Here's a weird surprise out of EA's ongoing Q3 financial earnings conference call: CEO John Riccitiello revealed an upcoming Dead Space game for the Wii, saying, "We're bringing core intellectual properties and franchises in categories we think have legs on the Wii platform. A good example of this is Dead Space. We're bringing a Wii title to the market this year and it is absolutely going to be the quality and fear factor that you got on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC SKUs this past year."Riccitiello had previously hinted at the title obliquely in a July VentureBeat interview, saying "Go look at Dead Space and imagine playing that game with a wand and a Nunchuk. If they improve the precision, then you could have a good experience," in reference to the MotionPlus peripheral. In a portion of the call following his mention of Dead Space, Riccitiello said that EA is "taking great advantage of [Nintendo's] new hardware addition with Motion Sensor [sic] and what that's going to give us is the kind of gameplay we think is going to rival Nintendo on their own platform."At this point, we don't know if the Wii game is an adaptation of the original or a new title in the series, nor do we have a release date. We'll let you know the details as soon as possible.
Permalink | Email this | Comments

Publishing giant Ubisoft has announced its acquisition of Vancouver-based Action Pants Inc., along with plans to utilize the studio on a new sports game exclusively for Wii. Considering that most recent publisher news has concerned layoffs, we're pretty happy to report the birth of Ubisoft's first in-house studio on the west coast of North America. "The creative talent at Action Pants made the decision an easy one," said Ubisoft's executive director of worldwide production studios, Christine Burgess-Quemard. Co-founder and executive partner at Action Pants Inc., Simon Andrews, shared the excitement and said the two companies have "similar values." Considering those "values" have included Ubiporting crappy games to the console in the past, let's hope these two skip the foreplay and get right down to the nitty gritty: creating actual worthwhile experiences on the Wii.[Thanks, Tom!]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Before Westwood Studios became a prime example of EA's once-voracious appetite, it used to be synonymous with the top tier of real-time strategy development. Though the company may be nothing but a logo on some oversized cardboard game boxes now, co-founder Brett Sperry is far from gone. He's launching a new studio, with a few other Westwood alums, called Jet Set Games.Before you dust off your clicking finger, be forewarned that Jet Set has, for now, relegated itself to Wii, PS3, 360 and iPhone development. We can't wait to see what titles the new company cranks out, as long as they don't sport the tragic, pseudo-swinger pastiche of its website.[Via Big Download]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

PSP and DS will soon be home to a brand new turn-based strategy game from Koch Media. Military History Commander - Europe at War is the first in a "new series of games." Set in a World War II, players can choose to play as either the Axis or the Allied forces. From the looks of things, this will be a rather standard grid-based strategy affair, with visuals akin to the Advance Wars series of games. Six scenarios are planned for the handhelds, including Operation Barbarossa and D-Day. Players will also be able to create 50 different inventions and recruit famous historical commanders throughout the game. The in-game artwork is done by Osprey Publishing.For now, the game has been announced for release in Europe only. We'll have to wait and see if it sees the light of day in the States as well.
Permalink | Email this | Comments