LOL. You guys and your conspiracies. Here are the facts:
GSP and the UFC talked on Thursday and thats when he confirmed that he was taking a break which was a day before the cover was announced.
Retired or not, GSP is the most popular fighter in the UFC.
Retired or not, GSP will be in the game.
Gus has to beat Jimi Manuwa and Jones has to beat Glover before we even get to a rematch.
Taking all of these facts into consideration, I think its highly unlikely that EA switched the winner at the last minute. Retired or not, having GSP on the cover would help sales significantly and thats all that EA cares about. The UFC doesnt need a video game cover to help hype a fight that 1) may not happen and 2) wont happen until Sept at the earliest (the game drops in April/May).
What likely happened is that European fans and fans who wanted someone different on the cover (like me), voted a ton of times and actually won. There was no limitation on the number of times you could vote. It was actually pretty easy to run up the number of votes through a bot or just pressing Back and voting again.
My theory is whenever there is a "conspiracy"....follow the money. EA would make the most money keeping GSP on the cover not replacing him with Gus.