EA has made a major push into PC digital distribution with Origin, and it seems to be paying off. Analysts have predicted that we're heading toward an all-digital age, and EA intends to speed up the process by actively moving toward that goal itself. "We'll continue to deliver games in whatever media formats make sense and as one ebbs and one starts to flow, we'll go in that direction," EA Games president Frank Gibeau said. "Ultimately Electronic Arts, at some point in the future - much like your question about streaming and cloud - we're going to be a 100% digital company, period. It's going to be there some day. It's inevitable." He also noted the problem that many in the industry have pointed out: our only measure of tracking sales numbers is through NPD, which tracks retail sales but has lagged behind on reporting digital numbers. Part of that is probably that the large digital marketplace Steam is reluctant to share its sales data, but it still creates a definite issue of incomplete data. "I think one of the problems with this industry right now is that people tend to look at it like they're looking at an elephant through a straw," he told GI.biz. "They only see a little parts of it and they're not looking at the total picture, right? Between Facebook, social, mobile, free to play on PC, Asia, consoles... it's a vibrant, growing, huge market. An occasional bad report from NPD, which measures a sliver of what's actually happening in gaming gives people an erroneous impression."

While many scoffed at Battlefield 3's late-arriving competitor to Call of Duty Elite, it seems to have worked quite splendidly for the publisher. More than 800,000 players have signed up for Premium in its first two weeks of availability, EA Games' Patrick Soderlund revealed. Although Premium less a "service" like Elite and more of a DLC Season Pass, the $50 asking price does include a lot of content. Namely, Premium includes access to over $75 worth of content, making it a "value" for hardcore fans of the series. Speaking to USA Today, Soderlund said that "we are very pleased with the performance so far." When asked if this strategy is something EA will pursue with future games, he said: "We're actually only two weeks into it, so it's a little early to tell how this is going to pay off. It certainly it looks very promising right now."

Call of Duty Elite currently has over two million paying subscribers, a number which took about six months to reach.

Lian-Li Industrial Co. Ltd, today announces a brushed aluminum EATX supported chassis with a front placed PSU - PC-V750. With the power supply placed in the front, the PC-V750 can hold the hardware that enthusiasts desire while keeping a smaller footprint.

Shorter than most EATX supporting chassis, the 440mm (17.32") tall PC-V750 can hold up to six 3.5" hard drives with hotswap capabilities in the HDD cage with one 2.5" at the bottom of the cage. Two more 2.5" drives can be installed if only four 3.5" drives are in the cage.

EA has started a new program to generate awareness and charitable contributions to fallen Special Operations soldiers, titled "Project Honor." The program is a marketing tie-in with the upcoming Medal of Honor Warfighter, but it's also planning some smart ways to benefit military charities. Various weapon and gear manufacturers will donate to the Navy SEAL Foundation and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Their products will be featured in Warfighter, and they'll also be selling Medal of Honor merchandise with 100% of the proceeds going to one of the listed charities. In addition, EA and Danger Close will be selling a "Military Edition" of the game made exclusively for active, reserve, and former US military. It includes the Limited Edition with some exclusive unlocks. If you fit that bill, you can check out the GovX site for ordering details.

"This partnership with EA and Medal of Honor will raise awareness on the work we do to help the families of fallen Special Operations warriors and facilitate contributions that help provide college scholarships for surviving children and financial assistance to families of severely wounded special operations warriors," said Special Operations Warrior Foundation president John T. Carney, Jr., in the announcement. "This is a great way to give back to some of our country's greatest warriors."

hat if your tablet or phone knew what you were watching on TV and presented bonus features without you having to lift a finger? What if you could use your tablet to draw up a play in EA SPORTS' "Madden NFL" and then perform it to perfection on your TV? What if you could control your favorite websites on the TV with a simple swipe, pinch or zoom on your tablet's touchscreen?

To kick-start the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Microsoft Corp. today unveiled a bold new vision for enjoying entertainment at home and on the go with Xbox SmartGlass. Launching this year, Xbox SmartGlass is an application for Windows 8, Windows Phone, and other portable devices that connects phones, PCs and tablets with your Xbox 360 console to make your entertainment smarter, more interactive and more fun.(1) The intelligence of Xbox SmartGlass makes your entertainment more engaging, Web surfing more effortless, and playing games more immersive by delivering companion content and control to enhance your TV experience.

