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At least one developer is impressed by Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console.

Frank Gibeau, president of Electronic Arts' Games Label, told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published yesterday, that the Wii U immediately impressed the game developer when managers first got their eyes on the device. And he sees a strong future for his company's games on the platform.

"We were really blown away by the unique innovation that Nintendo brings with the Wii U controller on a high-performance machine," Gibeau told GamesIndustry.biz. "The ability to do HD graphics and access game experiences in … Read more

Electronic Arts has confirmed that one of its server systems was breached and customer information was stolen and said this week that it's continuing to investigate the intrusion.

The company has updated an earlier Q&A deep in the support section of its Web site with some information on the hack of a system that hosts its BioWare Neverwinter Nights forum. The company says it learned about the hack on June 14 and gets right to the point with some frequently asked questions:… Read more

Last week, Electronic Arts announced its gaming service. Origin on the PC feels familiar, offering a friends list and a digital storefront for EA games, making it essentially a single-publisher competitor to Valve Software's Steam service.

On the mobile front, Origin's launch is murkier. EA launched no standalone mobile Origin app, instead integrating into only its iPhone version of Scrabble. We spoke with Electronic Arts' General Manager and Senior Vice President Chip Lange, who provided us with some insight into EA's strategy for Origin on mobile devices and consoles, and how Origin is different than similar efforts from other publishers.

Q: What can you tell us about EA's plans for Origin on the various mobile devices?

A: EA has always been a platform-agnostic company with the customer at the center. And when you think about the opportunity of creating a platform-agnostic user ID and gaming network [like Origin], those types of opportunities really don't come into play unless you have a couple of things in place.

One is the content deployed across different platforms. Then you need a back end capable of capturing, containing, and utilizing your data across those different platforms. Being able to connect those PC gameplay experiences to a similar, though not identical, game on a mobile device really opens up a number of creative opportunities for us, whether it be for a game like Scrabble or a game like Battlefield or anywhere in between.

It's easy to say that we're creating a store, and that's Origin's focus on the PC right now. On the mobile side it's different. Apple already has a great store. What we're looking to do is get the social component of mobile side activated more quickly and more easily so customers starting can start enjoying it today.… Read more

For a trade show all about the latest and greatest in interactive entertainment, it's somewhat shocking that many of the most popular video games being played right now are either underrepresented, or not represented at all. We are, of course, speaking about the social and casual games that have audiences larger than almost any traditional console game, and what's more, have managed to tap into the recurring revenue stream of microtransactions that seems to elude so many others.

This is no unintentional oversight. Many attendees of E3, the Game Developers Conference, and other industry events say that games such as Farmville and Cityville are not "real games," and that even mentioning them in the same breath as Halo or Gears of War would be to cheapen the entire medium.

At E3, these kinds of games are woefully underrepresented, despite having in many cases tens of millions of players (MAU, or monthly active users, is the standard metric for social games--the most popular game of this genre, Zynga's CityVille, currently has 90 million monthly active users). If you looks around artfully, however, you can still find a few examples. EA's social/casual subsidiary PlayFish, is here, and has scored with games such as Pet Society and Madden NFL Superstars. At E3, a portion of EA's giant floor space was devoted to The Sims Social, a Facebook version of the popular suburban life simulation game. … Read more

DICE took the stage during EA's E3 2011 press conference in Los Angeles today to reveal lots of new goodies for gamers to gush about regarding Battlefield 3.

After three years of development, the release date for the latest game in the hit franchise has been confirmed for October 25 for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. For those of you who can't wait much longer, there will be a multiplatform open beta in September.

The Swedish gaming studio also announced Battlelog, a social-oriented addition to the game that enables players to manage their friends list; create squads and platoons; or check out in-depth real-time statistics. Battlelog will be free, which is a slight jab at the similarly featured Call of Duty Elite paid service. … Read more

LOS ANGELES--While last year's Microsoft E3 briefing focused on the Kinect as debut hardware, this year seems to be about integrating the Kinect more deeply into mainstream games.

EA Sports, EA Games, and Ubisoft are among the first to formally announce baked-in support for Kinect in their 2011 Xbox 360 games. Tiger Woods, Madden, FIFA, Mass Effect 3, and Ghost Recon Future Soldier--along with, according to developers, many more--will support the Kinect in unspecified ways. Forza 4, the latest iteration of Microsoft's racing simulator, will also support Kinect.

It looks like there will still be standalone Kinect games, … Read more

As promised, Electronic Arts' Origin gaming service went live today. You can download the 34MB app at www.origin.com. We can report that its basic features work as intended, but it also introduces many questions about the future of digital game distribution.

On the surface Origin offers few surprises. It functions as a digital storefront from which you can download PC games directly to your computer, and is essentially a more fully developed version of EA's existing EA Download mini application. At the moment Origin carries EA published games exclusively, with regular and special-offer prices matching those of … Read more

Electronic Arts is doubling down on the digital-gaming space with the launch of a new direct-to-consumer platform, called Origin.

Launching later today, Origin will allow gamers to purchase and download over 150 games directly to their PCs. So far, the content on the site is limited to games from EA "and its partners," the company said in a statement today. In the coming months, EA says that it will offer more games, including the highly anticipated Battlefield 3, FIFA 12, Madden NFL 12, and Mass Effect 3.

"Origin is a game service with two fundamental features," … Read more

The next battlefield in the gaming market is undoubtedly digital.

Speaking to investors during an earnings call yesterday, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick said that during the first quarter of 2011, 50 percent of his company's $1.4 billion in revenue was derived from digital sources, lending even more credence to the idea that the gaming market is quickly moving away from the traditional "packaged goods" model.

"We continue to shift our business towards digital delivery of content and establishing direct ongoing relationships with our audiences," Kotick said, according to a transcript obtained from SeekingAlpha. "While this quarter, 50 percent of our revenues were digital, we are still scratching the surface when it comes to the role that digital delivery will play in our products and franchises."

Kotick's comments on digital delivery follow a similar statement made last week by his archrival, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. Speaking during his own call with investors, Riccitiello said his company is shifting away from the traditional packaged-goods model and toward becoming a full-fledged digital-delivery firm.… Read more