Dobson laments "the new video that's out, supposedly for kids" that features "every form of evil and violence, from killing to raping to drugs to foul language to political corruption and racism." Kids exposed to this sort of thing, Dobson says, "some of them, especially those that come from dysfunctional families, go out and do things that are reprehensible." Beck, who has previously called us "losers" (no u are, lol), points out that Dobson is talking about GTA IV, adding "they say it isn't being sold for kids, but it is, kids are buying it."

We're emailing both Beck and Dobson, begging for the rape codes. We simply must try these heretofore unknown feature and readjust our moral compass accordingly.

Wither the American family? [CNN - thanks, Jeremy!]

First off, there's no shame in being the type whose eyes glaze over every time you hear something to do with "the market" or "analysts" or "diluted shares," and since this ongoing saga contains these phrases at several junctions, you may want to start with the easy, albeit detailed, summary of the whole works we recently wrote for you.

Still with me? Hit the jump for your handy roundup of our recent coverage:

To summarize, EA believes it's made a "full and fair" offer for Take-Two at $26 per share; Take-Two says it's not enough, and that's where the two have stood ever since the offer was made in February. EA's initial deadline to seal the deal expired on April 18th; EA then modded its offer with an extension that will hold them until Friday.

A couple of things have changed since the saga began. First, many expected the record-breaking release of GTA IV to be a game-changer; it wasn't, despite what Take-Two board chairman Strauss Zelnick said, save for a handful of change gained on Take-Two's per share price, which has been vacillating around the $26 price point since EA's offer. Before EA made its bid, Take-Two seemed stuck at $17 a share.

Second, EA's $2 billion dollar offer is now worth less per share than it was at first, thanks to some extra shares handed out as part of Take-Two's management compensation package. The new $25.74 per share price is due to dilution, not a reduction on EA's part - but it still presents an additional obstacle, considering that Take-Two's stock has remained higher than that for a few weeks now.

Both companies are taking a hard line, and all tricky issues of monetary valuations aside, each has a valid viewpoint. Zelnick believes Take-Two's current lineup and stable of talent gives it much more value than the EA bid gives it credit for, and he made an uncharacteristically impassioned plea to this effect during Take-Two's annual shareholder meeting.

EA, on the other hand, is playing it cool, noting during its own annual meeting yesterday that its sports portfolio is robust, its "city-state" label structure is diverse, and that it has no need to break its back to gain Take-Two. EA has also said repeatedly that the longer this battle goes on, the less it's all worth to them, despite feeling that Take-Two's are "some of the best studios in the world."

Most recently, EA borrowed $1 billion in extra capital from several lenders to afford them "maximum flexibility." Following that announcement, Take-Two's stock made a climb to $27 per share, indicating investors feel EA's bid looks likely.

Cowen and Co. analyst Doug Creutz recently put the odds of the deal going through at 80/20, for example, provided EA raises the offering price one more time. Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter doesn't think EA needs to offer more money without negotiating first, but both analysts agree that the deal has too much upside for both parties to walk away.

Will the delay-despising EA extend its offer once again at the end of this week, or will it extend and raise it, as some analysts have told us they must - and can afford to? We'll see.

We've seen many beautiful faces representing themselves as gamers, of course; booth babes, models and even amateur cam girls using photos of themselves posed suggestively with game paraphernalia to sell products or drive web hits. Because of this phenomenon, every time you see a so-called "hot gamer chick," the temptation is to assume she can't possibly be an actual gamer.

So is Jo Garcia the real deal? Full interview - and slightly NSFW pics - follow the jump.

"People don't understand that that the whole gaming world is not just for geeks, and assume that every person who plays video games is a geek that wears glasses," Garcia said. "It's a misnomer that needs to be put to rest."

Garcia told us she plays PC games and console titles, and owns both a Nintendo DS and a PSP. "It's something that I carry with me everywhere, like some people carry their iPods. It's the norm to me. I've had people send me messages like, 'oh you play video games?' And I'm like, 'why are you so surprised?"

"If I could get a job... being a game tester, I would do that all day long."

Wouldn't she get sick of it? "I don't think I would! I think that's one of those things... like you can eat chocolate all day long, and I can play video games all day and I'll get lost in them."

Her favorite games? "I love RPGs that tell stories," she said, listing the Final Fantasy series, Radiata Stories and the Xenosaga trilogy among her favorites.

"I like those games because they have a lot of sidequests," Garcia said. "You can build up your character doing small things. I'm 100 hours into FFXII and I'm not even done with the game yet. I'm doing all the hunts and the sidequests - I'm probably a third into the game and my guys are at level 60. I hold my characters high so when I go through the game it's a lot easier."

Yeah. But did she get the Zodiac Spear?

"I actually got the Zodiac Spear the first time I played it... you have to go through hell to get that spear, but I happened to get it the first time because someone told me about it. You can't open certain boxes, but then you have to go through and fight that nasty esper at the end... I died three times before I actually beat it."

Garcia talked quite a bit about RPGs, with an enthusiasm for detail familiar to fans of the genre. She's aware, though, that both gamers and non-gamers might have a hard time believing that a winning Playboy model defers social time with pals to focus on her game console - perhaps because of the manipulative way in which the game industry uses pretty girls, or pretty girls use the game industry, to earn appeal.

Garcia has seen plenty of models paid to act like game fans when they're not, but said it's not the models' fault. "Sex sells," she said. "The thing that most of the guys see... the women taking pictures with an Xbox to make it look more glamorous... you can't blame so much the models, but the companies. [The models] are being paid to be there, like at the game conventions. I know a lot of girls that shoot that kind of stuff, but it's not done on purpose."

"They're trying to make it appeal to men. And I think men need more... finessing than women do. You can do woman-based advertising on a product, but I think if a woman wants to play video games, she's going to buy it regardless of the ads," Garcia said.

"[A woman] thinks more when she makes a purchase, versus guys have to be lured in. So if you just give them something cheezy, that's going to be implanted in their head and they're going to be like, 'I have to buy Call of Duty 4.' Women don't need that finessing. You can give her a million-dollar advertisement, and if she doesn't want to buy it she's not going to buy it."

How, then, does Garcia think that women might dissolve some of the misconceptions around females and games? "I think just playing them," she said. "Even something as small as just doing this. I've shot Playboy stuff with my PSP, and people have asked if I really play video games, and I respond back. I think, just getting more involved in it, and doing more with it, and seeing where it goes."