Razer, the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware, today announced the addition of a custom headset to its Collector's Edition gaming peripheral suite. Inspired by tactical aviator headsets and armed with total audio immersion, the Razer BlackShark delivers the full force aural intensity of Battlefield 3, EA and DICE's military shooter masterwork, the fastest-selling game in EA history.

Battlefield 3 is the most physical, dynamic and progressive shooter experience on the market. Now with the Razer BlackShark, gamers will be able to take to the skies feeling like a genuine attack helicopter pilot with complete circumaural ear cups designed to facilitate an authentic auditory in-game experience. Razer's superior sound-isolating technology blocks out undesirable ambient noises and, for moments of truce, the Razer BlackShark comes with a detachable boom microphone for use on-the-go.

While content-creation and media transcoding applications have transitioned to native x86-64 applications that can take advantage of large amounts of system and video memory, a similar transition by game developers has been rather slow. Very few PC games ship with 64-bit executables, as most games are ported from game consoles anyway, which have slim system requirements.

EA-DICE has been behind developing games that take advantage of the latest PC technologies (such as DirectX 11), and according to a lead developer and rendering architect with the studio, Johan Andersson, games that are driven by Frostbite engine, which are slated for 2013, will require 64-bit operating systems, these games will not run on 32-bit Windows, or in 32-bit mode, on 64-bit Windows, but with full-fledged 64-bit executables. The 64-bit address-space would allow games to take advantage of system memory over 4 GB, and more importantly, high amounts of video memory, as 2 GB and 3 GB become standard with performance-segment graphics cards.

PNY Technologies, Inc. ("PNY") today introduced the XLR8 GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 graphics card. The GTX 670 delivers state-of-the-art features and technologies found only in the newest NVIDIA Kepler architecture to redefine smooth, seamless, lifelike gaming.

The PNY XLR8 GeForce GTX 670 was designed to produce faster, more power-efficient performance and is 30% faster than the previous generation graphics card. PNY will offer consumers a value-added bundle: the GTX 670 graphics card coupled with a PNY High Speed Thin HDMI Cable. The HDMI cable connects the GTX 670 directly to an HDTV or monitor for maximum high definition 1080p gaming.

EA Crytek's blockbuster title for spring 2013, Crysis 3, promises to be equally visually intense for DirectX 11 PCs and consoles, not because the PC version will be running, strictly speaking, a "console-port", but that the console version will be running a "PC-port". Crytek is developing ways in which visual effects possible with DirectX 11 PC graphics hardware can be reproduced on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, by making the console hardware work in a way it's normally incapable of. This could be coming up with custom code for each new kind of visual effect.

Following a juicy debut teaser, EA posted an even more engaging gameplay trailer. The trailer reveals the premise of the single-player campaign, where New York is overrun by the Ceph and vegetation, and is cordoned off from the rest of the world by a giant dome. Prophet lunges on a mission to take back the city. Towards the end of the 2 minute video, the box-art is revealed, with a bitter fact that you'll have to wait another year before being able to play it.The trailer video follows.

Crysis 3 is real, and although you'll have to wait another year to be able to play it, Crytek began marketing it, and even accepting pre-orders. On Friday, it posted Crysis 3 Debut Trailer (the very first trailer), which reveals quite a bit of action going on, in the game, including the intriguing crossbow weapon. The trailer reveals a sci-fi post-apocalyptic setting in which a city is overrun by vegetation. The baddies appear to have a force-field around the city now. The teaser is just 15 seconds long. A (probably longer) gameplay trailer is slated for Tuesday, the 24th.The Debut Trailer follows.

BioWare, a Label of Electronic Arts Inc. announced Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, a downloadable content pack that will expand upon the events at the end of the critically acclaimed Action RPG. Through additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes, the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut will give fans seeking further clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3 deeper insights into how their personal journey concludes. Coming this summer, the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut will be available for download on the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and PC for no extra charge (offer expires April 12, 2014).

"We are all incredibly proud of Mass Effect 3 and the work done by Casey Hudson and team," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder of BioWare and General Manager of EA's BioWare Label. "Since launch, we have had time to listen to the feedback from our most passionate fans and we are responding. With the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team's artistic vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect universe."

EA bagged another "achievement", Consumerist's Golden Poo Award for "worst company in America" for 2012. EA managed to beat Bank of America in getting there. Considering BoA has real potential to strip people of their savings, one can understand just how much of an effort EA put in winning this. Some might argue that EA and the video-games industry are too trivial compared to BoA and the finance industry, but this is exactly the argument that allows people to "ignore the complaints as companies like EA to nickel and dime consumers to death," according to Consumerist's consensus. People are particularly distraught with EA's practice of sandbagging game content and later selling it as DLCs that augment the main game, for a fee. Consumerist's "worst company in America" is an annual user-choice award given to companies with the worst business practices.

