Disney Should Oh Nom-Nom EA?

God damn it, why do all the horrific ideas appear AFTER Holloween? Just not fair! Disney should buy EA! Well, atleast the Wall Street Journal (Subscription REQUIRED) thinks so. Nevermind the resulting entity will be so evil that’ll make 2012 come early.

In a bold call in Saturday’s Heard On The Street column, the Wall Street Journal proposed that Disney (DIS) ought to buy Electronic Arts (ERTS). The piece note that the timing is right, after a significant earnings miss last week knocked down the video game publisher’s stock 18% on Friday. The piece concludes that “Disney would be gutsy to step up during the current economic uncertainty. But it might be better than waiting for better times and paying top dollar.”

Tiberium. Cancelled.

EA’s Command and Conquer FPS has gotten the axe. According to the internal memo, the project is getting canned because of quality concerns and limited timeframe. A pity really, considering Tiberium, while not earth shattering, looked like a decent playable title.

It is with a heavy heart that I announce an end to all work on Tiberium effective immediately. I’ve consulted with Nick Earl and Frank Gibeau at the EA Games Label and together we have reached the conclusion that given the time and resources remaining, we will not be able to deliver this product to an appropriate level of quality.
The game had fundamental design challenges from the start. We fought to correct the issues, but we were not successful; the game just isn’t coming together well enough to meet our own quality expectations as well as those of our consumers.

Unfortunately, this action will result in several individuals on the team being released. We will make every effort to place affected individuals on projects within the studio – and where that isn’t possible, to connect them with opportunities in other teams at EA.

This is the right move for the studio and the company, but it’s particularly hard for me because of the impact it will have on our people. Many individuals contributed their time and talents to this game. I spent time in the trenches with them and I was continually impressed by their work.

Moving forward, we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I believe we are already doing a better job of engineering success in from the start. The quality bar has been raised. Now we need to step up our focus on great design and execution, catching any problems early and correcting them quickly.

We will strive to live up to our values: To make great games, treat people right, keep our commitments, and grow our business.

Mirror’s Edge on PC Delayed

DICE’s promising shooter-cum-adventure title has been pushed back on the PC side of things and will be available later this Winter. The console version, however, will see a release in November.

The PC version of Mirror’s Edge will ship later in the winter.

Read more

EA Ends Take-Two Takeover Talk

After repeated denials from Take Two, EA finally caved in and has terminated the takeover talks. The most amusing part, however, is the way EA has justified it’s decision to end the take-over talks. Read more

Need for Speed: Undecover, Uncovered

Get ready as EA will be throwing yet another Need for Speed (NFS) title on your plate. EA has officially announced Need for Speed: Undercover after they confirmed the development a while back. The title is being developed by EA’s Black Box studios, and features Maggie Q as the lead celebrity. Because we all know, you can’t make a good game without dragging 20 female celebrities into it. Check out the full press release as well as three ultra high-res screenshots after the jump. Read more

Epic and EA Become Publishing Buddies

Electronic Arts has signed a one-game publishing deal with Epic Games. The unannounced title is being developed by Epic Game’s People Can Fly Studios (The guys behind Painkiller) and will be available on PC, PS3 and Xbox360.

“Epic is a legendary studio that is synonymous with quality and EA Partners jumped at the chance to team up with them on the launch of their next blockbuster IP,” said David DeMartini, senior vice president and general manager, EA Partners.

Read more

The Godfather II Announced

EA has officially announced Godfather II. The game will be available on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox360.

Press Release:

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Paramount Digital Entertainment today revealed the first details of The Godfather® II videogame, the sequel to the 2007 multi-platinum hit. Inspired by the film and Mario Puzo’s Corleone family drama, The Godfather II game goes beyond the film’s story by setting players in the world of organized crime in 1960’s Florida, Cuba and New York. Read more

EA Done With Shitfest Licensed Games

At last, EA released how their slaughtered licensed games were a waste of everyone’s time. EA’s CEO himself has admitted that EA will now stop with their perpetual line-up of “crappy” licensed titles.

John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts: I think what redeems our industry is quality, and I think we take a step back every time we take a license and exploit it with a crappy game. That’s not what we’re about.

About damn time.

Mass Effect - DLC Now Available

Mass Effect’s promised “Bring Down the sky” DLC is now available on PC. Unlike Xbox360 version, this DLC is completely free.

Press Release:

Leading video game developer BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., has announced that “Bring Down the Sky,” the first piece of downloadable content for the award-winning space epic Mass Effect, is now available for PC gamers to download free1 of charge.

Fully optimized for the PC, “Bring Down the Sky” is the first in a series of planned downloadable content that will further expand the Mass Effect story and universe. It includes a new uncharted world that introduces the deadly Batarian alien race, approximately 90 minutes of new gameplay and an original soundtrack. Instructions on how to download and install the new content is available at http://masseffect.bioware.com/downloadablecontent/. “Bring Down the Sky” is currently available for international languages including English, Spanish, Italian and German, with additional language versions coming soon. Read more

EA in PC Crysis

EA will now be branding and selling PCs for Crytek’s upcoming title; Crysis: Warhead.

At Electronic Arts’ Comic-Con booth today, an EA rep mentioned that the company plans to market pre-built PCs in conjunction with the release of Crytek’s upcoming PC-exclusive shooter Crysis Warhead.  The idea seems to be to try and circumvent some of the intimidation that exists for gamers who are either new to high-end PC gaming, or have been out of the scene for some time, and reassure them that it is not prohibitively expensive to acquire a machine that can tame something like Crysis and its followup.

Next Page »