By the way, according to Garcia, one of Hugh Hefner's favorite rooms at the Playboy Mansion has a broad museum of old arcade cabinets. After seeing it on her first tour, Garcia decided to spend her visit hanging out in there.

"I was in there probably the whole time I was at the house, because I wanted something to do," she said. "I almost finished the whole Donkey Kong while I was there."

The game is releasing on August 19 in North America, but the once four-player co-op has been trimmed to two because, after play-testing it for awhile, he realized that there was too much going on with that many players.

Later, Dyack told me that the engine still supports four player co-op, but that things were getting too confusing on screen once you factored in the four players, their special attacks and spider-bots plus the army of creatures that would spawn to deal with them.

None of the game's maps are randomized, he told me, but the creatures that spawn in them are. The game will take a player about 15 hours to get to level 30 and 50 to 60 hours to get to level 50.

"I don't know how long it would take to see everything, I don't even know if that's possible," he said. "Too Human may look like an action game, but don't be fooled—it's actually a very, very deep role-playing title."

I did enjoy my time with the game, but still feel like I'm not quite getting it. G4's Adam Sessler and I worked through a chunk of co-op, playing through levels side-by-side and I could see how having two more players would make things unnecessarily convoluted.

What I couldn't see, in my short time with the game, was it's depth. There were hints that deep play was present, especially in the weapons upgrades and spells, but 20 minutes or so in a co-op match isn't the best way to explore that.

The action element of the game seemed to handle fine, though I never really got a sense of my character's power. Slapping the stick left to right to clear out robotic trolls and goblins was pretty slick, but it felt at times that the action on the screen was disconnected with my movement. I guess I didn't always feel like I was actually in control, it was almost as if the game was, at times, on auto pilot.

The sound, which was impossible to hear in yesterday's setting, could certainly help with some of that, but I think that either I need a better understanding of the nuance of the controls or that, perhaps, there is no nuance to the controls.

Too Human is certainly an interesting looking game, and the art design is slowly winning me over, but this is just going to have to be one of those titles I have to really sit down and play for quite awhile before I can figure out how into it I will be.

Since the game wasn't getting official demos, I decided to take our 30 minute break between games to sit down with the Penny Arcade game and take it for a test drive.

The game starts off by letting you customize your character's look and clothing. The selection isn't as robust as I would have liked to see (no luxuriously long hair guys? I'm hurt) but there's still more than enough to make the character feel like one of your own.

The game itself unwinds slowly through an amalgam of comic panel and full motion cut scenes that are both narrated by a... um... narrator. This voice is actually the only one you'll ever hear in the game. I'm told that this is because fans of the web comic have their own and wildly varied ideas of how the characters should sound. For example, my Gabe and Tycho sound like Asterix and Obelix.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed playing what I did of the game. It felt very much like a blending of some of the best bits of different types of games. It has, for instance, a distinct role-playing flavor to it, but there's also a point-and-click adventure and action element to the game.

I don't want to give away any of the plot, because as fun as the gameplay is, it's the plot that will most certainly attract most to this game.

I can say that my first brush with combat involved a clutch of mini-Fruit Fuckers who, during the turn-based combat sequence, never stopped hip-thrusting—a disturbing sight to say the least. Combat itself was interesting. I had to use a button to select my attack, (swiping with a rake initially) and also watch out for FF attacks so I could do a timed defense. This combination of turn-based and real-time actions was kinda neat.

There is also, of course, plenty of humor. For instance, later on I found an orange and was able to "distract" the fruit fuckers with it. Watching the Fruit Fuckers delight in their new found plaything made me wonder what the meeting with the ESRB was like when the game was getting its Mature rating. I mean, who had to go explain this to the panel?

Penny Arcade Adventures also includes quite a bit of dialog trees and meandering. I only spent about 20 minutes with the game, so it's hard to offer a truly informed opinion, but I can say I was gratified with the experience. I suspect it's going to be a game I enjoy making my way through, if for no other reason that to feed oranges to the Fruit Fuckers.

"It looked like a kids game, but was quite difficult to play," said a Rare developer walking us through the game. "We kept the basic principal, you're in a garden and trying to attract animals to it."

But the team's done a lot to simplify the game and make it more accessible to a wider audience. Chief among the changes is a co-op mode that lets you play in the garden with friend. They've also added a fun mode which gives gamers the ability to buy just about anything in the game, removes the bad guys and turns the garden into an instant gratification sandbox.

Other tweaks include adding snow and sand and the sorts of pinatas that would like that sort of terrain. You can also now take pictures in the game and have them sent to a website which will recognize which animals are on display and categorize them automatically for easy searching. There's also an easy to use in-game animal finder which makes tracking down your pet pinatas much less of a chore.

The short demo wrapped up with a look at the Pinata Vision system. Using the Xbox 360 camera, gamers can hold up a specially created Viva Pinata image and instantly import it into the game.

"It doesn't have to be a card, it can be an image on your Zune or iPod that you would just hold up to the camera"

While the tweaks look like they could streamline gameplay a bit, Trouble in Paradise is still very much a Viva Pinata game for better or worse and I'm not so sure it's been simplified enough to attract the potential audience that the cartoon has created for the game.

The First Shot of the Drum Kit that will be used in GH 4 [Destructoid Blogs via Ars Technica - Thanks Matt!]

"We're going to be talking about Fable 2 today of course, next time I meet you we will be talking about our next new project, but today it's about Fable 2," he said. "It's going to be full of bugs and you're going to write some pretty horrible things about it, but it's about time that I show you what the game will feel like from the beginning."

In the Beginning
The game of Fable 2 has an elegant beginning, a cut-scene that follows a bird from a forest to a town, where it lands on a ledge and takes a poop.

"We take a dramatic camera angel and follow that poop until it lands on your head, and that's how it starts," Molyneux said. "It's a lovely starting."

The game begins with you as a little kid in a slum, totally powerless, learning both the city and your controls. Molyneux calls it a half hour of charm.

"My dream is to tell a story you fucking remember," he said. "I want you to remember it, i want it to stay in your mind. How do i do that? I steal a bunch of stuff from my favorite things."

The screen is relatively HUD free, instead most of what you need to know is shown contextually. There is a breadcrumb trail, for instance, that appears on the ground to show you where you need to go next to complete your current missions.

