Angry Birds developer Chillingo may cease to be an indie darling in the near future, as EA has bought the company. Reports put an the deal at $20 million cash, but the future of all the studio’s properties are still up in the air.

Chillingo was already a hot commodity after Angry Birds, but the massive success of the recently released Cut the Rope has truly turned the UK developer into a den of rock stars. While companies like Activision, Gameloft and even Intel were vying for the studio, EA was able to close the deal.

“By acquiring Chillingo, EA Mobile is increasing its market leadership on the Apple Platform as well as reaffirming its position as the world’s leading wireless entertainment publisher,” EA’s Holly Rockwood said in a statement.

It sounds like EA wants to keep Chillingo in the mobile space, but we can’t help but wonder if the studio will be asked to dabble in consoles and handhelds as well. EA has dabbled with physics games by publishing Boom Blox on the Wii, but the series has stalled and perhaps the company is looking for a new franchise to bring to non-Apple audiences. There’s also the distinct possibility EA could request a totally new IP from Chillingo, one which could be backed with a big budget and marketed across all platforms.

Where things may get tricky is in regards to ownership rights of games published under the Chillingo banner. Rovio created Angry Birds, while ZeptoLab made Cut the Rope, and, at least according to Rovio, the development studios still own those properties. A Rovio spokesperson says his company “controls the Angry Birds brand and any future products,” so at least that franchise may remain apart from this deal.

At any rate, let us be among the first to congratulate Chillingo and wish them the best of luck under the new ownership. They’ve already proven what talented, dedicated people can do when they put their minds to it so they deserve all the success and wealth they’ve earned. Well done guys, keep up the good work.

[via Mashable]

EA, being the large gaming corporation that they are, have released their upcoming summer and fall lineup… and it’s huge.

Madden NFL 11 – iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch – Fall – Everyone’s favorite NFL game is back this year, but with a few cool features that will make the game even more intuitive on a touch device. The new “Gameflow” feature is the one that I’m most excited about, as it gives players the ability to spend “less time in the playbook and more time on the field”.

“Coaches don’t go into a game with their full playbook like you do in our game. When it’s 2nd down and 3 yards to go, they don’t thumb through a 3-ring binder with 350 plays in it. They find tendencies before the game and build a game plan to exploit the other team’s weaknesses. This means they call plays based on the situation.”

To make the game quicker, and more realistic in the process, “Gameflow” has the “coach” pick the play based on the situation you are in and then radio it to you, letting you see the play on the field like you normally would. If an audible needs to be called, there is now the ability to draw hot routes anywhere, letting you devise whatever route you would like, on the fly.

Check out our hands-on article here for a more detailed look.

[Source: EA Sports]

Reckless Racing – iPhone, iPad – Summer – Remember the amazing looking tp-down racing game, Deliverance, that never came out? It turns out that it was bought by EA, and has been renamed Reckless Racing. Reckless Racing “mixes old-school top-down racing game play with state of the art graphics and engaging multiplayer features.” EA seems to be touting its online features more than anything else, promising “fully stocked internet multiplayer mode, on-line leaderboards and the ability to trade ghost races with other players from all over the world”. If the game plays half as good as it looks, you’ll see me playing Reckless Racing non stop when it launches later this summer.

For a more in depth look, check out our recent hands-on article.

NCAA Football – iPhone – Now – NCAA Football is EA’s first app designed specifically for the iPhone 4. While it doesn’t have all the new bells and whistles that Madden will have, it does have over 55 of the most well known colleges so you can support the team that you love… and it does look pretty.

Sim City Deluxe – iPhone, iPod Touch – Summer – EA seems to have addressed all the glitches in their first attempt at Sim City, and have made an app that is much more playable. All of the menus have been redesigned, and the glitch that has buildings disappear when you zoom out should be gone. Also added are the famed Sim City disasters, which could possibly bring over the Pocket God set that have sites on tormenting even more souls. There is also a rumor about an iPad version in the works, but nothing has been announced… so don’t get your hopes up.

