It's no longer enough to plop your nine-year-old in front of a TV or a video game; nowadays, everyone is pushing to gets kids more physically active. Whether it's Leapfrog, or Nintendo, or now Electronic Arts (EA), companies and parents are pushing to mix entertainment and exercise.

EA, makers of some of the most popular sports video games available, has teamed up with Toy Island to create a line of EA Sports branded toys. The equipment will be sold as complete sets and use a series of sensors, voice commands, and a "virtual coach" to teach kids the proper way to play sports and improve their abilities. The equipment will even play recorded crowd noise to reward kids for using proper techniques.

No word on whether it will also include a virtual opponent who will trash talk when you perform poorly. "You call that a spiral?" For more real-world products based on video games, check out the slideshow below. [From: Joystiq]

The Pittsburgh Steelers have won another Super Bowl! Well, virtually, anyway.

The folks at Electronic Arts (EA) simulated Sunday's big game with the help of video game 'Madden 09,' and the Steel Curtain came out on top of the Arizona Cardinals, according to Joystiq. We didn't care at first either, but once we took a closer look at EA's proficiency at prophecy, we weren't nearly as dismissive; of the last five Super Bowls, EA's simulation has correctly predicted the winner four times. Those aren't bad odds. The only miscue was last year. In case you forgot, that was the year of the Giants' victory over the undefeated Patriots (You didn't actually forget that game, did you?).

Will there be an upset? We doubt it. Those computers know something we don't (or don't have the time to find out for ourselves), so we will go with whatever they say. [From: Joystiq.com]


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Fans of the classic computer game 'SimCity' will be pleased to know that EA has now introduced an iPhone-compatible version, we learned from VentureBeat.

The review of this version, which is essentially 'SimCity 3000' and will soon be available for a mere $9.99, is glowing, with an exception made for the slow loading time. EA assured the reviewer, though, that this kink would be worked out by the time the game is made publicly available at the iPhone App Store in December.

In the meantime, nostalgic iPhone gamers have plenty to keep them occupied. [From: VentureBeat]

The Wii Fit might have some competition brewing, if Men's Fitness magazine is a publication worthy of the public's trust, that is. The details are vague, to say the very least but, here's what we "know": Dave Kushner, executive producer at EA Sports, told the magazine that the company is planning an 'unnamed fitness game' with a 'new peripheral' which will connect the Wiimote to the player's body, enabling all sorts of newfangled measurements, movements, and exercises barely dreamed of before. Sounds totally awesome, right? Well, if and when it materializes, we'll be sure to rush to the store, buy one, then sadly rue its unused, guilt-inducing existence every day thereafter.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

EA's 'Spore,' the latest from 'Sims' creator Will Wright, was hailed by critics as being revolutionary when it was announced -- back in 2005. Since then, it's been delayed and delayed some more, but somehow the hype just continued to grow and grow. The game is now released on the PC and Mac platforms, receiving some mediocre scores from game reviewers who can't quite find a point to it all. More disastrously, though, is the overwhelmingly negative reviews gamers are giving the game at Amazon due to its "draconian" copy-protection system.

The game has to "dial home" to activate itself when installed, which means if you can't play the game if you don't have an Internet connection. More of an issue is that it will only activate itself three times; after that you're stuck calling EA's customer service, who may or may not activate the game for you. Then there's the life-cycle concern: Even if you still have activations left, if in 5 years EA decides to take its activation servers offline will, you be stuck with a useless game?


Irritated buyers are striking back by giving the game one-star reviews on Amazon, and with 1,355 reviews currently lodged, the average is indeed a single star. So, Amazon shoppers at least will know what they're getting themselves into when it comes to copy protection. Will they know just how generally average the game is otherwise, though? [Source: ars technica]

It's Madden day, the most anticipated day of the year for many gaming sports fans, when the latest installment of the hugely popular NFL game is released for just about every gaming platform out there -- even the aged PlayStation 2. With publisher EA's lock on the NFL license, it's basically the only game in town, and with no competition, it gets only incrementally better and better every year.

This year's edition, 'Madden 09,' follows that trend by delivering a little more polish here (improved graphics) and a few extra features there (the ability to retry plays), but hardly anything groundbreaking. Here's a roundup of the reviews we've seen posted thus-far.

