Music has been a focal point of many of EA's titles for years, and now the publishing giant has gone a step further by forming its own music label. In a joint venture with Nettwerk One Music, the new LA-based Artwerk record label will sign both new and established artists, the first of which will be Junkie XL, who worked on music for Madden, SSX Blur and Need for Speed Carbon games. EA will use its games as a worldwide marketing tool to promote its artists. "For the past five years, EA has ...
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Electronic Arts would be wise to buy 2K Sports, or so says industry analyst Michael Pachter for Wedbush Morgan Securities. The suggestion came amid the move from Wedbush downgrading Take-Two Interactive's stock from "hold" to "sell" Friday. Take-Two Interactive owns 2K Sports as a subsiderary.

"It is clear to us that Take-Two's sports business would have tremendous value to EA, as it would give EA a monopoly on football, basketball, baseball, and hockey," Pachter said. His analysis concluded that EA might purchase 2K Sports for as much as $200 million dollars, but he noted, "It is arguable that EA would benefit by as much as $1 billion if it were to obtain an exclusive; this does not mean that it is willing to pay $1 billion."
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Here is the list of the latest review scores from Famitsu.

The complete list:

Motorstorm (PS3, Sony): 8 / 8 / 8 / 6 - (30/40)
Sonic The Hedgehog (PS3, Sega): 8 / 7 / 7 / 7 - (29/40)
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xbox 360, Capcom): 9 / 9 / 9 / 9 - (36/40)
Sonic The Hedgehog (Xbox 360, Sega): 8 / 7 / 7 / 8 - (30/40)
Seiken Densetsu 4 (PS2, Square Enix): 7 / 8 / 8 / 7 - (30/40)
Madden NFL 07 (PS2, EA): 7 / 8 / 7 / 5 - (27/40)
Monster 4X4: World Circuit (Wii, Ubisoft): 7 / 6 / 7 / 8 - (28/40)
A Ressha de Ikou HX (Xbox 360, Artdink): 7 / 6 / 7 / 7 - (27/40)
Metal Gear Portable Ops (PSP, Konami): 9 / 10 / 9 / 9 - (37/40)
Tales of The World: Radiant Mythology (PSP, Bandai Namco): 8 / 7 / 8 / 7 - (30/40)
Nounai Aesthe: IQ Suppli DS (NDS, Spike): 7 / 7 / 6 / 6 - (26/40)
Heisei Kyouiku Iinkai DS (NDS, Bandai Namco): 6 / 9 / 7 / 6 - (28/40)
Need for Speed Carbon (PS2, EA): 8 / 8 / 7 / 7 - (30/40)
Need for Speed Carbon (PS3/Xbox 360, EA): 9 / 9 / 8 / 8 - (34/40)
Need for Speed Carbon (Wii, EA): 8 / 7 / 6 / 7 - (28/40)
Need for Speed Carbon (PSP, EA): 8 / 8 / 7 / 8 - (31/40)
School Love! (PS2, Views): 6 / 6 / 6 / 6 - (24/40)
Intelligent License 2 (PSP, Now Production): 7 / 9 / 7 / 8 - (31/40)
NBA Live 07 (PSP, EA): 7 / 8 / 7 / 7 - (29/40)
Hamster to Kurasou (NDS, Interchannel): 6 / 6 / 5 / 5 - (22/40)
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The NPD Group has released sales data for November 2006, and while the PlayStation 3 wasn't able to crack the overall top 20, it appears Resistance: Fall of Man had a high attach rate.

Resistance sold twice as much as the next best-selling title, Madden NFL 07. The ever-popular WWII setting allowed Call of Duty 3 to round out the top three.

Here are the top ten best-selling PlayStation 3 games for November 2006, as provided by the NPD Group:

1. Resistance: Fall of Man

2. Madden NFL 07

3. Call of Duty 3

4. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

5. Ridge Racer 7

6. Need for Speed: Carbon

7. Tony Hawk's Project 8

8. NBA 2K7

9. NBA 07

10. Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
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its quarterly financial statement call, GameStop revealed some surprising attach rate numbers for the PS3 and Wii. Sony's latest console saw a low attach rate of 1.5 games per console sold, with Madden NFL 07 and Resistance: Fall of Man the best-selling titles. Wii saw a "surprisingly good" attach rate of 3.0 games per system sold. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Red Steel were the top sellers at GameStop and EB Games.

GameStop executives believe the low attach rate for PS3 is do to the "large percentage of PS3s resold at a huge premium." It is believed that once the PS3 is in the hands of "real gamers," PS3 titles should see a growth in attach rate.
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The PS3 could launch with 24 titles and Wii with 30 titles according to new documents detailing the two companies' plans.