"It's like an in-car navigation system without a voice."

Free Roaming
Almost all cut-scenes are interactive in the game, in fact there is less than five minutes worth of non-interactive cut-scenes in the entire game. During the rest of them you can react, by using your D-pad to perform expressions, laugh, frown, even fart when someone is talking. You can evil kill a person in the middle of a cut-scene, cutting it short and drastically changing the missions, Molyneux said.

These choices are what help shape the world, changing it from something created by developers to something very personal. And such choices have drastic repercussions as the years pass, changing not just your character and his or her appearance, but the look of the town, even the region.

"The cool thing about Fable 2 is that it's a role-playing game set in a simulated world," Molyneux said.

The entire world is free roaming too and everywhere in the world can be owned by the player.

Molyneux showed how this world lives even when the main character isn't around. He slipped through the hills and trees of one region until he discovered a gypsy camp. In it the women were dancing, the kids playing, heedless of not having an audience to react to.

"These kids will play out the whole of the fable one story, it's just what they do," he said, following around a pack of children with the camera. "They will be mock fighting, it's a little play they will play. They will go out and kill Jack of Blades. If you get famous enough they'll start acting out what you've done in Fable 2."

Moral choices make a return in Fable 2, but this time around, Molyneux said, they will actually work the way he said they would.

"We made a rubbish job of that in Fable one, there were a couple of moral choices in Fable one but it wasn't what we said it would be," he said. "There are an enormous number of moral choices this time around. To be a good guy we are going to ask you to sacrifice a lot."

Fight
The fighting system in the game will be as customizable as the world and your character, Molyneux said.

"You can add flourishes with button holds, you can add contextual buttons, your whole combat system is unique to you," he said.

Each of the buttons will have 15 things you can tie to it. There are eight spells in the game, each with five levels. While that doesn't sound like a lot, Molyneux said that the combination of these different things can make for quite a few different iterations.

"It's truly a dynamic combat system," he said.

There is also the dog, who will help you fight and stay by your side, but as Molyneux has said before, that's really not the point of your pet.

"He is just your dog, he's there for you to enjoy."

Molyneux told us about a play test the team did with a biker, a man who at one point was "absolutely in tears" because of a scene involving his dog.

"That's why he is there."

Molyneux wrapped up the demo by quickly showing how easy it is to drop into a cooperative game with a friend and teasing a yet to be announced secret about co-op play.

"There is another big surprise, a very big surprise about co-oping," he said, before adding that Fable 2 is a "Hell of a game."

Some are simply interesting as curiosities, such as an option to purchase Xbox Live memberships for charities and the addition of a Media section for audio delivered through feeds, such as podcasts. Others sound more feature robust, such as Windows Live Mail integration and an expanded "Inside Xbox" with news, weather, entertainment, help and community features.

Perhaps the most interesting additions are "Calibration options for motion sensor devices" for the Dashboard and "Support for titles to store installation data on Storage Device for faster loading" for Games. If true, the former would lend further credibility to frequent rumors that Microsoft is planning to introduce a motion controller for the Xbox 360. The ability to store installation data on a hard drive—as is done with some PlayStation 3 games—would certainly be a welcome option, if that's how the wording should be interpreted. Continue on for the full list of rumored updates.

Xbox LIVE
1. Option to delay sign-in to Xbox LIVE upon booting console (to allow user to set Online Status).
2. Option to promote Child Account from Family Settings.
3. Disallow Child Accounts (over 18) to override Family Settings by launching Privacy Settings through a title.
4. Option in Family Settings for Child Accounts to enable child-oriented/non-mature advertisements.
5. Introduce a group chat (4) for Private Chat and conferences through Video Chat.
6. Support to indicate media being watched to gamercard status (video content from Marketplace only).
7. Extend height for Bio field in Personal Profile, easier navigation through text.
8. More fields present in Personal Profile - recent achievements, interests, games, movies, links, custom section.
9. Compact Personal Profile for new fields (navigating to field will open it up).
10. Mandatory option to delete duplicate titles from gamercard (excludes Games for Windows - LIVE). User disconnected from Xbox LIVE when booting any title until action complete.
11. Option to remove payment information from gamertag.
12. New payment methods for international users.
13. Download History on Account Management better organized - games, genre, type, download date, miscellaneous.
14. Long descriptions of items on Marketplace can be scrolled using right stick.
15. Better organization of free content on Marketplace.
16. Option to 'ping' when testing connection.
17. Allow re-connection to Xbox LIVE if Ethernet cable is re-inserted whilst powered on.
18. New strip colors available to developers, staff gamercards.
19. New corner icon available to ambassadors.
20. Re-introduce Messages button for Inside Xbox updates only.
21. Option to store up to 10 messages permanently on server (excludes invites, status messages).
22. Increase character limit for text messages between friends only.
23. Option to disable invites from non-friends or all players.
24. Option to disable invites from titles not on gamercard (excludes demos).
25. Option to have smaller items moved up in Active Downloads.
26. Automatically re-connect to Xbox LIVE if disconnected unexpectedly (set intervals).
27. Option to download gamer picture (if available) from a gamercard being viewed.
28. Display random tips to replace static text on Xbox LIVE and Games blades.
29. New button on Marketplace for optional dashboard features - uses Storage Device memory.
30. Option to donate Microsoft Points to anybody with a Windows Live ID.
31. Option to purchase Membership for charities (includes benefits).
32. Integrate file-sharing for selected titles on Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows - LIVE.
33. Disable notifications to friends of user repeatedly signing into service (set period).
34. Option to see 'snippet' of text message in notification.
35. Windows Live Mail integration - includes support for Xbox LIVE Vision.
36. Web feeds integration - text, images, audio. Includes support for specific item codes on Marketplace.
37. Option to display gamer picture or standard picture as display picture in Windows Live Messenger.
38. Support for headset, Xbox LIVE Vision in Windows Live Messenger.
39. Support for limited 'winks' that display on dashboard interface. Option to disable 'winks' and 'nudges' added.
40. Notifications separate from Windows Live Messenger to Xbox 360 notifications.
41. Disable multiple languages from being used in any Xbox LIVE editable fields.

