Electronic Arts Message Board older than one year ago

Syndicate will reportedly be a 4-player co-op FPS, developed by Starbreeze. This thread on NeoGAF has some images and info which are apparently leaked from the Swedish edition of Game Reactor which is out next week. This what we know: “Chip Enhanced Gameplay: Slow down time, see through walls, and breach your enemy and everything digital in the world with Dart vision – A neural DART6 chip implant that allows you to interface directly with the Dataverse,” “4-Player Online Co-op: Assemble your Syndicate for global domination. A 4-player, online co-op experience like no other, with chip enhanced gameplay and 9 missions re-imagined from the original Syndicate,” “Visceral FPS Experience: Utilize an upgradable arsenal of futuristic weapons, armor and gear to annihilate your enemies and harvest their chip technology for personal advancement and sinister corporate greed,” “Sci-Fi Fiction: Immerse yourself in the world of Syndicate 2069, with a world-class sci-fi story experience, written by bestselling author Richard Morgan.”

#easports In comments yesterday, Electronic Arts' chief financial officer suggested that Online Pass—the program under which gamers who pick up a used copy of an EA Sports game typically shell out another $10 to EA if they want to activate multiplayer for it—has netted the company in the realm of $10 to $15 million since it was introduced in June 2010. That's a paltry sum to a publisher that size, but it doesn't mean the program's a failure. More »

If the harsh realities of war weren't clear enough to you from cinematic experiences like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, the latest single-player tease for Battlefield 3 is right up your alley. Also, your alley is like, really violent.

Twenty two minutes! That is longer than some wars. It’s a big watch, but I have to admit I am 67.34534% more interesting in this fantasy RPG combat game now, having seen a little more of what it offers outside combat, combat, combat. I mean let’s not be tricky about this: there’s a lot of killing beasts going on in the breadth of these twenty-two minutes, but there’s some other stuff within its heaps of character customisation and wandering about in the hub sections of the game. It is also lavishly pretty in places. Possibly even a bit too much lipstick, some would say.

Full thing below, courtesy of the great beast of IGN.(more…)

#easports Back in June, EA Sports announced plans to open up three brick-and-mortar stores, appealing to sports fans' wallets with games and apparel. This is the first location, the month-old EA Sports store located just at the Concourse C entrance at Charlotte (N.C.) Douglas International Airport. More »

Speaking to Edge, the CEO of bigshot F2P company Bigpoint, Philip Reisberger, has hit out at big publishers trying to get into the free-to-play arena, taking a shot at Valve as he did so: “There are millions, hundreds of millions of people willing to invest even though they aren’t obliged to. The crucial part of the design is not having to invest, but wanting to. Most people in the Bigpoint universe don’t ever pay. But if they want to pay, don’t just offer hats – offer them something that will help them.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by other F2P companies I’ve spoken to: they’re generally unimpressed with the efforts of more traditional firms to get into the market. Are they worried? Maybe. But I sense there’s also an element of envy there – companies like Valve and EA are using their existing reach to bring F2P options to gamers who might not previously have considered it. Not that Reisberger will be worried, Bigpoint gets 250k new signs ups every day.

There was much excitement when Origin users in the US noticed a buy two get one free promotion that includes three Valve titles: Left 4 Dead GOTY Edition, Left 4 Dead 2 and Counterstrike: Source. Could it mean the end of Valve and EA’s digital distribution feud? Of course not. The games aren’t being digitally distributed through Origin’s service, they are retail copies (in boxes made of actual matter like in olden times) that will be delivered to users as part of the offer. Perhaps an EA man will simply step out of the ‘Pizza Delivery’ van that has been inexplicably parked across the street from your house since you signed that EULA and leave the parcel on your doorstep. Or not. At retail, Valve products have been published by EA for many a moon, so this could be seen as nothing more than a good way to free up some warehouse space.

Interested in getting a look at Battlefield 3's "Physical Warfare" pre-order bonus weapons pack (and eventual freebie), "Physical Warfare," months before you can actually get your virtual mitts on it? DICE is offering just that this morning in the bullet-riddled video seen above.