EA took the pains to respond to its achievement, by taunting The Consumerist for its choice of nominations for people to vote on, in a statement given to Kotaku.

We're sure that British Petroleum, AIG, Philip Morris, and Halliburton are all relieved they weren't nominated this year. We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide.

UK retail chain GAME, which sells well - games and gaming hardware, with presence in the UK, several European countries, and Australia, filed for administration. The retail chain has been seeing a few harsh months, it was unable to strike distribution deals with Capcom and EA, which contributed to a drop in its share value on the London Stock Exchange.

In a press-release dated today, GAME says "Further to this morning's announcement of the suspension of trading in shares of GAME Group plc, the board has concluded that its discussions with all stakeholders and other parties have not made sufficient progress in the time available to offer a realistic prospect for a solvent solution for the business. The board has therefore today filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator. In the short term the Board's intention is that the business will continue to trade and discussions with lenders and third parties will continue under the protection of the interim moratorium."

Phenomic, the Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) studio dedicated to developing best-in-class free-to-play games, today announced that Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances is now in open beta. The latest entry in EA's Play4Free portfolio of games, Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances is a massively multiplayer online (MMO), browser-based, free-to-play strategy game that delivers a whole new way for players to experience the Command & Conquer Tiberium universe. Players harvest valuable resources, foster strategic alliances and engage in relentless battles as they strive for world domination. With in-game news and status feeds, players get frequent updates, creating a completely interactive and dynamic gameplay experience that has gamers strategizing, reacting, and adapting on the spot. The Open Beta goes live today globally, here.

Electronic Arts (EA) Inc. announced today that SEGA will bring its most popular PC game titles to Origin, EA's direct-to-consumer gaming platform. SEGA's Total War Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai is now available for pre-order to PC gamers on Origin.

In addition to SEGA, other new publishers joining Origin today include Team 17 Software Limited, Rebellion, Kalypso Media Digital Ltd. and more, bringing the number of game publishers and developers on Origin to 35 partners. PC downloadable titles from each of these partners will be available on Origin in the coming months.

Apparently round one goes to Activision in the royal rumble between them and Infinity Ward founders and now ex-employees Jason West and Vincent Zampella over owed royalties. One of the two fraud charges levelled at Activision by former employees and Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vincent Zampella has been dismissed by a US court. The remarkable story of the corporate fallout between Activision and the development pair began in March 2010 when it was revealed that the publisher had both men frog marched out of the Infinity Ward offices. Several employees quit the developer amidst the mud slinging and bitterness of the dispute, with Activision later deciding to sue EA over the whole ordeal. Why EA? Well, claims were made that both West and Zampella were already in bed with Activision's arch rival long before the waters become turbulent. The fact that West and Zampella's new studio, Respawn Entertainment, signed a publishing deal with EA probably didn't help much either.

Once the dust had settled both sides laid bare their claims. Activision argues that the pair had already planned a defection to EA whilst still working on Modern Warfare 2. It currently wants $400m in compensation from EA. West and Zampella, meanwhile, say that they were sacked to save Activision the pain of paying them bonuses and royalties owed to them. Back in the present Activision's success in convincing State Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle to dismiss one of the fraud claims levelled against it is a success, for sure, but it's not enough to stop everyone being dragged into court on May 7th.

According to MCV a major UK High Street retailer has mentioned two new titles for the first time. Firstly, it suggests that Warner Bros' upcoming summer movie hit The Dark Knight Rises will be accompanied by a video game tie-in. Furthermore, owing to the nature of the in formation MCV obtained, it suggests a physical release rather than a smaller-scale digital title. Also on the list is a game called Battlefield Evolved. No further details are known. With EA planning a big push for Medal of Honor: Warfighter this Q4, a fully-fledged Battlefield release seems unlikely. It may be that the SKU includes Battlefield 3 and all of its DLC. Both games are supposedly scheduled for the autumn.

Portal 2 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim won big at the Game Developers Choice. Bethesda's smash-hit title bagged the coveted "Game of the Year" (GOTY) title, while Portal 2 bagged three top honors, winning "Best Narrative", "Best Game Design", and "Best Audio".

