The rumor also suggests, quite stunningly, that the entire team behind Command & Conquer 4 will get sacked after the game is complete. How’s that for “motivation”?

“To be honest with you, I think the Wii platform has been a little weaker than we had certainly anticipated. And there is no lack of frustration to be doing that at precisely the time where we have the strongest third-party share.”

Riccitiello also added that Nintendo should support 3rd party developers more, and that EA has reached out to Nintendo to partner up and push third party titles even stronger.

While Activision is gearing up to have the largest entertainment launch of all time, EA isn’t exactly basking in the same success. In fact, they have announced today that they will be eliminated 1,500 employees in an attempt to cut costs and turn a profit.

EA says that eliminating these employees and shutting down several facilitates will give them an opportunity to “focus on titles with higher margin opportunities”.

Exactly what these titles are remains unknown.

via kotaku

EA’s Brutal Legend just made it onto store shelves earlier this month and already the game’s developers have come forth to announce the DLC pack Tears of the Hextadon.

This pack will feature 2 additional maps entitled Circle of Tears and Death’s Fjord for playings to utilize with Stage Battle. Circle of Tears will feature a “rough-hewn” circular design while Death’s Fjord will feature an icy mountain landscape.

EA says Tears of the Hextadon will be hitting Xbox Live on November 3rd for 400 Microsoft Points and the Playstation Network on November 5th.

via destructoid

Dead Space: Extraction made its way onto store shelves for the Nintendo Wii on September 29th and considering the reviews and media, we figured it would be met with some critical acclaim. Well, the numbers are in and to Visceral Games’ dismay, it was not met with the critical acclaim they had hoped for.

In fact, in its first week on store shelves (Sep. 29th – Oct. 3rd) the game only managed to push 9,000 copies. EEDAR analyst Jesse Divinch comments on the game’s less than stellar launch:

“Electronic Arts didn’t market Dead Space Extraction as much as it does with other titles. And the success or failure of a Wii title usually correlates directly to marketing spend. If Electronic Arts spent little on marketing, I am sure the sell through was no surprise to them. So I do not believe sell through was a disappointment to EA.”

Let’s wait until Visercal comments to see if what this analyst says is true.

via edge-online

Back in July we let you know that Need for Speed Nitro would be hitting store shelves for the Wii and Nintendo DS on November 16th. Today, EA has announced that the game’s development has gone smoother than expected and the game now has a release date of November 3rd.

If you’re a fan of the Need for Speed series and are looking for a hardcore racer, this most likely isn’t the game for you. However, if you’re a casual player looking for a fun racing game to play then you should definitely check out Need for Speed Nitro. I mean, it is for the Nintendo DS and Wii, after all.

via joystiq

It seems that BioWare and a browser-based development offset of EA called EA 2D have teamed up to produce Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads. This game is a browser-based tactical RPG set in the same universe as Dragon Age: Origins.

There haven’t been many details regarding the game other than that it will be a 3-chapter title with talent trees, classes, sound effects, music and user interfaces taken straight from its console counterpart.

via bioware

In early April we let you know that Will Wright, the guy behind The Sims, Spore and co-founder of Maxis, would be departing the studio he helped build to focus on his newest studio Stupid Fun Club. At the time we had no idea exactly what the studio would work on first and not much has changed since. Although today we now at least know that Stupid Fun Club is working on something.

Mr. Wright himself recently sat down with VentureBeat to let us know that Stupid Fun Club is working on three separate projects which could come to life in “six months to a year”. He elaborated by saying that these projects range from the internet to toys but didn’t say much further.

So, within the next 6-12 months we should be seeing more of Stupid Fun Club.

Battlefield Heroes is a completely free to play game so it was generally assumed that EA wouldn’t be putting much effort into release additional content for it. However, considering the game’s success EA has gone ahead and released the Heroes of the Fall content pack for the game.

The change list, included after the break, is quite long with some notable features being the all new Riverside Rush map, new items and a whole slew of bug fixes.

