Developer Black Box's nitro button must be worn down to a nub. The studio announced today that its upcoming Need for Speed sequel, Undercover, will ship this November, pulling up to the starting line well before the 2009 release previously mentioned by EA CEO John Riccitiello.
In development for every platform under the sun (yes, even mobile phones), Need for Speed Undercover will also sport what Black Box describes as "big-budget live-action sequences" starring Balls of Fury and Mission Impossible III actress, Maggie Q, as a federal agent who recruits drivers to take down a criminal syndicate. While recent Need for Speed racers have all but siphoned our tanks of what enthusiasm we once had for the series, those who care can look forward to race with Ms. Q in North America on November 18 and in Europe on November 21.
The Scottish government is elated that the campaign will be going forward, as it believes that video games are a great way of reaching younger audiences. We couldn't agree more, and think that this is one of the smartest uses for ad dollars we've seen in a while. Kudos to the Safer Scotland campaign.
Boobs have long been the marketing companion for guy stuff, like fast cars. So it seemed a natural choice for EA (or more likely, a contracted third-party ad firm) to feature a pair of scantily clad models posed with a Ferrari to promote Need for Speed: ProStreet (rated 3+ in Europe). That "scantily" is hereby defined as sans tops is admittedly risqué for games promotion, but the ads only appeared on UK tabloid The Sun's softcore site Page 3. Today, EA issued a statement of regret about the images, explaining that the promotion had "slipped through the proper EA approval process." As a result, the ads have been removed from the site (but not from the murky bowels of the internet).
So what's the cost? Perhaps longer 'exposure' could have helped ProStreet topple Assassin's Creed from the charts. We'll never know.
[Update: full censored image has been moved to accommodate 'work surfers' -- view it after the jump.]
With all of these realistic racers like Forza and Gran Turismo, sometimes you long for Need for Speed, something a little more relaxed, something that makes you feel ... a little more like Vin Diesel. So imagine our dismay when the demo for this year's entry, Need for Speed: ProStreet featured markedly less neon than we have grown accustomed to and a statistically insignificant amount of Brooke Burke. This doesn't even make us feel like Paul Walker!
Sure, what's included in the new Xbox Live demo does look pretty good. And there's damage to the cars, which everybody likes. And hey, at least our old friend nitro is still there. You know what? On second thought, we're starting to feel balder already.
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."
We imagine mega publisher EA's recently announced reorganization strategy was as much in service of strengthening its brands as it was in keeping the peace between roving employees.
"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?" "I'm modeling a car for Need For Speed: Pro Street, what does it look like?" "I just stepped out for lunch... I was using this workstation for the The Sims team." "The the sims? You got a stuttering problem there? You nervous about something?" "No, I was referring to the team working on The Sims. This is our computer." "Really? I don't see your name on it."
Well, obstinate fictional employee, there soon will be! EA is planning to reorganize its business in the coming months into four primary and distinctly labeled groups, each equipped with dedicated studio and publishing teams. The labels are as follows:
The Sims: If a game features a nonsense dialect, emotion gauges and a mechanical imitation of your own life, it'll come from this team.
EA Casual Entertainment: A group dedicated to easily accessible titles for the non-gaming folk. Franchises like Harry Potter and Boogie fall under this label, as does EA's online casual game service, Pogo.com.
EA Sports: What could this section be working on? Answers on a postcard.
EA notes that all four labels will be supported by two new groups, namely Central Development Services, a technology group overseeing operations and EA's online platform, and Global Publishing, the marketing muscle and distribution, uh... diaphragm.
Now would be the ideal time to compare EA to The Incredible Hulk in one of your slightly aloof forum debates on the death of innovation in the gaming industry. If there's one thing the gigantic publisher and mass churner is saying in the above video, it's "EA SMASH!" The teaser seems to indicate that the next Need for Speed title (no platform specified) will feature extravagant damage modeling, as well as an array of enormous balloons -- the former is likely the one EA intended to highlight.
Car damage would be a logical addition to the franchise in its current state, though if it wasn't for the Need for Speed branding in the trailer, we might have gotten it confused with EA's other smashing success, Burnout. We'll find out more on May 31st.
EA is determined to be the bully of Xbox Live Marketplace. Once again, the world's biggest games publisher is offering pay-don't-play content, inviting gamers to buy Need for Speed Carbon's unlockables.
EA and Microsoft will argue that this is simply a matter of choice: choose to buy content; or choose to unlock content by playing. But this new set of choices defies our learned experience.
Gamers want instant access to unlockables for all sorts of reasons (some are too busy to "earn" unlockables; some to lazy; others are inferior; and still others just have more fun when it's easy). There used to be a simple solution: cheat codes. But EA wants us to forget codes ever existed; wants to punish our wallets for not approaching its games with the Protestant ethic. All told, you'll burn an additional $49.25 if you want accelerated access to Carbon's goodies. Hey, you don't get to the top of the industry by offering handouts.
Reuters is reporting that Electronic Arts has signed deals with Microsoft-owned Massive Inc. and IGA Worldwide to put in-game advertising in up to seven games, including Need for Speed: Carbon and Battlefield: 2142. EA Vice President for Online Commerce Chip Lange promised that this is just the beginning, saying that EA is negotiating with other providers to put ads in many future titles.
While sideline billboards in Madden or racing games won't look out of place, it might be a little jarring to see an ad in the middle of Battlefield's battlefields. It might be worth it if the ads lead to lower prices for games, but we're not holding our breath on that count. How do you feel about ads in your games?
[Update: the AP is reporting that the ads will be automatically updated over broadband connections on the PC and Xbox Live]
