on the city of Tehran, an Iranian IT magazine reported.
“All computer stores are prohibited from selling this illegal game,” an unnamed deputy with the security and intelligence division of Iran’s police said in a statement carried by the Asr-e Ertebat weekly.
“Battlefield 3,” made by the American videogame company Electronic Arts (EA), allows players to take on the role of US Marines tackling shoot-‘em-up missions in Paris and New York as well as Tehran. The controversy only involves the Tehran mission.
As an American firm, EA does not market in Iran. The copies being sold there are understood to be pirated, as are many videogames.
The game was released October 25 and is already EA’s top-selling title. It can be played alone or in a group with up to 24 players online.
The Iran scenario has US forces fighting hostile militia near the Iraq-Iran border then moving on to Tehran under a looming nuclear threat.
Intense gunfights are depicted in various military, industrial and urban locations in the capital, including Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar.
The game is available on DVD-ROM and can be downloaded from the Internet.
Agence France Presse checked around Tehran and found some computer store owners saying they had declined to stock “Battlefield 3,” anticipating the ban.
The Fars news agency said the game had prompted an online protest by a group of “Iranian youths.”
“We understand that the story of a videogame is hypothetical … [but] we believe the game is purposely released at a time when the US is pushing the international community into fearing Iran,” the group said in an online petition, with more than 5,000 signatories so far.
It did not interpret the meaning of the simultaneous release of the game version involving US Marines fighting in New York City.