• Gamespot loves the improved graphics and the backtrack feature that lets you rewind a play and try it again, but laments the disappointing online league play.
• IGN echoes most of those comments, indicating there isn't all that much new here.
• 1UP is rather more positive, gushing that the game is "so visually impressive that it's likely to stick in your system all season long."

Beyond the game, this year's cover has become a bit of a story in itself. Every year there's the so-called "Madden Curse," which casts doom and gloom for whichever unlucky soul happens to appear on the cover. This year, though, it was the athlete that cursed the cover, with the game shipping to retailers featuring Brett Favre in a Packers uniform. Brett, of course, is a Jet now, and while EA won't be re-releasing the game for obvious reasons, it has released a downloadable cover that you can print out on your own if you like.

For more on Madden 09, check out the coverage at Joystiq.

What gadgets do you always bring with you to the set?

I really do love having my toys to occupy my time between scenes. I usually will bring my Playstation PSP to play EA sports games and other adventure games. I'm playing the new 'God of War' which has the right amount of action to get lost in. I also have a video mp3 player which I use to watch 'South Park' episodes, and movies as well as listen to music.


What cell phone do you have right now and what do you love/hate about it?

I just recently gave up my favorite phone the Palm Treo for a Samsung Instinct. I love touch screen phones as it gives me the right amount of control over a simple phone. I use my phone for everything from scheduling my life to listening to music, so it's more than just a phone. My new Instinct is cool because it has GPS, a full touch screen, and I can check my email when on set, but I would love to see how it stacks up to the new iPhone 3G. So I might just have to get one of those and pick the better of the two to keep. I really do miss the Treo's keyboard though. I got so good using the keyboard while driving to the point where I could text paragraphs without ever looking down. I loved being able to feel the keys. Also I just found out that the Instinct does not have PDF capability so I cannot read my scripts and sides on my phone anymore but it's worth everything--my "Instinct" is to keep it.


Who's the last person you sent a text message to and what was it about?

I sent a text to my brother, we talk all day long. I think I texted him asking him to buy tickets to see 'The Dark Knight' in IMAX. I can't wait to see this movie; I hear Heath Ledger could be up for an Oscar for his role as the Joker...I think it's going to be that good!

'Scrabulous' was easily one of the most popular Facebook apps on the planet, letting friends play quick word games against each other a turn at a time. Hasbro, owners of the 'Scrabble' brand, naturally didn't like that and, as soon as they got their own Facebook version of the game rolling, promptly sued the makers of 'Scrabulous' and had Facebook remove the game. A day later, hackers have shut down Hasbro's official replacement, leaving word-loving fans with nothing to play with but wooden tiles.

No details were given of the so-called "malicious attack" against the game, nor has anyone claimed responsibility. It's been enough to effectively make the game, developed by EA, unplayable. This turn of events will surely bring smiles to the faces of fans of the displaced 'Scrabulous,' and will make it even harder for Hasbro to win them over to the officially licensed, and by most accounts insufficient, replacement for the original Facebook word game. [Source: Los Angeles Times]

In what we're sure is a subtle way to try and connect younger voters, the McCain campaign has been using a chunk of music composed by Christopher Lennertz for 'Medal of Honor: European Assault' in a commercial. Lennertz is unhappy about it's use, however, as he is an Obama booster. Unfortunately for Lennertz, the rights to the music belong to the game's publisher EA, and not the composer.

Lennertz did, however, release a statement voicing his dissatisfaction with the McCain campaign for not seeking his approval or even notifying him of the music's use. Lennertz only found out about his music being used in the commercial when he started recieving e-mails from friends and family.

"I would like to think that someone who believes in the American ideals of business and creativity like Sen. McCain supposedly does, would not want to disgrace or inflict any hardship or ill-will on the artists who create in this country by using their works to promote products and agendas which with they disagree."

Lennertz ened his statement by declaring his support for Senator Obama. The full text of his statement can be found here. [Source: Joystiq]

For years now, Electronic Arts has been the global powerhouse in the video game industry thanks to multi-million dollar franchises like 'Madden' and 'The Sims.' Now, though, it's about to be relegated to second place thanks to a new, multi-billion dollar deal that would merge two powerhouse game publishers: Activision and Vivendi Games, creating the largest publisher of video games in the world.

