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Gameloft bringing My Little Pony game to mobile platforms this year
Until now, fans have taken the lead, but you'll finally have the chance to get an officially licensed My Little Pony game before the end of this year. Gameloft has formed a partnership with Hasbro to make My Little Pony games for mobile platforms including iOS and Android.Gameloft hasn't detailed the game, but Hasbro did provide some corporate boilerplate if that helps: "Creating highly inventive and accessible digital play experiences based on our world-class brands continues to be at the core of Hasbro's mission and we envision Gameloft to be a key player in the ongoing execution of that global strategy," said Hasbro SVP of Digital Media and Marketing Mark Blecher.Along with My Little Pony, Gameloft will be creating games based on Littlest Pet Shop, which is even littler.
The OverAchiever: Are pet achievements disappearing in Mists of Pandaria?
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, it's myth-explodin' time. Last week in the comment thread for OverAchiever: Achievements to do before it's too late, there were a few notes from readers who were worried that noncombat pet achievements were going to disappear in Mists of Pandaria. This shocked me, because I could have sworn I saw pet achievements flash across the screen during the spam I always get when I copy my main to a beta or PTR, and I hadn't been aware that these achievements were actually missing from the General category. I was also sure there would have been some pretty high-profile news about it if developers were planning to axe them. Especially with the introduction of Pet Battles, it seemed like a very strange time for Blizzard to get rid of related achievements. Then again, these are also the people who put the Aldor Rise elevator and Warsong Gulch rep in the game, so we already know they're capable of real cruelty. OverAchiever's pretty much pointless if I don't use it to investigate stuff that I could have warned readers about well in advance, and pets are serious business. So, another character copy onto the beta later, I have an answer for you about what's going on.
The OverAchiever: Continuing Littlest Pet Shop
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, nothing will drop for us. This week we return with the second installment of our guide to Littlest Pet Shop. I apologize, folks -- turns out this'll require one more after this. We're going to use today to tackle all of the game's dropped, Argent Tournament, and profession-related pets, so I can give you a choice between grinding your guts off or spending yourself into the poorhouse. Fun! As always, WarcraftPets.com is your best friend here.
The OverAchiever: Littlest Pet Shop
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the bear wants her balloon. The Littlest Pet Shop option was the clear favorite among the choices given in a recent OverAchiever. While we've previously run a guide to Lil' Game Hunter (the 75-pet achievement), we haven't otherwise revisited the topic of noncombat pets in ... wow, more than two years. Suffice it to say that a lot's changed since then. For one, we get balloons now, which is Blizzard's most inspired addition to the stable of in-game pets and something that nearly caused me to wet myself when I first zoned into a heroic with an undead warrior tank running around with a balloon. The sheer incongruity of the game's skulls-a-plenty armor sets combined with a happy little balloon is still something that alternately horrifies and amuses me. When you stop to think about it, there's something a little twisted in going about the daily WoW routine of mass slaughter and mayhem with a balloon bobbing alongside you, but what the hell. Show me another MMORPG where you can have a balloon and annihilate existential threats to the universe. You can't accuse Blizzard of not covering the bases. If you're a hardcore pet collector, I could probably condense this entire guide down to "bookmark WarcraftPets.com and just keep consulting it," but I suspect we can make this column a wee bit more helpful than that. Even if you're not a pet collector, there's one quested pet in here that I highly advise you not to miss.
36 Origin PC games on the cheap until Sunday
When it comes to digital distribution services, EA's Origin is the new kid in school. And who wants to hang out with the new kid? Nobody, that's who, unless the new kid has pockets full of candy. And by candy, we mean really cheap video-games. From now until tomorrow, you can promise to be Origin's best friend forever in exchange for 36 PC games and/or expansion packs on sale for $4.99 each, including Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Spore, Mirror's Edge, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, and Littlest Pet Shop. Whether or not Origin's popularity on the playground will last when the candy runs out remains to be seen, but for right now we're willing to trade our chocolate milk for a copy of Sim City 4. [Thanks, Thomas!]
