With more than 60 million active player across all of its Facebook, MySpace, Google, and iPhone games every month, social network game developer Playfish was ripe for the picking. Now they've been picked. As rumored previously, EA has acquired the company for $275 million in cash and $25 million in equity retention agreements, with up to an additional $100 million in variable cash consideration, pending the achievement of certain performance milestones through December 31st of 2011.

Playfish will now operate as a part of EA Interactive, a division of the company dedicated to web and wireless games. More than 150 million Playfish titles are installed and played around the world, with titles like Pet Society, of which I am a big fan, generating more than 1 billion play sessions a month.

"Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space," said Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Interactive. "EAi has been successfully leading the charge for EA, and with the addition of proven expertise from Playfish, their broad consumer base and strong game brands, we're moving ahead aggressively in our plans to lead in the category of cross-platform social entertainment."

If there was any doubt that EA was completely serious about the social networking games space, this should get rid of it. This is an aggressive move into the growing industry segment that could only be topped by the acquisition of Mafia Wars creators Zynga, which I am fully expecting some major game company to announce any day now.

Hopeful MySpace Music artists who want to take a stab at making music with Beaterator can visit http://beaterator.ign.com/ to apply for a chance at being one of up to 100 artists that Rockstar chooses to participate in the Beaterator and MySpace Music Challenge. Those who make the cut will be sent a PSP and a copy of the game. From there they have 14 days to create something beautiful and poignant, after which their creations will be tossed up on MySpace and IGN communities to be weighed and measured for 25% of their final score.

The winner will receive the $5,000 grand prize and have their track featured on the PlayStation Network, where millions of PlayStation 3 owners visit every day. Not generally for music, but they do visit.

Artists have until October 11th to sign up for a chance, so if you happen to be a MySpace artist, get going. The rest of you can sit and ponder how fortunate it is that I didn't abbreviate this article's headline.

"MySpace is and will be more in the future a gaming platform, a space for people to meet and play games," Jonathan Miller told a gathering at the Fortune Brainstorm: TECH conference in Pasadena, California on Thursday.

"None of the traditional media conglomerates are also significant video game players, so to speak, and I think that that's the missing piece of the equation, particularly when you see how much time is spent playing games online," Miller said.

Miller went on to tell Reuters that while MySpace won't be primarily a gaming destination, that will be a crucial theme.

"If you look at the big activities online, games right now is number three," he said. "Communications, search, games. So it's clearly going to be a major focus."

He also said that News Corp could even consider making acquisitions to bolder "MySpace's video game platform."

With Warner Bros. ramping up their efforts in game development as well it could be an interesting time for game development and it's cross-pollination with other forms of entertainment.

News Corp sees MySpace as place for videogames

The game follows the adventures of adorable Sorbet, the brother of prolific Final Fantasy XII Moogle Montblanc, as he embarks on a quest to catch a whole mess of fish. Accept missions to dive under the ocean to collect fish and earn gil to upgrade your equipment, but watch out for that pesky air meter. Get caught without air too deep and you'll wind up in bed for several days, and with only 30 game days to become the Hunter Dive Master, you'll need all the time you have. It's a nifty little game, actually, with leaderboards to show you how much you suck at fishing with a Moogle.

MySpace is a rather odd place for a Square Enix game to show up, but Dive II Hunt makes it almost worth digging up your login information and having to deal with that bastard Tom.

Dive II Hunt [MySpace via 1UP]

It is intended that the two protests will only be superficially similar, however. Whereas Jericho nuts sent bags of, er, nuts the Shenmue protest will take the form of literally some plastic toy capsules being posted to SEGA offices. Oh, and hopefully the Shenmue protest will be successful.

Ryo Hazuki of the Shenmue MySpace Campaign has this advice for would-be protesters, "Please include a letter asking for the continuation of the Shenmue series with your toy capsules, and poster printed from the Shenmue Poster Project. If you are only sending a letter, please include a poster with yours as well. Please be polite in you letters as you will be representing the entire Shenmue fan base :)"

Protests begin on November 27th through to December 29th.

Mass Mailing SEGA!!! Shenmue!!! [MySpace - thanks to Doomstink for the tip]

Oh well, I suppose they'll look a little less ridiculous playing PopStar Guitar than they do playing We Cheer.

XS GAMES CRANKS UP THE VOLUME, BLARING NEW TRACKS FOR POPSTAR GUITAR™

Master Songs From Fall Out Boy, Paramore and All-American Rejects
to Round Out PopStar Guitar's Blockbuster Playlist
NEW YORK - Oct. 16, 2008- Videogame publisher XS Games announced today five new songs for PopStar Guitar™, the all-new music rhythm game for Wii™ and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. Original music from Fall Out Boy, Paramore and All-American Rejects will allow players to release their PopStar within. The new tracks round out a star-studded line-up of original mastered tracks from some of today's hottest Pop artists.

