveals that it is possible to play SimCity offline indefinitely with a few important caveats. Despite those caveats the mod shows that the game can easily be transitioned from an "always connected" game to an offline single player game, despite what both EA and Maxis have said. According to modder UKAzzer he was able to do this with a little bit of work and by enabling the game's secret debug mode. This allowed him to turn off the disconnection timer limit.

On this week's show, hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight discuss the first Tropes vs. Women video, "Bronies" and if rights holders should be a little kinder to fan projects, and the nightmarish launch of SimCity this week. Download Episode 44 now: SuperPAC Episode 44 (1 hour, 6 minutes) 60.4 MB.

EA Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw acknowledged in an internal memo obtained by Polygon that readjusted review scores and lower reviews scores coming in everyday is fair. Bradshaw admitted that, since SimCity is an online game, and the game is having trouble providing the service it promises, it is not surprising that it is getting bad reviews.

Well, the good news is that EA's official Twitter for its digital distribution service Origin has confirmed that you will not be banned if you ask for a refund on your purchase of SimCity in light of the fact that you probably can't play it.

The bad news is that you more than likely ain't getting that refund.

It's been a pretty rough day for both customers who bought SimCity and the developers trying everything under the sun to get it working at full capacity. While EA has been trying to solve the problem and get gamers playing the game, some fans have been very vocal about how the game's DRM has broken it beyond repair.

Last night SimCity Senior Producer Kip Katsarelis posted a statement on the EA forums addressing the ongoing issues with the game and players' complaints that servers are continually inaccessible.

As is often the case with games that rely heavily on "always online" schemes, EA's SimCity had a bit of trouble today as it officially launched servers for the latest entry in the popular city building simulation. EA's biggest problem seems to be related to its digital distribution platform Origin, which has struggled to keep up with fans' demand to buy and play the game on launch day. Users have encountered a number of problems today including trouble downloading their digitally purchased copies and problems with unlocking physical copies of the game.

GamesRadar is reporting that BioWare San Francisco has been shut down and all of its 25 - 30 employees have been laid off, a source within the company tells the publication. The studio, formerly known as EA2D, developed the Facebook game Dragon Age: Legends and Mirror's Edge 2D for browsers.

GamesRadar's source claims that Electronic Arts apparently came to the conclusion that it was "too expensive" to develop mobile games in Redwood Shores, CA.

According to two reports, one on Polygon and another on GiantBomb, Respawn co-founder Jason West has retired from the company he helped found with Vince Zampella in 2010. Both were founders of Infinity Ward, the Activision studio responsible for the Call of Duty franchise.

We mentioned this in passing when we reported on EA and other game companies signing onto an amicus brief supporting the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, but the event deserves a little more attention: On March 7 Electronic Arts and the Human Rights Campaign will host an event to address the full spectrum of LGBT issues in gaming in New York City.

GameSpot is reporting that three game companies have signed onto an amicus brief opposing the Defense of Marriage Act. The law is being challenged by groups that want the court to strike down the law that defined marriage as being between "a man and a woman."

Apparently consumers just love microtransactions so much that EA has decided to put them in every game it makes going forward. Those ideas sprang forth from the mouth of CFO Blake Jorgensen today during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference - as reported by GameSpot.

Electronic Arts has laid off staff in its Los Angeles and Montreal studios today, according to multiple reports - including this one over at Polygon. Rumors were flying earlier in the day that Visceral Montreal, the studio behind upcoming shooter Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel, had been closed.

It's not an evil alliance, but some (those that don't like Uplay and Origin) might view it that way. It looks like Uplay and Origin are doing a little foreign exchange action, with Ubisoft's digital distribution platform getting select EA titles and EA's digital distribution platform getting games from Ubisoft. Ubisoft's Uplay service is also offering games from other third-party publishers including Warner Bros., Focus Home Interactive, Freebird Games, Paradox Interactive, Telltale Games and more.

Electronic Arts announced that it will host the first-ever EA Hackathon at the EA headquarters in Redwood City, California on March 16. Teams will compete against each other for a chance to win a (what we assume will be) tasty and informative lunch with EA CTO Rajat Taneja, a selection of unnamed EA products, and $1,000 in cash for each participating team member of the winning team (of course).

EA describes the challenge as follows:

AllThingsD is reporting that Electronic Arts and Zynga have quietly settled their long-running lawsuit concerning their respective Facebook games The Sims Social and The Ville.

In a recent Gamasutra interview (as reported by Destructoid), Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen said that the publisher would shed no tears over the loss of used games or the used games market, but noted that there are benefits to having such a market exist.

Mike Blank, EA's Vice President, Production, Design, and Engineering for Origin, announced on EA's Blog the official launch of the Mac OS X client for its digital distribution platform. The OS X version of Origin offers dual-platform play for select EA games (that are available on both PC and Mac) for those gamers that use both platforms.

Chillingo founders Joe Wee and Chris Byatte announced jointly on EA's blog the launch of a new indie developer program that highlights quality independently developed mobile titles through the company's third party mobile publishing services. The program is called 100% Indie and its core is located at www.100percentindie.com.

Entertainment reviews aggregation site Metacritic has published its 2012 publisher rankings, ranking Electronic Arts at the top of the list, followed by Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Capcom. The rankings use each publisher's game scores to determine the order.

EA was helped by Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Mass Effect; Microsoft came in second with the help of Mark of the Ninja; followed by Sony with Journey; Nintendo with Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii; and Capcom with Okami HD and Dragon's Dogma - both for PS3.

The official EA blog offers a recap of a recent "New Grad Launch" event that EA hosted to encourage and inform new employees of the company fresh from college about the culture and leadership of the video games publisher. The four-day event featured speakers from various levels of the company sharing their experiences working there and how new employees can be successful too. These new graduates targeted for this event are described as "full time employees at EA for six months or less."

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello recently spoke out on the idea that video games can be a catalyst that leads to real world violence during a conference call with analysts to discuss the company's latest earnings. Acknowledging that the industry faces a "perception issue" when it comes to videogames Riccitiello also said that games can also be "a voice for good," and that there is no research to back up claims that video games directly cause real world violence.

Electronic Arts announced that it has joined a coalition of businesses forming a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to end federal discrimination against legally married gay and lesbian couples via the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The company is taking part in the "The Business Coalition for DOMA Repeal" effort, which includes a number of Fortune 500 companies that seek marriage equality for everyone through what it calls "Respect for Marriage Act."

Spicy Horse founder and Alice creator American McGee has walked back comments he made earlier in the week about how Electronic Arts handled the marketing for his game Alice: Madness Returns, according to GII. After receiving what McGee categorized as some "pissed messages" (emails) from unnamed EA employees, McGee decided that his earlier comments were not fair...

EA, Maxis and the GlassLab announced an initiative this week to modify the new SimCity game to promote STEM education. EA says that the program is designed to attract students to "high-wage jobs in research, technology and game development." A new website dedicated to educators who want to use SimCity in their classrooms launched at SimCityEDU.org to get things started. EA says that it will serve as an online resource and community for teachers to create and share lesson plans that use the game as a centerpiece.