Electronic Arts hasn't always been viewed as a publisher that puts out the greatest licensed games. Its CEO, however, took exception to that. John Riccitiello says their titles are innovative and Metacritic may just be inaccurate in some instances. More after the jump.

It should be remembered that Hasbro and EA have entered into a deal last year that will allow the two to share IPs and transform them into toys and video game titles.

After months of guessing, the two companies have finally announced their first few projects. To know the complete details, click the "read more" link below to proceed to the full article.

Back in August 2007, Electronic Arts and Hasbro signed a deal that  would allow them to share intellectual properties. Because of the deal, IPs from either group could potentially be turned into video game titles or toys, respectively.

After the agreement, we've just learned that Hasbro has acquired board maker Cranium. Given this development, it may not be long before we see Hullabaloo and Zooreka in video game form. More details after the jump!

More details have been unleashed for LucasArts' newest installment on the Star Wars franchise: Force Unleashed. The period where Vader's secret apprentice will make his debut is set between Episodes III and IV, and will feature multiple endings that promises to "rock Star Wars continuity as [we] know it."

 

As promised the Force in the game will be over the top goodness. The developers were very enthusiastic in describing it. As Vader's apprentice you won't merely be pushing enemies into walls but you'll be sending them through it. You won't just be choking your enemies with the force, you'll fry them with lightning and make them go kaboom!

Although we're likely to see a lot of familiar faces, the only one that's confirmed (as per the story's premise) is Vader himself. The story will also take you to the Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk though, so we're likely to see Chewbacca as well. In line with this, Hasbro will also be releasing a line of action figures featuring the characters from the game.

Star Wars: Force Unleashed will be released for the PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, PSP and Nintendo DS by spring next year. And now for another fun edition of cool Unleashed concept art spammage:

  

Check out more art in the full article after the Jump!

Electronic Arts and Hasbro Inc. have announced that they're joining forces in a strategic partnership which will allow the two companies to share intellectual properties for use in the video game and toy business.

"The gaming market has never been more primed for a revolution in how families enjoy games," comments EA Casual President Cathy Vrabeck. "Hasbro is the ideal partner to help propel this change. Their games define fun."

Under the agreement, EA may develop video game versions of Hasbro games such as Monopoly, Scrabble, Yahtzee, Nerf, Tonka and Littlest Pet Shop. In turn, Hasbro can manufacture toys from EA game titles.

"These are games that we all love and remember from our childhoods," adds Vrabeck. "The combination of EA's market leadership in the interactive space and Hasbro's timeless franchises is a perfect partnership for today's market."

The first games from the Hasbro-EA partnership are set to come out in 2008 across handheld, PC, console and mobile platforms. Details on the toys and other merchandise are to be announced soon.

  

Dreamworks and Hasbro are rushing full throttle towards the completion of the anticipated game tie-in of the Transformers movie for the PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, DS and PlayStation Portable. Aptly titled Transformers: The Game, the developers are bannering gameplay mechanics that will re-live the glory days of the immortal cartoon series all the while introducing it to the younger generation using a next-gen mantle.

For starters, players will get to choose whether they want to play as the heroic Autobots or the nefarious Decepticons. Both sides have a wide array of Transformers icons such as Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, Starscream and many more. Switching from vehicle to robot form will be almost seamless in order to adapt to whatever the situation calls for.

Environments, as expected, will be fully destructible to up the sense of sheer, mindless mayhem. For those who would like to play with more of a thinking style, they can pretend to use on-screen objects to their advantage and be very proud.
 

   

Hasbro and Dreamworks also revealed that the PSP version will have 20 playable characters with unique stats, abilities, personalities and more.

 

Atari and Infogrames big boss Bruno Bonnell has left all of his position within the company he built. Yesterday's Infogrames board meeting netted the promotion of Patrick Leleu as the new chairman and CEO.

Bruno Bonnell (together with Christophe Sapet and Thomas Schmider) founded Infogrames in 1983, after which it acquired GT Interactive and Hasbro Interactive - along with Atari and Game.com. With Bonnell leaving Infogrames, he also leaves his two positions in Atari: chairman and chief creative officer.

Infogrames had been implementing a "global debt restructuring plan" that ended in March 2007. Remember when David Pierce stepped up as CEO of Atari last year? Looks like Atari and Infogrames are back on the steady track financially. The revamp was done to stabilize and strengthen the company's finances and "redevelop its business". Bonnell had this to say:

It is with understandable emotions, but also reassured about its future, that I leave Infogrames after 24 years spent to build this group with the support of all its teams. Together, we have been able to show its strength and capacity to innovate, even in the worst situations. Time for business developers has logically come, after the entrepreneurial period. It’s now time for Infogrames to conquer and progress on a market as promising as interactive entertainment business.

