Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince game released

The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game is in stores today bearing the EA Play Label. Available on a multitude of platforms for maximum impact, the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game allows players to experience a dash of the film based on J.K. Rowling’s sixth book in the Harry Potter series.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, players return to Hogwarts to help Harry survive a sixth year as the wizard in training comes of age. Players will use gesture-based spell-casting as they explore the Hogwarts school grounds including the Astronomy Tower, Professor Slughorn’s Potions classroom, the Gryffindor common room, the Great Hall and more. For the first time players can move and cast spells simultaneously, allowing for fast paced wizard duels, catch the Golden Snitch as the Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, mix potions and more.

Developed by EA Bright Light, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game is available for the Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, Windows PC, Mac, and mobile devices. The Wii, PS3 system, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PC, and Mac versions are rated ‘E10+’ and the handheld versions are rated ‘E’ for Everyone by the ESRB.

For more details check out the game’s official site.

Animator’s Resume Leaks New LEGO Games Info

While it’s a given that the job market is pretty rough right now and it’s a smart move to update that dusty old resume, it probably not the best idea to tell everyone with an internet connection that you’re working on a couple of top secret projects for your current employer. Still, as discovered this morning by GamesIndustry.biz, that seems to be exactly what an animator with developer Traveler’s Tales has done, unintentionally blowing the whistle on a number of upcoming releases from the company.

Charlotte Parker, the animator in question, maintains a portfolio of her work online and recently updated the Curriculum Vitae portion of her site to include her most recent works. Unfortunately for Traveler’s Tales, a number of the games she’s listed herself as currently working on have not yet been announced by the developer or its parent company, Warner Bros. Interactive. Oops.

According to the CV, Parker has apparently been working at TT Games since March of 2007, working as a cutscene animator for LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, and LEGO Batman: The Videogame. The CV also lists her credits as “currently working as a Cutscene Animator on LEGO Harry Potter & LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which are both in the early stages of production.” Of course, until now, neither of these two games has existed as anything more than rumor outside of the walls to TT Games or Warner Bros.

Even more interesting than the leak of the two games currently in development, though, is Parker’s claim that she has “also recently been working on In-Game animation for the upcoming Hobbit Demo using Motion Capture Data in Motionbuilder, to be presented to Peter Jackson as a pitch for obtaining the license to the upcoming Hobbit films.” With the news this morning that the video game rights to Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies has reverted back to Warner from EA, it’s hard to imagine Warner and Traveler’s Tales passing up the chance to give Frodo, Gandalf, and the rest of the Fellowship the LEGO treatment.

While gamers might be happy to get some sort of confirmation about the forthcoming games, it’s probably safe to assume that Warner and Traveler’s Tales are probably none too happy about having their big, secret games leaked online. While direct links to the CV have since been removed from Parker’s front page, the actual CV itself was still live on the site as of this morning. Hopefully, her posting of the resume online won’t lead to Parker needing it sooner than she anticipated.

[UPDATE: As of around 10:30a EST Friday, the CV Section of Parker's site has been edited, removing all mention of the projects in development and the pitch presentation to Peter Jackson.]

Harry Potter Next Up For LEGO Treatment?

And the rumor mill just keeps on grinding away. This time around it’s video game website CVG, which is reporting that the next big property to get the LEGO treatment will be none other than J.K. Rowlings’ popular boy wizard, Harry Potter.

Traveller’s Tales, the developer behind the hit LEGO series of games, is said to already be hard at work recreating Hogwarts in the stylish little plastic building blocks. Where things get trick though, if the rumor is true, is who would publish the possible game. While Warner Bros. owns the movie rights to the Harry Potter series, and it also owns Traveller’s Tales, at last check Electronic Arts still had the publishing rights to video games based on the Potter franchise. Assuming for a minute that the rumor is true, a betting man would say that all of this has already been worked out behind the scenes, as it’s hard to imagine TT getting hip deep in development of a game that doesn’t have a home.

It should be noted that Warner Bros. is currently planning to release the latest Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in July of 2009. If the rumor of the LEGO Harry Potter games is true, it’s probably safe to assume that Warner would want to have the game released in time with either the film or its later DVD release.