The year 2011 also saw the raising of the technology bar with two new game engines, CryEngine 3 from Crytek, and Frostbite 2 from EA-DICE. The two were implemented in flagship titles, Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3, respectively; both of which were published by EA. In the end, Battlefield 3 won "Best Technology". "Best Visual Arts", however, went to Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.A list of top honors follows.

EA and game developer Danger Close have announced the latest installment of the Medal of Honor franchise will debut this October 23. With a rocking trailer and a few screens the game seems to be going a route similar to a style of the classic Call of Duty games which used various Special Forces operators from multiple countries. The synopsis over at Shacknews had this to say about the game, 'Remember when US Navy SEALs rescued hostages from Somali pirates? How many of you thought "that would be a great level in a game?" Apparently, the team at Danger Close also thought so.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is the studio's second stab at the rebooted FPS franchise from EA. Whereas the previous game was all about the fight in Afghanistan, Warfighter promises a "global fight," one comprised of real-world events that happen all around the globe. At a Game Developers Conference event in San Francisco last night, Electronic Arts showed off a hands-off demonstration of Warfighter's new direction. The demo level took place in the Philippines, where you were in an assault against Abu Sayyaf in an effort to rescue hostages. This mission isn't inspired by fiction. It happened in real life. "Getting inside this kind of real world event is at the heart of Medal of Honor," executive producer Greg Goodrich told the audience.

DICE has announced three new content packs to be released for Battlefield 3. According to Shacknews, Close Quarters will be the second expansion pack for DICE's shooter, with one week exclusivity on PS3. But what can you expect from it? The infantry-focused add-on will expand the online mode with four new maps and ten more weapons. A first-look at the new content showed an indoor apartment environment and a penthouse suite. The close quarters gameplay did a great job of showing off Frostbite 2's destructive capabilities, as walls were quickly being torn apart by gunfire. But that's not the only piece of DLC EA announced last night. There are two more expansion packs coming. ""Back to Karkand set the bar for what an expansion pack should be," DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson said. "It's so much more than just a new map. We're trying to theme all our expansion packs." Wheres Close Quarters will focus on tight infantry battles, the next add-on will focus on vehicular combat. "Armored Kill" will add new vehicles and boast the "biggest maps DICE has ever created... for a very Battlefield experience." Finally, DICE announced "End Game." Unfortunately, that's all they're saying about the (seemingly) final piece of the Battlefield 3 post-release puzzle. "It's a secret right now," Troedsson teased.

The first blockbuster game of 2012 has arrived! Mass Effect 3 from BioWare, a Label of Electronic Arts Inc., is now available at retail stores in North America and will be launching in Europe on March 9. The highly anticipated game has been praised by critics for delivering, deep, interactive storytelling and adrenaline-pumping action on a huge scale. Mass Effect 3 has already received perfect scores from a wide variety of outlets around the world, including MSNBC, Game Informer, USA Today, G4 TV, Eurogamer (UK), The Guardian (UK), Official Xbox Magazine (UK), PlayStation Official Magazine (UK), Eurogamer (IT), Game Reactor (Sweden), Atomic Gamer (AUS) and more. Entertainment Weekly declared that "Mass Effect 3 isn't just one of the videogame events of the year. It's one of the pop-culture events of the year."

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, today announced that the sales of the PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) portable entertainment system reached over 1.2 million units worldwide as of February 26, 2012. PS Vita experienced an initial burst of momentum when it launched on December 17, 2011 in Japan followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. Newly launched in North and Latin America, Europe and PAL territories as well as in Singapore on February 22, 2012, sales have exceeded expectations surpassing over 1.2 million units worldwide, firmly establishing PS Vita as the must-have portable entertainment device across the world. Software sales across the globe have surpassed 2.0 million units at both retail and on PlayStation Network.

EA DICE is practically tearing apart Battlefield 3 as we know it, and rebuilding it with a huge list of updates, including tweaks in the gameplay mechanics, and its background application itself. The list covers weapon mechanics changes, vehicle mechanics changes, and changes to the way damage is meted out. The patch can be likened to a similar Battlefield 2 patch that radically changed the game, including its resources. Be sure to use auto-scroll with the next part.

Apparently the war between the original creators of the Call of Duty franchise and Activision is going in front of a jury. The big "he said, the monolithic corporation said" video games kerfuffle of 2010, the fallout from Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vincent Zampella leaving Activision then signing up with Electronic Arts, is indeed going to trial. On Wednesday, a California Superior Court judge denied EA's motion for summary judgement on the complex lawsuit, as well as one from West and Zampella, meaning the big Call of Duty mess will go before a jury next year.