Spielberg EA Game Canceled

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Jake Kazdal once worked on Project LMNO, a game from Steven Spielberg while at EA. While it was long thought that the project was shelved or canceled, Kazdal confirmed it publicly for the first time during a podcast.

“I don’t wanna get the EA police on me. I can’t say too much. It was very ambitious,” described Kazdal. “We had a small team — very smart people on it. And we spent a lot of time thinking and talking. And doing some stuff. And it just sort of … I don’t know exactly what was the thing that made it fall apart.”

He noted that he ended up working on the project for two and a half years. “I’m sure anybody you ask is gonna tell you something a little bit different, but it didn’t end up ever taking off,” commented Kazdal. “There was some rival game stuff that may or may not have come out of EA that was basically the same thing minus some of the stuff we were doing. There was just a lot of politics.”

EA confirmed this when asked, saying, “EA maintains its relationship with Steven Spielberg. EA has ceased development of LMNO. EA continually monitors development resources and adjusts resources as appropriate. No new title announcements.”

Source: Joystiq

3DS Is ‘Expensive’ Says 80 Percent In Japanese Poll

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The Nintendo 3DS has a price tag of 25,000 yen in Japan, which is roughly $300 in the U.S., although a U.S. price has still not been announced.  While Japan is used to paying more for its electronics, GetNews.jp wanted to see if they thought it was too much in this case, so they polled 1,000 people.

32.2 percent said the price was Slightly Expensive, while 28.3 percent thought it was Expensive and 19.2 percent considered it Too Expensive. Only 16.4 percent said the price was Reasonable and 2 percent said it was Slightly Inexpensive – less than one percent considered the 3DS Inexpensive.

While opinions differed on whether the pricing was fair for the machine’s specs, comments include “I’m hesitant to buy it on launch day” or “That’s not the price-tag of a child’s toy.”

Source: Kotaku

Zynga Lovin’ It With McDonald’s

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Zynga has announced that McDonald’ s will have its own space within FarmVille, as part of a special social marketing campaign.

“Joining forces with FarmVille is an incredible opportunity for us to engage with millions of players in the most popular social game,” said Anja Carroll, Director of Media, McDonald’s USA. “What makes our FarmVille effort unique is that it reinforces important features of the McDonald’s brand while enhancing game play for FarmVille players.”

Players will have access to a special McDonald’s farm and help grow tomato and mustard seed crops, which will grant them the FarmVille McCafe Consumable that will let players move about their farms at double speed. Additionally, those who help the McDonald’s farm will earn a virtual McDonald’s Hot Air Balloon to decorate their own farm.

“Our mission is to connect the world through games by offering consumers meaningful experiences that enhance their game play,” said Manny Anekal, Global Director of Brand Advertising at Zynga. “Tens of millions of people play FarmVille daily and this unique campaign with McDonald’s, one of the most recognized brands in the world, further strengthens our commitment to delivering high quality in-game brand experiences.”

Facebook Posts Pressure Gap On Logo

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Gap Inc. recently rolled out a new logo that was planned to be used as part of the company’s holiday advertising campaign. However, the change away from the distinctive blue box logo got a response of over 2,000 posts on their Facebook page, most of which were negative.

“Since we rolled out an updated version of our logo last week on our website, we’ve seen an outpouring of comments from customers and the online community in support of the iconic blue box logo,” said Marka Hansen, president of Gap Brand North America. “Last week, we moved to address the feedback and began exploring how we could tap into all of the passion. Ultimately, we’ve learned just how much energy there is around our brand. All roads were leading us back to the blue box, so we’ve made the decision not to use the new logo on gap.com any further.”

This event demonstrates the power of social media, and the danger of ignoring your fan base during this networked age. Gap seems to realize the mistake that they made, and Hansen indicates that the apparel company has learned its lesson.

“We’ve learned a lot in this process. And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing, said Hansen. “There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way.”

Spider-Man Villain Role Given To Rhys Ifans

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Sony Pictures has sent word that Rhys Ifans has been cast in the new Spider-Man movie as a villain. The specific role for the Welsh actor was not identified, leaving people to speculate that it could be any number of villians, including the Jackal, Green Goblin, Lizard, Vulture, Kraven or Morbius.

“What sets the Spider-Man villains apart is the complexity of their relationships with Peter Parker,” said director Mark Webb. “Rhys’ incredible ability to embody both warmth and rage makes him the ideal choice for this character.”

U-verse Comes To Xbox 360

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On Friday, October 15 AT&T’s U-verse television service will be available on Xbox 360s. This will let the console substitute for a cable receiver so long as it has a hard drive.

Those using U-verse via the Xbox 360 will be able to receive game invites while they watch live TV, access On Demand movies and shows, and record and playback TV content as if it were a DVR. The catch is that users must already have a standard U-verse receiver in their home and must pay an AT&T technician $99 to install the service on your Xbox 360.

EA Mobile Rolls Out Red Carpet For Windows Phone 7

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EA Mobile today announced that it will be supporting Windows Phone 7. The company will make Need for Speed: Undercover, Tetris, The Sims 3 and Monopoly for Microsoft’s mobile platform.

“Our collaboration with Microsoft brings EA’s world-class catalog of global game franchises to Windows Phone 7, offering a unique set of gaming features perfectly suited to the deep, innovative experiences we value at EA,” said Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile. “We see consumers deeply integrating devices into their lives and entertainment in new ways every day. Challenging your Xbox Live friends to an EA game from the phone in your pocket keeps you connected and having fun no matter where you are.”

“Together EA and Microsoft have created some of the definitive console games of this generation, and we’re excited to bring that powerful alliance to Windows Phone 7,” said Ron Pessner, general manager of Xbox Live mobile, Microsoft. “This is a new and major games platform for Microsoft, and we look forward to the amazing games EA will deliver over the coming years.”