Once again, Electronic Arts has exploited Christians to help promote its upcoming video game adaptation of Dante's Inferno.

The official website for Mass: We Pray now unsurprisingly reveals the Church-centric mini-game compilation to be a hoax.

"He who betrays the beliefs of the Church blackens his soul with the sin of Heresy. A Mass not celebrated by ordained priest or on consecrated soil is naught but false ritual condemned by clergy," declares the message that pops up when users click to either pre-order the game or send a "digital blessing" to a friend. From there, users are presented with the ability to watch "an Exclusive Dante's Inferno Trailer" and the option to "Damn thy Fellow Sinners to Hell" through a "Go To Hell" Facebook application.

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"After all, a family shouldn't have to wait until Sunday to worship the Lord," read the original press release for Mass: We Pray, which described the title... Read more

It's been a tumultuous day for videogame publishing giant Electronic Arts. This morning we reported on their acquisition of social game developer Playfish in a $300 million deal that could climb to $400 million. This afternoon word comes in their fiscal second quarter results of a $100 million cost-reduction plan that the press release says, "will result in the closure of several facilities and a headcount reduction of approximately 1,500 positions, of which 1,300 are included in a restructuring plan."

More than just an ironic combination, these two moves point directly to the ongoing shift at the publisher to match the modern videogame market. The press release in fact says as much in its comments on the Playfish acquisition immediately above the section on cost-reduction: "The acquisition accelerates EA's growth in social entertainment and strengthens its focus on the transition to digital and social gaming."

Looking at the numbers it's hard to take issue with their approach from a financial standpoint. In the earnings call EA CEO John Riccitiello noted, "Industry packaged goods software sales [e.g., the usual $60 retail game] are down approximately 12% year-to-date." This comes despite their enjoying a slight 4% increase in share for the same in North America and Europe. At the same time EA sees the digital market, in which they include mobile, micro-transactions, subscriptions, and advertising, growing at a rate of 20% or better for the next several years.

Long seen as a bastion of the traditional videogame... Read more

Electronic Arts' Q2 earnings report reveals that FIFA 10 became their strongest selling launch title in European history, selling 4.5 million units in its first week and achieving a Metacritic ranking of 91. The report further states that EA currently has seventeen released titles this calendar year that have achieved a rank of "80 or above," including NHL 10, The Beatles: Rock Band, Battlefield 1943, NCAA Football 10, Dead Space: Extraction, and Need for Speed SHIFT.

The report also provides some other insight about EA's top performing games for the financial quarter... Read more

EA today announced it has purchased Playfish, a developer of social networking site games, in a deal worth $300 million, with another $100 million upon completion of certain milestones.

Playfish boasts more than 150 million installations and over 60 million active players with over a billion play sessions per month between its ten games--with such titles as Restaurant City, Quiztastic! and Bowling Buddies--across Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, iPhone and other platforms.

"Social gaming... is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space," said Barry Cottle, general manager of EA's web and mobile-focused division EA Interactive in a press statement.

"We can't wait to start exploring social versions of some of the well-loved franchises that this combination brings to us," Playfish CEO Kristian Segerstrale teases on its blog.

Previous casual-focused purchases by EA include browser game portal Pogo.com in 2001 and mobile developer Jamdat Mobile--renamed EA Mobile--in 2005.

Continuing to expand its Steam offerings, Electronic Arts today released six more titles on the distribution platform, including DICE's classic multiplayer shooter Battlefield 2.

The new additions are listed below. Sadly, there's no discount to celebrate the new arrivals, which Steam is known to do from time to time.

• Battlefield 2: Complete Collection - $29.99
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising - $19.99
• The Godfather - $9.99
• The Godfather II - $39.99
• Medal of Honor: Airborne - $9.99
• Need for Speed: Shift - $49.99

Update: Impulse has also added Battlefield 2: Complete Collection at $29.99.

Chris WedgeYet another Electronic Arts franchise is headed to the big screen, as the video game publisher has signed a deal with Twentieth Century Fox for a film based off critter customizing series Spore.

Variety reports that the movie is set to be an animated affair helmed by Ice Age and Robots director Chris Wedge. Blue Sky, which animated those two films, will produce alongside EA.

"From every perspective -- visually, thematically and comedically -- the world of 'Spore' provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen," said Wedge.

The film's script will be handled by The Return of King Doug and The Princess and the Frog scribes Greg Erb and Jason Oremland. No word yet on a release date.