Coincidentally, on the eve of Activision's Call of Duty XP live event, IGN spoke with ex-Infinity Ward leads Vince Zampella and Jason West about their new studio, Respawn Entertainment, and the next best thing to major game reveals: Employee numbers. "55 full-time employees," Zampella revealed, "and then we have some contractors [...] 4 or 5 people right now that are contracting."

"That's boring," you protest. "What about the guns?" you demand. We know, we want to know all about the guns in Respawn's game as well, but for now we've got to divine as much as we can from the crystal ball of employee headcount. "We'll get bigger, but we're slowing growing," Zampella rhymed. "The trick there is it's always just time versus size of the team. So you can take longer and have fewer people or you can get bigger and do some things faster," West added.

If you'll allow us to read between the lines here, it should be clear: Respawn is following the Nice & Smooth school of hiring, meaning its new IP won't be coming out anytime soon if they hire slow ... or it will, if they hire quick. "So if things have to take a little longer they could take a little longer," West suggested, "and if we're fortunate enough to find more awesome talent then we'll do that." So Q4 2012 then? 2013 maybe? We give up.

Not all EA games are absent from Steam. New releases are still appearing, such as Gatling Gears. Intriguing! I jumped in for a quick blast. It’s an extremely cute top down shooter of the “twin stick” school, so that means the user employs WASD to move about and the mouse to aim. It has local co-op, too, so they’re going to want a gamepad to play that. Fortunately I had a pad, and a conveniently bored girlfriend, to have a romp through some of the co-op with. Impressions below.(more…)

We never did hear back from EA about the Origin EULA thing, but Giant Bomb have noticed that the EULA has been substantially redrafted to sound less sinister. The new EULA is a bit more of protestation of innocence than the original legalese: “EA knows that you care how information about you is collected, used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and EA would never sell your personally identifiable information to anyone, nor would it ever use spyware or install spyware on users’ machines.” It does seem like the rest of EULA means you are still basically agreeing to the same thing, however.

We don't take very kindly to pesky rodents sneaking around our places of residence, and we like the concept of said rodents spying on us even less. Still, we can get down with some Firemint-developed iOS games and tell you about the studio's latest title: Spy Mouse, wherein a sneaky vermin codenamed "Agent Squeak" can navigate 72 different themed levels while avoiding enemies, grabbing cheese, and employing a variety of power-ups.

Considering that Spy Mouse is from the folks who created Flight Control, it's not a huge surprise that it looks like a twist on that game's control scheme and central concept, albeit with many fewer paths to address. Firemint head Rob Murray claims that, after two years working on the new game, it's "Firemint's best game yet." It's available now for $0.99.

As spotted by the canny denizens of the Escapist forum, there is a quite extraordinary clause in the EULA of EA’s new game service, Origin. One that may well make you think twice about letting the software on your PC. Under the title of “Consent to Collection and Use of Data”, the clause states that by installing Origin you are giving EA permission to “collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer, operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware.”

(more…)

#stickjockey They have all the secrets to make you a better Madden gamer. "SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE OVER THE COMPETITION," says the website. "DOMINATE ONLINE." More »

#starwarstheoldrepublic In an effort to manage capacity on the day the MMO launches, Electronic Arts has capped the number of physical and digital copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The actual figure is unknown, but once it's reached, no more will be sold until EA can add server capacity to accommodate more players. More »

If EA weren't already inviting so many comparisons between the two, maybe I'd feel guilty about juxtaposing the co-op section of Battlefield 3 that I played with the co-op ("Spec Ops") section of Modern Warfare 3 I played this week at Gamescom. Like MW3, my colleague Alexander and I were given hands-on time with a specific co-op mission in BF3 -- the same one played on-stage during EA's press conference.

Unlike Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games' demo, however, Battlefield 3's co-op section didn't feature any interesting kink in the experience. Moreover, Battlefield 3's co-op section wasn't co-op at all, other than the fact that I was playing it with a buddy. It could've been ripped from any section of the campaign and I'd have been none the wiser. While the Spec Ops mission we played in MW3 was built around the concept of cooperative play, with one player acting as eye in the sky and the other as bomb diffuser, the mission in Battlefield 3, well, it wasn't. It was just a campaign mission with two people.

