Chris Remo, in an op-ed on Penny Arcade, takes on the righteous indignation heaped on publishers -- notably EA -- over the use of DRM. The anger over DRM might be principled bitching, but the point is it's still bitching. Writes Remo:

Though it's not a popular view, in my mind a lot of gamers are overreacting—look how many people buy music through iTunes, whose DRM mechanics are hardly lenient. That's not meant to be a judgment of right or wrong, it's just an observation that may illustrate the gulf between a certain gamer segment and the larger audience that seems to be continually more frightened away by non-casual PC gaming; I would submit their flight isn't based on activation limits.

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Gamasutra has a nice five page interview up with David DeMartini of EA Partners, the Electronic Arts division that has released games like Rock Band, Crysis, The Orange Box, and, uh, Hellgate: London in the past year. It's a pretty wide ranging chat, from discussions of the challenges the come with working with Japanese studios, to acquiring new titles, to the relative disaster of Hellgate:

We're certainly sad with the results for Flagship and what's happened with Hellgate, because at the time we signed it, we were trying to get involved in a very complicated relationship between Namco and Flagship. We were coming late to the party, and trying to do whatever we could to sprinkle the game magic on the project and get it headed in the right direction.

I think that's an example where all three parties had the best interest of the game in mind, and sometimes the game doesn't work out. Hellgate is still an incredible concept. The guys who worked on it spent thousands of hours trying to make that concept work, and sometimes we just don't see something. Sometimes, we just didn't take enough time. Sometimes, things don't work out the way you expect.

It's kind of like a film with all big stars — on the script, it should be successful, but the movie doesn't turn out as good as everybody hoped. That's why EAP takes a portfolio approach with its games. You have to place a lot of bets, and hope for a lot of hits.

Certainly worth a read through — I always enjoy reading interviews that cover a lot of ground, and this certainly satisfies in that respect.

David DeMartini on the Renaissance of EA Partners [Gamasutra]

Crysis Warhead is coming with a little bundled extra: Crysis Wars, a new take on Crysis' multiplayer aspects. This trailer, made from in-game footage, shows that it's looking both nice and fast, but if they don't fix it so the Koreans don't take 1,736 bullets to kill, it'll all be for naught.

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Worried you won't be able to play Crysis Warhead? Check the specs. EA have posted these on the game's store page, meaning that while you may not find solace in them, you can at least be assured that they're official. Basically, if you could play Crysis, you can play this. If you couldn't, and still can't, we're sure you're still squeezing hours of fun out of Oblivion. Or Starcraft. Or Nancy Drew: Phantom Of Venice.

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The Video Games Live concert series is adding Crysis to their amazing arsenal of audio artistry, and they'll be debuting music from the title on Crytek's home turf. As with any giant industry event, Tiny Tommy Tallarico's travelling tour event will be hitting the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany next week, where Inon Zur's masterful score will be performed, accompanied by game footage and lighting effects to drive the sound home.

Said award-winning composer Inon Zur, "CRYSIS is one of the most interesting and challenging games I have scored to date so I am thrilled that it is going to be featured in Video Games Live. I'm very proud and honoured to have my music played in this groundbreaking concert series".

The concert is to be held at the 7,000 seat Leipzig arena on Wednesday, August 20th. Not sure if McWhertor or I will be stopping by at this point, but in any case we'll be there in spirit. Or nearby drinking the local spirits. One of those.

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Some new Crysis Warhead screens (along with bigger versions of some old ones) have been released, courtesy of Japanese site 4Gamer. We know they're for Warhead, and not the same-island-same-bad-guys Crysis, because Crytek were good enough to stick Psycho's (the expansion's protagonist) in half of them just to be sure of it. Particularly #s 5 & 6, which should make for a great "spot the difference" print-out for your next children's birthday party.

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The PC hasn't had a great time in the last few years. The latest generation of Xbox and Playstation consoles can rival, and in some cases exceed, its graphics and online capabilities, while the Wii is innovating with peripherals in ways manufacturers such as Razor and Belkin can only dream about.

id Software's John Carmack hasn't given up on the old girl, not yet. He's voiced his opinion of the current state of the platform before, and in a new interview with Shacknews, he reinforces his view:

Yeah, I think that the PC definitely can't.. we can't go on making PC games like we used to. The combination of the dominance of the consoles, as far as market forces there, and piracy.. the traditional AAA, media-heavy boxed game that sells for a bunch of money, and goes out on the PC for a single player experience--it's just not happening. Even if we look at something that had such a push like Crysis, it didn't really do all that well.

id Software's John Carmack and Marty Stratton Talk Quake Live, PC Gaming, and More [Shacknews]

Not that we were expecting the Crysis series to be turned on its head, but Crysis Warhead looks perhaps a bit too familiar. Maybe we're reading a bit too much into this action packed teaser trailer for the EA published shooter and, no, it's not a proper sequel and maybe Crytek has already spoiled us with the gorgeous original, but I can't shake the feeling of deja vu.

Crysis Warhead HD [GameTrailers]

Tucked into a wide-ranging interview with IGN is this nugget from Cervat Yerli, the CEO of Crytek, developer of Crysis:

It's crazy how the ratio between sales to piracy is probably 1 to 15 to 1 to 20 right now. For one sale there are 15 to 20 pirates and pirate versions, and that's a big shame for the PC industry. I hope with Warhead I hope we improve the situation, but at the same time it may have an impact on [our] PC exclusivity in the future.

Yerli goes on to say that if a game isn't an online multiplayer game, it's up for grabs to piraters, and for that reason the company is spending development effort making Crysis: Warhead more difficult to crack. But if it doesn't pan out, and PC games continue to be pirated at the 15:1 ratio he offers, it's going to affect Crysis' development strategy in the future. "We would only consider full PC exclusives -- if the situation continues like this or gets worse -- I think we would only consider PC exclusive titles that are either online or multiplayer and no more single-player", Yerli says.

So I guess the message is: PC gamers, stop pirating and start snitching on your friends if you want more exclusives out of Crytek. And to show he's serious, he also tells IGN they're working on a non-Crysis console game.

Cevat Yerli Q&A [IGN]

PSP programmers take note—Crytek is hiring. The developer of Crysis and Far Cry is looking to bring its wares to the PlayStation Portable in some form, looking for experienced PSP developers to relocate to its Budapest studio to work on an unspecified project. Odd choice for a platform, considering Crytek president Cervat Yali said the company was "suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis" earlier this year, as piracy on the PSP platform isn't exactly rare.

Crytek is currently working on something for the PlayStation 3, which has been rumoured to be an "enhanced" version of Crysis, that may also be multi-platform. Whether that's a PSP spin-off or something totally new altogether, we'll have to wait to find out.

PSP Programmer [Crytek - thanks, Andrew & EN!]