The OverAchiever: New achievements in patch 4.2
Every Thursday, The OverAchiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, pet biscuits make us happy ... for a little while, at least. We're going to take another break from our Mountain O' Mounts series to examine upcoming achievements in patch 4.2. We got an avalanche of news on these last Friday via MMO-Champion's datamining efforts on PTR build 14117, and they all look pretty nifty. There are 16 achievements associated with the new Firelands/Mount Hyjal daily quest area, on which I have very little information right now, so we're going to examine those later. However, that still leaves us with new pet, legendary, dungeon, and anniversary achievements.
EA expands Salt Lake studio, announces 'groundbreaking' new project
EA's got something cooking in Utah, as a recent press release states EA Salt Lake is getting some plush new office space downtown, as it gears up to undertake a "groundbreaking" new project and looks to hire people for "several critical leadership positions." EA Redwood Shores is also apparently getting in the mix, as executive producer Ben Bell told IndustryGamers his studio will enlist the aid of some of the best and brightest from over yonder. Everyone is pretty mum on the subject of exactly what the project is right now, but, following EA's massive layoffs affecting 1,500 of its employees, Bell bills this expansion of talent to only "a few key positions right now." The new project will lean heavily on EA Salt Lake and EA Redwood Shores for most of the necessary personnel. EA Salt Lake is perhaps best known for producing The Sims line of games. Maxis obviously created the franchise, but since the release of Spore, has been focusing primarily on that series. EA Salt Lake also handles the EA Play line of games, and has contributed Nerf N-Strike and Littlest Pet Shop. Now, we wouldn't want to speculate on what this new project is, but if you look at the studio's track record since officially becoming EA Salt Lake, one can't help but assume it'll be something on the PC or a Nintendo platform. That, or it's a golf game.
NintendoWare weekly: Bejeweled, Blaster Master, Earthworm Jim 2
As promised, Sunsoft's brought Blaster Master to the Virtual Console -- though we think the impact is somewhat dulled by the quantity of other games available for download this week. There's a total of 11 different games available, so head past the break for the full list.
EA to follow MySims Camera with Scrabble, Littlest Pet Shop on DSiWare
In case you think you want a camera app that adds MySims characters to your DSi photos, but aren't sure, EA sent a couple of screenshots of the app in action. It does pretty much what it says, though we didn't expect the MySims images to be so freely positionable.Along with shots of MySims Camera and Sudoku, EA announced more upcoming DSiWare games. Littlest Pet Shop gets even littler on DSiWare, allowing you to collect and interact with pets, dress them up, and "throw a dance party for your pets and watch them groove to a cool song."Scrabble will be released as several different apps including Scrabble Classic and Scrabble Tools, a Scrabble-themed vocabulary building game. Apparently, each Scrabble game will be a separate download.%Gallery-73658%
EA keynote post mortem: Did you circle your calendar?
Back in March, EA Director of Corporate Communications Jeff Brown told the world, "If you have a career in games or just love to play them, get out your calendar and circle the first week of June," adding, "The E3 Expo is bigger and better this year and for EA, the expanded format means we'll have more demos, announcements, promotions and blockbuster games than ever before." So did EA deliver? Shout-outs to Littlest Pet Shop Online and the new Charm Girls Club franchise, bringing us not one, but four games that celebrate "girlhood": Pajama Party, My Perfect Prom, My Fashion Mall, and My Fashion Show. Image that. Er, take that, Imagine!
Make new friends on Wii and DS at the Littlest Pet Shop
We know, we know. You just can't contain your excitement, can you? EA has just announced its latest title: The Littlest Pet Shop Friends and already we can hear the shrills of pre-adolescent joy. Pair up this megaton news with this morning's stunning iCarly reveal and today becomes a big day for Joystiq's 13-and-under reader demographic.EA promises the new LPS game will be bigger, better and more badass (okay not the last one) than previous titles, featuring a host of multiplayer mini-games, explorable game worlds and collectible pets. It hits Wii and Nintendo DS later this year in Fall.
Gitcha SecuROM de-authorization tools! Git'em ova hur!
