During Electronic Arts' E3 2008 press conference we finally got some info about the publisher's recent purchase of Rupture, the gaming-oriented social networking technology company that was co-founder by Napster creator Shawn Fanning. Fanning came on stage to address the press event and talked about how their technology will work in upcoming EA games.Rupture will help to form a social networking platform that will apparently be able to cross platforms on the PC, consoles and even mobile phones. EA will create what they call a "Nucleus" which will list a player's likes and dislikes, stats and more. They will also be able to handle microtransactions for upcoming games like Spore and Battlefield Heroes. Rupture will have what Fanning called "social achievements." A gamer can set up his or her own achievements for their friends to try. Game developers will be able to set up their own achievements in their titles.While we don't have a lot of info yet, we are guessing that Nucleus and Rupture are going to give EA ways to handle things that Valve's Steamworks and Microsoft Games for Windows Live do for PC titles. We hope to get more info on these projects and how they differ from Valve and Microsoft's efforts during E3,...

We reported on the rumor of this news nearly a month ago but now it's official. Electronic Arts, in an usual and terse late night press release on Tuesday, announced that it has ..well, here's the entire press release: Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced it has acquired ThreeSF, Inc., a social network for gamers. Financial terms were not disclosed. More information about EA's plans for ThreeSF will be available in the weeks ahead. Yep, that was all there was to it it. ThreeSF is the parent company behind the Rupture web site which pulls data and stats from games like Team Fortress 2 and World of Warcraft and allows you to chat and share that info with Rupture subscribers. The company was co-founded by Shawn Fanning, the now infamous creator of Napster. The previous rumor is that Fanning will now become a EA employee when the deal, rumored to be worth $30 million, was finalized ...

Years and years ago (when the Earth was new and dinosaurs roamed the lands) a certain person named Shawn Manning created a program called Napster. It was incredibly popular because a) it let people trade music on the Internet and b) it was free. However, the music industry didn't like how Napster was being used and almost as soon as it became popular the company was forced into bankruptcy. It also made Shawn Fanning an Internet icon (it even got him a cameo in The Italian Job).Now a new company that Fanning co-founded may actually make him some real money. Techcrunch is reporting through unnamed sources that Rupture, a gaming oriented social networking web site, is about to be bought by Electronic Arts for $30 million. According to the story Fanning and his Rupture partner Jon Baudanza will become employees of EA when the deal is concluded. It speculates that EA has bought the site for its technology; Rupture pulls data and stats from games like Team Fortress 2 and World of Warcraft and allows you to chat and share that info with Rupture subscribers. If all this is true it will be interesting to see how EA uses this in its games....