Shortly after their acquisition of Playfish, Electronic Arts is set to streamline operations, sacking 1,500 employees from different levels, and canning 12 unannounced projects. Speaking in an investor conference call, chief financial officer John Brown gave out the details.

The Burnout Team is doing Speed. Need for Speed, that is. Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello clarified that the NFS and Burnout franchise will NOT be merging into one, although the Burnout Team, frontlined by Alex Ward of Criterion Games, will be taking care of the next NFS iteration.

Games and movies, will they ever be seen under the same light? For the new Dragonball: Evolution game for the PSP, at least, maybe not. Then again, that's a different matter altogether... Enter EA CEO John Riccitiello talking about video games as an art form - he thinks that within five years, the game industry may prove every one wrong, that games do have the potential to be considered just as impressive as movies and books.

John Riccitiello may be Electronic Arts' "Mr. New IP", but that doesn't mean the publishing giant will do away with sequels and franchises. In fact, the EA CEO is still gung-ho about maxing out their new IPs' financial potential.

EA Games put into effect a cost reduction plan which includes a reduction of its work force of about 6 percent, which is approximately 600 employees. The reason behind the cut: growing losses and weakening retail. Hard to believe? Read more on full article.

The stint between Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive is the stuff of anticlimactic legends in video gaming. Now that the short-lived love affair's over, EA explains that their attempt to acquire T2 was only an attempt to help them out with holiday sales of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Madden NFL 09 (Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, DS, PC, PS3, PS2) has dominated the NPD US charts for August. On the hardware side, the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3, but Nintendo's DS-Wii combo is still lording it over the hardware charts.

What to do when your event is drawing flak and your circle of supporters are leaving one by one? Try a different strategy, for one. And this is what ESA seems to be doing for next year's E3. Talks of them "going public" are circulating the Internet's grapevines. But how probable is this move?

After the Federal Trade Commission gave its blessing to continue merger negotiations, Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive have finally begun its closed door meeting regarding the deal. However, it seems that both parties will be rather tight-lipped regarding the details of the meeting. You can read a statement released by EA regarding their "secret negotiations" in our full article.

The Need for Speed ProStreet gig didn't work out for Electronic Arts and internal studio Black Box, but the superstar publisher decided they could still make a turnaround for the franchise again, starting with Need for Speed Undercover. Perhaps guided by the popularity of night and illegal street racing movies, Need for Speed Undercover's design resettled for the open sandbox design of Most Wanted with a different story. A story, they say, that will include Mission Impossible 3's Maggie Q.