Some of the brightest minds in the video game world discussed the industry's rapidly growing relationship with social media at this year's D.I.C.E. Summit. Mark Cerny, whose career stretches back to designing arcade games in the 80's, broached the subject in broad terms during his talk titled "The End of Death, the Crash of 1982 and Other Topics."

In it, he discussed the challenge of unlearning habits and moving forward in changing times. As an example he cited how even today designers struggle to break free from the artificial requirement that a player die many, many times which is a holdover from arcade games needing to keep players paying the next quarter. He surmised that in similar fashion it will take at least 10, and as many as 20, years for designers to readapt and get socialization right in video games. Read more »

The British Broadcasting Corporation intends to make video games of "key brands," MCV reports, including the tip-top sci-fi series Doctor Who and bloketastic Top Gear.

Children's properties such as the unsettling In the Night Garden are likely targets for Wii and DS releases while MCV says "more long-running brands" could head to "all sorts of platforms." Social networking sites and the iPhone are also potential platforms. Read more »

Dragon Age developer BioWare today launched "the first in a series of compelling social experiences" from its new R&D group BioWare Labs--Gift of the Yeti, a festive Facebook game which donates money to charity and Dragon Age discounts to players.

With Santa struck down by bad eggnogg, it's up to a friendly yeti to save Christmas by stomping around town delivering gifts. Joining in the Yuletide spirit, BioWare will donate one cent per play to children's gaming charity Child's Play, up to $10,000. Read more »

In what is quite possibly the briefest announcement to ever come out of Electronic Arts, the publisher today revealed its purchase of the game-oriented social networking company ThreeSF for an undisclosed sum.

Founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, ThreeSF's first project was Rupture, a site that allows users to track achievements earned in Xbox 360 games as well as coordinate World of Warcraft (PC) activity. Read more »

Mega-publisher Electronic Arts is about to buy game-oriented social networking site Rupture for $30 million, according to an unconfirmed TechCrunch report.

Citing "sources with knowledge of the deal," the site claims EA is primarily interested in the technology behind the startup. Creator Shawn Fanning, who founded Napster, and partner Jon Baudanza are said to become EA employees under the agreement. Read more »