WorldDomination
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EA looks to partner, acquire Asian studios
Industry stalwart Electronic Arts is looking to land a partner in Japan, and who can blame them, what with the region's love of natural beauty and delicious cannibalism. According to a new Financial Times report, the company is entertaining the prospect of partnering with or even acquiring an existing Japanese company, no doubt in order to further EA's well known plans for world domination.The report quoted EA Asia president Jon Niermann, who during an interview at this week's Tokyo Game Show referred to Japan as a "strategic priority" for the company, which already owns a 15 percent stake in Chinese MMO firm The9. Earlier this year the company also invested in South Korean developer Neowiz, establishing the publishing powerhouse as the studio's second largest shareholder.Says the report, the region will still likely play only a minor role in EA's global plans, though Niermann was quick to point out the potential benefit of tapping into established talent in the area, noting that "EA offers a great global distribution opportunity in terms of taking Japanese products to other parts of the world and in turn there are certainly companies that are much better at local development than we've ramped up to be."[Via Gamasutra]
Steambots promise to delight, terrify
In a troubling development for the eventual war between man and machine, scientists in Germany have invented a steam-powered robot that will presumably be able to fuel itself with wood and water even after our descendants have managed to disable the rest of their mechanical enemies by cutting off their power supplies. Actually, the bot that you see pictured above is just a toy -- albeit an expensive one, at $300 -- that e-tailer Robot Island plans to import and distribute Stateside this summer, and we highly doubt that it's endowed with nearly enough abilities to make it capable of world domination. Still, we did see that movie Small Soldiers, so we know that sometimes even the most benign-looking toys can go bad. [Via Retro Thing]
