This morning, Kotaku reported that Electronic Arts had instituted a curious new policy. If forum users were found in violation of EA's seemingly arbitrary rules and banned from the forum, the supposed policy went, they would lose access to all of their purchased games as well.

The policy was given some credence by the gaming press, considering it came direct from a long-time Command and Conquer community manager.

Thankfully, EA has taken the time today to definitively squash this rumor. “Players who have been banned from EA Forums are not automatically banned from online access to their other EA games," an EA representative told GameCyte.

“Posting in EA Forums is enabled by an EA Nucleus account -- but access to the forums and access to the games are separate."

But though separate, the representative clarified that players can be banned from both forums and games separately. “Players can be banned if they breach the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct in a forum, game or service. Each forum, game and service is managed independently by customer support representatives responsible for that specific forum, game or service.”

Though badmouthed EA fans can breath a sigh of relief, we do wonder what happened to the community manager. Was he one of the fated 600, and this was his last laugh? Or was he just misinformed? Is his head on the chopping block now?

Update: It appears the EA community manager in question was misinformed.

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