Hasbro: power through partners at E3

Hasbro has more than a dozen of its popular toy and game properties coming to various video game platforms in the second half of this year. The company’s popular board games and toys will be become video games through licensing alliances with Electronic Arts, Activision, and Glu Mobile. The new wave of video games builds on the momentum achieved by EA in the past 18 months with its release of nearly 40 Hasbro-inspired titles across 16 brands and 13 platforms, several of which have held top sales rankings by platform. Additionally, through an extended licensing agreement with Performance Design Products (PDP), a new line of Hasbro-branded video game accessories will land at retail in 2009.

This summer will kick off with the launch of Activision’s TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN in June on the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii, PlayStation 2 , Windows PC, PSP, and Nintendo DS . Glu Mobile will also release the game on a variety of mobile devices as well as a mini-application on the iPhone. EA will launch G.I. JOE The Rise of Cobra on the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION3, Wii, PlayStation2, PSP, Nintendo DS and mobile devices in August.

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Retail Releases: Sept. 14 - 19

This week is a busy one for releases, with some big titles hitting just about every platform including TNA iMPACT for the Wii, Star Wars The Force Unleashed across multiple platforms, Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition and Dragon Quest IV for DS, Rock Band 2 for Xbox 360, Armored Core: For Answer, Yggdra Union and B-Boy for PSP, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, The Settlers VI Gold, Warhammer Online and Crysis: Warhead for PC. Of course some of these games will prove to be crap, but isn’t discovering which ones aren’t the most fun one can have in this life? Big List after the jump.

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EA’s Games Convention Line-Up

Like many other publishers, Electronic Arts is show its goods at the Leipzig Games Convention this week in Leipzig, Germany this week.

At its press conference scheduled tomorrow, EA plans to give presentations on FIFA 09, The Sims 3, SimAnimals, Boogie SuperStar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Littlest Pet Shop, Monopoly, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Dragon Age: Origins, Need For Speed Undercover, and a sneak peak at RAGE from EA Partner, id Software.

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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

EA Unveils Hasbro Titles

EA Casual revealed the first fruits of its licensing deal with Hasbro today. EA’’s casual brand label will publish games based on Littlest Pet Shop, and NERF N-Strike, both in production at EA’s Salt Lake Studio. Littlest Pet Shop is being developed for Wii, DS and PC, while NERF N-Strike is set for release on Wii and DS. Both titles will be released this fall.

EA also is developing new Monopoly and Scrabble titles in North America for multiple platforms, as well as games for its casual game portal and mobile games from EA Mobile. EA Mobile will be delivering Monopoly Here & Now, Trivial Pursuit, Risk, and Yahtzee Adventures to mobile phones. Pogo.com will get some Monopoly, Yahtzee and Trivial Pursuit action this fall. Additionally, Pogo.com is launching two connected downloadable titles, Operation and Pictureka, which can be played offline or online. The connected titles will be ready for prime time this fall.