Pixie Lott - Mama Do Simlish

Electronic Arts is working with pop singer Pixie Lott to recreate a song related to The Sims. EA and Pixie Lott will team up to re-record Lott’s hit single “Mama Do” in the fake Simlish language. The single will be available for simultaneous download with the English version of the game plus a music video showing Pixie singing a duet with her Sim character. The single will be released June 7th through Mercury Records.

Her first single, Mama Do, is an archetypal teenage tale of sneaking out on mischievous dates under the cover of night. Pixie learned and recorded this song in the unique language of The Sims, because she’s obviously a fan of the series.

On a related note, be sure to check out our review of The Sims 3.

Creative Minx Scores EA Deal

Creative Minx Marketing has inked a deal with Electronic Arts to represent several of the company’s various wholly owned properties for outbound licensing opportunities. Creative Minx will help EA to merchandise brands like The Sims, MySims, Dead Space, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Dante’s Inferno and Army of Two. This merchandising will include collectibles, peripherals, apparel, and accessories, according to the company.

Creative Minx Marketing describes itself as a full service licensing and marketing agency with 20 years of experience, specializing in acquisition of major licenses, strategic brand building, target marketing programs, and promotional opportunities. The company offers such services as licensing consulting, business development, strategic market analysis, and retail development and planning.

Will Wright Exits Maxis, Starts Stupid Fun Club

Will Wright is leaving EA and setting up a new shop called Stupid Fun Club, EA announced today. Of course, he’s not really leaving the EA family, because this new studio will be equally owned by Will Wright and EA. Naturally, this puts Wright on equal footing with EA, which he does deserve at this point in his career, having created such hits as SimCity, The Sims and Spore.

“The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change,” said Wright. “Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms. In my twelve years at EA, I’ve had the pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry and I look forward to working with them again in the near future.”

For its part, EA has the right to develop game concepts that spring from Stupid Fun Club projects. Will Wright is represented by Creative Artists Agency - no doubt by former Xbox front man turned agent Seamus Blackley.. While it is sad to see Wright leave Maxis, the company certainly can run without him; The Sims and Spore are being handled by various teams with little or no input from Wright I’d imagine.

So what will Will Wright do at this new company? I expect a bunch of mad game experiments that can be molded and shaped into fun and exciting games. Perhaps Wright felt stifled having to play a key role at Maxis and focus energy on games he’d already created when what he really wanted to do was make brand new games. Whatever the reason this is exciting news for gamers who can expect some interesting stuff from Wright going forward.

EA Casual Brand Canned

EA’s casual game label is going bye-bye after the departure of Kathy Vrabeck. After one year serving as president of EA Casual, Vrabeck jumped ship looking for greener pastures and possibly leaving the division without direction. To address whatever problems or shortcomings the label had, EA has decided to roll EA Casual into its other casual brand: EA’s The Sims label. Honestly, the casual label made more sense than a label created entirely for Sims products, but apparently EA sees that label as the stronger, broader of the two. Go figure.

“EA has learned a lot about casual entertainment in the past two years, and found that casual gaming defies a single genre and demographic,” the company said in a statement.

The merge includes casual properties, licensed properties from Hasbro and the Casual label’s marketing organization. Of course, some of the 600 laid off last week after a dismal quarterly report were probably from this label.

Source: GI.biz

EA Adds Transformers Composer to The Sims 3

Electronic Arts announced this morning that it has signed up award-winning composer Steve Jablonsky to score the theme music for the latest entry to its hit sims franchise, The Sims 3. Recently honored with a BMI Film Music Award for his work on the soundtrack to the Michael Bay helmed Transformers motion picture. Jablonsky’s work should be no stranger to gamers, as the composer has not only appeared in the Transformers flick (as its upcoming sequel), but he has also composed music for EA’s Command & Conquer 3 franchise, as well as for Epic’s upcoming Gears of War 2.

“We are very excited about the innovations of The Sims 3, and even more thrilled to have a composer of Steve’s caliber crafting the sound of what is clearly the most globally anticipated game of the year,” said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Audio at EA. “We hold our games’ original music to the same creative standards as major movie studios, and Steve Jablonsky has both a remarkable talent for scoring blockbuster entertainment as well as an innate understanding of the interactive opportunities of the videogame medium. We are thrilled that he has now brought his unique expertise to the dramatic, energetic and playful world of The Sims.”

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EA Names New Sims Head

Not to be outdone by all the other management announcements today, Electronic Arts announced that it has promoted Rod Humble to the position of Executive Vice President and head of EA’s Sims label. In this role, Humble will oversee the development and marketing of all games being produced under the Sims banner. An eighteen year veteran of the video game industry, Humble has been with The Sims Label and EA since 2004. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Product Development for Sony Online Entertainment where he headed up the development of SOE’s hit MMO, EverQuest. As for former Sims leader, Nancy Smith? She will manage special projects for the Sims Label until she starts at a new executive role with EA, which will, according to the press release, “be defined over the coming months”.

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The Jones Report: Spore & CBS News

What do Scott Jones and Will Wright have in common? Well, they both enjoy video games (from different perspectives one would guess) and they both appear in a video segment about Mr. Wright and his new game Spore.

The segment aired as a web exclusive last week (Sept. 18) on CBSnews.com. CBS News science and technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg talked with Will Wright about his popular “god-like” games including his latest game Spore. Scott jumps in to offer his perspective on why Will Wright’s games are so popular - as an added bonus. You can check out the video after the break.

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