PlayStation 3
Resistance: Fall of Man - Sony
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom - Sony
Genji: Days of the Blade - Sony
Gran Turismo HD - Sony
NBA 07 - Sony
Call of Duty 3 - Activision (600,000)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - Activision (300,000)
Tony Hawk's Project 8 - Activision (300,000)
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Bethesda Softworks
Fight Night 3 - Electronic Arts (400,000)
Madden NFL 07 - Electronic Arts (700,000)
NBA Live 07 - Electronic Arts (500,000)
Need for Speed Carbon - Electronic Arts (800,000)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 - Electronic Arts (400,000)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight - Namco Bandai
Ninja Gaiden Sigma - Namco Bandai
Ridge Racer 7 - Namco Bandai
Full Auto 2: Battlelines - Sega
Sonic the Hedgehog - Sega
NBA 2K7 - Take-Two Interactive (400,000)
NHL 2K7 - Take-Two Interactive (200,000)
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII - Ubisoft
Rainbow Six: Vegas - Ubisoft
F.E.A.R. - Vivendi

NINTENDO Wii
Wii Sports (bundled with hardware) - Nintendo
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo
Excite Truck - Nintendo
Call of Duty 3 - Activision (200,000)
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - Activision (200,000)
Rapala Tournament Fishing ¿ Activision (50,000)
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam - Activision (300,000)
World Series of Poker - Activision (50,000)
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 - Atari (200,000)
Trauma Center: Second Opinion - Atlus
Madden NFL 07 - Electronic Arts (500,000)
Need for Speed: Carbon - Electronic Arts (500,000)
Elebits - Konami
The Ant Bully - Midway m (100,000)
The Grim Adventure...
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German game site www.gameguide.nl posted today the ultimate list of 160 game tittles in production for the ps3.
Within the 160 tittles ,95 of them will be ps3 exclusive .

(TBA = To Be Announced )

List of ps3 games in development:

2K Games/Take-Two/Rockstar
- College Hoops 2K7 ~Visual Concepts, TBA~
- The Darkness ~Starbreeze, 2007~
- Grand Theft Auto 4 ~Rockstar North, Q4 2007~
- NHL 2K7 ~Visual Concepts, TBA~
- NBA 2K7 ~Visual Concepts, TBA~
- Red Dead Revolver 2 ~Rockstar North, TBA~

Activision
- Call of Duty 3 ~Infinity Ward, Launch~
- Marvel: Ultimate Alliance ~Raven, Launch~
- Spider-Man 3 ~Treyarch, Q2 2007~
- Tony Hawk's Project 8 ~Neversoft, Launch~

Atari
- Alone in the Dark 5 ~Eden Studios, TBA~

Atlus
- Shin Megami Tensei 4 ~Atlus R&D1, TBA~

Beuna Vista
- Turok ~Propaganda, TBA~

Capcom
- Devil May Cry 4 ~Capcom Studio 1, Q4 2007~
- Monster Hunter 3 ~Capcom Studio 1, 2008~
- Resident Evil 5 ~Capcom Studio 4, Q4 2007~
~
- Untitled ~Action~ ~TBD, TBA~

Codemasters
- DIRT: Colin McRae Off-Road ~In-house, 2007~

D3 Publisher
- Dark Sector ~Digital Extremes, TBA~

Eidos
- Untitled ~Action~ ~TBD, TBA~

Electronic Arts
- Army of Two ~EA Montreal, TBA~
- Battlefield: Bad Company ~DICE, 2007~
- Def Jam 3 ~EA Chicago, 2007~
- Fight Night Round 3 ~EA Chicago, Q4 2006~
- Half Life 2: Complete Pack ~Valve/EA, Q1 2007~
- Lord of the Rings: The White Council ~EA Redwood Shores, Q4 2007~
- Madden NFL 07 ~Tiburon, Q4 2006~
- Medal of Honor: Airborne ~EALA, 2007~
- NBA Live 07 ~EA Canada, Q4 2006~
- NBA Street Vol. 4 ~EA Canada, 2007~
- Need for Speed: Carbon ~EA Black Box, Q4 2006~
- Skate ~EA Black Box, 2007~
- Tiger Woo...
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The high-profile court case against EA Sport's "monopoly" in the NFL market took an interesting turn this week, with an economist brought in to show how much the demise of 2K's competing NFL franchise has cost sports gamers.

Despite admitting his report is based on incomplete data, University of Michigan economics professor Dr. Jeffrey Mackie-Mason has told the the U.S. District Court in San Francisco that EA's domination of the NFL video games market has cost gamers between $701 million and $926 million since 2K's NFL2K series was blocked from competing with EA.
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EA had previously requested that Judge Vaughn Walker dismiss claims by Geoffrey Pecover and Jeffrey Lawrence. The two Madden buyers, serving as named plaintiffs in the class-action suit, alleged that by eliminating competition for NFL-licensed games EA had acted in a monopolistic fashion and unjustly enriched itself at the expense of consumers. On Friday Judge Walker issued a ruling denying EA's motion. The Judge did, however, rule that only claims in California and Washington, D.C. would go forward since that is where the two named plaintiffs in the case reside.
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His days of calling NFL games on T.V. may be over, but John Madden's retirement might not be as idyllic as he had hoped.

According to a report on former Oakland Raiders lineman Dave Pear's Blog, NFL retirees are planning to go after Madden and Electronic Arts, publisher of the best-selling pro football game which bears the former coach's name.
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