Due to unfavorable business circumstances, Stormfront Studios was forced to shut down, leaving its 33 employees wandering about looking for new work. It's always sad to hear news like this, especially when the studio already worked on notable franchises such as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Eragon (Xbox 360, PSP, PC) and other games. More in the full article.

Nothing beats that thirst while driving the mean streets of Burnout Paradise (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) than downing a can of ice cold Coca-Cola. Expect to see similar advertisements such as this in the near future as Massive, Inc. and Electronic Arts have recently announced that they will be extending their agreement to offer dynamic in-game ads for several EA titles on the PC and the Xbox 360. More details about this in our full article.

EA greatness coming your way! Electronic Arts has released its line-up of games down at E3 in Barker Hangar and Le Merigot Hotel.

Here's a shortlist of the games it's showcasing in E3: Madden NFL 08, NBA LIVE 08, NASCAR 08 and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08, Burnout Paradise, SimCity Societies, The Orange Box, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Crysis and Hellgate: London, The Simpsons on three platforms, Army of Two, Boogie, MySims, The Sims 2 Castaway, Medal of Honor Airborne, Need for Speed ProStreet, EA Playground, Skate, and Rock Band.

Says EA Games Label President: "In the next six months, EA will launch the most exciting line up of games in our 25 year history. We’re publishing brand new games ... delivering innovations in blockbuster franchises..." Some of these games will be available for demos for those who are lucky enough to attend E3.

For a quick lowdown of EA's wicked line-up, click on the full article.

Electronic Arts (EA) is one of the biggest game developing/publishing companies in the world. The company has recently announced that it will be reorganizing its business under four labels, mainly:  EA Sports, EA Games, EA Casual Entertainment and The Sims.

According to the recent press release, this is to "streamline decision-making, improve global focus, and speed new ideas to the market." However, these teams are not stand alone entities, they will be receiving support from two new groups: Central Development Services and Global Publishing.

These auxiliaries will be led by Executive Vice President John Schappert. In addition to this, all four labels will be served by centralized teams to handle Finance, IT, Legal and Human Resources. Now while this may interest some industry members, what most gamers would probably be wondering about is under what label would their games fall on.

To answer that here's a short background on each label, their respective heads along with what upcoming games will be classified and handled by it.

• The Sims - Led by Label President Nancy Smith. This team created the model on which the new organization is built. Upcoming releases include: MySims for the Wii and Nintendo DS, SimCity Societies, and The Sims Castaway Stories and many more.
• EA Games - Led by Label President Frank Gibeau. This label includes Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, SPORE, Battlefield, Burnout, Command & Conquer, The Simpsons and more. EA Games will also be home to the EA Partners publishing business.
• EA Casual Entertainment - Led by Label President Kathy Vrabeck. This team will focus on lighter, more accessible games for families and new consumers. The portfolio will include EA franchises and games such as Harry Potter, Boogie and others. This group will also be home to EA Mobile and EA's casual suite of online games, Pogo.com.
• EA SPORTS - This team is responsible for many of the company's flagship franchises including Madden NFL, NBA Live, FIFA Soccer, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, NHL Hockey and NASCAR. EA Executive Vice President Joel Linzner will oversee this group until a president of EA Sports is announced.

EA Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello also gave a few words on how these changes should benefit both the company and gamers in general:

This transition will be implemented over the course of the coming months. EA is privileged to have a deep bench of proven talent and our new structure encourages people to bring great ideas into the market more quickly. There will be more games and services for core consumers and new gamers and better focus on operational efficiency.

That said, does this drive for smaller divisions mean a more service-oriented approach by the company? While we can't say for certain, it looks like the company is headed in that direction. Be sure to keep checking back here for the latest gaming industry news.

Originally created in Electronic Arts' California studios, the latest title in the Tiger Woods franchise was moved down south to the Electronic Arts Tiburon studios in Orlando, Florida. Because the studio already sports an impressive list of sports titles in its dev portfolio, EA Tiburon seems to be the significant sports title development studio for Electronic Arts.

With titles such as Madden NFL Football, NASCAR and NCAA Football under its belt, EA Tiburon is confident they could also improve on the golf title to make it even greater. Steve Chiang, general manager at EA Tiburon and Top 7 of 2006's hottest 100 devs, said, "We are working our tails off to bring quality games. We are here because we love games."

It looks like the next title for the franchise could be gearing up for a total next-gen makeover, since the move now delegated the title to a single studio instead of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07's split-studio development scheme. The news report from St. Petersburg Times also said that the next-gen Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 would be released by summer with user content functionality, such as:

• Gamers would be able to share screenshots and characters with friends and family
  
• Gamers can create social networks with fellow gamers
• Gamers can play as themselves by creating their animated image from a photo
• Gamers can play with people from across the world, but not in real time