Electronic Arts has been putting more and more efforts into making new original games like Army of Two and the upcoming Mirror's Edge, Spore and Dead Space. So it makes sense that EA would like to see some of these properties on movie and TV screens. Today the publisher announced that they have signed a deal with the Hollywood talent agency UTV to help them do just that.EA hopes to ramp up film and TV shows based on their game titles with the help of UTV. Even thought EA has a ton of games that could be turned into other media properties they only have a few of these kind of deals in development. These include a movie based on The Sims at Fox and a MySims animated TV series at Film Roman. There's also a Dead Space animated movie from Starz/Film Roman that will be released alongside the game this October....

During last week's annual E3 video game trade show, GamesIndustry.biz was able to catch up with new EA Sports president Peter Moore. Moore discussed several key strategies from his playbook, including the increased focus on digital distribution by Electronic Arts in the coming years -- and months."You're talking to a company here that truly believes that every consumer will ultimately go online," Moore said. Adamant that his company will lead that charge, Moore explained that a focus on disc-based sales was hurting the industry giant. The cost of writing games to physical media is not expensive, but the process of shipping the products, creating packaging, relinquishing a share of sales to retailers... all of that and more adds up to a price that EA would like to eliminate."We have every intention over a period of time ... of moving this company to be one that is totally digitally-focused," Moore said.Of course, it's pure hyperbole and fantasy to believe that all consumers will adopt an online-only marketplace, and brick-and-mortar retailers will certainly raise objections. Moore maintained his stance, stating that companies such as Best Buy and Walmart adopted foresight in an effort to serve their customers at physical sites as well as online. Bluntly, Moore said that retailers will either "embrace it and find a business model that makes sense, or they become in the end monolithic."...

Electronic Arts continues to dance around the Take Two Interactive tree. EA announced back in January its plans to merge with Take Two but has extended its deadline several times on the deal thanks to Take Two's issues with EA's asking price. Today EA officially announced its latest deadline extension for the deal.The last deadline came and went on July 18 but in a new press release EA states that the deadline has been extended yet again to August 18. There's no indication that EA plans to raise its price offer which Take Two execs have already stated is too low for their tastes.They issued a press release this morning stating that Take Two has continued to discuss possible deals with unnamed "multiple parties."...

Our very last E3 2008 appointment was, ironically, not at the Los Angeles Convention Center but at a nearby hotel. Deep underneath the hotel's meeting room was host to BioWare's long awaited next fantasy RPG Dragon Age Origins. The game was first announced and shown in a very early form over four years ago at E3 2004 (when it was called simply Dragon Age) so we were expecting to be wowed by this new version.Dragon Age Origins represents a bit of a return to BioWare's PC gaming roots. After releasing the first Neverwinter Nights title BioWare went in a console direction creating the Xbox RPG games Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire and more recently the Xbox 360 game Mass Effect (all three games were eventually ported to the PC). Bioware also got a new owner in Electronic Arts. So its good that for at least this title (and perhaps the rumored Star Wars MMO that BioWare Austin is making) the developer will return to making PC games as their first platform of choice....

(Editor's note: this article is based on seeing a live demo of the Xbox 360 port of the game)Electronic Arts is aiming to do something different for their upcoming titles Dead Space. While it has released a few "M" rated games in the recent past like Army of Two, The Godfather and others, this is the first real horror game EA has released since, well, the terrific and underrated first person shooter Clive Barker's Undying. Dead Space is also EA's first excursion into the survival horror genre which means it's going up against two of Konami's big franchises, Resident Evil and Silent Hill.At EA 2008,we got to see a demo of the game being played which showed off some of Dead Space's more unique elements. The game's setting is certainly different than Konami's titles. It takes place in the far future where humanity has broken the light speed barrier and traveled to the stars. Your player character is an engineer who is sent to find out why one starship hasn't reported back in a while. He reaches his destination only to find that in space, people can indeed hear you scream if you happen to be in a space suit with a radio....

If the original Command and Conquer timeline is a fairly standard sci-fi affair and C&C Generals is a more realistic near future storyline, then Electronic Arts' Red Alert franchise is all about comic book goofiness and fun. The alternate history where the Communist Soviet Union is still large and in charge and wild weapons are plentiful will get a revamp this fall with the release of C&C: Red Alert 3.At E3 2008 we got a chance to go hands-on with a PC build of the game (it's also being released for the Xbox 360) where we got to play as the brand new Red Alert Japanese faction called the Empire of the Rising Sun. The visuals, while in 3D, remain in the style of the first two 2D Red Alert titles. They are colorful yet detailed and are actually quite fun to just look at....

