New screenshots of Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, PC) have exploded for everyone to see. The video game's release has been pushed back to 2008, but the screens at the full article might help ease the pain of waiting. Check them out.

In a recent interview with GameTap, Peter Moore stated his intentions to take Electronic Arts from an "American" brand to a global one. Although EA continues to be popular within the US and without, Moore feels that it doesn't "feel local" to the European and Asian market.

Moore, President of EA, also mentioned last week how EA Sports is looking at cricket as a sport, perhaps as a hint of more things to come to make the brand more global, or depending on your point of view, local to your country. As Moore explains:

I talked a lot [...] about cricket, tennis, mixed martial arts, open-wheel racing [...] all of which can make a difference in the way people perceive us. [...] We don't have that depth and penetration into the psyche of the European sports consumer. We need to change that, and we need to change that quickly.

The goal is to let consumers outside of the US to relate more to the games they play and not just feel like a "brand that has been exported." (Well, when in Rome, people say poh-tah-toh. Or is it the other way around?) At any rate, EA's recent acquisition of Bioware and Pandemic Studios should help broaden their horizons.

Check out the Read link for the full interview.

Although most analysts believe that Electronic Arts did the smart thing in acquiring Bioware and Pandemic Studios, it's not surprising that some groups have questioned whether the price (to the tune of US$ 860 million) was too much. Case in point: Arvind Bhatia of Sterne, Agee & Leach.

Bhatia agrees that the acquisition was a smart move and his only concern was the price, which others have also found to be steep. While other analysts like Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan believes that EA will benefit in the long term, Bhatia agrees with UBS's Ben Schachter: we'll just have to wait and see.

We really like EA's acquisition of BioWare/Pandemic, but the price paid on [the] surface seems high to us; more than $1 million per developer. That being said, if EA can generate mid-teens ROI or higher (as per its plan), the acquisition should be nicely accretive and worth the price. We may have to wait a few years to find out, though.

So analysts as a whole agree that Electronic Arts did the right move in acquiring Bioware and Pandemic Studios; the only difference is the degree of uncertainty over the price involved. However, EA's stocks have risen significantly recently and everyone agrees it's only a matter of time before we see if the deal will pay off; it doesn't look like the company is in any immediate danger as of yet.

Electronic Arts' decision to purchase Bioware and Pandemic Studios seems to be getting some good reception as its stock reached its highest point in a year. There's been some question on the merits of the acquisition and not everyone was happy about it so the rise of the stock value speaks volumes.

EA's stock rose 2.50 points at US$ 61.22 per share today, a satisfactory nod to their acquisition of the two studios that cost the US$ 860 million. Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan believes that EA's decision "will pay off, but there is some risk. In order to succeed, they will have to continue to generate great games. There's nothing to suggest that they won't."

Pandemic Studios and BioWare are currently on the hotseat after Electronic Arts' shocking acquisition of both development studios, and we're fortunate enough that they're giving answers to fans who aren't very happy. In an interview, Pandemic made it pretty clear that the partnership with EA won't hinder the developers from being creative.

According to Pandemic chief production officer Greg Borrud, nothing is changing in how Pandemic develops games or what games they choose to develop. He also adds that the acquisition will not break the company's "core pillars of building big brands", regular game events, or their ability to attract the best talent in the industry.

Co-founder and president Josh Resnick continued, saying that EA probably wanted to buy them because of Pandemic's "ability to be creative... and to really stretch our limits and innovative, and to really focus on creating blockbuster original IPs." He stressed out that new and original IPs will be coming without restrictions from EA.

What Pandemic can learn from the partnership, as Resnick sees it, is how to have a powerful marketing organization and make franchises go forward by spinning out many games. Pandemic CEO Andrew Goldman and Borrud agree that passing technology around is another positive draw to the US$ 860 million deal with a publishing giant like EA.

Aside from having access to support from Electronic Arts, Pandemic big wigs say nothing much will be changed in the development pipeline. Hopefully, we won't be seeing annual Destroy All Humans! titles or titles like Mercenaries 09 any time soon.

Electronic Arts has just sent out a news feeler stating that it has acquired VG Holding Corp, the parent company for BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. You guys may remember BioWare for their upcoming Xbox 360 title, Mass Effect, while you'll most probably remember Pandemic for their ingoing work on Mercenaries 2: World in Flames for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. EA CEO John Riccitiello had this to say regarding the acquisition of both studios:

These are two of the most respected studios in the industry and I’m glad to be working with them again. They’ll make a strong contribution to our strategic growth initiatives on quality, online gaming and developing new intellectual properties. We also expect this will drive long-term value for our shareholders.

