Aptly named Return of Alice, American McGee's next twisted Alice game is shooting to outdo the original. EA Partners said they went to McGee because he had a passion for the IP and gave him a blank canvas to work with.

And just look how he's started to fill that canvas.

[Thanks VenDeath]

"We've given him a blank canvas to go where he would like," said David DeMartini, Electronic Arts Partners chief. "There is nothing set in stone and nothing has been removed either."

Writing on his personal blog today, McGee said that the sequel to American McGee's Alice, currently named The Return of American McGee's Alice, will have the same writer and executive producer as the original game.

"The original Alice was a good bit of fun - and aspects of the original are still quite compelling," he wrote. "The challenge for us - to build a great game, and a sequel worthy of the original - is real, but not daunting.

"For me, this is a dream come true."

It could be for Electronic Arts Partner label as well.

Although the current project is part of a single game contract, it doesn't mean that collaboration won't lead to other titles down the line, DeMartini said.

"We are really having him focus on this one for now," he said. "Letting him create as strong a game as he can."

But if the game does well, it could lead to future projects.

DeMartini said that there currently aren't any plans to bring the original Alice out of retirement, even as a port for the Playstation Network or Xbox Live Arcade, but that it "wasn't a bad idea."

He added that while the new Alice project, which isn't connected in anyway to the film that has been in the works for yeas, is being developed for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, that doesn't mean it will never come out on the Wii.

"It is possible we would revisit that," he said.

"People loved the original game, loved the gameplay," he said. "It was highly creative and interesting."

When EA Partners started thinking about returning to Alice, they "felt that there would be no better place to turn than to the original creative force behind the first game," he said.

"The first place we turned was to American and American shared a passion for the IP and he's had eight years to think about it."

More details, he said, would be coming later today.

Live Blog: DICE 2009 - John Riccitiello, Electronic Arts [The Feed]

World Exclusive!! GameCity to show the lightsaber in action! Travellers Tales and LucasArts let the public play The Force!

11th October 2007. Feel and Play The Force at GameCity (www.gamecity.org). Visitors to the world's most exciting game festival are to be the first in the world get their hands on the Wii® lightsaber, in LucasArts' Lego® Star Wars™: The Complete Saga re-mastered and shown in glorious HD.

Since the first film's debut 30 years ago, fans have longed for the day when they could fight their own lightsaber duels. Now, thanks to the Wii's motion-sensitive controller, The Complete Saga will finally make that fantasy a reality, allowing players to battle with thrusts and slices of the Remote. GameCity is thrilled to give gamers a chance to be the first in the world to see and try the lightsaber first-hand in a worldwide exclusive premier of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for Wii.

This global premier is part of GameCity's Play The Force - a celebration of the rich heritage that games share with the Star Wars phenomenon. That legacy - thirty years, six films, and billions of dollars - is enormous, and throughout those decades games have been an integral part of the Star Wars universe. More than 120 of them have tried - with varying degrees of success - to bring the different elements of Lucas's world to life.

And so, 26th October is Star Wars day at GameCity. The festival is thrilled to be able to welcome Jonathan Smith, of developer Travellers Tales and visionary behind the Lego Star Wars phenomenon, which has brought all six films to life with the tiny, clunky charisma only Lego can bring. Presenting the complete saga of the games' development, and explaining the secret behind their prodigious success, this session will be an exceptional opportunity to see behind the scenes of a game that delighted critics and consumers alike.

Please note: this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - limited tickets are available. Go online and buy your tickets NOW - once they're sold there won't be anymore! www.gamecity.org

Following on from Smith's symposium is a session that gets to the heart of the question that all those not-so-stellar Star Wars games raise: just why is it so hard to get it right? 'What Makes A Brilliant Star Wars Game' brings together gaming experts and Star Wars specialists to hammer out the formula for the perfect Star Wars game. Is it the lightsabers? Is it the music? Is it the X-wings? Join Wonderland's Alice Taylor, and sci-fi expert Jonathan Hamblin to find out.