E3 sure ain't what it used to be. At least that's what EA CEO John Riccitiello thinks. "I hate E3 like this. Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we'll have to have our own private events."He's not the only one who doesn't care for the "new and improved" E3 Media and Business Summit format. Ubisoft North America president Laurent Detoc was harsher: "E3 this year is terrible. The world used to come to E3. Now it's like a pipe-fitters show in the basement."A pipe-fitters show? Ouch. Approximately 5,000 people were expected to attend this year's E3 at the LA Convention Center. Back in its glory years E3 drew 60,000 people. Ouch.Mike Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, admitted that they need to figure out "where the dial needs to go" and they'll continue to work on the format as needed....

It looks like Electronic Arts wants everyone to have access to some Spore. . . the game that is. Today the company announced a deal with AT&T that will give its AT&T High-Speed Internet customers access to not only the free demo version of Spore Creature Creature but will give new customers access to the full paid version of the editor.AT&T mobile customers can now get Spore Origins, the mobile phone game, exclusively on their phones until September 4. This follows earlier reports that revealed EA is trying to make deals with PC makers to get the Spore Creature Creator installed in new PCs. The actual full game is, of course, still scheduled for release on September 7.[Via press release]...

In an interview with business site Portfolio.com, Electronic Arts executive John Riccitello confirmed that an MMO based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is in development.Talking about EA's portfolio of upcoming titles, Riccitello said: "We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development, [Warhammer Online and] the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about -- in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it." When Portfolio asked for clarification that he's talking about the KotOR IP, he said "yes."At this point it's hardly a surprise, as the trademark has already been registered and hints have been dropped, but a confirmation is a welcome thing. Essentially, the industry's worst-kept and most popular secret is a secret no longer![Via Massively]...

Coming soon from famed developer BioWare is Dragon Age: Origins. Returning to its Baldur's Gate roots, BioWare promises epic party-based combat, deep customization and (considering the dev team) a million hours of various story arcs and dialog trees. The last point might be a little skewed but, based on these two trailers, the storyline is an important part of the Dragon Age: Origins experience.Excited? You should be because BioWare is. "We're thrilled to be returning to BioWare's fantasy roots, with Dragon Age: Origins representing the culmination of over a decade of experience," said Bioware CEO Ray Muzyka. "Dragon Age: Origins is a dark heroic fantasy that doesn't pull any punches. Our fans are in for the most emotionally intense gaming experience we've ever created, and we hope to surprise them with just how dark and gritty it gets!"...

During the Electronic Arts press conference, BioWare president and co-founder Greg Zeschuk took the stage to reintroduce the world to Dragon Age: Origins. As Zeschuk outlined the vision for the game -- specifically attempting to bring BioWare back to its Baldur's Gate style roots -- he revealed Dragon Age: Origins would eventually find a home on consoles. Zeschuk made the comment in passing during his presentation for EA and eluded to a console version being planned for the future. Once confirmed as a PC exclusive, Dragon Age: Origins is now simply a timed-exclusive for PC gamers....

So you have likely been playing with the Spore Creature Creator for a few weeks now, either in its free version or the full $9.99 version. But how, you may ask, is the actual Spore game actually looking. Quite well, thank you. In fact it's a lot deeper experience than we first imagined.At Electronic Arts' E3 meeting room we got to play with just one aspect of the full game of Spore, namely the beginning of the game where you evolve as a microscopic organism. As it turns out the game is more than just a series of mini-games linked by editors. It really looks and feels like you are controlling the evolution of one small creature into a massive space-faring civilization....

With the release of Mythic Entertainment's anticipated Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning approximately two months away, the developer would like to remind you via this E3 gameplay trailer that online battles will be large, fast-paced, and utterly cataclysmic in their presentation....

To this day, The Sims franchise continues to dominate PC gaming sales charts. But EA can only release so many expansion packs before the money flow starts to dwindle just a little bit, right? Enter The Sims 3, which premiered at E3 this year. Of course, we already knew it was coming, but what we have for you here today is the first trailer!It looks like it's all done in-game. You'll recognize the art style from previous iterations of the series, but the graphical quality is quite a bit better -- so much so that we worry about it running on low end systems, as is necessary for a game that aims for mainstream gamers. Still, it looks cool, and it seems to imply that your sims will be able to roam freely and seamlessly around town. That's been a long time coming! ...

Is it just us or is the monster-mutant in the last few frames of the new Rage trailer look an awful lot like The Goonies' favorite not-really-a-bad-monster and Chuck's pal Sloth? Well in any case it still looks impressive and we should learn more about Rage at QuakeCon later this month. In the meantime check out the E3 trailer which shows less than a minute of actual game footage from the id Software-EA action game....