Are you sitting down? Really? We don't mean that in the figurative internet sense, we mean it in the "please put your butt on a flat surface and brace yourself" sense. Ready? ... EA is making Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Don't worry, we'll give you a second to return your eyeballs to your head after they comically extend three inches from their sockets. Guess which systems it's coming out for. Did you guess everything from 360s and PS3s to microwave oven readouts and pocket watches? Then you're totally right. Did you suspect that the game would be released around the same time as the movie of the same name this November? Alright Professor Trelawney, where are you hiding that crystal ball?

Our one hope, and we know that this won't happen, is for the games to evolve in their maturity level and tone just like the books grew progressively darker. But we'll probably just end up waving our Wiimotes around using magic to make Hagrid a sandwich or something.

That's what they say. Publishing monolith EA has announced that four of its Cider-powered Mac OS X titles are now available to purchase on Apple's online store today. The initial burst looks to satisfy a variety of Intel Mac gamers, including those who are partial to waging futuristic war (Battlefield 2142!), owning totally sick rides (Need for Speed Carbon!), casting ex-crucio-ting spells (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!) and, uh, waging even more futuristic war (Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars!).

The games will also materialize on minimalistic shelves within Apple retail stores, with Potter and Need For Speed arriving on Tuesday, 21 August. Battlefield 2142 and Tiberium Wars should arrive the following week on 28 August. Though the tardy titles, namely Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 and Madden NFL 08, were promised to arrive on the same day as other systems at WWDC, you can now expect their respective balls to come crashing through the "September/October window."

Usually, we get excited by demos, heaven knows they've gotten us through some hard times, but we have a huge problem with this new one for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Xbox Live. Namely, we can't believe the segment of the game the decided to feature. Why not just have an introductory level or two? Why not show Harry running around Hogwarts? Why in the name of all that is holy would they just show the scene where Harry gets drunk and walks in on Ron and Hermione making out before killing them both?

That's not a particularly fun scene to play, and honestly, if you haven't read the books it might ruin a couple of minor plot lines for you. (Oh, spoiler alert, BTW.) Why not just have a demo of the scene from the sixth book where Harry 's parents come back to life only to die in a skiing accident, if you want to ruin the whole thing for people? ... Oh, sorry.

EA has just launched the official website for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix videogame. While we only grudgingly admit our penchant for Potter and pals, this latest game looks like it might contain real magic after all. Sandbox-style mission-based gameplay "inspired" by GTA lets you explore Hogwarts on your own schedule, reliving moments from the book along the way. The Wii version of the multiplatform game looks especially interesting with its motion-sensitive spellcasting. The website features a trailer, fact sheets, and a fistful of screenshots from several platforms. The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix game is set for a June 25 release in the US.

An extended Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix trailer for WIi is our video pick for the day. Watch Harry and friends swing their wands around, seemingly in coordination with the Wii Remote. Or so we hope. The game is set for release on eight platforms next month, and like other multiplatform titles, the Wii version is the biggest unknown.

See the video after the break.

You can't keep doing this to us Harry! Don't just waltz into our lives with promises of magical adventure, only to fly out the window with our hearts in tow. It wouldn't be so bad if you made good on your promises, but your games somehow always manage to be magically repellent. Well, you can just fly right off, Boy Who Lived. We're not falling for it this time. In fact, check it out, we're going to start calling you "He Who Shall not Be Gamed." Ooh, burn. What? A trailer for Order of the Phoenix? ... Fine. But that's it. One watch and we're gone. For-ev-er.

Oh my, look at those character models ... they look a lot like their on-screen counterparts, don't they? And hey, what's the deal with that massive wizard-on-wizard battle? That looks rad ... Gosh, it's a bit chilly in here -- oh, wear your scarf, you say? Y-yeah ... that works. What's this? You also have a high-res version? Okay. Well, we guess one more look wouldn't hurt.

In what can be called the most unsurprising announcement this week, Warner Bros Interactive and Electronic Arts has announced that it will be making a game adaptation of the film adaptation of the book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Electronic Arts has previously made every single Harry Potter game for every single console in existence.

If that wasn't enough for you, the title will launch on or around the release of the film version of Order of the Phoenix, July 2007, just to make sure it can capitalize on the massive success of the film franchise without worrying about pithy things like game quality. With the exception of Chamber of Secrets, which managed a metacritic score of 77, all of the Harry Potter game adaptations have scored in the mid-to-high 60s.

The Order of the Phoenix game will come out for three Nintendo systems (DS, GBA, and Wii), three PlayStations (PS 2, 3 and P), and two Microsoft formats (Xbox 360 and Windows PC). Both the GameCube and original Xbox are now officially forgotten.

A new 20-second teaser for the film can be found -- for some reason or another -- at the website for Warner Bros.' Happy Feet.

[Via 1UP]

In a masterful bit of marketing, Electronic Arts invited representatives from eight Harry Potter fan sites to their UK studios for a sneak preview of the upcoming game based on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. There the fans were divided into Hogwarts houses and entertained by an enthusiastic PR representative who is "known to do air-magic (as opposed to air-guitar)."

Not surprisingly, the writers geeked out on the "spine-tingling and spell binding" environments in the game and new features like the ability to wander around Hogwarts and some of its surroundings. The write-up also hints at some of the new characters and mini-games that will be represented in the game, before delving into some truly trivial Harry Potter minutiae.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be available for a mind-boggling eight systems (PSP, GBA, Nintendo DS, PS2, PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and the Nintendo Wii) when it comes out, likely in time for the July 2007 movie.

[Update: Picture replaced with one of our own Conrad Quilty-Harper to protect the innocent]