30 years on from the release of the original film, science - the science behind games, at least - has caught up with science fiction. GameCity is proud to showcase 'Euphoria', Natural Motion's on-the-fly dynamic motion synthesis engine which dynamically generates the movements of your character in-game. Rather than being limited by animations prepared in advance by the game's designers, Euphoria means that no two jumps, no two punches, no two KOs need ever be the same again. Already showcased to great effect in the upcoming Indiana Jones game, Euphoria will also play a key part in the new Star Wars extravaganza. Come along and see how your actions will shape the games of the future.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - 12pm, 26th October. Broadway Cinema and Media Centre
What Makes A Brilliant Star Wars Game? - 1pm, 26th October, Broadway Cinema and Media Centre
Euphoria: Physics of the Force - 2pm, 26th October, Broadway Cinema and Media Centre

Wonderland's globe-trotting Alice sends word that British Airways' inflight magazine business life has a cover story on Second Life. And what's the article about? "Virtual Life, Real Money: How To Make Hard Cash In A Fantasy World." As Alice points out, "every businessperson who's flown BA...is going to have to read this." For better or worse, for better or worse. Brian Ashcraft

Second Life In BA Mag [Wonderland]

See? And you thought we were joking...

These are from a design exhibition in Chile that dates from October 2005. We guess that the 'sticks are immobile to prevent coats from slipping right off. Brilliant stuff. Truly. Brian Ashcraft

Atari Coat Hanger [Wonderland]

Starring Tetris, Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong. Gotta agree with Alice, this certainly raises the bar for Nintendo-themed cross-stitching. Heck, just for cross-stitching even! Brian Ashcraft

Nice Nintendo Blanket [GayGamer]

Found by Kotaku contributor Alice on her way back from the airport. Signs of the times, signs of the times, folks. All that's missing is a Viagra ad. Brian Ashcraft

Madden Tourney [Wonderland]

To get my fill of Americana (and fat people), I hit Disneyworld with the fam while I was recently back in the States. Grabbed lunch with Alice, who spotted this in the Animal Kingdom parking lot: Someone advertising 20GB and 60GB PLAYSTATION 3s for sale and trying to make the happiest place on earth that much happier. Or something like that.

The "Not In Car" bit is classic! Brian Ashcraft

PS3 Animal Kingdom Ad [Wonderland Blog]

More busting-shit-up idiocy. This time we've got a radio station (doing YouTube stuff, go figure) quizzing some guy named Daniel. Correct questions get him closer to the PS3. Wrong ones get the steamroller closer. The questions are tough — though, I so knew the Boxing Day question 'cos Alice at Wonderland explained it to me last week! The end result? PS3s can give steamrollers some air. Brian Ashcraft

Got that Christmas list ready? The National Retail Federation commissioned a survey and found out what American children want for Christmas (and hint: Not a Wii). Deep breaths, here goes:

• Girls
• • 1. Barbie • 2. Dolls (generic) • 3. Bratz • 4. T.M.X. Elmo • 5. Dora the Explorer • 6. Disney Princess • 7. iPod / MP3 Player • 8. Nintendo DS • 9. PLAYSTATION 3 • 10. The Little Mermaid

• Boys
• • 1. T.M.X. Elmo • 2. Cars (generic) • 3. PLAYSTATION 3 • 4. Video games • 5. LEGO • 6. Nintendo DS • 7. Hot Wheels • 8. Xbox 360 • 9. Remote controlled cars • 10. Trucks (generic)

Wow. American kids are PS3-kurazy! Brian Ashcraft

Babies Game Too [Wonderland Blog]

I know these things exist, and I know that this isn't news, but it's still pretty funny to see one just growing out there under a tree. Glyn sent these two pics in because he was as delighted as I would have been to discover one all on his own while on a canal boat trip in sunny Stoke-on-Trent, UK. I assume the first pic is before he licked the mushroom and the second is after. Triptafantastic. Brian Crecente

After some weird rumors of a "big" announcement coming out of Ken Kutaragi's TGS 2006 keynote, it has passed with stifling a yawn and feeling "blah" But there's still some pretty hysterical commentary in some of the other liveblogs that covered the event.

First of all, from the lovely Alice, who wrote some really withering remarks in her liveblog, this comment on Ken Kutaragi hating sequels:

Sony finished off with a little finger-wagging at the development community: "why so many sequels", Ken asked, having demo'ed Ridge Racer SEVEN, Virtua Fighter FIVE, Mobile Suit Gundam SIX (at least, if I'm not wrong) and Final Fantasy THIRTEEN. Innovation will come from users, or the power of the network, or by returning game designers to the creative process instead of having them out there photographing cars and landscapes for the next racing game.