EA will reportedly pay up to US$ 620 million to VG Holding Corp.'s stockholders over this transaction, with a further $155 million in equity to be issued to certain employees of the company. The transaction is scheduled to close by January next year.

In line with this announcement, EA is also scheduling the transaction's conference call for today, at 2:00 pm Pacific time, and 5:00 pm Eastern time. EA will also be holding its second quarter conference call this November 1. The company plans to release its results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2008 during the said conference.

 

For those of us who felt let down after the news of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) being delayed, it seems that we really shouldn't be all too depressed. The guys behind the game are simply using the extra time to polish up what looks to be an already awesome title, and not because of anything else.

And to prove that it's not just all wishful thinking is none other than Pandemic Studios' Josh Resnick, in an interview that's all about the upcoming third person shooter that lets you hijack helicopters in mid-air.

So, what's the reason for the delay? Josh puts it shortly and sweetly: they wanted to release a game because it's already perfect, and not simply for the sake of meeting deadlines. His statement, unedited and presented as is:

It's really that simple -- we don't want to slop out a game just to meet a deadline. Some companies rush products out to meet that big holiday deadline for the massive gift-giving season, and we would rather make sure that every corner of our vast, open-world, highly explosive gameplay is completely polished. We owe that to Mercenaries fans.

Well, that's good news. But will the team be adding new content to the game during this buffing-up period? Josh says that the main focus of the delay is to tighten up gameplay and make it a better gaming experience for the player - seeing as the core game mechanics and features are already done and locked into place. Again, a verbatim snippet from Josh:

We're adding nothing at this point. Our only goal is to make gamers proud that they own a copy of Mercenaries 2 by making the highest quality next-gen open-world experience the world has ever seen. If that sounds ambitious, then you should see how many cans of caffeine our programming guys have choked down during the past two years of development.

In any case, at least we know why we won't be spending some quality time with Chris, Jennifer, and Mattias this holiday season. Updates as we get them, and you can check out the full article via the Read link below.

Earlier, we posted an article about Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3) being delayed until next year. Apparently, European gaming site TVG got confirmation from an Electronic Arts spokesman that the game will be released next year.

This is where things get even murkier. Shacknews recently caught up with representatives from both EA and Pandemic Studios to ask them about the reported delay. According to Shacknews, the EA rep they talked to said that the game is still slated for a Holiday 2007 release.

The Pandemic representative, meanwhile, gave a more ambiguous answer, saying that Pandemic has so far "made no announcements on a final release date for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames." We'll be on the lookout for more updates on just when this game will hit, so keep checking back here.

The last time we heard about Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3), we learned that the developers are planning to go underwater for the sequel that should make the franchise bigger than ever.

However, we guess we shouldn't be talking about that yet as the game's release date will be delayed. One representative from publisher Electronic Arts spoke with online site Total Video Games and confirmed that Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will indeed not be making its 2007 release date.

No explanation was provided but the spokesperson said, "We can confirm it will be next year". In the past, we've already reported on several high profile video game titles that are purposely delayed because the holiday season is already congested with releases.

We hope the same thing was what Pandemic Studios had in mind and not some problems encountered during the development stage. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames takes players in the heart of Venezuela which has been invaded after a tyrant interfered with the country's oil supply.

Death in video games can either be very frustrating, or highly amusing. Whether it be by a chainsaw, a booby trap, or even moving hotdogs, sometimes it's more fun to just run your character to his demise. If that's your thing, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) is the perfect game for you. With a promise of 99 ways to die, a single playthrough worth of deaths is just the tip of the iceberg.

To get an idea on how grand deaths are in Mercenaries 2 - so much so that you'd want to die for it - here's a trailer showcasing plenty of massive explosions to send your enemies (or yourself) to the afterlife.

Fans of the first game would know that pretty much everything is destructible, and there are enough ways to send buildings crumbling. The sequel is no different - call an air strike to take down that skyscraper, or request a fully loaded warship to sink bridges. Tagging vehicles with C4 never gets old too, if you want to be more economical.

We kid you not when we say setting off these explosions can't look any more satisfying, and here's the video to prove it. We'll make sure to keep you posted when more of these "99 Ways to Die" trailers surface, so watch this space.