Harry Potter Game in 2009

In case you thought it was never ever coming, Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment want to confirm to you, dear reader, that the video game based on the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released globally in the summer of 2009. The game will be released just as the film hits theaters so you can continue the experience somewhere that doesn’t smell like Urine, popcorn and regret (or is that just the kind of theater I frequent? You decide).

In the new game players journey back to Hogwarts to help Harry survive his sixth year at the venerable Wizards academy, engaging in duels, mixing potion , playing on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and following the storyline of the film to a dramatic climax to uncover the identity of the Half-Blood Prince. The game will be a test for EA who promised recently that it was done creating mediocre licensed games. Yeah, we will see EA, we will see.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is scheduled for release on the Wii, PS3, Xbox 360 PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, Windows PC, Macintosh and mobile devices.

EA: No More Crappy Licensed Games

In a recent interview, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello vowed that his company would not make anymore crappy licensed games. For my part, I vow not to be snarky anymore. Speaking to MTV, Riccitiello said that his company is not in the business of creating crappy games to exploit licenses. Yes, all those Harry Potter games EA has created were totally awesome.

But all kidding (am I really kidding here?) aside, EA’s line-up of licensed properties is pretty light this year anyway; the company is working on a Littlest Pet Shop game, A Nerf title, a Hasbro console game, A new Harry Potter title, and a Lord of the Rings game. The rest of the company’s line-up are wholly owned franchises (EA Sports, The Sims, products form Pandemic and BioWare, etc), publishing partnerships with companies like Valve and id Software, and new IP’s like FaceBreaker, Mirror’s Edge, and Dead Space.

If anything EA ought to stop exploiting its wholly owned franchises.. like The Sims.

Source: MTV Multiplayer

Rebellion Acquires Razorworks

Razorworks, the internal development studio of Empire Interactive, has been purchased by Rebellion, it was announced today. The company is best known for the Ford Racing game series. Jason Kingsley, CEO and Creative Director of Rebellion said that the company has had its eye on Razorworks since it bought Strangelight from Empire Interactive in 2006. Razorworks will be joining the company’s new Oxford studio.

Rebellion is is best known for work on such franchises as Sniper Elite, Rogue Trooper, Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, Star Wars: Renegade Squadron, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Simpsons game, among others.

EA’s 2008 Line-Up

Electronic Arts today announced its Holiday 2008 line-up, much of which will be shown of at E3 next week in Los Angeles. I am not sure if EA is showing the most titles of any publisher this year, but they sure are showing off a lot. We will get to the usual suspects in a minute, but some of the new stuff listed in today’s announcements includes some interesting iPod and mobile offerings and several new casual games.

EA Mobile’s offerings range from pedestrian to highly imaginative. On the low end of the spectrum is Tetris POP, a game that puts 17 different mini-variations on the popular puzzler and the recently released Kung Fu Panda mobile game. Also on display is Spore Origins, an action-puzzle game from the creators of The Sims and Wolfenstein RPG, an action RPG based on id Software’s classic WWII shooter. EA Mobile’s iPod games include SCRABBLE, Sudoku, Tetris and Spore Origins - based on the PC/Mac version of Spore.

From EA’s casual label comes Hasbro Family Game Night, a collection family favorites including Connect Four, Battleship, Yahtzee, Boggle, Sorry! and the all new Sorry! Sliders. The game will be hosted by Mr. Potato Head and will allow family and friends to take on each other on both the Wii and PS2.
Another casual game offerings geared toward you girls is Littlest Pet Shop. If you have ever seen the popular girl toys, then you can guess what this game is all about - cute little animals. Besides these sickeningly sweet animals, players can enjoy a series of mini-games, 100 collectible pet accessories and more. The game is being developed for DS, Wii and PC. Last on the casual front is Zubo, a pet collection game for children featuring strategic combat, rhythm action mechanics, skill building and more. Expect to hear more about this game at E3.

Finally, EA revealed SimCity Creator for the Wii. SimCity Creator is a city building game that was designed to take advantage of the Wii Remote using 13 city styles (American, European and Asian themes, as examples. Players can also build transportation systems including roads and rail lines.

Check out the big list after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »