With Shank now being published by EA, Klei Entertainment is putting the increased development budget to good use — with a trailer! Well, it’s likely there would be a trailer this week anyway, as this week also marks the hyper-violent XBLA/PSN/PC brawler’s appearance at the Independent Games Festival.
The brutal violence may dominate the trailer, but our eyes were immediately drawn to the acrobatics. There’s so much somersaulting, swinging, hanging, and other exciting-looking methods of movement that they even manage to distract us from the usually thrilling shoot-stab-saw combos on display.
EA loses $82 million in fiscal Q3 2010, revenue down 25%–Joystiq
Right off the bat, you should know this: for EA, losing $82 million in the third quarter of a fiscal year is an enormous improvement. Compared to the same period last year (“Q3″ for EA is October 1 – December 31), the company lost 559 million fewer actual physical dollars. Yes, really. Now that we’ve told you that, we should also note that the publisher pulled in 24.85 percent less revenue year over year (down to $1.243 billion in Q3 2010 from $1.654 billion in Q3 2009). That said, Playfish had “two of the top ten Facebook games” for the quarter! Good thing EA spent $300 million on those folks, eh?
Okay, okay, real talk: the company also points out that it was the “#1 packaged goods publisher in North America and Europe” for its entire fiscal year. CEO John Riccitiello even notes that Mass Effect 2 is “the first blockbuster of 2010.” And hey, with 2 million units already shipped, we tend to agree.
Electronic Arts has its eye on the social space in a big way, moving aggressively toward digital revenue models and buying up Playfish — and it looks like one of its next moves will see the Madden NFL franchise coming to Facebook.
“We have to make Madden more accessible,” EA Sports boss Peter Moore told Bloomberg. “You’ll see us on Facebook going forward.”
Playfish, the social game developer EA spent $300 million to acquire late last year, recently revealed it was working on a game involving one of EA’s well-known brands.
Offering its players, as Moore says, a “simpler” Madden experience will likely provide a strong entry point to the brand via the massive social network.
Playfish president and general manager Kristian Segerstrale recently said that the most successful Facebook games are those featuring a brand that spans multiple platforms.
Capcom has released a new Ghosts ‘n Goblins game to, of all places, the iPhone. Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Gold Knights features polygonal graphics like the PSP’s Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins, and, for the first time, two playable characters: Arthur and new hero Lancelot, who each have different weapons and lifebars. read more
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