And this off-the-cuff diss by the Eurogamer crew:

If you're wondering when Ken is actually planning on talking about games or anything remotely concrete or relevant to gamers, developers or anyone else - so are we!

Finally, from Joystiq:

During the keynote, the DS pictochat room that had fallen silent sprang to life as bored attendees decided to entertain themselves, since it was clear that Ken Kutaragi had no intention of doing so. After the keynote, we head the words "meltdown," "total disaster," and "trainwreck" bandied about the press room. This keynote was worse — way worse — than Sony's E3 showing.

You know, Sony, the second you guys stop fucking up every last details of your launch, we'll cover it. Keep us posted, okay, guys? Florian Eckhardt

Related: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/tgs06/tgs06-liveblogging-kutaragis-keynote-202427.php

And sadly, none of them are Crecente. To gear up for this week's Women in Games International conference in Seattle, a list the industry 100 Most Influential Women has been drawn up. The list contains the likes of Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan, "sex in games lady" Brenda Brathwaite, PMS leader Amber Dalton and Wonderland's (and Kotaku's when we blackmail her) Alice Taylor. An interesting read and insight into a traditionally male dominated industry. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Next Gen]

Destructoid is on the scene with a roundup of pending bigscreen video game adaptations, and what the big D misses, their commentors point out.

I like this system of anticipation, the Probability of Suck. It's vaguely antagonistic, and completely to the point. Which is how I aspire to live my life.

Alice Probability of Suck:Moderately Low American McGee's Alice is getting the big screen treatment. We have Sarah Michelle Gellar set to play Alice, and the director is Marcus Nispel. Nispel's debut into Hollywood films was 2003's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. His next movie, Pathfinder, is to be released soon (trailer looks good). The screenplay is being writter by two brothers, neither of whom have writing experience. Unfortunately, I've never gotten to play through the game, although I've heard and read plenty about it. If this director has improved in the quality of his filmmaking, then I'll have some faith in this movie being made.

Does anyone else think Sarah Michelle Gellar is WAY too old for this role? Too old, and sorta doughy-faced. We need someone barely post-adolescent, and sharp. Not some sad sack vampire stabber. Her face is all pulled down at the edges. McGee's Alice was feline.

Jennifer Connelly could do it.Eliza Gauger

Alice fanart from eatpoo.com.

Upcoming Game Movies [Destructoid]

Alice over at Wonderland found this shirt on clothed BBC employee Chris. When asked where he purchased it, he said a shop in Luton. Alice writes:

I thought perhaps there'd be a shop selling similar online somewhere, but unfortunately Googling for "butt naked athlete" does you NO GOOD AT ALL.

Unfortunately, Alice is wrong. Googling for "butt naked athlete" does loads of good, but not in the t-shirt department. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Wonderland]

More Here [Wonderland]

Thanks for giving me the honour of speaking before you again this year. In my work I have to talk to a lot of people but as you all know since I still have the heart of a gamer I have most fun talking to you.

Once upon a time way back in the 1980s a company became number one because its products meant fun to young people. But then in the 1990s another company became a bigger brand and its bigger budget took away the first company s number one position. Luckily this company had a product that was still appealing, and this company used a strategy to win over new customers. It would redefine its own business and expand it market to new users. Could this work, this company asked? Well we know the answer, the answer is yes. Because that first company, Pepsi,

[laughter]

became number one, displacing Coke; it stopped asking how can we sell more cola , instead it started asking, what else do people want to drink . Today Pepsi is number one in bottled water, sports drinks and health drinks, and it remains number one in the snack business too. As every game developer understands, the three basic food groups are Fritos, Cheetos and Doritos.

I m here today to share some stories with you. But I began with Pepsi because it demonstrates how thinking differently and holding strong to your strategy can disrupt an entire industry - and in a good way. For some time, we have believed that the game industry is ready for disruption, not just from Nintendo but from all developers. It s what we all need to expand our audience and to expand our imaginations. Several years ago when I began talking about reaching out to casual gamers and non-gamers, people [listened?].

Today the Nintendo DS is succeeding in disrupting the handheld market. Most industry growth last year came from just this one product line. Now people are listening more closely. I know many of you smiled when we demo'd Nintendogs last year at E3, and I m sure not many of you believed it would sell 6 million copies around the world by this time this year! But the success of the Nintendo DS is not just a story of one game, it s also the story of several new software titles creating brand awareness. Let me explain how disruption is working for us. Let me share some information about Japan s market.