EA and Activision have been circling each other like feral cats since EA CEO John Riccitiello said he wanted to see Call of Duty "rot from the core" in June. Activision's Eric Hirshberg responded at Gamescom with no response, saying competition is healthy and mudslinging rhetoric is "bad for the industry." EA's corporate spokesman Jeff Brown agrees with Hirshberg by disagreeing, as he had this to say in response:
"Welcome to the big leagues Eric -- I know you're new in the job but someone should have told you this is an [sic] competitive industry.

"You've got every reason to be nervous. Last year Activision had a 90 share in the shooter category. This year, Battlefield 3 is going to take you down to 60 or 70. At that rate, you'll be out of the category in 2-3 years. If you don't believe me, go to the store and try to buy a copy of Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk." Me-ow. With comments like that, we can't help but think this could all be a marketing ploy inspired by The Real Housewives of New Jersey. We'll know when Hirshberg responds by putting on a cocktail dress and flipping a table in a fancy restaurant.

In this chart of non-iPad tablets compared to "obscure" video game consoles, the BlackBerry PlayBook is somewhere between the Philips CDi and the Atari Jaguar. That is to say, the PlayBook hasn't set the world, or really much of anything, on fire. Google's Android OS, on the other hand, is increasingly taking over the mobile space (albeit not the tablet space, where all Android tablets combined are somewhere between the 3DO and the Virtual Boy).

While gaming on Android is still something of a challenge, thanks to a fragmented install base, unique platforms, and multiple stores, that hasn't stopped EA from giving it the ol' college effort. So Xperia Play owners can go to EA's own Flexion Android Store to download EA Mobile and IronMonkey Studios' excellent Dead Space mobile game -- easy! We weren't able to confirm that ourselves, not owning an Xperia Play, so we've put a word into EA for confirmation.

But EA didn't stop there - it's also ported Dead Space to the PlayBook. Premiering today for the same $9.99 price as its far more popular iPad-based twin, the PlayBook audience is getting one of mobile gaming's most successful "core" games. And yes, it's a small audience (smaller than the Xperia Play?) but if EA plans to continue its mobile dominance, it helps to be everywhere.

[Thanks, Gerry]

Well, it IS also exciting if you like the idea of the high-speed chase-me chase-me game of cops and boy-racers spread across the world and shared among millions of players (for free). Need For Speed World recently celebrate a year of whizzing cars wot go fast, and the Gamescom trailer (below) shows off the enfreshened customisation options and the “birthday” Porsche, which I assume everyone for for being around for year. But who cares when all the cars are already so shiny and so soundtracked with electric pop music.

John was a bit unimpressed when he reviewed the game back in the depths of 2010, but perhaps it has changed in the intervening months. Anyone still playing it? Report!(more…)

We suspect there's a good many of you ready to dedicate a gross amount of your personal time to Battlefield 3's multiplayer component. Your significant others will be ignored; children will be unbathed; dogs will be unwalked. Try as you might, you're powerless to avoid it. This is a fait accompli.

But despite your destiny, you still don't know all that much about it! Like ... what kind of guns it has? KH2002? Got it! How about a M40A5? Oh, you know it's got that. If you were as worried as we were that your trusty MP412 wouldn't be making an appearance, well ... rest easy 'cause Battlefield 3 totally has that gun too!

But what about maps? B3's got nine, including Caspian Border and Operation Métro. Modes? How does Rush, Squad Rush, Team Deathmatch, Squad Deathmatch, Conquest, and the PC-only Conquest 64 sound? Toss in nearly two dozen vehicles, a bunch of soldier equipment and specializations, and you're beginning to appreciate just how much raw data is in this Battlefield 3 fact sheet. Head on past the break to rationalize your future dependency.

[Thanks, tengu_soldier!]

Even though we'd been warned that a Battlefield 3 branded MiG-21 jet would be advertising this October's shooter, the sight of a massive jet sitting amongst thousands of Gamescom attendees was jarring.

Maybe even more jarring was the awkward dummy sitting in the MiG's cockpit, dead eyes staring into the Koln Messe's depths. Actually, the tens of thousands of dollars it cost to brand and ship the jet from Berlin to Cologne is most jarring of all. But hey, we totally got our picture taken in front of a jet! Wooo!

