A cocktail-napkin calculation about what's at stake in former NCAA players' lawsuit against EA Sports arrived at a potential cash-and-prizes value of $1 billion. But as apocalyptic as that total sounds, Electronic Arts doesn't sound too worried.

Now that Nintendo has revealed its plans to jump into the next-generation with a successor to the Wii, will Microsoft and Sony follow suit? A report earlier today from Develop says that not only is Microsoft working on the next Xbox console, it's already in the hands of developer Electronic Arts.

Robert "Bobby" Kotick, Activision CEO and widely reviled video game exec, had unkind things to say about one of his company's biggest rivals, Electronic Arts, blasting his competitor's "culture," its games, and claiming "great people don't really want to work there."

Electronic Arts tells Kotaku that while they're exploring different downloadable game strategies, they do not plan to charge gamers for "traditionally free game demos."

Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't, but it seems Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has been taking quite a few little digs at its fellow giant Electronic Arts these days — perhaps coincidentally, the same digs many of you have been taking at EA in the comments of my recent stories on the company's bid to purchase…