Electronic Arts today revealed Need for Speed Undercover, with PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP editions of the racer slated to hit North America on November 18 and Europe on November 21.

The latest entry in the Black Box-developed racing series "takes the franchise back to its roots and re-introduces break-neck cop chases, the world's hottest cars and spectacular highway battles," according to EA.

"Big-budget live-action sequences" that feature "box office sensation" and "international movie star" Maggie Q (Mission Impossible III, Live Free or Die Hard) will further the game's plot, with Ms. Q playing the "seductive handler" Federal Agent Chase Linh.

EA CEO John Riccitiello had previously expressed his belief that EA was "torturing a very talented group of people" through 12-month Need for Speed development cycles, with Undercover said to fix that issue.

"I'm confident that Undercover is a much better game than Pro Street, and I expect that from this point forward they will do a lot better," he explained

NFL Hall of Famer turned actor Jim Brown has sued game makers Electronic Arts and Sony regarding his alleged appearance in the Madden NFL series, seeking to halt game sales and obtain all profits derived from any Madden games with his likeness.

The suit stems from Brown's recent discovery that a Cleveland Browns player using his number, but not his face or name, appeared in Madden NFL 2001, reports GameSpot.

Brown describes the character as "a muscular African American player," claiming that this hurts his "inherently distinctive, and arbitrary trademark as the All-Time Great Cleveland Brown Running Back."

The one-time Cleveland Browns number 32 claims that he "never signed away any rights that would allow his likeness to be used [in a video game]" and that both companies "unjustly enriched and have received and continue to... Read more

The 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo officially starts this Tuesday, but a large portion of the exciting news will be hitting tomorrow.

Microsoft and Electronic Arts are both holding their lengthy press conferences, and Square Enix is putting together a last-minute event of their own. We'll also be getting hands-on time with Epic's Gears of War 2.

Inbetween iPhone lightsaber battles and trips to the local Wokcano, the Shacknews crew will be covering all of the events with up-to-the-minute postings. In preparation, we've put together a short list of our expectations and speculative nonsense for tomorrow's big events.

Microsoft Press Conference, 10:30 AM PST

Expectations:

• Release dates for:
  • Fable 2
  • Halo Wars
  • Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
  • Gears of War 2.
• Motion controller announcement.
• Announcement of Lips, the karaoke/dancing Xbox 360 game by Elite Beat Agent creators iNiS.
• Xbox Live Arcade announcements of some kind. More details on the Xbox Live community games.
• New Games for Windows initiative--perhaps digital distribution, which the team has hinted at.

... Read more

Two gamers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Madden publisher Electronic Arts.Filed in the US District Court of Northern California, the suit states that EA's 2004 and 2005 obtainment of the exclusive NFL, AFL and NCAA licenses constitutes "blatantly anticompetitive conduct."

In response to the allegations, the duo wish to see EA surrender the profits that stemmed from those actions, the voiding of the exclusivity contracts, and restitutions offered to those that have purchased any EA-branded football game since 2005.

EA's exclusivity arrangements came after publisher 2K Sports debuted a competing football title, NFL 2K5, at $19.99 in 2004, causing EA to drop the price on Madden 2005 from $49.99 to $29.99.

"This vigorous competition benefited consumers," claim court documents obtained by GameSpot. "Electronic Arts could have continued to compete by offering a lower price and/or a higher quality product. Instead, Electronic Arts quickly entered into a series of exclusive agreements with the only viable sports football associations."

Only one 2K Sports-branded football title has been released since then, the league-less All-Pro Football 2K8, which sold just over a quarter of a million units.

In what is quite possibly the briefest announcement to ever come out of Electronic Arts, the publisher today revealed its purchase of the game-oriented social networking company ThreeSF for an undisclosed sum.

Founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, ThreeSF's first project was Rupture, a site that allows users to track achievements earned in Xbox 360 games as well as coordinate World of Warcraft (PC) activity.While terms of the deal were not provided, earlier rumors suggested a $30 million price tag and that Fanning would join EA.

The acquisition marks the latest community-oriented move for EA, which has made multiple efforts to build and strengthen its game-related communities through in-game features and websites, as demonstrated by the video sharing aspect of EA Black Box's Skate (PS3, X360).

The whole of EA's extremely brief announcement follows:

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced it has acquired ThreeSF, Inc., a social network for gamers. Financial terms were not disclosed. More information about EA's plans for ThreeSF will be available in the weeks ahead.

Mega-publisher Electronic Arts is about to buy game-oriented social networking site Rupture for $30 million, according to an unconfirmed TechCrunch report.

Citing "sources with knowledge of the deal," the site claims EA is primarily interested in the technology behind the startup. Creator Shawn Fanning, who founded Napster, and partner Jon Baudanza are said to become EA employees under the agreement.

While EA has yet to comment on the rumors, the company has made several efforts towards building and strengthening online game-related communities, such the ability to upload and share in-game videos from EA Black Box's Skate (PS3, X360) via the title's website.

Following Electronic Arts' multiple attempts to acquire Take-Two Interactive and subsidiary Rockstar Games, Rockstar founder Sam Houser has admitted that he sees potential in a pairing with EA.

One of the chief minds behind Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series, Houser told The Wall Street Journal that he views EA CEO John Riccitiello as "the real deal" and has no problems being a "much smaller fish in much bigger pond." In fact, Houser claims that EA turned him down for a position towards the latter half of the 1990s.

That said, Houser is apparently "unlikely" to run subject material past EA in the event the companies form some type of business arrangement.

EA initially made a $2 billion offer to acquire Grand Theft Auto and BioShock publisher Take-Two back in March, and received approval for a $1 billion loan last week. Take-Two said that it would be open to discussing business agreements following the release of Grand Theft Auto IV on April 29.

Houser further revealed that during the production of Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar brought a spiritual healer into its offices after two employees committed suicide. While neither death is believed to be work-related, the healer performed an exorcism-type ritual and noted that an empty desk gave her "pretty strong readings."