Games
1. Option to delete titles from gamercard with 0 gamerscore and 0 achievements (excludes some titles that will be re-added to launch another title).
2. Organize My Games at the Games Library section better (includes disc-based titles) - sort by genre, platform (Games for Windows - LIVE), percentage completion.
3. Support to display friends leaderboards for disc-based titles.
4. Show dates of an achievement unlocked when comparing.
5. Preload Games Library upon dashboard bootup for faster access.
6. Game updates now shown as items in Memory, increased amount of updates on Storage Device.
7. Option to delete game updates, removed 'cheat code' as no longer needed.
8. Support for more titles to display banner when accessing guide in-game.
9. Option to re-introduce awarded gamer pictures from titles that do not have their own re-introduce feature (requires saved game).
10. Disable gamer pictures from being awarded from trials.
11. Support for titles to store installation data on Storage Device for faster loading.
12. Synchronization to achievements offline/online that were deleted and then re-added from developers.

Media
1. Option to hold LT and RT for rewinding/fast-forwarding video content.
2. Option to delete individual music tracks from storage device.
3. Option to rip music CD at different quality.
4. Copy non-protected files (pictures, music, videos) from USB storage devices, CDs and computers to proprietary storage devices.
5. Support for menu, top-menu features on video content downloaded from Marketplace.
6. Section added for audio delivered through feeds (podcasts). Option to stream, download to Storage Device.
7. Support added for video titles/description to gamercard status.

Dashboard/Miscellaneous
1. Option to navigate quickly out of several menus back to respective blade home (applies to Games, Media, System).
2. New blade trim styles added.
3. Introduce expanded Inside Xbox as a portal to news, weather, entertainment, help and community features.
4. New sounds for various functions (notifications, blades, navigation).
5. Calibration options for display/sound.
6. Calibration options for motion sensor devices.
7. New effects for Xbox LIVE Vision and dashboard background.
8. Disable changing of Theme when on Memory to prevent 'hanging'.
9. Preload recent, limited items upon dashboard bootup on Memory.
10. Faster loading of Themes section on guide.
11. Option to see what items will not work offline due to DRM license changing from Memory.
12. Option to automatically associate new DRM to items downloaded for free.
13. Indicate 'charging' status on guide when Play & Charge kit is connected.
14. Option to change text colors on guide to better contrast some backgrounds.
16. Language improvements.
18. Word censor updated for fields.
19. Privacy Settings/Family Settings updated for new features.
20. Voice, picture messages can be read at Xbox.com (Gold accounts).

When we contacted Microsoft to verify the authenticity of the list, we were told "We don’t comment on rumors or speculation, but what we can tell you is we’ve never seen this list before." Obviously, consider this rumor and/or speculation for now, especially in light of the official statement and the clearly unofficial sourcing of this information.

If we hear anything more concrete, anything straight from the source, we'll let you know.

"Personally I think we were able to create the definitive 3D game in this series so I'm not planing on making any other games in the series," Itagaki said through a translator. "So I hope fans treat this as a swan song for the franchise.

"I think we were able to achieve everything we wanted with this game so anything else would be extraneous."

When asked if he plans on making a "swan song" Ninja Gaiden title for the PlayStation 3, Itagaki replied " that would be ridiculous."

Instead, the creator of the beloved franchise said he wants to make something that is "totally new, completely unrelated to anything I've done before. Not any part of any existing franchises."

Itagaki said what he'd like to do is work on another action title or perhaps a war themed game, perhaps something set in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

"I think the Pacific theater of World War II is a interesting topic," he said. "I think it would be cool to work with an American developer and do a game based on the Pacific Theater."

"I think it would be cool to do something like what Clint Eastwood is doing for that time period," he added, referencing Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima which shows both sides of the war.

When asked how long he had been thinking about doing such a title, Itagaki said it was something he came up with during our short interview.

"That's what it's like to create something; you start from nothing and you have to clear your mind and come up with new ideas," he said. "I'm interested in that period of time, for my generation, that was an event that influenced us more than anything else. I think that would be an interesting topic to explore."

If it turned out that a Japanese developed game about World War II was "too politically charged," Itagaki said he might want to explore the same issues in a game set in space.

Holographic... interface?

Riccitiello also promised that the next NBA Live would take "a huge step up," with new features set to be unveiled at E3.

EA seems enthusiastic about its sports franchises, and Riccitiello says he expects EA Sports will help drive the company to an additional $1 billion in revenue and an 100 percent increase in operating income. Riccitiello was optimistic about the company's studio structure in general, also listing big things ahead for the Sims Studio: Two sequels for MySims, a new SimAnimals title, and the launch of The Sims 3.

"Our fiscal 09 operating plan keeps us on track to achieve our fiscal year target - even without Take Two," Riccitiello said.

During the same call, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau also expressed positive sentiments about EA's "city-state" label structure. "We have restructured... from a top-down and centralized model to a federation of highly creative teams, each with our own culture and vision," he said, noting a broad range of studios and properties from EA Mythic's Warhammer to Battlefield and Mirror's Edge at DICE.

Riccitiello was largely unable to comment on the specific state of the Take-Two acquisition, however. "We're obviously contained pretty clearly in what we're allowed to talk about," he said. "Our offer currently stands at $25.74 a share, or $2 billion dollars, and our valuation took fully into account the success of GTA... we'd anticipated a result much like what happened in the market."

"It's a spectacular game - I'm enjoying playing it - and offer enormous congratulations to the Rockstar team."

Despite having 27 titles that sold over one million units during the year and a total $3.7 billion in sales, that loss on the quarter was only a portion of the company's overall $454 million loss on the year, a hefty blow after last fiscal year's $76 million profit.

However, both sales and revenue growth were decent for the company, beating analyst expectations. Crunching the numbers, it appears as if EA could have made around $30 million, if not for the costs largely due to its acquisitions - specifically the $620 million purchase of BioWare and Pandemic in October 2007, finalized in January 2008.

While Activision recently said it's the number one publisher in North America in dollars, EA says that its 19 percent market share in the region makes it the leader; EA's market share in Europe is 20 percent.
Instead of focusing on the loss, EA highlighted its successes, reporting itself the number one third-party Wii publisher in Europe throughout the year with 15 percent market share, eight points up from the year previous. Its North American market share on the Wii also was up one percentage point to 11 percent.