Over 50 Songs Including Original #1 Hits:

· Thnks Fr Th Mmrs by Fall Out Boy
· Sugar We're Going Down by Fall Out Boy
· Misery Business by Paramore
· Dirty Little Secret by All-American Rejects
· Move Along by All-American Rejects
· Shut Up and Drive by Rihanna
· S.O.S by Jonas Brothers
· See You Again by Miley Cyrus
· Wake Up Call by Maroon 5
· Makes Me Wonder by Maroon 5
· All The Small Things by Blink 182
· Welcome To My Life by Simple Plan
· When I'm Gone by 3 Doors Down
· It's Not My Time by 3 Doors Down

"We are thrilled to continue to unveil new original recording artists that will be featured in PopStar Guitar," said Steve Grossman, chief executive officer of XS Games. "The game's fresh line-up of today's top Pop artists paired with the innovative AirG peripheral for Wii will deliver a very rewarding gaming experience for pop music fans and gamers alike."

In PopStar Guitar, players embark on a journey as a budding guitarist with aspirations of becoming the ultimate Pop music sensation. Throughout the game, players develop skills to help them achieve their goal of success on the main stage of a worldwide "Battle of the Bands" competition, which will bring them international stardom. A fun and family friendly title, PopStar Guitar is sure to bring the family together this holiday season.

PopStar Guitar will be available for Wii™ and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. The Wii™ version of PopStar Guitar will retail for $59.99 and will come packaged with two AirG™ peripherals straight out of the box ready for multiplayer gameplay. For PlayStation®2 system players, PopStar Guitar supports officially licensed PlayStation®2 system non-USB guitar peripherals and will retail for $29.99.

Developed by Broadsword Interactive, PopStar Guitar is rated "T" (Teen) by the ESRB and will be available in November 2008.

Please visit the official PopStar Guitar website for all the latest news and announcements at www.popstarguitar.com.

If you're a MySpace user and you friend the page, it looks like you can even score an invite to a DCUO party at Comic-Con, just by bringing a printout of your page (presumably the one that shows you're all pally). Screens after the jump.

[via Joystiq]

There is a great opportunity to take EA Sports and turn it into a general sports brand that can compete not only with Take-Two and Konami and the other usual suspects in the videogame world...[but also] to look at ourselves in a different way and compete with the likes of Nike and ESPN to win the hearts and minds of a very desirable demographic group, which is the 14-to-34-year-old male worldwide.

...I think we have an opportunity to aggregate information and bring it to life with video technologies.

It sounds like Moore is fitting right in at his new job.

EA Sports' Moore Puts ESPN in Crosshairs [nextgeneration]

"Despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities," James Kuai, a research analyst at Parks Associates, said in a prepared statement.

Over the last year, casual gaming has risen 79%, while social networks like MySpace and Facebook only rose 46%. Things aren't completely rosy for gaming's dominance, however, as the casual video viewing portion of the audience grew a massive 123%, which I attribute completely to Chocolate Rain.

"The casual gaming industry cannot rest on its laurels," Kuai said. "In order to counter the growing competition from other online activities, the industry needs to continue to grow its fan base and find ways to better monetize its existing audience."

Game-Playing Eclipses Social Networks, Online Video [Yahoo! News]

In any case, the Wii has redesigned its official MySpace page right and there are already over 37,000 users on it. You can watch Wii commercials and make yourself some Wii friends by chatting with them in the forum section. There's also a blog section with a singular post in it (which was kind of long for a console that has to type one letter at a time), but it didn't make a lot of sense of me, so I clicked on something and waited for the site to crash my computer. Wii love it when MySpace does that. Kim Phu

Wii's MySpace Page [MySpace via The Tanooki]

Hit the jump for the full press release. Michael Fahey

BANDS BATTLE IT OUT IN EA'S BURNOUT BANDSLAM!

