EA Games boss Frank Gibeau has called the Wii a “legacy platform”. In other words, an old console. Something that goes next to the PS2 section. Ouch.
Last year, EA tried something new: they released a number of titles based off brand new intellectual property. Perhaps, in hindsight, too many.
Of all the career paths the Sims franchise ever offered, the criminal career track was the most morally unambiguous with the least amount of consequences… until now.
What a world we live in. Universal Pictures have bought the rights to make a movie based on EA’s Dante’s Inferno. And they’ve bought them for a “seven-figure sum”. Bear in mind, this is a game that hasn’t even been announced yet. The project will be overseen by EA movies-and-comic books guy President David O’Brien, as well as Jonathan Knight (from the gaming side of things), and both game and movie will involve – wait for it – “a journey through the depths of hell”
Loads of you may hate EA now, but hey, once was a time when EA were fairly awesome. When they weren’t called EA, or EA Games, or EA Sports, they were called Electronic Arts, and they had that cool 80′s logo and put out Desert Strike and Road Rash and Skate or Die. You remember those times too? Time to wax nostalgic, as you get a shaky-cam tour of the “wall of fame” at EA HQ, showing practically every game they’ve ever put out, from the good times and the bad.
The EA Wall of Games [Aeropause, via Go Nintendo]
As it stands, nobody has commented officially on the specifics of the next Batman game. Hell, nobody has officially acknowledged that the game even exists. That doesn’t mean we can’t hear about it unofficially, however. So, courtesy of someone who’s already played the game, let’s look over the first details on what you can expect from it, and how it’s shaping up.
Firstly, our source confirms Pandemic as the developers behind the title, though we pretty much knew that already. Secondly, a good portion of the game is set in a GTA-style rendition of Gotham City, which plays a lot like Spiderman 2 as Batman zips around (he even gets a grappling hook for swingy-swingy when not using the Batmobile) attending to crimes. And thirdly? As was first raised last week, it’s not in the best shape, perhaps explaining why the project has been kept in the *ahem* dark for so long.
Anthony Puzo – son of Mario Puzo, author and creator of the Godfather – has begun legal proceedings against Paramount Pictures, accusing them of stiffing him over royalty payments he’s owed in connection with the recent Godfather game. Puzo says that a deal was struck between his father and Paramount in 1992, whereby the now-deceased series creator (and by succession, his kids) would receive a “significant share of the revenue of any audio-visual products” associated with the Godfather, but then accuses Paramount of failing to “pay the Puzo Estate the sums due it in respect of the Godfather game”. I don’t know what Paramount are getting at, but if I was dealing with the family of the guy who created the Godfather, I would not mess with their money, and I would not mess with their respect.
More John Riccitiello at the William Blair & Company conference! This time, he’s talking about the company’s Godfather sequel, and what he’s saying doesn’t sound too bad at all:
You can play this game both at the street level, much like a GTA-style game, but you can also play it top-down, almost like you’re in an RTS, controlling the strategy of the boroughs so you can see what’s going on..
So…there are parts where you play, and parts where you command at a more strategic level? So…X-Com, with mobsters? Neat idea, if they can pull it off.
EA Talks “Godfather II” [Next-Gen]
Yes, it’s got the name Spielberg attached to it, but is that really why you’re interested in Boom Blox? Course not. It’s because it’s another cuddly, colourful Wii game that – thanks to its physics and level of polish – may actually be OK. Thing is, it might not be a Wii game for long, because the way the game’s senior producer Amir Rahimi is talking, ports should be expected come Christmas time: Once it’s over the sky’s the limit. There’s definitely the possibility of going to other consoles.
He says that, it’s EA…so, Christmas 2008, we’re looking at a 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, DS, Mobile and PC version…am I missing any? Boom Blox on Wii has the best physics on any platform [VideoGamer]