Amir Hekmati, the US-born game developer sentenced to death in Iran for allegedly engaging in espionage for the CIA, has asked the Obama administration to do whatever it takes, including a prisoner-transfer, to save him from execution. More »
When Iranian state TV aired the alleged confession of a homegrown spy on Sunday night, Amir Mirza Hekmati’s recitation of supposed wrongdoings included the standard claims of working as mole for the American Government along with a less common twist: that he’d supposedly worked for a video game company that was secretly trying to warp American perceptions of the Middle East. More »
There are sections of EA’s blockbuster Battlefield 3 in which the player controls an American soldier fighting on the streets of Tehran. It went down pretty well in most places, but Iran isn’t most places. More »
To be clear, the legal sale of Battlefield 3 in Iran has never exactly been widespread. But as is the way of the world, “street vendors” had been selling the game anyway, and according to reports that’s resulted in a crackdown from Iranian authorities More »
A writer with credits in Grand Theft Auto III, Max Payne and, later, Alan Wake is now working on an entirely different project, likely controversial in its own way: “1979: The Game”, based on the Iran Revolution. More »
newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=17357696&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1","customParams":[] ,"width":500,"height":281.25,"ratio":0.5625,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"vimeo","wrap":true,"agegate":false} ); Though the country earlier this year published a sci-fi MMO, Garshasp – a monster hunter of folklore – is billed is Iran’s first AAA-quality video game. It’s being made for the PC because trade sanctions prohibit selling dev kits there. More »
With help from a national foundation for games development, Iran has published the country’s first online game, an MMO called Asmandez. More »
Real Princes, real Persians. Quest of Persia takes inspiration from Prince of Persia, but the game, its developer points out, is more Persian. The full story over at Slate. More »