EA, MySpace, Virgin Records and Epiphone support emerging music talent in international search for a future star; one U.S. and one European winner get a demo recording contract and track featured on future BurnoutTM videogame

edwood City, Calif. - February 13, 2007 - Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) and MySpace, the world's leading lifestyle portal, have today announced an international search for the hottest new bands in the United States and Europe, in collaboration with Virgin Records and Epiphone. EA's Burnout Bandslam started accepting entries on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/burnoutbandslam) from early February 2007*.
Burnout Bandslam offers unsigned bands from across the United States and Europe the chance to showcase their best track in front of a potential global audience of over 80 million MySpace users, all of whom will be able to vote for their favorite track online.
The winning bands - one each from the United States and Europe - will each receive a Virgin Records demo recording contract and a chance to have their song included in a future Burnout videogame. One runner-up band from each country will become the proud owners of one top-of-the-range Epiphone Les Paul Custom Guitar**.
"Many of the biggest bands around the world have been first discovered through EA videogames, and now we are expanding the opportunity to unsigned bands through this year's Burnout Bandslam," says Steve Schnur, worldwide executive of music and marketing for EA. "The Burnout videogame series is all about attitude and rebellion. So I look forward to discovering a band or two which fits that definition."
"MySpace is dedicated to providing musicians around the globe the ability to share their music and connect with fans online," said Shawn Gold, SVP of Marketing, MySpace. "This partnership is part of our ongoing efforts to provide creative and passionate artists with a platform to be seen, heard, and connect online in order to get to the next level."

"EA has consistently broadened the lanes where music and interactive gaming intersect, and has proven that video games are a rich platform for the discovery and enjoyment of new and established artists, so a collaboration between Virgin and EA has great logic," noted Jeff Kempler, COO, Capitol Music Group. "Partnering with EA in this exciting artist discovery and development contest is a perfect fit for Virgin's dedication to innovative and expansive interaction with creative talent and music fans wherever they may be."

"Epiphone is proud to be involved and associated with this year's Burnout Bandslam and the game Burnout Dominator. Music, talent and excitement are all part of the Epiphone tradition and makes our partnership the perfect fit," said Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO Gibson Guitar, Epiphone's parent company.

The Burnout videogame series is developed by EA's Criterion Games studio and is one of the most acclaimed racing videogame franchises of all time. Burnout Dominator is currently in development for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and PSP (PlayStation Portable) system and due for release in March 2007.
For more information about the Burnout videogame series, please visit the EA press web site at http://info.ea.com, the official Burnout videogame homepage at http://burnout.ea.com or Criterion Games at www.criteriongames.com
For more information about the Burnout Bandslam Contest see additional information below and check out http://www.myspace.com/burnoutbandslam beginning early February 2007 to view complete Contest Official Rules. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Eligibility restrictions apply.

* Precise Contest start dates/times may vary by territory. Please consult the website (http://www.myspace.com/burnoutbandslam) and specific country page for details."

**Guitars to be awarded as part of any prize(s)/package are limited to the quantities quoted. In the event that any winning Band is comprised of multiple Band members, prize(s) will be delivered to the winning Band and division of the prizes is solely the winners' responsibility.

###

Thanks to a tipster I stumbled upon this fun little post from Ninteondo Veep George Harrison about his personal feelings about gaming after 40.

As an "over 40" gaming guy myself (OK, a little more than over 40), I have at times felt left behind as my game skills and the time I have to play games have declined over the years. That's why my Game Boy and my DS make up the majority of my gaming time. As an executive here at Nintendo, I've had the chance to play Wii a lot and can tell you that it truly does have the potential to let anyone play. In a little over six weeks I'm looking forward to seeing many others rediscover the fun of gaming through Wii.

More interesting is the fact that the big GH takes the time to crawl the MySpace forums singing the praises of his Wii. Brian Crecente

40 year old future wii user... [MySpace]

... their crotch! And with one single banner, every male Kotaku editor immediately opens a MySpace account:

as i was responding to a message to a friend on myspace this morning (yes, i know, i still have myspace) i happened to look up and notice the banner at the top of the page. as you can see from the screen cap attached here, it seems that murdoch may be changing his advertising strategy. horny gamer girls indeed! the images on the banner even move up and down to make it seem that much more real to lonely gamer guys who need horny gamer girls.

Jeez, who doesn't need 'em? Thanks to our media darling brethren over at Consumerist for forwarding Adam B's email along! Florian Eckhardt

Mario and Luigi, doubled-up on a scooter, opine on the deplorable state of MySpace Top 8 People lists.

Mario's MySpace Top 8 is his mom, Princess Toadstool, Jesus, You, George, Wash and Koopa, but not Yoshi, after the racial slurs he posted on his blog.

Read an interview with Asterios and Geoffrey, the creators of these Mario & Luigi MySpace vids, over at Siliconera. Florian Eckhardt

Minds of Mario Versus MySpace [SiliconEra]

A funny MySpace clip (don't stop reading) with the Mario Bros.? Believe. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Siliconera]

Battle of MySpace bands for "Scarface" soundtrack
Scarface The Game MySpace Profile