The company's "EA Partners" global distribution unit saw its strongest year yet, the company said, thanks to Rock Band and The Orange Box. As for EA's owned IP, the company gained a few in 2008 with MySims, Army of Two, Skate, Boogie, EA Playground and Smarty Pants, and gained development talent through the BioWare and Pandemic acquisitions. During the year EA also signed an agreement with Hasbro for the exclusive rights to create games based on Monopoly, Scrabble, Yahtzee, Nerf, Tonka and Littlest Pet Shop.

Notably attending to its prior bad acts, EA also said that its December 2007 employee satisfaction survey showed "significant improvemente" since 2004, with a double-digit gain in "employee engagement."

"A year ago, we committed to an aggressive change agenda at EA," said EA CEO John Riccitiello. "Our employees stepped up to the challenge and we finished fiscal year 2008 with non-GAAP revenue up 30% to $4 billion - a record for any third-party publisher. Our operating margins were flat to our prior year."

"On balance, we're very pleased with our revenue growth, but not yet happy with our profit margins. In fiscal 2009, we expect to deliver another $1 billion in revenue growth and to double our operating profit on the strength of our slate of titles."

In the late 90s Rare established themselves as a top-tier studio, producing such classics as GoldenEye and Donkey Kong Country for Nintendo. But in 2002, Microsoft bought up the company and prepared to have the studio start work on some of the marquee titles for their upcoming Xbox 360.

I told Kim that back before the Xbox 360 launched I had heard that Rare's Perfect Dark Zero was meant to be the platform's launch title, the reason gamers would take notice of the 360 and decide to buy into the new platform.

When the game finally hit, with the launch of the 360 and Rare's other title Kameo, it was met with a mixed reception, certainly not the sort that Microsoft had bet on.

Is Rare, I asked Kim, a developer that better suited to the audience and platforms of Nintendo gaming?

The short answer, Kim said, is no. But he did acknowledge that Rare hasn't yet met it's full potential on the Xbox 360. Neither Perfect Dark Zero or Kameo were the massive hits that Microsoft expects and Viva Pinata, he said, was a game that attracted a casual audience but was much deeper than that sort of gamer expected or was interested in playing.

But Rare's upcoming titles could turn that around. Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, for instance, hopes to fix that disconnect between the audience it attracted and its accessibility by adding online and local co-op and tweaking gameplay.

And while Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts isn't a true sequel to the franchise, its concept, a vehicle platformer, was entirely the idea of Rare and its developers.

Hopefully today will give me a chance to see if Rare has been able to turn it around and get back to making games like Goldeneye rather than Grabbed By The Ghoulies.

Tsunoda, who was unfortunate enough to be sitting right next to me, spent much of the evening trying not to answer questions about Gears of War 2 and his new role as the game's general manager. He said he felt fortunate to be working at Microsoft Game Studio and in particular to be working with Cliff Bleszinski and the folks at Epic Games.

MTV's Stephen Totilo and I tried to pin Tsunoda down on how the game would fit into the Gears universe. Was it, Totilo asked, part of a trilogy. We haven't decided yet, Tsunoda responded and then tried to change the topic, saying that the game has plenty of things to do in the way of improving on the original title.

Multiplayer, for instance, has a lot of potential, though he can't talk about it quite yet. Cover will be destructible this time around, he added. And by cover he doesn't just mean the rock walls and building remnants, he's also talking about grabbing bad guys and hiding behind them, something Tsunoda referred to as "meat shields". And yes, it seems that these meat shields will be "destructible" too.

What are they doing for the ladies this time around, Totilo wanted to know. Are they going to make it more accessible or interesting to women somehow.

Tsunoda sort of ducked the answer, but when I asked him if they were considering perhaps adding a romantic interest to the plot, he said yes, there would be a love interest this time around.

Given the tone of the dinner, it was hard to tell if he was serious or joking, but either way it raises an interesting point: Should the Gears of War sequel have more interpersonal relationships, should there be a love interest in the game?

I think that one of the things that hurt the original title was its story, in particular its ending , so building in a relationship, one that could be used to make the game more emotion certainly couldn't hurt. At least that's my take. What's yours?

Check out Totilo's take on the dinner as well.

[Pic from MTV Multiplayer]

Hollywood has great respect for Mr. Kojima. They want to meet with him. Kojima will be acting as a producer, but we don't know how involved he'll be as a producer. Often Hollywood adaptations have the original game creator involved at the beginning, but somewhere along the line they fall out of view. This is why it's very important for us to carefully pick the studio for this project.

Kojima is a great cineaste, and Konami does seem serious about bringing his vision to the screen. Regarding to potential directors, Saito says, "Paul Thomas Anderson is interested."

Check out the liveblog for all the action!

TV Channels coming to the PS3? [sev1512, via PS3F]

Lips, according to 8bitjoystick, is vaguely described as having "something to do with voice communications" but is also speculated to possibly be a hardware accessory used in a music title like Rock Band or SingStar. With an already established digital distribution model, a burning desire for more casual market bucks and a gaping karaoke hole in its line up, we wouldn't flinch if a SingStar (and SingStore) clone was coming.

The mystery accessory is said to be separate from the rumored waggle wand—codename "Darwin"—that Microsoft is supposedly showing off at its San Francisco area event, but details beyond that are scant. Sadly, NeoGAF is currently down, so you won't be able to enjoy the rampant speculation (or Kotaku adoration) there for the time being.

In addition to the early spill on Lips, listings for Ninja Blade, Scene It? 2 and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise were uncovered. You've probably heard about that last one.

Check in with us early tomorrow morning for more details. Or, you know, later tonight when this leak turns into a torrent.

Xbox to Unveil Accessory Lips Tomorrow [8bitjoystick]
Possible new games at MS Gamer's Day: Ninja Blade, Scene It 2, Viva TiP, etc [NeoGAF]

As you may have noticed, many of the devs to which we turn for our hardcore fix seem to be making full-tilt sprints for social networks like Facebook and the casual space. In today's ultra high-risk game development environment, Threewave also thought it'd be prudent to get on the burgeoning social media train, founding Gnosis Games, a casual subdivision with titles like Paparazzi, which according to the studio is a chart-topper on RealArcade, Gamehouse and other casual portals.

Now, Threewave's Gnosis has turned to Facebook. In this case, though, there's a surprising and interesting ulterior motive that's more in line with the hardcore audience than you might guess.

For someone like CEO Dan Irish, whose career in the industry began way back in the Spectrum Holobyte days and led him through Relic to Threewave, what's up with this casual migration?