EA's perpetual joke -- on you -- comes to an ironic end on April Fools' Day with the release of de-authorization tools for each of its 19 PC games with SecuROM copy protection (full list and download links after the break). If you've been working on that class action lawsuit against EA for bundling SecuROM with The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff, you can drop it now -- your flat-pack furniture can finally be moved to a new machine. In the spirit of generosity, EA's giving you two options for managing your authorizations: Option 1: Download and install yet another "tool" in order to scan your computer for EA's SecuROM games and find out how many computer authorizations you have (or don't have) left for each title. Option 2: Cut to the chase and download the game-specific de-authorization tool you need.
E308: EA releases old screens and new screens
Ah, E3 ... a time for news, announcements, and, if you're Electronic Arts, old screenshots for DS games. How disappointed were we to discover nothing new for such games as MySims Kingdom. After all, our home counterpart got lots of new media. We feel so left out.But the good news is, we've got some new Skate It images, as well as screens from Zubo and the Littlest Pet Shop. Talk about something for everyone!Skate It%Gallery-27642%Zubo%Gallery-27618%Littlest Pet Shop%Gallery-27622%
E308: EA: If it's in the game, it's in these galleries
During their E3 press conference, EA released assets for a bunch of upcoming games. We showed the new SimAnimals earlier today -- these are the assets from the games we already knew about. More Sim stuff of a sort (SimCity Creator), more animal-related stuff (the utterly terrifying Littlest Pet Shop), and ... other stuff. We've posted the gallery of the nice-looking MySims Kingdom below. Wait, why does the medieval MySims game have rocket rides? After the break, you can find the rest of the galleries, including Pet Shop, Creator, FaceBreaker KO Party, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It's at least an excuse to break out old EA slogans.%Gallery-22830%
EA's Nerf N-Strike is Nerf onscreen and off [update]
EA's deal with Hasbro is starting to bear fruit, with announcements of Littlest Pet Shop and Nerf N-Strike games on the DS and Wii. The press release revealing these games has something wonderful buried within it that instantly upgrades Nerf N-Strike from "nondescript licensed game" to "please tell us more": "With the brand new custom Nerf blaster, players can then take the action outside as their controller transforms to fire actual Nerf darts!"Take that, Wii Zapper (and by that, we mean a barrage of Nerf darts). The Nerf Wiimote shell was nice, but this is how you integrate the squishy weapons with waggling. The new Wii Crotch Missile is the perfect companion piece to the Wii Crotch Bat![Update: thanks to Shacknews, we can now gaze upon the Wii Nerf gun. It's amazing.][Via Siliconera]
EA to bring Hasbro to your DS
For those of you who find themselves enjoying board games, but would like considerable less board in there, know that EA has announced that several Hasbro properties will be turned into games by the publishing powerhouse. No longer will your games of Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit be confined to the Monday night get-together at your neighbor's house, as you'll soon be able to enjoy these games without your "friends."The titles currently in the works are: Littlest Pet Shop (DS, Wii, PC) - fall NERF "N-Strike" (Wii, DS) - fall Looking over the rest of the list for titles releasing on mobile phones and to EA's online POGO portal, we're wondering why the DS is getting the shaft. Monopoly, Yahtzee and Scrabble are all releasing on mobile phones and via POGO, but where's the DS love? All we get are these two games? We hope this changes ...[Via Joystiq]
EA announces intial batch of Hasbro games, G.I. Joe sadly absent
Electronic Arts has sewn up the rights to deliver games based on numerous Hasbro properties, though before you get too excited in hopes that you'll soon be revisiting your past and playing games based on G.I. Joe, we should note that of this "initial slate" of brands singled out by the companies not one packs a 'kung fu grip.' EA calls these games "new ways for families to build relationships through digital entertainment," which of course means we'll be seeing at least some of these games crop up on the Wii. In fact, the first titles from the deal confirmed for both the Wii and DS include games based on Littlest Pet Shop and NERF "N-Strike," both of which are being put together by EA's Salt Lake Studio. Last year EA inked a deal with Hasbro for rights to make games based on the seemingly innocent but often cutthroat board game Monopoly, and players will be able to edge their way out of (and into) virtual bankruptcy come March for mobile phones and later in the fall over EA's casual POGO portal for the PC. Other brands in the works as part of this new deal include Scrabble, Operation, and Trivial Pursuit, meaning that in the not to distant future we could be once again partying like it's Christmas 1980.