The Board seems to have a lot of confidence on the new guy, Patrick Leleu who has been a director in the company since January of this year. He was previously the CEO of Bouygues Telecom and Noos before stepping up into Bruno Bonnell's shoes. Leleu comments, "I want to thank the Board to put its trust in me. I am convinced that Infogrames holds the assets, talents and teams to get back into the industrial competition and recover its  dynamics of growth."

 

There's a new interview about the Transformers game, courtesy of Superhero Hype, and they've got the goods on the games' features, confirming some of the earlier information we had regarding the game and adding some new info on top as well.

For the most part, one of the new bits of information we've heard is that this game will start off with nine playable Transformers, which are probably the staples from the movie. You can unlock a host of other characters through play, and though we've mentioned a maximum of 20 characters previously, there may be more or less depending on what their production team manages to cook up. These characters are all supposed to have their own individual movesets, so don't expect Bumblebee to play like Megatron, because Bumblebee certainly doesn't have the same brawling capabilities of the leader-type bots.

More importantly, they also note additional details  on the questing system set up for Activision and Hasbro's new baby. Daniel Suarez, Activision's executive producer, notes that there'll be two different storylines depending on the type of bot you bring to battle:

If the player decides to be the good guy, then their adventure will focus on the key plot points of the film where they come to Earth and are pitted against the Decepticons.

On the flipside, if the player decides to be evil and picks the Decepticons, the game story is uniquely different and answers the question, "What if the Decepticons win?" All the events in the Decepticons campaign never occur in the film and were created specifically for the game.

All in all, there's no reason to complain. Any game that lets you play a maniacal Decepticon hell-bent on blowing things up and ruling mankind deserves a healthy vote of confidence from gamers. Oh, and there's Megatron too.

 

If you were a kid during the 80s, chances are you've tried yelling ala Optimus Prime "Autobots, transform and roll out!" [insert morphing sound here]. The original cartoon series has such a huge following that modern-day producers have now ventured into making a movie and a game based from the series' mecha lore.

Straight from Seibertron, we now have news of more game details for Transformers: The Game. Them lucky folks from the said site managed to catch a glimpse of the game via Hasbro preview at ToyFair and they've noted some very interesting details. Please do remember that this list was made by Seibertron (told you we got it straight from them) and thus should not be taken as official.

• There will be an Autobot Game and a Decepticon Game for Nintendo DS, supporting 4 way multi-play.
• The PSP will a version of the game (maybe different from all), but with 4 way Multi-Play.
• Wii will get special Wiimote functions, such as throwing things, steering, etc.
• You can play as 9 Autobots and Decepticons. Unplayable characters are going to be boss characters or other important characters.
• There will be unlockable characters and possibly movie characters that don't appear in the movie (like Wreckage).
• There will be G1 references in the game.
• It has a full interactive environment where you can pick things up and throw it at the enemy...including a Burger King sign.
• Burger King and Pepsi references were in the game, so we know they are sponsors.
• As the robot you can punch, shoot, jump, transform at will and drive/fly around when you are in vehicle mode.
• Autotargeting will be available.
• For game play, it reminded me of Grand Theft Auto, where you can run around the city (perspective was similar to GTA). The steering of the vehicle looked well done, where you could oversteer around turns, etc. If you caused too much ruckus the police would come and the pedestrians would go around screaming, especially if you were in Robot Mode (so being in disguise is important). Pedestrian interaction was not completed yet, but we were hoping you could pick up people and thrown them.
  
• Storyline is different based upon if you are an Autobot or a Decepticon, humans are part of the story, but not part of the gameplay. Because of the dual roles the Decepticons can win in this one.

This Activision-published title for the PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, and NDS is set to land/dock/park on retail stores sometime during the third quarter of this year. We just can't wait to see Optimus, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Starscream, Megatron, the Insecticons, the Dinobots...ok, geek mode off.

CrescentMoon from PAlib forums has just released his first homebrew game for the DS. He dubbed it Blackout and it's a version of Lights Out.

Lights Out is an electronic puzzle game originally made by Hasbro. At the start of the game, there are a sequence of lights that are switched on. The goal is to turn all the lights off by pressing one of the lights, which in turn switches four adjacent lights on or off.

The dev says, "I made it for my girlfriend for Christmas after she bought the original version." Awww... How sweet.

At the moment, CrescentMoon hasn't provided the version for those using the SuperCard. Maybe if we pray hard enough (or comment, at least), he'd post the upload to that one. So, pray hard.

Download: [Blackout]