When it launched in 2001 the PlayStation 2 sold 6 million units in its first 21 months. The Nintendo GBA reached 6m in 20 months. But the Nintendo DS is selling much faster we ve reached 6m in just 14mths! This number would be far higher if production could keep up with demand. In part the success of the Nintendo DS is due to how we define technology with new features, but more the disruption comes from how we take advantage of [ ]: no system has created more discussion or surprise than our Brain games. The first Brain Training sold 1.9m units in one month!

I have been asked many times how we decided to develop these games. So this is the first story I should share. Where did this idea come from? You can guess. It started where all great creative ideas begin: from a board of directors.

[laughter]

When [person] was a member of our executive company, he complained no one his age played games. Japan is an aging society. He thought a game for seniors might work. I agreed that it was a good start, but it thought it would be perhaps a mistake to target only seniors. Something to appeal to other users as well maybe? So just after E3 two years ago, we were finalizing the Nintendo DS hardware as well as preparing the Nintendo DS launch games. It was a busy time. Even so I asked each of our four main development groups to nominate a few people to start a task force on this. Some of them did not have much experience making games, so I got to play the role of professor.The goal of the task force was to invent a game whose appeal would include everyone young, baby boomers, seniors. Our brainstorms didn t produce any solid ideas, but at that time people in Japan were reading a book; Train Your Brain. 60 days to a better brain . I thought this sort of game would be a good idea. Our CFO was doing these exercises already and convinced me to go forward. Then I consulted with Miyamoto and he got excited too.

Several of the taskforce said maybe exercising game would not be enough. Would there be a way to measure brain age? What an idea! People would compete with their scores! But nothing could begin till we came to an agreement with the author of this book. As we are the same age, I decided to meet with him. He agreed to find just one hour on just one day to talk to me, he was a busy man .. and that day was the day the DS launched.

[laughter]

The meeting lasted 3 hours. We showed him our prototype brain training software, and explained how his mark might translate to other media. He was enthused. The doctor offered to demonstrate evidence of how the software was stimulating brain activity. He asked if he could borrow one of my team members. I said, certainly. His assistant came in with a strange bowl with wires attached. He placed it upside down on my team member s head. It looked like a 1950s sci fi movie! He could prove that the game was changing the blood movement on the surface of the brain. I m sure people at Nintendo wondered how I could spend so much time on this meeting, on the day of the DS launch. But I think it turned out to be a great idea.

Internally we have one thing we call the [development environmental group?]. They d finished a library of tools for voice and sound recording. Simultaneously, handwriting recognition. When they began this work we all thought these functions would be useful for the DS someday but we had no idea how. But then suddenly it seems to Miyamoto and me that they would be a perfect match for this brain game. I was very enthusiastic about the project now! But the development team didn t feel the same way. I assembled a group of 9 and told them this wasn t very complicated. They should be able to finish the first game in just 90 days. Including holidays. I could tell they were not happy! But at least with such a short schedule they couldn t waste much time complaining.

[laughter]

My concern was how the market would react. Few people inside Nintendo believed the retailers would place big orders. It was too different from what they knew already. So at this point one member of the sales team suggested a new rule: when a salesman showed the software, the first 15 minutes of the meeting must be the buyers trying the brain exercises themselves. The retailers hated this idea. They were disgusted! But we gave them no choice.

[laughter]

We could only wait to see how they react. And how did they respond? Well at this point I think I will take a risk and see if we can reproduce those first reactions right here on stage. Here s Nintendo s Localisation team person, with some friends.

[demo, using Will Wright as a tester, hehe]

Iwata: Thanks Will, Jeff and Jamil. I think we have discovered people who are now determined to improve their brain age! That s the secret appeal of this game. Let me add one more note. Those retailers agreed to buy a total of 70,000 units, which was just a few more than our team expected, but I was not satisfied with that number. Between the launch of the first game and the second, you could see a disruption in Japan, something had changed, many new people were playing. We returned some months later with the second version. The retailers quickly placed orders for 850,000 units. Brain Training 2 recorded the biggest first week sales of any DS game ever. Now, the three games, including Big Brain Academy, have sold 5m+ units in Japan. The moral of this story is: if you want to succeed in game development, you need to follow 2 simple rules. First, listen to your board of directors. And second, listen to your chief financial officer.

