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Friday July 14, 3:21 AMEA previews new Wii games, shares rise(Adds details, comment from executive comment, updates stock activity)By Lisa Baertlein LOS ANGELES, July 13 (Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc. on Thursday said it is developing six games for Nintendo Co. Ltd's upcoming Wii video game console, whose selling point is a motion-detecting controller that lets players simulate swinging a bat, a golf club or a wizard's wand. EA , the world's biggest video game publisher, said its Wii development team is working on new versions of its best-selling football franchise "Madden NFL" and racing game "Need for Speed." Other specially-tailored Wii game titles are iterations of "Harry Potter," "Tiger Woods PGA Tour," "SSX" and "The Godfather." The company also said it would ship its new role-playing game "The Lord of the Rings, The White Council" for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and personal computers in late 2007. Shares of Electronic Arts were up $1.07 at $43.67 in afternoon trade on the Nasdaq. EA said each of the new Wii titles would take advantage of the technology in the machine's controller, which has raised Nintendo's profile in what was expected to be a two-way next-generation war between PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Developing for the Wii promises to be less expensive than for the more-powerful Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles that boast high-definition graphics, Frank Gibeau, EA's general manager of North American Publishing said. On the other hand, the Wii controller forces developers to rethink game play. "You have to nail the controller," said Gibeau, who added that in EA's "Madden" football game, players will use it to imitate the motion of snapping or passing the ball. The Silicon Valley-based company, which did not give release dates for the Wii titles, said additional games are under development and will be announced in the coming months. American Technology Research analyst Paul-Jon McNealy said the announcement about the games for the Wii console should be well received by investors in EA -- whose shares have lost 27 percent of their value over the last 12 months as the video game industry moves to new console technology. The Xbox 360 has been on the market since November while the Wii and PlayStation 3 are due in stores in time for the holidays. "We believe this will be considered good news after (EA) had not been aggressive early on the Wii platform," McNealy said in a client note. On Wednesday, EA said its holiday line-up will include more than 20 game titles for 11 different game systems, including next-generation consoles, personal computers and mobile game devices. Among other things, EA will integrate real-time content from cable sports network ESPN into its sports games, which also will feature athletes that move more naturally than ever thanks to advances in the company's physics technology. Anticipated PS3 launch titles include "Need for Speed: Carbon," a canyon racing game, as well as titles from the company's popular football, golf and basketball franchises. EA has not revealed complete line-ups for the PS3 and Wii debuts, but Gibeau said PS3 launch titles will outnumber those for the Wii. As console game development costs climb, EA is investing heavily in mobile and online gaming to expand beyond its core console gaming business. |
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