Only hours after they proudly announced their Playfish acquisition, Electronic Arts has revealed that they will be cutting 1,500 jobs for their impending “Cost Reduction Plan”.

The corporation has been hit hard by the economic downturn, and has already severed its ties with Pandemic Brisbane, and merged developers BioWare and Mythic Entertainment into one unit.

Read on to find out why such a reduction of staff has been deemed necessary.

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Today publisher Atari announced that Cryptic Studios’ upcoming MMO Star Trek Online will hit North America on February 2.

According to Jim Wilson, CEO of Atari: “Star Trek Online is poised to become the ultimate Star Trek gaming experience. Throughout the last four decades, Star Trek has been a mainstay in pop culture, influencing legions of fans through television, film, and more. Star Trek Online opens a whole new chapter and expands upon this incredible universe in 2010.” Read more… »

Today EA announced that it has purchased social networking game developer Playfish, whose games include Restaurant City, Quiztastic! and Bowling Buddies and can be seen on sites such as Facebook and Myspace.

EA must see some real potential in this developer considering that the deal was worth $300 million, plus an addition $100 million after certain milestones have been met.

To see what each company had to say on this matter, read on. Read more… »

Not so long ago, there was a small amount of uproar surrounding the UK price point of Activision’s imminent success Modern Warfare 2. However, all is not doom and gloom over in these sunny shores as Sainsbury’s step in offering a somewhat ludicrous price. That’s right, £26 for a potential game of the year. Read more… »

When East India Company released earlier this year, strategy fans were offered something slightly different than the usual fare. Although sadly let down a bit by a clumsy interface and repetitive gameplay, EIC combined economic strategy with RTS naval warfare to provide a reasonably fun and engaging experience.

Developer Nitro has followed up on the original release with East India Company: Privateer, the first real expansion after the quasi-patch slash expansion, Pirate Bay. After promising to extend the swashbuckling flavour that was established with PB, can Privateer reinvigorate the title, or is it doomed to sit at the bottom of the ocean?

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[Hello and welcome to another delicious edition of The Week in News, your reliable resource of gratifying gaming news brought to you by Gamer Limit.]

A thousand apologies are in order for the sinful absence of The Week in News last week, but there is an explanation: there was no news. Well, the reality was that some certain staff members were far too busy having fun and frolics at iDEF and Eurogamer to report on anything worthwhile last week, but how and ever.

But fear not however, as normal service has now been resumed – read on for this week’s scathing news roundup. It is your destiny.

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If you’re anything like me, then you’re just as excited about PokePark: Pikachu’s Big Adventure, despite being 24 years old and without guilt.  The Pokemon series has always held a soft spot in my heart, and I think now is the time I come out of the closet and tell  you.

I found this trailer while surfing around Destructoid and became instantly intrigued by the site of another installment to the long standing series.  Instead of fighting Gary and man-handling Misty this time, you traverse through a free-roam environment making friends and testing your skills. Read more… »

Updates to our server software will be occurring over the next 5-6 hours. So if something looks broken… it most likely is.

Feel free to whine after the jump, normal service will resume asap.

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After an irritatingly long wait, the remainder of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures have finally been released on XBLA, coinciding rather awkwardly with a limited time price drop on the PC version, which is a celebration of the pair’s 20th anniversary.

For the purpose of this review, let’s assume your PC isn’t up to scratch, or you simply don’t want to play the games on the PC for whatever reason (otherwise, check out Paul Clark’s review of the PC version.) The XBLA release is exactly the same as the PC release, but with achievements, the obligatory (albeit pointless in this case) leader boards, a new control scheme (since console controllers don’t typically favour the ol’ point and click) and a few extra faults. Read more… »

This weeks arrival in the Newerth Universe is Witch Slayer (DoTA’s Lion), complete with an epic long rifle and throwing swords.

Initial impressions: His Ult + Staff of the Masters almost seems overpowered, and chaining his stuns/slows together can make for a pretty nasty combo. Check out the full patch notes after the jump.

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Tada! Activision are some of the most creative folks in the industry, that’s why they’ve decided to file a trademark for Drum Hero. Yes, you better believe it. Other than churning out DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero at very close quarters, we’ll be seeing its drum-thumping brethren sometime in the near future as well, apparently.

Who didn’t see this coming? Almost no one. Read more… »

Tales of Monkey Island has seen its fair share of ups and downs over the past three episodes. Telltale Games has consistently brought the funny through a great story and script, but often the puzzles, character depth, and episode length felt uninspired, especially with the last two entries of the series.

Episode four hopes to point the ship in the right direction, picking up after Guybrush’s expulsion from the bowels of a giant manatee. While I can’t tell you how The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood will play out, I can tell you this: it is definitely the best episode yet.

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