Activision got its start in the Atari days, its first notable title being the classic 'Pitfall!'. Today, after decades of growth and acquisition, it owns major franchises like 'Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock' and 'Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.' Vivendi, on the other hand, got its start as a mid-nineteenth-century firm that only recently got into the media game, but quickly gained publishing rights to massively popular games from Blizzard such as 'World of Warcraft' and the 'Starcraft' series.

However, while Activision has been steadily growing, Vivendi's media group nearly folded just a few years ago until they sold off assets to stay afloat. In this deal, it will spend $1.7 billion and contribute its Sierra and Blizzard companies in exchange for taking a 52-percent stake in the resulting company, called Activision Blizzard.

So, lots of cash changing hands, but what does this mean to gamers? Probably not much. It'll be at least six months before the merger is complete, and a lot longer than that before we start seeing anyone from World of Warcraft showing as an unlockable character in 'Guitar Hero IV.'

From LATimes.com

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Now that we live in a world dominated by licensing divisions, nothing is ever freaking sacred. So it's no surprise that MTV and EA will be joining forces with Rhino Entertainment to bring the Grateful Dead to the upcoming megahit video game, 'Rock Band.' The game is essentially a four-person, multiplayer version of the karaoke-esque 'Guitar Hero' that incorporates all the traditional instruments in a typical rock band.

It looks like 18 master recordings will be resurrected from the Dead's back-catalog, and will be made available as digitally distributed files some time after Rock Band's release this holiday season. Among the songs available will be the classic Dead tracks "Truckin'," "Uncle John's Band," "Touch of Grey," "Sugar Magnolia," and "Casey Jones."

Seriously, though, we're excited. There's a big difference between licensing songs to Toyota to hawk its newest SUV, and licensing them to a capable game developer like Harmonix (creators of the superb 'Guitar Hero' and 'Karaoke Revolution' games), which will ultimately allow millions of people to get closer to their favorite music.

(We think.)

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Yes, EA has been churning out new Sims games since Day Two of the franchise, and no, they've never made one quite like this.

On its surface, the most obvious point of reference for EA's new Wii-exclusive title is 'Animal Crossing': The player is able to create his or her own character and home, and furnish them accordingly. Although the character creation is relatively simplified versus other Sims games, MySims offers plenty of opportunities for variety and individuality. The character generator allows for quite a bit of personality-tuning: Just point the Wii-mote at the article of clothing, accessory, or body part you want to change, and suddenly you're flying through a laundry list of options. The house construction tool and "thing creator" (used to craft various types of items) looks like it'll give budding interior designers and architects a place to get their freak on.

But there's more to the game than just building. There's also a significant layer of "life simulator" involved in the game, bringing to mind other Japanese games like 'Harvest Moon,' and even creator Will Wright's own 'SimCity.' The player is given more of a macro role in the game, with more of a focus on (super simple) urban design and development concepts.

More than anything, though, 'MySims' is about making contact: Where past Sims console titles were about tending to your character's needs, 'MySims' is more role-playing than baby-sitting, as the character must chat with non-playing characters (NPCs) and develop relationships.

Overall, the game is looking like just the breath of fresh air the franchise needed. Look for it in September.

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E3, once known as the biggest gaming conference in the world, has kicked off in LA, and we're there. As we sit down to watch Microsoft unveil its plans for the Xbox 360 and PC gaming for the next year, we have a few questions about the state of gaming. What should you look out for? What do we expect to hit and miss? Can Sony dig itself out of a seemingly shallow grave?

Return of the Music Games
Ever since the breakaway success of Guitar Hero, publishers have been setting their sights on getting a chunk of the suddenly huge music gaming pie. Some of the biggest hitters at this year's E3 are of the musical variety: there's 'Guitar Hero 3' (which is being published by Activision and developed by 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater' creator Neversoft), as well as 'Rock Band' -- EA's "full band karaoke" (which includes guitar, bass, vocals, and drums, and is being developed by the folks behind the first two Guitar Hero games). EA also has its rhythm-action game for Wii, entitled 'Boogie', and Konami returns with a brand new 'Dance Dance Revolution' game (without arrows!). We're betting our Fender Stratocasters that there will be plenty of other acts making their debut appearances at this year's show as well.

The Hitmakers
What's the story behind Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated (but still largely secretive) games for EA, LMNO? What's up with Peter Jackson's upcoming game for Microsoft, set in the 'Halo' universe? And how about 'Live Free or Die Hard' coming to Xbox 360? Expect big publishers, big movie directors, and big franchises to be making their public debut at E3...at least in sneak-peek form. Word on the street is that LucasArts will be revealing 'LEGO Indiana Jones' as well, which could be nothing short of awesome.