Apparently, Facebook is just a hop, skip and a jump from what Irish is used to. He calls the early days of multiplayer FPS "one of the first small social networks," in that the primary draw for users was to play online with friends. The desire to stay connected with pals is also what's driving the success of Facebook and other social media spaces.

"We see the opportunity on the social networks as paralleling some of the things from the early multiplayer gaming days in the mid-to-late '90s," said Irish. "We looked at this as an opportunity where I think some other game developers are not quite sure what to do with it."

Irish's attention to the social networking space echoes recent sentiments by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who suggested the growing Facebook infestation might be a stiff competitor for his company's games: "Figuring out how to make the game experience more fun than any one of a hundred Facebook applications is going to be a challenge," Kotick said.

Electronic Arts' former chief creative officer Bing Gordon also sees Facebook-style tools as the next big thing: he recently departed the company where he's worked almost since EA's inception to pursue what he called "a new round of invention" in social media. "I realized that I really, really, really wanted to be in the middle of that," said Gordon.

Elsewhere, stirrings on the fringe of the game industry's core have taken notice of the spread of social media, but it's also clear that the industry's eyeing that space warily, unsure how to make the best use of it.

Gnosis Games thinks it has an idea, though. "We're a bit ahead of the curve, because we're bringing a new set of tactics," said Irish. "How do you monetize and leverage social network applications on the social networking platforms?"

In other words, the Gnosis Games studio is Threewave's "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" strategy. Irish says that using Facebook is helping the company create better games - and better retail sales. Gnosis has created a series of simple casual titles that can be played directly on Facebook, and then studies the feedback and user behavior around these simple little embeddables to glean information that's useful in the creation of more complex titles.

Gnosis sees who's installing and uninstalling the games, how long they play, the ratings users give the games and other types of both positive and negative feedback, and uses that data to inform their game development. It lets the studio's developers access the huge mainstream user base on Facebook and learn from their tastes and behavior.

"We refer to that approach as a 'focused social testing,'" said Irish. "Essentially, what it does is it allows us to test game mechanics, test IPs and test characters, and integrate user feedback into a full retail product."

"For a company like us, that's great, because instead of spending $1 million or $2 million coming up with a new IP and then pitching it to publishers and hoping they like it - and then, being happy or grateful that we get a 20 percent royalty - we can do it for a lot less cost, attach an audience to it, make sure that it's fun and then take it to a publisher."

"All of that information is very helpful, and it wasn't really available to content developers like us unless we had big amounts of money and working with a publisher to do a focus group."

Games built on user feedback will not only be more enjoyable to the audience, goes the theory, but will also be lower-risk investments and permit more creativity and innovation - a formula that hopefully translates to better success at retail, something that PC games in particular especially need at the moment.

"The other benefit is it kind of levels the playing field for game developers," Irish said. "Now we have a more direct connection to the end user and the customer than we ever had before. What business is not going to benefit from a more direct connection to the customer?"

Quite a lot has been made over the past year of "Facebook as the next platform for gaming." Its viral spread and swelling user numbers are both attractive and intimidating to the games industry - but largely the social network has proven a less-than-desirable platform for the majority of final-product games. A rash of new media companies have hinged their business on Facebook games with brief fad appeal, but objectively, Gnosis' Facebook test concepts seem to reflect that there's actual game development experience behind the simple minigames, compared to some of their peers.

Leveraging Facebook's huge user base as a testing ground for game concepts is a fairly new strategic approach, and whether or not it's a successful tactic remains to be seen. But as the game industry enters an increasingly high-risk environment and looks for new ways to innovate and reach users at lower cost, it's likely we can expect to see more studios consider how best to use social media to benefit the games industry.

"Reading some of the comments, it's nice to see that people think the game is quite pretty, but its definitely not a racer, which is what some people think it is," community liaison George Kelion told Kotaku. "You're better off waiting until tomorrow, when we reveal what is for us the most spectacular feature of the game, which is the gameplay mechanic."

"There's some really good stuff coming through the pipeline... try not to jump to any conclusions, because the surprise is still yet to be revealed."

Nothing gets speculation, guessing and jumping-to-conclusions going like the promise of a surprise!

The six titles are:

Final Fantasy: 1500 Wii Points
LostWinds: 1000 Wii Points
Defend Your Castle: 500 Wii Points
Pop: 700 Wii Points
VIP Casino Blackjack: 700 Wii Points
TV Show King: 1000 Wii Points

Nintendo Launches WiiWare: An Open Playground for Creativity

Downloadable Game Service Delivers Developers' New Ideas Directly to Consumers

REDMOND, Wash.- Nintendo's Wii™ console has already changed the way people play games. Now its new WiiWare™ service decisively tears down limitations for how developers create games - and the way people receive them.

Starting today, Wii owners with an Internet connection can download new, creative games from a wide range of developers, from large publishers to indie shops. By reducing the barriers that make console game development prohibitively expensive, WiiWare showcases original ideas in the most democratic environment in industry history, connecting the people who make games more directly with the people who play them.

WiiWare frees developers from the traditional constraints of video game development. WiiWare lets developers experiment with big ideas and small budgets to the benefit of players everywhere. Newer, smaller teams now have an outlet for their creative ideas. The constantly growing WiiWare library will have a regular flow of unique video gaming experiences consumers might not otherwise have access to.

"WiiWare is to the video game industry what independent films are to Hollywood," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "WiiWare lets developers experiment with new ideas and experiences. Combined with our collection of classic Virtual Console games, Wii provides one-stop shopping for the greatest games of the past - and the future."

WiiWare games are easy to download. Just go to the WiiWare section of the Wii Shop Channel, find the game you want, redeem Wii Points™ and start the download. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. New games, at various Wii Point values, will be added to WiiWare on Mondays. The newly launched Nintendo Channel on Wii will let people view videos of and read information about WiiWare games and other Nintendo products. Users also can see player opinions to help them decide what to play next.

Today, the inaugural lineup of WiiWare games is just a taste of things to come:

FINAL FANTASY® CRYSTAL CHRONICLES®: My Life as a King™ (Square Enix, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, 1,500 Wii Points): FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King takes a legendary franchise and launches it into the realm of simulation gaming. Players are challenged to rebuild a kingdom, leading its young king on a path of discovery through an adventure bristling with mystery and intrigue.