[Source: IGN]

The Sims 3 Ambitions – iPhone, iPod Touch – Summer – There aren’t many details about this one floating around, but it does seem to be the iPhone counterpart to the PC expansion pack with the same name. According to EA, in “Sims 3 Ambitions, players decide whether their Sim will be the brave town hero or cause loads of mischief among their neighbors. Their future is entirely in the player’s hands!”

Sims 3 Ambitions will add many often requested features to the Sims on the iPhone. New large features like careers, babies, and building new structures make this a pretty huge new version.

Yahtzee – iPad – Summer – Everyone’s favorite dice rolling game is coming this summer, and it will surely be prettier than the thing that you have to unpack out of the box.

Risk – iPhone, iPod Touch – Summer – I’m not sure what took EA so long to come out with Risk, but this announcement will surely make many people happy. I liked Lux DLX alright, and think that Strategery is a great Risk alternative, but there’s nothing like the real thing. As long as EA gets the AI right, this one will be a winner.

R-Type – iPhone, iPod Touch – Summer – Just like you remembered it, R-Type is keeping “100 percent true to the original game allowing fans to get back to the ‘80s video-arcade experience in the palm of their hands.” As I wrote in an earlier preview article, the original R-Type is “the most frustratingly difficult game outside of playing a Don Bluth game in the arcade”. There is a distinct possibility that my iPhone will end up thrown across the room.

Be sure to check after the jump for some more great screenshots.

EA put a bunch of their apps on sale at $0.99 yesterday. That sale seems to have paid off. It has rocketed a bunch of their games up the chart, giving them 9 of the top 10 places in the all paid apps chart. But what makes it more important for them is that they have 7 of the top 10 spots in the Top Grossing chart.

This sale by EA could have made some major financial implications for them. It comes at a good time, many of their games are yearly franchises and they could soon be replaced by newer versions. But $0.99 for many of these games is a steal.

Click Here for the full list of EA sale games.

We’re expecting to get more details on the game next week, but for now, EA have released a few screen shots from their upcoming NCAA Football game for the iPhone. Looks a lot like Madden for the iPhone, so we hope it’s as good. We’ll let you know when we get more info on release date and features.

Steve Robert, producer of Electronic Art’s Skate It, released May 10, 2010, is a former pro-skater who helmed the development and creation of the game’s port to the iPhone. I sat down for a phone interview with Steve and spoke at length about the game and its subsequent port from the Nintendo DS to the iPhone. Steve provided us with much insight on the game’s development and how it came to fruition on the iPhone.

Steve Robert (EA) – Well, I grew up in Huntington Beach, CA, which is a coastal town in Southern, CA and, probably as early as 6th grade I got immersed in the culture of skateboarding. It was a very popular hobby in my neighborhood and I had a bunch of good friends who were all into skateboarding. We kept pushing each other to learn and get better and then it sort of evolved as some of my friends, like Jason Lee, who’s a good friend of mine, went on to become a famous actor, was the first of us to go on and get sponsored and turn pro. I skated with him all the time and he got me sponsored by the same company he was. From then on, I started entering amateur contests and then we shot a video in 1989 called Rubbish Heap and everything just unfolded from there. I was attracted to the culture and it was fun learning tricks and being competitive with my friends and progressing in the sport.

Jason (148apps) – It’s easy to hit a plateau if you don’t have people around you who you can learn from.

Steve Robert (EA) – Yeah, absolutely. I think being surrounded by people like Jason Lee, Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzalez and the older, big pros, they all came from Huntington Beach and we would all gather at night at Huntington Beach High School or these schools you see in all the videos, while others were out partying, we would be spending our nights skating at the schools together and you just kind of get obsessed with it. It was everything I did until I graduated high school, it’s all I really cared about. Skating was just kind of a sub-culture because it wasn’t as mainstream back then, as it is now.

Jason (148apps) – How did you come to get involved in developing Skate It?

Steve Robert (EA) – Well, I’ve been working in video games since 1997. I slowly got out of skateboarding and went to college. When I graduated from college, I got my first job at Interplay in 1997. I found it interesting because the culture was very similar to skating in many ways. It’s obviously less physically active, but the people were the same.