The first fruits of the recent partnership between sports game developer Electronic Arts (Madden NFL, NBA Live, NHL, FIFA) and Toy Island will be on North American store shelves within the next week or so--"by early October"--the two announced today.

Among the various lines of EA SPORTS-branded "innovative sporting goods" are the "Sweet Spot" products, which "emit an audio reward when a user hits or holds the ball in the right spot," plus the "Voice Command" and "Sure Shot" product lines--said to "take the excitement of sports simulations out of the digital realm and into the physical world."

"We're expanding the brand to give young and future EA SPORTS fans a realistic and innovative experience in the real-world of sports, just as you can in the interactive world by playing an EA SPORTS videogame," said EA SPORTS marketing VP Glenn Chin.

The various offerings range from $14.99-$79.99, with details just below... Read more

The next expansion pack for Electronic Arts' long-running PC MMORPG Ultima Online will debut as a digital download on September 8, developer Mythic confirmed today.

Bundled with 30 days of game time for $39.99 or available individually at $29.99, the Stygian Abyss expansion adds Gargoyles to the game's playable races, new enemies, and new areas, including the title's "largest dungeon area ever."

Subscribers will be able to sample the add-on through an open beta... Read more

Vintage properties continue to flood onto the iPhone and iPod Touch, with today's release of EA Mobile and id's turn-based shooter Wolfenstein RPG marking the latest.

Priced at $4.99, the 33MB download boasts eight hours of play with nine levels, sixteen weapons, turn-based combat, cut scenes, hidden treasure to hunt, and chickens to kick.

id continuing plans for the iPhone include a multiplayer-enabled Doom, an RPG version of Doom II, and no less than three flavours of Quake--Quake, Quake 2 and Quake Arena.

Electronic Arts will play host to a panel on homophobia in videogame culture organized by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation this Saturday.

Representatives from Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Linden Labs, GayGamer.net and the Entertainment Software Association will be present. Topics will include "how to provide safe spaces for LGBT people online, how to ensure the best policies are in place to prevent virtual attacks against LGBT people and how to educate the users of online communities about the effects of homophobia."

As Gamasutra points out, GLAAD has become increasingly active in the gaming sphere. GLAAD director of digital media recently published an editorial on "The Impact of Homophobia in Virtual Communities."

The event is open to the public, and is being held at EA's headquarters in Redwood City, California from 11am-1pm. More information is available on the GLAAD site.

8 lb Gorilla, a new Electronic Arts studio focused enitrely on "bite-sized iPhone games," today released its first iPhone and iPod Touch game through the iTunes App Store.

Priced at $0.99 and 6.2 MB in size, Zombies & Me has players herding wave after unending wave of the undead away from Granny's house and into the paths of falling bombs. Fortunately, "mindless Zombies can't help but stare up at the incoming bombs."

As players tap the screen to guide their character around, good old Granny will impart some wisdom, such as "no pie for you young men," "I miss Mr. Shingles," and "in my days, zombies were less horrid." The iTunes listing further promises "endless zombies to EXPLODE! EXPLOSIONS! More EXPLOSIONS!!! 3 unique ways to die!"

I took the game for a quick spin, and while it's not the most engrossing experience on the iPhone, there's certainly an addictive pick up and play feel to Zombies & Me. As with other casual games, I have to wonder how long I'll keep coming back to it, but hey, the "Loooading..." screens don't last too long on the old iPhone 3G, so that's nice.

Look out! More wild animals are headed to the Wii and Nintendo DS via Electronic Arts, which today announced an exotic sequel to SimAnimals dubbed SimAnimals Africa. Due out this fall and sporting a "playful new art style" on the Wii, the Sims Studio-developed sequel sees players attempting to tame such dangerous beasts as lions, rhinos and crocodiles through various mini-games set in the "African kingdom."

"SimAnimals Africa offers players a whole new, wild world to explore, take care of, and discover," said SimAnimals franchise manager Tim LeTourneau. "Kids... Read more

Electronic Arts subsidiaries BioWare (Mass Effect, Star Wars: The Old Republic) and Mythic Entertainment (Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer Online) are to be combined into a new "studio group" led by BioWare co-founder and general manager Ray Muzyka.

Mythic revealed the restructuring today on its official website, with BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk serving as chief creative officer of the new group and Mythic co-founder Rob Denton now acting as general manager of the Mythic division. Denton will report to group general manager Muzyka, and BioWare's studios "remain unchanged."

