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EA's Pogo division has opened a new studio in Austin, Texas, to work on the company's Hasbro licensed properties. In an interview with GameDaily, the company announced its first title will be based on visual acuity board game, Pictureka!, which the studio expects to be spotted in November for $20 on PC.

Pogo Austin's Studio Director Sean Clark says he "can imagine" the company's stable of Hasbro games (Monopoly, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit) coming to XBLA, PSN and WiiWare, but no announcement has been made. It's actually quite surprising that Pogo hasn't made such popular franchises available for download on consoles yet.

Electronic Arts is looking to take on the biggest Scrabble clone on Facebook with -- what else? -- an officially licensed version of Scrabble. A free online edition of of the bombastic board game is available now on Pogo, with a Facebook version coming "later this month," according a press release. The application would go up against reigning champ Scrabulous, which despite litigation threats is still alive and kicking.

The press release also confirmed that "many more Hasbro game properties in development and slated to launch on social networking sites later this year." Boggle knockoffs, beware!

Electronic Arts has sewn up the rights to deliver games based on numerous Hasbro properties, though before you get too excited in hopes that you'll soon be revisiting your past and playing games based on G.I. Joe, we should note that of this "initial slate" of brands singled out by the companies not one packs a 'kung fu grip.' EA calls these games "new ways for families to build relationships through digital entertainment," which of course means we'll be seeing at least some of these games crop up on the Wii.

Revealed earlier this month, a title update to Xbox Live Arcade's rhythmic detonator Boom Boom Rocket is now available, bringing with it some bug fixes, added peripheral support and, most importantly, bigger and better 'splosions. In addition to supporting dance mats and fake guitars, we've found that the game also works with Rock Band's drum set, yielding an activity both challenging and utterly embarrassing.

Arriving in tandem with the update is the game's long awaited downloadable content, announced by EA to be a set of five new songs:

• "Eine Kleine Rochtmusik"
• "Cannon in D"
• "Sugar High"
• "Sting of the Bumble Bee"
• "Explode to Joy"

Yes, it seems someone's gone and shoved five more classical tunes through some sort of Eurotrash bastardization device, but we managed to enjoy the game despite that last time. Oh, and they're free until December 16th, after which they'll set you back 250 MS Points (an awkward $3 and 12.5 cents).

Update: The DLC is now live.

"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:

• EA Games: Home to the likes of Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, Spore, Command & Conquer and the EA Partners publishing business.
• 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.

OK, we get it, a lot of people don't like Rosie O'Donnell, we understand. Curiously her charity is hooking up with Pogo.com, which is owned by the lambasted Electronic Arts, another target of the ire police. Anyway, the two of them are getting together to launch "Pogo Cares Benefiting Rosie's For All Kids Foundation." Over two months EA's casual game site Pogo.com will raise awareness of Rosie's "For All Kids Foundation" to its 11 million players and donate $30,000 to the organization which has helped build 27 day care centers in low- income areas and provided $24.6 million in grants to over 900 child-related programs.

Wait, EA is only donating $30,000 and some web ad space to an organization that is essentially raising their future customers? Have they learned nothing from the tobacco industry? The more money they dump into an organization like this, the more well-adjusted adults the program has a probability of producing. Especially in the casual gamer space, which continues to grow and will make up a huge share of the market. Oh well, at least EA's doing something nice, but two months of advertising and $30k doesn't sound very charitable for the rewards they can reap from such a deal.

Pogo Island isn't a particularly terrible game; there just hasn't been much we've heard about it worth discussing. Electronic Arts developed the puzzle collection as a handheld supplement to its popular casual gaming site, Pogo. Marked at full price though, it's hard to justify buying a title that's essentially a round up of the five most popular games EA already offers for free online.

Even with that in mind, Pogo Island isn't completely without merit. As GameSetWatch pointed out to us, playing the game earns you tokens which can later be uploaded to your Pogo account online. Trading in any tokens you acquire from either Pogo.com or Pogo Island buys you a ticket for the site's daily prize drawings (Up to $1000!).

Why don't more DS titles have connectivity like this? Wouldn't it be great if you could exchange all those Star coins you collected in New Super Mario Bros. for a free copy of the Super Mario Bros. 3 DVD? Or if discounts were offered at an online pet shop when Nintendogs notices that you've been taking good care of your puppy? Features like this won't automatically turn a mediocre game into a great one, but it's an easy way to add to its worth.

EA's first downloadable console title will be Boom Boom Rocket, a new rhythm game from the geometric warmongers at Bizarre Creations. The game sees players traveling through a 3D cityscape and launching rockets to the beat of the music -- the more accurate you are, the more spectacular the resulting fireworks become. Gamedaily Biz reports that Boom Boom Rocket should arrive on Xbox Live Arcade in Spring.

Chip Lange, EA's vice president of online commerce, feels they've crashed the party at the opportune moment. "Now feels like the right time. Across EA there's been a lot of internal excitement about Arcade and we're at a point where we can dedicate resources to building Arcade games. We're very excited to be entering this space. This is a great way to develop new IP and work with small development teams internally and externally to build a casual, fun game experience."

Originally thought up by EA's own Pogo casual games team, the game should be a welcome addition to the XBLA lineup, especially given the grievous lack of any other rhythm games. The fireworks in Boom Boom Rocket will be accompanied by ten original tunes from Ian Livingstone -- we certainly hope he's familiar with synesthesia.

Electronic Arts is working with Pogo.com -- purveyor of casual internet games -- and in-flight entertainment company DTI Software to expand its dominance into the air. Even on flights, the jabbering tone of Simlish will pull you away from loved ones, sleep, and work.

DTI expects The Sims 2 and a handful of Pogo's games will be added to its in-flight service by Q3 2007. Specific rollout will relate to individual airlines, but DTI tells us that it expects the games to be offered on portable media players throughout the cabins. These games are often free, but pricing will also be determined by carriers.

Most of all, we want to play our DS Wi-Fi in the air, but Boing's Boeing's Connexion has recently been shelved. While other WiFi options might fill that market, we like seeing these casual games offered to people who don't travel with handhelds. Anything that gets gaming exposed to non-gamers seems good.