I mean they need to bring sexy back, too, but Electronic Arts – who have removed a bunch of games from Steam and don’t intend to put Battlefield 3 on there – will have to come first, according to this article over on Develop. Valve bossking Newell reportedly said: “We really want to show there’s a lot of value having EA titles on Steam. We want EA’s games on Steam and we have to show them that’s a smart thing to do. I think at the end of the day we’re going to prove to Electronic Arts they have happier customers, a higher quality service, and will make more money if they have their titles on Steam. It’s our duty to demonstrate that to them. We don’t have a natural right to publish their games.”

It’ll be interesting to see whether that can now get resolved. Probably not before Battlefield 3 comes out, eh?

38 Studios’ fantasy RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be swooshing its magical weapons in our direction on Feb 7th 2012, according to today’s announcements from its publisher, Electronic Arts. What does that mean? Well, it means ‘epic’ fantasy action, much of which will involve hitting monsters in the face with the aforementioned tools of chopping. 38′s bossman Curt Schilling apparently claims that the game will be an experience half way between God Of War and Oblivion. That sounds like quite the marriage.

I can also confirm that it has kobolds in, because they’re picture above. A trailer, meanwhile, is below.(more…)

What's BioWare Mythic been up to? It's a new Warhammer Online game due this fall, just announced by BioWare's Ray Muzyka at GamesCom. Wrath of Heroes will be a "Play4Free" title -- like the Facebook game Dragon Age Legends and the freemium Battlefield Play4Free.

You can sign up for a beta of the PvP, cel-shaded Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes right now here. It'll be released this fall.

Electronic Arts tells Kotaku that they will be streaming their Gamescom press conference live on EA's Gamescom site. The conference takes place on Tuesday at 4 p.m. local (German) time. Which works out to... um... one second... 10 a.m. eastern, 7 a.m. pacific. More »

When EA Sports shipped Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii in June 2009, using the just-released Wii MotionPlus adapter, then EA Sports chieftain Peter Moore had already acknowledged some months earlier that its titles were underperforming on the Wii. That's why it was surprising when the HD port was "delayed indefinitely" the following month. Now, some two years later, EA Sports is announcing Grand Slam Tennis 2 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (with Move!) with nary a Wii SKU in sight.

The game's major distinguishing factor appears to be Wimbledon. The press release trumpets that Grand Slam Tennis 2 "will feature all four Grand Slam championships and is the only game to feature Wimbledon." Other features include "Total Racquet Control," which lets you use the right analog stick in lieu of button controls, and "Legends of Now and Then," which lets you "play with or against more than 20 of the greatest players to ever grace the courts" including Grand Slam Tennis-exclusive John McEnroe.

If you're wondering which month to mark off in your Hunks of Pro Tennis 2012 calendar, there's some bad news. With a general "2012" release window, you'll be circling all of them. The good news: That's a lot of hunks.

#syndicate Starbreeze Studios, maker of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness, have been working on the secretive "Project Redlime" for years, a game frequently rumored to revive Bullfrog Productions Syndicate. After years of speculation, we may finally see that game next week. More »

The unblinking info-gaze of Eurogamer’s news sentinel has detected NeoGAF discoveries that indicate Alpha Centauri has been trademarked in Europe and the US. One trademark for computer games and one for online gaming. This can only mean one thing: a new FPS is on the way! Ha. My little joke there. Sorry.

Read Lewie’s retrospective for a reminder of why Alpha Centauri is such an important strategy title. We pray that this one is an appropriate remake.

As an interesting set piece for the Battlefield 3 booth at Gamescom, EA had a jet brought from Berlin to Cologne. Transportation of the MiG-21 cost in the low five-figure range in Euros. Probably still cheaper than the jet fuel cost of flying it the 400 kilometers.

As an interesting set piece for the Battlefield 3 booth at Gamescom, EA had a jet brought from Berlin to Cologne. Transportation of the MiG-21 cost in the low five-figure range in Euros. Probably still cheaper than the jet fuel cost of flying it the 400 kilometers.