General Changes

• A New Map! “Riverside Rush”
• New Items and bundles
• End Of Round Screen now shows your Total HP, VP, BF and XP!
• You will now get Assist Kill credit for kills you were a large part of, but where you didn’t do the final damage
• Added a new system for selecting server locales for situations where ping failed. Now you can set your region on the update profile on the website. Should fix lag problems for quite some people
• You now gain titles starting at level 10, your title appears in the nametag and on your profile on the web
• When you receive health or repair a vehicle, the HUD will now tell you how much on the icons themselves
• Vehicle vs. vehicle collision should now feel better
• Removed fire delay when entering a tank
• Tweaked the nametags a bit so they should be more readable and appear in more natural situations
• Piercing Shot no longer allows for critical hits
• Hero Shield is now shared with nearby friends
• Frenzy now returns some health to the wielder
• Keg explosion now slows its victims

Game Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where sometimes vehicles would not spawn properly
• Fixed a black screen issue when you attempted to join a friend or bookmark on a different version
• Fixed a bug where sometimes the vehicles would not explode properly
• Fixes a crash with related to Character Names
• Fixed a bug that caused grenade spam to disappear if you switched too quickly to Burning Bullets
• Fixed a bug where a kill from troop trap gave the wrong message
• Fixed a ton of Text bugs
• Fixed a camera bug that allowed for view inside buildings
• Fixed a bug with Emotes, allowing you to use emotes you were not supposed to
• Fixed a HUD bug, where text would appear in wrong colours
• Fixed a bug that caused you to auto reload, even though you had it turned off
• Fixed a bug where if killed while in parachute, the character would look broken
• Fixed a bug where some key mappings didn’t show up correctly in the Tutorial
• Fixed a bug where you would get stuck if you did not have any weapons equipped
• Removed a “pregame” message in tutorial
• Fixed several Server Crashes
• Fixed a bug where you could type in green
• Fixed a bug where sometimes the in game score and end of round score were displayed incorrectly
• Fixed a bug where score received from flags wasn’t accurate
• Fixed a XP exploit
• Fixed a Visual bug where Combat Medicine would not remove the effects from Burning Bullets
• Fixed a bug with Hero shield , bandage and wrench timer where it kept going even though you had burnt
• through your shield
• Fixed a bug where you could blast strike a friend in e vehicle if he was in a passenger seat
• Fixed a bug where I eats grenades didn’t eat all explosives

Updater

• Fixed various bugs with admin/not admin/UAC install
• Will now reinstall game if local version is too old
• Should now handle PunkBuster better

Game Menu

• Added easy links when completing missions and other events that takes you to the relevant screen
• Replaced online/offline icons in the Friends Screen
• Fixed a bug where the use count on Widgets sorted wrong so it wouldn’t show
• Friend menu will now only show status of mutual relationships (you have to accept a friend invite)

Removed adding a friend through the game menu – this will be managed on the website from now on

EA has just announced that the demo for the recently released Need for Speed: Shift is set to drop for the Xbox 360 and Playstation this Thursday, October 1st.

Included in the demo is the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps racetrack along with one set in the middle of London for you to try out the below 6 cars:

• 2006 Lotus Elise 111R
• 2006 Pagani Zonda
• 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10
• 2008 Nissan GT-R
• BMW M3 (E46)

The game is already out so once you play the demo and fall in love, head over to your local retailer to snag a copy.

via gamesareevil

Unfortunately, Maxis recently let Hecker in an effort to downsize the company but that hasn’t stopped him from quickly moving onto a new project which he calls SpyParty. In this game, there will be 2 players, the Spy and the Sniper. The Spy’s job is to move around the party undetected while completely various objectives while the Sniper’s job is to find the Spy and take him out.

Unfortunately, there is no word on when this game will his store shelves, if ever, but we are definitely anticipating any further information regarding SpyParty.

via bigdownload

If you’ve been following Brutal Legend, you’ll know that Activision is none too happy about EA gaining the rights to publish the game. In fact, they even went as far as asking a court to legally delay Brutal Legend after sueing the game’s developers.