[laughter]

The development of this game came from our belief that people wanted something new and in this case it took form of a treadmill for the mind. But we learned that the only real way to demo the appeal of these games is to have people play them. In Nintendo Japan we had teams take the game home to show to their friends and family. Suddenly family members who had never played before were playing. So I decided the same thing might work here in America. The time to start is right now. So when we finish today, I thought we should test your brain age and you can show it to a friend and parent. So when you leave this keynote, please, all of you take a copy of Brain Training for the DS with you!

[applause]

Please only take one!

[laughter]

The second story I want to share is disruption of a second type. Not only of a new technology but finding a way of making it attractive to everyone, so opening up to a whole new audience. This technology was the Nintendo wi-fi connection. You used to have connection in Japan, you could use your NES to trade stocks, but the time wasn t ready for networking then. Recently we decided to launch Nintendo wi-fi connection. We knew Animal Crossing and Mario Kart were coming, and we wanted them to have multiplayer wi-fi. Development time was short. Then I wanted the connection to be seamless. Someone around the world or next to you in the same room, it should be the very same experience. This causes problems. Making things easier for players makes things harder for developers.

But the hardest thing would be to decide who to connect with. Online gamers can be a very aggressive, vocal group. For the casual player this kind of interaction can be intimidating. If we only cater to this very vocal hardcore we will never expand the audience, I think. I wanted the wi-fi network to be a gameplay version of MySpace. We referred to it as project houseparty . This idea of comfort, of inviting friends to play in your own home. Well in Nintendo of America this name wasn t very popular. They thought it sounded like a Tupperware party. But no matter what we called it, I believed it should be simple and fun.

It s simple to connect locally when you re in a room with friends. It should be just as easy even if they re thousands of miles away. But fun depends on the players you may want to play mariokart with only friends you know, or maybe your fun is to defeat total strangers. No one playing Animal Crossing wants someone to come in an cut down all their trees and trash their town. I wanted players to have the choice. Freedom to choose. For developers: easy and fun? That would mean the work would be easy OR fun. There were many barriers to overcome.

In the end, it is the freedom of choice that has made the Nintendo wi-fi connection so successful. We ve surpassed 1m players, and 29m sessions, in 18 weeks. This is faster than Xbox Live! It took them 20 months to reach 1m. Of course this has made our wi-fi development team very happy! Here is a picture of them: you can t see the sign they re holding up in this picture, so I shall show you. It says Hello GDC, Wi-fi loves you .

[applause]

They wanted to come but I told them sorry no. But I promised at least I could bring their picture.

[laughter]

This week we added a new game to Nintendo Wi-fi; Metroid Prime Hunters, and it has brought something new. I knew a wi-fi demo would be nothing new to demo to you. Instead the true appeal is seen best if we hold a 4 person demo here on stage.

Demo: this demo will show you something close to mouse and keyboard ! You use the touch screen to aim, then you slide left back front with the control pad. You jump by doubletap.

[Alice: This is amazingly speedy. Very Quake 3.]

I know I am much better watching this than playing it.

When we talk about expanding the market to new players, may times this means new kinds of software. I hope that metroid shows we re not [ ] ..we re catering for all tastes. Tetris DS is something your grandmother would enjoy and you can compete head to head with people over wi-fi! We re bringing out an all new Super Mario Bros game...and because you are all such game fans, I ve decided to reveal one more brand new adventure for you today.

[Zelda clip for DS]: to rapturous applause

So Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is designed exclusively for the DS. It will launch later this year. It s a product from the same team who created most of the Zelda hits in the past. You can play both on DS and Gamecube at E3.

The third story I have to share is the answer to a question that people ask me all the time, how did you have the idea for the Revolution s freehand controller . We started with a simple question: why is it that anyone is comfortable picking up a remote for a TV but that most people are afraid to even touch a normal controller for a game?

