Always quick with a comment, Michael Pachter has weighed in on the rumor about Microsoft buying Electronic Arts. As far as the Wedbush Morgan analyst is concerned, the rumor doesn't make any sense at all.

First, a disclaimer: this is just a rumor, so get your saltshakers ready. All set? Okay. Rumor has it that Microsoft is gunning for a takeover of video game publishing giant Electronic Arts.

So why is it, pray tell, that most of the games we see today are either sequels or spin-offs? You've got Gears of War 2, BioShock 2, Resident Evil 5, Patapon 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, God of War III, Fable 2... the list goes on. Yes, from time to time new IPs pop into the picture, but they're few and far between, unfortunately. Maybe an article at Reuters can shed light on this "sequel spammage" scenario, as well as reveal some of the measures that they take to make their sequels more approachable to the general market.

Electronic Arts has announced that it will not buy Take-Two just yet. The company has made an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that it will wait until the FTC finishes its probe into the takeover proposal. More in the full article.

A lot of talk has been going around regarding the currently pending Activision-Vivendi deal and EA's US$ 2 billion offer for Take-Two Interactive. While it may seem that mergers and acquisitions are the current trend, THQ's Chief Executive Brian Farrell feels that it isn't a necessity for company growth. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

According to the latest report from Reuters, Nintendo Company Ltd. has just surpassed the 10 trillion Yen mark in market value. That means that the total shares of the company is pegged at around US$ 85.08 billion.

The only other companies which have achieved the same are Toyota Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Furthermore, it was reported that Nintendo's shares have risen more than fivefold in two years primarily due to the soaring-high sales of the shiny white Wii console.

Nintendo's handheld platform, the DS Lite, also contributed significantly to the recent success enjoyed by the Kyoto-based video game company. Upcoming title Wii Fit also helped a lot, Reuters added. After announcing that it will be released in Japan on December 1, Nintendo shares also got a further boost.

Thanks to a surge in DS and Wii earnings, Nintendo has pulled ahead of three other Japanese companies to become Japan's fifth-biggest company in terms of market value.

According to Reuters, Nintendo's market value now stands at 8.69 trillion yen (US$72 billion). The Kyoto-based company's stock climbed a total of 11.6 percent after the company's earnings announcement. This put them on top of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, telecoms giant NTT,  and Honda Motor Co. in the list of Japan's biggest companies.

Nintendo has raised its operating profit forecast to 370 billion yen (US$ 3.1 billion) for the year until March 2008. The company has also lifted its annual dividend forecast to 960 yen (US$ 8). Earlier estimates have put it at 700 yen (US$ 5.9).

 

The reason why Electronic Arts will miss its estimated profits for this fiscal year? Well other than the wider quarterly loss, it's because an anticipated game won't be coming out, at least not until this current fiscal year ends by March 2008. The anticipated game that is delayed? Spore.

A Reuters report notes that EA has said that it was no longer counting on revenue from Spore for this fiscal year. What's worse is that EA adds that the game could be delayed until fiscal 2009.

A lot of hopeful folks are now screaming "NOOOO..." A lot of the more cynical ones are making jokes about the game being bundled with Duke Nukem Forever.

So sad, this is.

Thanks to the sales performance of the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, the Japanese company recently announced that they are raising their financial forecast across the board for the fiscal year ended March 31. From the original financial forecast of 900 billion yen, they are bumping that up to 966 billion yen (or US$ 8.1 billion).

Specifically, the reason for this according to a press release, is the "robust trends in sales of the Nintendo DS' software and hardware". If you could recall, the handheld raked in 485,000 sold units during February, according to NPD's data. On the other hand, amidst the stock problems for the Nintendo Wii, the console managed to rack up a 335,000 sales figure last February.

According to Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa who spoke with Reuters, "merchandise does not move in the January-March quarter--that is the norm in this industry...But ours somehow did". That's enough reason for Ninty to raise financial forecasts, right?

There's a new article up on Reuters that asks whether games can augment learning in schools, and while the answer might seem like an obvious "Yes!" to gamers, there seems to be a lot more at stake here than just saying yes and moving on.

For one thing, there's the stigma behind video games coming from multiple sides. On the one hand, the stigma against video games says that "kids can't learn from games." Convincing people that video games can have educational value is one thing educators have to consider when trying to push this to school boards.

On the other hand, if a game made for educational purposes doesn't carry the same sense of gravitas towards certain types of kids, then point of making video games for educational purposes grows moot, as kids get bored with the games given to them in school compared to the ones they have at home.

That's one of the problems with educational entertainment. It has to be educational while playing to an audience, and if it cannot do so, then it's either the game isn't a game, or the educational value is missing from it. That's the problem facing the idea of games as educators nowadays, and we certainly hope they can sustain enough momentum to make it work.

How about you? Would you apply yourself more in school if games were made available for educational purposes in school? Would a homebrew-creation class suit your needs? What types of games do you think would make you want to apply yourself in school? In short, if you're a student, what compromises would you be willing to see in games to make educational games a reality for schools?