EA Teams Up With Epic Games, Grasshopper Manufacture

Gears of War 2 developer Epic Games and the creators of No More Heroes, Grasshopper Manufacture, have agreed to publish their titles under the Electronic Arts brand, as announced by the company today. EA also recently partnered with Doom creators id Software to publish their upcoming title, Rage.

"Epic is excited to work with EA Partners to launch our next big IP on the global stage," said by Mark Rein, president of Epic Games. The new, unnamed Epic title is being developed for the PS3, PC and Xbox 360. Meanwhile, Grasshopper Manufacture's upcoming action-horror title for the same platforms is being produced by Shinji Mikami, the man behind Resident Evil.

"[EA is] a great partner who shares our commitment to quality and innovation while respecting our independence as a studio, which is very empowering," said by Grasshopper CEO Goichi Suda, who is also directing their upcoming game with EA.

Facebook 'Scrabble' Down Due to Hack

Electronic Arts, which handles digital versions of the board game Scrabble for North American parent company Hasbro, has claimed that malicious hackers were responsible for the disappearance of its Facebook application on Tuesday.

The game had crashed on the same day that the creators of Scrabulous, a popular imitation game, blocked access to North American visitors after a legal complaint from Hasbro. With the real Scrabble inaccessible, irritated fans assumed that there was a server problem--the game is in beta, after all--and filled the application's discussion wall with angry comments.

But the real problem, EA has said, is that a hack downed Scrabble. When, according to the Los Angeles Times, the game was still inaccessible at 4 p.m. PT, the company released a statement.

"EA's Scrabble Facebook game experienced a malicious attack this morning, resulting in the disabling of Scrabble on Facebook," the statement read. "We're working with our partners to resolve this issue and have Scrabble back online and ready to play as soon as possible."

CNet: EA: Hack took Facebook 'Scrabble' down

EA, Take-Two Acquisition Deadline Extended

Electronic Arts has once again extended its deadline to acquire Take-Two Interactive, persuading the Take-Two stockholders to tender shares at $25.74. EA's former deadline was last week, July 18 (a day after E3), but now, they have decided that T2 has until August 18.

But it looks like EA is being elusive in the whole "take-over every company" scenario, as their press statement reads that the extension is simply for the FTC to continue their investigation about their offer: "Extending the tender offer allows the FTC review process to continue. The proposed transaction is still subject to certain conditions that include regulatory approval. EA retains the right to terminate the offer if the conditions are not satisfied."

Even though Take-Two's stock ($25.04 per) is currently below EA's offer, the company still distances itself away from the third-party software giant, stating that there are "multiple" parties interested: "We are fully engaged in a formal process to evaluate strategic alternatives that have the potential to deliver greater value than EA's inadequate offer. As part of this process, we continue to engage in meaningful discussions with multiple parties, a number of whom have been conducting due diligence."

Full story here: Gamepolitics: EA Extends Deadline For Take-Two Shares

E3 08: Electronic Arts (EA) Press Conference

EA came out today with their E3 press conference and, though it started a little late, people were greeted with a lot of new titles they are planing on revealing in the next year.

The conference began with a huge video compilation of all the usual titles, Madden, NBA LIVE, The Sims, Skate It, Spore, and The Mirror's Edge. Also shown off were the titles Sim Animals, Sims 3, Dead Space, A Mirror's Edge demo was shown, NBA 09 Live, Tiger Woods 09 Was live on stage, Dragon Age: Origin, and Left 4 Dead.

Another announcement is that EA is going to Partner with id software for a new game called Rage. Although cameras were not allowed to capture the video that was shown.... why do they tease us!!!!

Electronic Arts (EA) Press Conference:

Tomorrow is Nintendo's and Sony's press conferences, along with 3rd party developers Ubisoft, Capcom, and Activison. Konami's presentation is on Wednesday.

(information and video from G4tv.com)