Crispy Gamer News

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

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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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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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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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

If you think for even one second that The Sims franchise is going away anytime soon, you are sadly mistaken. EA announced that yet another The Sims game, the more casual-leaning The Sims: Castaway Stories for the PC, is on store shelves across the United States and Europe. The third game in the pick-up-and-play The Sims Stories series is a story-driven game that allows fans to help a Sim survive and thrive on a tropical island.

The Sims: Castaway Stories revolves around Jessica, a Sim who washes ashore with only a steamer trunk and a hatchet. Jessica must decide to survive or escape on the island. Either way, she will meet natives and castaways in hopes of creating a community and accomplish various tasks — from spear fishing and scavenger hunting to fire starting and more.

The Sims: Castaway Stories is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB. Look for it in stores this week.