Hit the jump for more with Skate It Producer Steve Robert.
Continue reading 4Q Interview: Skate It Producer Steve Robert »

The big game publishers such as Electronic Arts and Gameloft have a reputation, deserved or not, of rarely updating their titles. EA’s Madden NFL 10 definitely doesn’t fall into this category, as it just received its fourth update since being released in September. As far as updates go, this is a good one, and it has a particularly timely addition. You’ll see what I mean…

First off, a Hard mode been added for those who’ve mastered the game. The difficulty can be toggled between Normal or Hard via the Options screen.

Another addition is the ability to save a multi-player game. If you’re bluetooth session with a friend gets interrupted, you can save and resume at a later point.

The final addition is the ability to download a special Playoff Mode, FREE of charge. This mode features the 12 teams that are currently battling it out in the 2009 NFL playoffs, and can be installed via the in-game Madden Store. You can select one of the 12 teams, and then play your way through the playoffs from the official Wild Card match-ups to the Super-Bowl.

Playoff Mode also conveniently gives you the ability to simulate up to a selected week of the playoffs. We decided to put Madden 10 to the test, Jimmy the Greek style, by simulating this weekend’s games. The screenshot below shows the predicted winners…

So, what do you think? Will Philip Rivers get out-dueled by the inexperienced Mark Sanchez? Will the Ravens defense come up short against the well-rested Colts? Will Brett Favre deny the Cowboys their first road playoff win since 1993? And will Kurt Warner stave off retirement for one more week? Or is Madden 10 just full of you-know-what…

FREE!

MADDEN NFL 10 by EA SPORTS

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-09-09 :: Category: Games :: Sports

As we round the bend and head to lucky day 13 of our countdown to Christmas, we have updates on the deals today. The Appvent Calendar free game is a huge one, iBlast Moki. Will looked at it back in September and gave it 5/5!

iBlast Moki for FREE

iBlast Moki is a fantastic puzzle game where you use physics based devices to blast, lift, and squeeze the on screen characters to their goal. It’s a load of fun made even better with Plus+ integration.

At little quote from our review of iBlast Moki:

iBlast Moki contains a nice clean 2D aesthetic that can best be described as more vibrant Rolando 1. The backgrounds are psychedelic, the Mokis cute, and the graphical style overall lends charm to the game. The music is ridiculously catchy albeit a tad repetitive, and the sound effects are good.

iBlast Moki is the best physics game for the iPhone, and at $1.99, it would be criminal to pass up one the best games of the year.

And it was a great deal at $1.99 — now it’s free. But just for one day, grab it quickly!

$2.99

iBlast Moki

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-09-17 :: Category: Games

Snood for $0.99

Will also reviewed Snood from Electronic Arts. And unfortunately the review wasn’t nearly as good:

Rather than “addictive, stylish, and fun,” the normal words that pop into my head when thinking of Snood, the words I think of when considering EA’s abysmal port of the classic game are “baffling, inexplicable, and aggravating.” EA has simply made so many bad decisions in the making of this port that make you wonder if they ever even played their own game.

But for $0.99, if you like the original desktop game, it’s an easy buy to make up your own mind on this one.

$0.99

SNOOD

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-08-17 :: Category: Games

EA is looking to release three classic board games in time for the holiday season: Battleship, Connect 4, Monopoly Classic.

Battleship

EA will bring a few twists to the classic game of skillful coordinate guessing. You’ll use touchscreen controls to battle your enemies in three different modes – classic, salvo, and super weapons. Not wanting to miss out on the social aspect of the game, EA has included local multiplayer (both bluetooth and Wifi).

Connect 4

While EA couldn’t quite recreate the joy of pulling the lever at the bottom of the board and watching all of the pieces crash to the ground, Connect 4 will nonetheless be a faithful recreation of the timeless game. Connect 4 will contain single player and multiplayer (local Wifi, bluetooth, and one device sharing). Single player includes classic, challenge, and advanced modes with Powerchips, Max Score, and PopOut. In addition, EA has included 25 unlockable achievements and some fancy visual effects.