The Big Hitters
In no particular order: 'Assassin's Creed', 'LittleBigPlanet' (seen in the picture above), 'Killzone 2', 'Metal Gear Solid 4', 'Mass Effect', 'Grand Theft Auto IV', and a near-finished 'BioShock' – these are the games we're most excited to see at this year's show. Rumors are flying about 'Metal Gear 4' coming to Xbox 360, and the gaming world waits to see whether or not 'Killzone 2' will live up to the hype (which began so resoundingly at E3 2005).

EA Steps Its Game Up
John Riccitello, EA's CEO, recently told the Wall Street Journal that his company needed to "push beyond traditional audiences to attract non- and casual gamers; "we're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play," Mr. Riccitiello said in an interview. While it's not the first time a CEO has been public about his company's need to change with the times, it's nice to hear EA's most expensive suit essentially say what we're all thinking. Is this largely due to Nintendo's push to open up the market, to expand what we think of as a videogame? We're not saying no.

Indie Game Publishing
You've got to hand it to the guys at GameCock – they definitely know how to start a commotion. After their infamous party at this year's Game Developers Conference (think: nudity, midgets), the publisher which has positioned itself as Defender of All That is Good and Independent will finally be showing off its wares for the first time. The evolution of video games into a creative medium or simply the next batch of low-budget shovelware? We eagerly await the results (and hope it's the former).

Nintendo
One company that's been missing from the news headlines leading up to E3 is Nintendo; after creating the most excitement the video game world has seen in nearly a decade with the introduction of Wii, the Big N has been all but absent this year. The big game releases have been few and far between, and many think that the Wii novelty is wearing off. While we of course expect to see the long-awaited titles – 'Metroid', 'Mario', and 'Super Smash Brothers' all making their Wii debuts – we'd be disappointed if Nintendo didn't have something else up its sleeve as well.

Sony
Off course, there's the biggest question mark of all: Sony. Was the recently-announced price drop an act of desperation, or it this when the shiny black curvy box really starts to sell? The answer to that question most likely exists somewhere between now and Friday: if Sony doesn't have a couple of killer apps to show (we're looking at you, 'Killzone 2', 'Sony Home', and 'Metal Gear Solid 4'), Sony's third PlayStation may signal the console maker's first botched generation.

For more coverage of E3, see our friends at Joystiq and GameDaily.

Video game super studio Electronic Arts has announced a partnership with director Steven Spielberg to produce three future games, all of them shrouded in secrecy.

What many people don't know is that this isn't the first time the two have joined forces. Back in 1995, Spielberg launched Dreamworks Interactive, which went on to conceptualize and develop 1999's 'Medal of Honor' for EA, a game too similar in content and aesthetics to Spielberg's big movie at the time, 'Saving Private Ryan' to be a coincidence. 'Medal of Honor' went on to become one of the best selling game franchises of all time, and EA bought Dreamworks Interactive.

Now, with the band back together, their first new game is an action adventure for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, codenamed 'LMNO.' The player will take on the role a female character who will evolve over the course of the game based on her interaction with other characters.

The second game has an equally ludicrous code name, 'PQRS.' 'PQRS' is for the Wii and will be a puzzle game centered around manipulating blocks. But is this far from a computerized version of Jenga. There will dozens of properties associated with each block: They can be exploded, cause chemical reactions, or any number of other things.

Both games will be previewed at this week's E3 gaming convention.

The third game in the EA/Spielberg series is even more mysterious ... absolutely nothing is known about it at this time. Here's hoping for a licensed title based on 'Amistad.'

From Newsvine

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As a general rule, you don't want to insult the product you're trying to sell ... but don't try to tell that to John Riccitiello, CEO of video game factory Electronic Arts. Riccitiello is quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that most video games are boring and that companies need to do more to appeal to the casual gamer. "We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play."

The comments come just shortly ahead of this week's E3 video game conference where video game makers are able to show off, hock their wares and generally pat themselves on the back. Riccitiello complained not only about the difficulty of games, but about the sameness. He charged that game makers roll out sequels to games without adding or improving on the original formula.

Given that EA is the largest game publisher in the world, perhaps it and its new game hating CEO can lead a video game revolution.

From I4U News

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