Well, the final decision isn’t in yet but it looks like it’s going to be ruled in EA favors as the judge has expressed his disinterest in complying with Activision’s requests.

So, as of now, you can still expect to see Brutal Legend hit store shelves for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on October 13th of this year.

Read

It seems that the publisher is so fed up with piracy that they have plans to combat the issue with their own firepower. Yves Guillemot, head of Ubisoft, speaks of the piracy problem:

“Altogether on console, the piracy is low. On the PC the piracy is quite a lot. We are working on a tool that would allow us to decrease that on the PC starting next year and probably one game this year.”

So what do they have cookin’ over at Ubisoft? Let’s hope they aren’t getting ideas from EA as we saw how well that was recieved with Spore.

The wait between Command & Conquer: Generals and its successor, Command & Conquer 3, was about 5 years. EA seems to be avoiding a repeat as they have just released the debut trailer for Command & Conquer 4.

RTS fans, don’t expect any actual gameplay footage as the trailer features exclusivly what looks to be just cinematics. However, if you’re following the plot of the franchise you’ll be intrigued to hear that Nod head-honcho Kane makes an appearance in said trailer.

EA has no set release date for Command & Conquer 4 but they hope to have it hit the market sometime in 2010. Will the game have what it takes to oust Blizzard’s forthcoming Starcraft II? We’ll have to wait and find out.

According to recent reports, in the US The Sims 3 sold a full 820,000 copies in June alone. Added to that, Gamasutra strongly believes the game has sold over 2.5million copies globally.

Just to put that into perspective, the entire Sims franchise had sold over 100 million copies worldwide as of April 16th, 2008.

I think it’s safe to say that The Sims is definitely here to stay.

Producer of the game, Gordon Van Dyke, speaks of the success below:

“We are honoured by the reception that the game has received so far. Watching and participating in this non-stop multiplayer action has been a real treat for us and we can’t believe how fast our fans reached 43 million kills. We can now truly say that we have set a new standard for what can be done in the downloadable games category and gamers recognize the endless value that Battlefield 1943 provides for just $15.”

Now that Battlefield 1943 has proven its worth I think its safe to say that EA will pull an Activision and release countless titles that mimic its gameplay.

via Kotaku

Both Glen Schofield, General Manager, and Michael Condrey, COO, from Visceral Games will be making the jump to Activision’s new studio. You’ll recoginze Visceral Studios as being the guys behind Dead Space and Dante’s Inferno.

What is to come from Activision’s new studio? Your guess is as good as mine but it better be good!

via Destructoid

Well, EA was today informed us that the game will be hitting store shelves on November 17th for the abovementioned consoles. According to the press release this game will offer “fun and intense competition for every type of gamer”.

With Need for Speed’s tarnished past perhaps the impending releases of Need for Speed Nitro, Shift and the Criterion developed title will help bring the franchise back to greatness.

via Joystiq

Yes, according to the official Battlefield 1943 twitter, you will in fact be able to use the weapons featured in said game in EA’s upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Below is said tweet:

Think you’re a Bad Ass with BF1943 weapons? What if I said you’ll be able to use your Semi-Auto Rifle, Sniper Rifle, or SMG in BFBC2!

I don’t know exactly who will opt for Battlefield 1943 weapons over Bad Company 2’s but at least it’s a cool feature to have, right?

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be out for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in Q1 of next year.

This rumor comes to us from the 1UP.com’s latest podcast in which David Ellis has been quoted to say:

It’s gonna be in August. Everything I’ve heard says it’s coming in August, it’s tied with Madden.

And, to add even more heat to the flame, Ellis said that this may have been the cause for Activision’s much publicized threat against Sony. Apparantly, the megapublisher was mad that Sony had opted to bundle an EA game with the console as opposed to an Activision one.

Take this as you will but at this point it remains just a rumor. We’ll have to wait until next month before we find out if a PS3 Slim is actually on its way to market.