Monopoly Classic

While EA has already released Monopoly: Here & Now onto the App Store, they will provide a more traditional experience with Monopoly Classic. Because the cutthroat intensity of property management doesn’t quite transfer over to single player mode, you’ll be able to play your friends on the go with local Wifi, bluetooth, and single device “pass and play” multiplayer. EA is also including some nice iPhone features such as progressive save, an accelerometer shake to role the dice, and the ability access your iPod library in-game.

Check the jump for more screenshots.

Continue reading Upcoming EA Games: Battleship, Connect 4, and Monopoly Classic »

Today we got some updates from EA on two highly anticipated franchise games coming to the iPhone. What we still don’t know yet are release dates for either. Though I think it’s safe to say they are trying to get them out in the next couple months in time for Christmas.

Need for Speed: Shift

The latest in this racing franchise from EA is Need for Speed: Shift. This iPhone translation looks like it will be a scaled down translation of the console game. While that’s a little disappointing, the previous in this franchise, Need For Speed Undercover [ our review ] was an absolutely excellent game on the iPhone.

Take a look at these screen shots for a look at the game. Note that I’m fairly sure that these are just mock-ups. They don’t look nearly as crisp as you’d expect for actual screen shots and there are other noticeable inconsistencies.

Unfortunately the specs read a lot like the previous version. 20 different customizable and upgradable cars (NFSU had 20 as well), 3 different racing environments, Tokyo, Chicago, and London (NFSU also had 3), 28 different events (NFSU had 20).

So, what is different?

The main thing is that there will finally be multiplayer. Unfortunately there’s no Internet multiplayer, only Wifi and Bluetooth. In addition I’m sure we’ll see the graphics quality upgraded a little. The previous one was very good for the time, but we expect more now. Take a look at the supplied stats below for more.

RIP IT UP AROUND THE WORLD
Rage on the roads of Chicago, London, and Tokyo in up to 28 Street and Pro racing events.

MATCH YOUR SKILLS AGAINST FRIENDS
Challenge friends to head to head races via Bluetooth multiplayer or WiFi.

MUSCLE OVER PERFORMANCE?
Get behind the wheels of 20 of the fastest, hottest, most powerful cars in the world and blow the doors off your competitors.

UPGRADE AND CUSTOMIZE
Take your ride to another level with Top Speed, Handling, Acceleration, and Nitrous upgrade features.

RACE FOR REWARDS
Earn points and trophies on the circuit for your Aggressiveness and Precision. Be a full-throttle Need For Speed superstar.

NBA Live

Considering the huge number of games in the App Store, over 15,000 at last count, there has yet to be a full 3D basketball game. NBA Live will change that. While we haven’t seen it yet, we’re hoping that it has the depth and great gameplay of EA’s last sports game for the iPhone, Madden 10. Take a look below for the stats, it’s looking good, though multiplayer is noticeably missing from the list.

NOTHING BUT NET. NBA LIVE by EA SPORTSTM delivers the most realistic 5-on-5 action available for iPhone® and iPod touch®!

Tip-off anytime, anywhere, and watch your game come to life in vivid 3D. Even replay your most awesome plays. It’s fun and intuitive enough for the casual gamer, but also delivers the authenticity to meet the demands of the most hardcore basketball fans.

AUTHENTIC TEAMS, REAL STARS, TRUE LEGENDS
With real NBA rosters, you can dominate the game as Dwight Howard and other NBA All-Stars. Or unlock legends and elevate your game with true Hall-of-Famers.

MULTIPLE MODES FOR EVERY KIND OF NBA ACTION
Match up all 30 NBA teams in the new 82-game Season Mode. Play a casual game in Exhibition Mode, or battle all the way to the Finals in the ultra-intense Playoff Mode.

PLAY WITH TOUCHSCREEN CONTROL
Control the game with a virtual analog stick. Use the accelerometer to accurately shoot free-throws. Touch the clip board to pick from a number of offensive plays or to select your defensive strategy.

TAKE IT TO THE RACK WITH A SOLID SOUNDTRACK
Stay in the zone with 15 music tracks from artists like Matt and Kim, Snoop Dogg and Xzibit.

COMMENTARY FROM A BROADCAST LEGEND
Hear legendary announcer Marv Albert accent the action as you rain 3s from downtown.