Denton replaces previous Mythic general manager, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning lead designer, and fellow co-founder Mark Jacobs. The studio revealed that Jacob's last day at the EA-owned studio was yesterday, June 23, noting that "we thank Mark for his contributions at Mythic and wish him the very best going forward."

The pre-release leak of The Sims 3 essentially served as a "demo program" for Electronic Arts to test its focus on "disc-enabled" services like community and downloadable content, CEO John Riccitiello recently postulated to IndustryGamers.

After jokingly referring to the leak as a "secret marketing campaign," Riccitiello noted that "Sims 3 has a massive amount of content, and a lot of it is downloaded once you register with EA." For example, registered users get an extra city as a free download.

"For the pirate consumer, they don't get the second town, they don't get all the extra content, and they don't get the community. [The piracy] was only concentrated on Poland and China, but I think of it as not being that different than a demo," the CEO added.

Use of free downloadable content as a piracy and used sales deterrent is a growing trend amongst the development community, which has been extremely... Read more

Update: "We have nothing to confirm regarding the C&C franchise at this time," Electronic Arts told us when asked about the survey and existence of Command & Conquer 4.

Original: An online survey apparently conducted on behalf of publisher Electronic Arts contains word of the unannounced Command & Conquer 4 and numerous details.

Among those details are gameplay features, such as persistent "RPG-like" progression, along with possible features for a "future version" of the real-time strategy series.

Developer EA Los Angeles, responsible for the most recent entries in the Westwood-created franchise, has previously teased that "there's a really bright future for Command & Conquer, especially the Tiberium universe."

As Command & Conquer 4 has not been officially announced, and this is a survey meant to gauge interest and reactions, there's no confirmation that the below points will make it into the inevitable sequel. We've also reached out for EA for clarification.

Now we would like to tell you about a new Command & Conquer game. Please read the following description.

Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to the 15-year Tiberium saga with innovative... Read more

Publisher Electronic Arts has announced that former chief operating officer John Schappert will return to that position on July 14, ending a two-year stint at Xbox 360 maker Microsoft.

While at Microsoft, Schappert served as a corporate vice president and oversaw various elements of Xbox 360 operations, including Xbox Live and Microsoft Game Studios.

Schappert will replace current EA COO John Pleasants, who is now leaving the company, and marks the latest former EA executive to return to the company. John Ricitiello, who left his position as EA COO... Read more

Electronic Arts today announced that it will publish Realtime Worlds' upcoming cops vs. robbers MMO "APB" under its EA Partners label.

No new details on the title, but a short trailer featuring in-game footage was played. We'll have the video shortly.

Update: The PC edition of APB will hit North America and Europe in early 2010, EA added in a later press release. No mention was made of the previously announced Xbox 360 edition.

EA Partners will publish Crysis 2, Electronic Arts and CryTek announced today. Though devoid of any details on the game and no release date estimate, today's announcement did reveal that the CryEngine 3 powered game will head to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in addition to a PC release.

"The development of Crysis 2 marks a major stepping stone for our studio," said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, adding "This is not only the next game in the Crysis franchise, it's the first title we are developing for consoles and the first title being built on CryENGINE 3. We are excited to have the support of EA Partners again as we work together to make the launch of Crysis 2 a huge event."

CryTek previously teamed with EA Partners for Crysis and Crysis Warhead.

During a quarterly earnings call, Electronic Arts executives expressed their optimism for the digital download market on reports of strong financial progress in the sector.

EA CEO John Riccitiello reported that the company had seen its digital direct revenue grow to $400 million in the last fiscal year, while CFO Eric Brown noted that digital game distribution alone nearly doubled in revenue year-over-year to $80 million.

"This is a big year for us," said Brown. "The online part of our business is growing as much as 60% year over year."

"In terms of distribution, the way we look at a lot what's happening in the future is, we've got probably a billion PCs out there in the world," he continued. "Very rapidly the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform in the world, just not in a packaged-good product."

"As you look at what that means in terms of distribution of product, we think that's incredibly exciting because it's going to open the market to new demographics, new countries and new types of gameplay," he added.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello told investors today that his company is viewing the current console cycle as an "extended" one, and said that the need for racing to new hardware has lessened.

"I think that [console] arms race, while I can never say that it's done, the relevance of doing that faster.. seems to have subsided," said Riccitiello.

Riccitiello noted that while new platforms such as the iPhone are providing reasons for publishers like EA to invest in research and development, he doesn't expect the traditional console cycle to turn over anytime soon.

"Those big changes are not something we're seeing in the immediate term, nor are we expecting it in the immediate term," he added.