LostWinds™ (Frontier Development, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): A fresh, enchanting platform adventure that puts the power of the wind in the palm of your hand - from raging tornados to the gentlest breeze. You'll wield your Wii Remote™ controller to power Toku's jumps and glides, suspend and smash enemies, meet friends and solve puzzles using LostWinds' novel, intuitive and playful control system.

Defend your Castle™ (XGen Studios, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone - Cartoon Violence, 500 Wii Points): Defend your Castle takes place on a grassy plain surrounded by invaders. You are the commander of your castle, and it is your duty to fling the invading enemies sky-high, watching them plummet to their demise. As you progress, add powerful spells and upgrades to your arsenal for repelling the attacks. How long can you hold them off?

Pop™ (Nnooo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 700 Wii Points): Pop bubbles to score points and stop the timer from running out. Pop can be enjoyed by anyone - casual gamers can simply play to pop bubbles and keep the game moving, whereas advanced players will need to pick their shots rapidly and accurately and generate combos to maximize their score.

V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack™ (High Voltage Software®, Inc., 1-4 players, Rated T for Teen - Simulated Gambling, 700 Wii Points): V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack re-creates the casino experience, with fully animated players and a realistic Las Vegas dealer. Single players can increase their bankrolls, while multiple players can engage in a head-to-head mini-blackjack tournament.

TV Show King (Gameloft, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): TV Show King transforms your living room into a real TV quiz show studio where you'll face the challenge of answering more than 3,000 questions across six different categories. Compete against family and friends and use your Wii Remote controller in original ways to make it to the finals to see who can win the greatest amount of cash in one final, deciding duel.

For more information about WiiWare, visit WiiWare.com. Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

• Bayonetta, directed by DMC creator Hideki Kamiya, and is described by the site’s correspondent as a “stylish action game” with “a witch battling angels”. Apparently she has guns on her feet.
• A science-fiction RPG for the DS called Infinite Line, where you play as a starship captain, customising your ship and crew.
• A Wii game called MadWorld. ...it’s, “Black and white Sin City graphics, with red blood. Ultra ultra violent. Fatality moves like shoving a post through someone’s head. Chainsaw on your right arm.”

Wow! Three games — make that, three Platinum Games games. The page we are sourcing has been taken down, and the developer hasn't yet issued an official statement on the company's site of its English language Facebook page announcing these titles. So we'll mark this as a rumor for now. A really, really cool sounding one. Stay tuned!
Trio Of Games [videogaming247]

On the internet, there's stuff saying "Hideo Kojima" isn't satisfied with the PS3. I'd like to talk about that today. I just got back from Paris and did 15 interviews and everyone asked me about it, did I say that. The meaning of what I said has totally been changed, made totally different. Today, I'd like to talk about that. Why did it turn into that? When I'm doing an interview, I answer in Japanese, and I can't control how the writer will interpret that into English... What I say is then translated in English, and the writer then changes that into their own words and writes that. So, right there, the meaning of what I say changes a lot.

Hit the jump for more.

I am Japanese, so I try to be modest. I'm an especially modest person. I dont wish to brag about it to say "I am the amazing Metal Gear guy" or to say "This is the best one", just like how Americans brag stuff like this... That's why i interview in Japanese, and Mr. Sai (translator) translates my side of the inteviews very well in English. Westerners do not have a tradition of modesty. And so, the statements are translated correctly, but the original meaning is totally different. And those statements are on a totally different website and the meaning totally changes. Regarding my recent comment about my disappointment with MGS4, the comments derived from the article "MGS4, Inside The Biggest PS3 Game" to the post "Hideo Disappointed with MGS4." It's become totally different. This was in English, and here's where it gets strange. Japanese readers then translated that in Japanese and put it on their websites, writing things like "Oh, the PS3 is dead." Then that spread through the internet and now people are writing things like "Hideo Kojima Is Making MGS4 on the PS3." This is no good... It's funny how others think "Did Hideo really say that?" then ask me, and my answer is obviously "No" but then... I guess I am responsible for all of the articles...

Now I'm going to say what I really wanted to say, and this is what I told those 15 reporters:

Let's say this developer is making hardware, in this case a game, and that hardware is at the level of a car. And when looking at the specs, the developer claims the car is able to fly. Now there is no stopping when you say, "This is a car that can fly." When you claim that it can fly, the speculation grows from "oh so it can FLY?!!!" And the developer would set his goals higher. The specualtion is that if the car flies, then it should reach a MACH speed...but it doesnt stop there...it'd go beyond the specualtion of then "it should go into space!" with all the excitement around, and the developer would go deeply into making the car going into space... however, he'll come up to the public and say the car reaches the MACH speed, but it fails to go into the space. But he shouldn't give up, because for a car to even reach a mach speed and go into air is revolutionary. I wished to convey my thoughts like that, but I guess it didn't work very well.

Recently I've been thinking about not giving interviews. That's not my job. My job is making games... The next time I interview in America, I will just say "MGS4 is the best, the end." It's not cool for a Japanese to speak so blatantly, and I don't want to say that. But if I don't, things like this [above] can happen... If you look at MGS4, I think you'll understand... MGS4 isn't exactly my property, so I don't have a total control over it and sometimes I get confused with it. Some may be disappointed the way I say things, but I do release the game with confidence. In fact that what I have been doing, not just this PS3 game, but my previous PS2 titles. I always reached for the higher goal and I try to go for it... Things like this often happen with Japanese newspapers. Where they take only the choice quotes. They don't change what you say, but the meaning's different, and the meaning changes. I'm always careful while giving interviews. Even in my company, im learning a lot about media training, but I wanted to do more than just that and here i am with the interview, but if things like above keep happening, I won't do anymore interviews. I don't get paid for these interviews at all. [jokingly] I won't do them anymore! I've decided! I'll stop doing my podcast! Like that.

It's not like we were looking at some shit Babelfish translation of a Famitsu interview. It was from EDGE magazine, and you can read the original quotes and see the original magazine page here. Also, keep in mind, EDGE's comment that Kojima was "being modest" OR Fahey's original comments:

Personally I think the man is being a bit hard on himself, but that's what great minds do.

So there was certainly progress made, but not enough progress...or more specifically, not enough power for progress. Apparently the team overestimated what the PlayStation 3 was capable of.