Our first meeting started in 2004. First we decided the controller must be wireless. We must give players freedom to move. Second it must be simple, non-threatening. But it should be sophisticated to serve the needs of complex games. And yes, we wanted it to be revolutionary . Finding an answer to all of this was not easy. For more than 6 months two people in Nintendo did nothing but produce sketch after sketch. Each led to more discussion. Dozens of prototype designs. All in all, 15 people were involved trying to figure out the answer. I was considering technology that would incorporate a direct pointing device

Many good ideas were floating around but nothing felt revolutionary. Then last year a young team leader came up with a disruptive idea. What if you could play with just one hand? Mr Miyamoto quickly imagined a small simple wireless device. But we saw an immediate problem how to do backwards compatibility to games requiring two hands? Mr Miyamoto had the answer make the small wireless controller detachable..[..]. this sounded good, but when we shared the idea with our Metroid Prime producers, they objected. They said their game wouldn t work with what we invented. They added another idea keep the one hand device but add another device for the other hand if the game required, like this nunchuk device. We think this is something that will entirely change first person shooters. So now we really went to work.

What did it look like finally? Well it looked like the TV remote control that we first imagined a year earlier: sometimes ideas are like good wine, they just need time. After all the mockups, we were happy. It was wireless, inviting to new players, and something brand new for hardcore players, plus a new interface. But it also represented something else. As you can imagine, this was a very expensive process, not just in research and development but also in manufacturing such an elaborate control system. Some people bet their money on the screen [being the most important innovation], but we put our money on the experience. This is an investment in market disruption.

We believe there is a new way to connect a player to his game. New is good. But there also is an appetite for old. For young players, classic games are brand new! For others, they are a way to feel young again. After we announced the Virtual Console concept last year, I can announce that .. specifically developed for the Sega Genesis and Hudson games will also be ..[ ]

[applause over speaking]

available for Revolution via a budget system. Between them these guys built a library of over 1000 games. But not all the games will be available, only the best of them will be available.

Thank you for listening to my stories this morning, however the most important story of all is still to be told. I hope all of you, the creative force of our industry, will help us write it. It s a story of how disruption will help all of us overcome the growing barriers to game development. We know the main barrier is cost. There is one dominant business model for our industry. Publishers work backwards from a console game at retail for 50-60 dollars. Games must be longer, larger and more complex to compete. This requires bigger development teams. Success is more likely if a strong license is acquired. But even then huge amounts of money are needed to market that game to a mass audience. It s understandable that publishers feel most comfortable with sequels as a way to manage risk, but as a result our business is beginning to resemble a bookstore where you can only expensive full-set encyclopedias. No romance novels! No paperbacks!

In our business too often people with a fresh idea don t have a chance. I believe if Tetris were presented today here s what the producer would be told: more levels, better graphics, cinematics and you ll need a movie license to sell that idea!

The producer would go away dejected, and today Tetris might never be invented. We understand [ ] the future zeldas, marios and metroids will be bigger masterpieces. But this doesn t have to be the only business model. We want to help you make new ones. We offer a combination of opportunities that can t be matched. Our controllers .. it allows for game creation that isn t just dependent on the size of the development budget. Our Virtual Console concept is the videogame version of Apple s iTunes music store. Since I announced this virtual console, other people have been interested in digital downloads. But they will not be the same as us: for we will be truly disruptive. The digital download process will bring new games to the widest possible audience of new players.

When I think of what faces all of us right now I imagine what it must have been like for the new explorers who first set foot on new continents. Our adventure is still ahead of us! We are committed to creating an environment where all of you can prosper. I began by saying that disruption is not just a strategy for us. We ve disrupted handheld and it worked. We disrupted wi-fi and it worked. We disrupted the definition of a game, and that s worked. In a few weeks [at E3] you will understand how better to disrupt a console game!

We do not run from risk, we run to it. It should be our goal to reach new players as well as current players for all of us. Show them surprise. Our reward, to convince them overall: videogames should just be one thing. Fun.

Fun for everyone!

Thank you!

Full Speech [Wonderland]

Unfortunately, Alice is ugly; Clint Howard ugly. So EA is providing its strong brand in an attempt to broaden Alice's appeal — and obviously find new Sims players.

From the AP:

A 2005 University of California, Los Angeles study found there had been a 50 percent drop in computer science majors over the previous four years. The proportion of women who were considering majoring in computer science fell to levels not seen since the early 1970s, according to the study.

Electronic Arts Inc. which publishes "The Sims," wants "more women in computer science, they want more minorities in computer science ... any underrepresented group," Pausch said.

As long as this doesn't affect grossly oversized breasts and impossibly acheivable tiny waists in character design, I'm all for it!

Carnegie Mellon to Use 'Sims' in Software