EA's Battlefield 3 has been outlawed in Iran, with police allegedly arresting shop owners that secretly stock the game.
If reports are to be believed, Iranian cops are cracking down with a vengeance, raiding shops and arresting owners found to be selling pirated or imported copies of Battlefield 3,Agence France-Presse reports by way of the Lebanese Daily Star.
The Iranian ban is hardly surprising considering Battlefield 3 depicts a fictional US invasion of Tehran.
Iranian youths have created an online petition to campaign against the game's sale too. "We understand that the story of a videogame is hypothetical," it reads, before insisting "the game is purposely released at a time when the US is pushing the international community into fearing Iran."
Either way, EA doesn't seem too bothered and claims the ban may even be good for anti-piracy measures.
"In that Battlefield 3 is not available for purchase in Iran, we can only hope the ban will help prevent pirated copies reaching consumers there," the publisher said in a statement.
Not sure exactly how it works that out, though.
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