Now Kojima is a well-known perfectionist, but it is a bit disturbing to see him voice his dissatisfaction with what is supposed to be the masterpiece of the franchise.

If you stick your foot in it and screw up, it's always easier to shift the blame, pull the You-Don't-Understand-Us-Japanese card or gloss over important details like, you know, reading. This wasn't a cultural misunderstanding or blowing things out of proportion, this was a PR disaster. Granted, maybe Kojima, after all these years, really isn't that savvy about dealing with the Western press. Maybe, he expects people to understand that he only uses double talk and metaphors — because those are much easier for everyone to grasp. When in Rome, don't do as the Romans do!

This really begs the question: We understand why Kojima might be humble about his own game (fair enough!), but why be "humble" or make excuses for the PLAYSTATION 3? Last we checked, Kojima doesn't work for Sony.
Kojima Addresses The Issue [Konami via PlayStation Boards Thanks, Re-I!]

Seriously, there was a kid in Missouri who destroyed a vacuum cleaner in order to play video games. I'm betting at least one BOB's power cord, locked or not, gets introduced to a pair of scissors. AND THEN WHO'S GONNA BE THE BAD GUY????

Can you believe the "Today" show touted this as "fun stuff for summer?" You mean something that deactivates the fun stuff I do in the summer? Honestly, I'm wondering if I can reverse engineer BOB to not shut off my TV. Because I have Netflix and Gamefly rentals piling up while I do stuff like THA LAUNDRY, and DINNER, and CLEANING MY TOILET.

BOB— The Screentime Controller [usebob.com, hat tip to Richard Blakeley for the video again]

By the way, whenever you see me type all caps, you should imagine a monster trucks voice — Owen

"There's no news here," said EA VP of communications Jeff Brown. "This is just a process point on something we announced in February."

With $2.3 billion on hand in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, EA already has the funds available to do the deal as it currently stands. With the deal not contingent on financing, why borrow more money?

"It helps us maintain maximum flexibility for any opportunities," said Brown.

Take-Two had no comment as of press time.

Treyarch is also said to be the developer, and the title, we're told, is set in a WWII Pacific environment and will be using Call of Duty 4's engine, the same engine on which the upcoming James Bond: Quantum of Solace movie game is being built.

Yesterday, on the company's call to investors, Activision publishing CEO Mike Griffith said CoD5 would be coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and DS, in addition to a return for the franchise to PS2 and Wii for the first time in two years.

echochrome, with its simple black and white line-work aesthetic is certainly lacking in the expected visual fireworks common in most modern games, as promised. But does it feature the proportionate gameplay of its inspiration?

Loved
The Concept: echochrome does a great job of delivering on its promise of innovative gameplay, as mind-bending puzzles increase in complexity, requiring creative thinking, patience and, occasionally, some quick reflexes. The stock puzzles are clever and often continue to surprise the player with new solutions that require an ever changing perspective.
The Graphics: Yes, the game is light on polygon pushing power and some increased visual depth wouldn't hurt, but it's still pleasant to look at. It's a welcome change from the standard puzzle fare, free from overused primary colors and tired color matching gameplay.
The Music: There's little in the way of interesting sound effects, outside of footsteps and a vague reminder that time is passing while you sort out each solution. The game's soundtrack is appropriately bare, a string quartet and voice providing a calming backdrop.
The Level Editor: After you've completed echochrome's stock set of 56 levels, you can create your own. The interface is a bit clunky, a bit challenging to wrap one's brain around—designing in a 3D space won't come easy to some—but the Canvas mode (and the ability to share puzzles) helps extend the game's shelf life. We'd find it hard to justify picking up both the PS3 and PSP versions, under the assumption that someone out there will go to the trouble of recreating the platform exclusive puzzles in the built-in level editor.

Hated
Semi-sloppy Rules: While some of echochrome's puzzle world rules are rock solid—falling through a black hole sends you straight down, hiding edges lets your move from path to path, regardless of each paths 3D location—some feel fudged. It's difficult to determine where you'll land when stepping upon a level's white bounce pads, adding some unnecessary and unwelcome challenge—especially when the mannequin gets hitched on something invisible and flails wildly in mid-air. Similarly, landing the mannequin on platforms below when falling through holes can have unexpected results.
Finicky Controls And Edges: Lining up edges sometimes doesn't work as expected. The avatar will obey boundaries that often appear to have disappeared and the "snap" function, performed with the square button and intended to help the player line up possible edge joins, is rarely helpful. Floaty analog controls and precision perspective changes with the D-pad don't help matters.
Oh, There's A Time Limit?: echochrome's minimal design can go too far, with vague game mode titles, a time limit you won't know about until it's too late—the clock isn't visible by default—and interface choices that are puzzling in a bad way.

echochrome is a great example of a game that takes a simple concept and extrapolates a fascinating suite of puzzles built around that concept. It can be at times both relaxing and exciting as one attempts to best each level's time limit or, after solving a puzzle, one's personal best. echochrome's other strongest suit may be that it provides modern gamers with the type of game that simply wouldn't be able to succeed at traditional retail, helping to further justify the existence and promise of digital distribution. It may not be the next Rubik's Cube or Go or Tetris in terms of near eternal replayability, but it's still a fascinating little gem of a title that, at only $10, should be played and enjoyed by anyone who owns a PlayStation 3 or PSP.

echochrome was developed by Sony Japan Studio, published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Retails for $9.99. Available on PlayStation 3 and PSP. Played "Atelier" mode to completion, played "Freeform" mode for 2 hours. Tested level creation and distribution.

The announcement comes on the heels of news that Mass Effect will also be ditching the ten day re-authentication.

We wanted to let you know that we've been hearing your concerns about the online authentication mentioned earlier this week. I didn't want to head into the weekend without getting back to you with some information about how Spore is planning on using this new system.

A few things we wanted you to know:

— We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.
— We'll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new content or a patch for their game.
— The new system means you don't have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.
— You'll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
— You can play offline.

We do hope that players will play online - sharing creatures, buildings and vehicles with other players is something that is unique to Spore and one of the coolest features of the game. Every day, when I play the Creature Stage, I get to see wacky and awesome new creatures from my Buddies on the team coming over the hill at me and I can't wait to see what happens when our creative, passionate community starts sharing their creations.

Sounds like Electronic Arts got the message, here's hoping that other publishers do too.