So, do you like drinking Dr. Pepper while you’re playing your EA Games? If so, you’re going to really enjoy this piece of news.

Electronic Arts and Dr. Pepper have entered into an agreement that will see Dr. Pepper providing codes for exclusive DLC for EA Games throughout 2010, starting with The Sims 3.
If you’re a Sims 3 fan, you can grab codes from Dr. Pepper that will unlock one-of-a-kind beach party items, or everything you need for a perfect tailgating party.

Tony Jacobs, Vice President of Marketing for Dr Pepper, said,

“The first-of-its-kind partnership with EA will give Dr Pepper fans an unrivaled experience by adding exclusive value to their games such as new levels and items. EA is the only media company that could reach our target audience with the breadth and depth of titles for gamers on any gaming platform.”

Honestly, these types of arrangements are going to become more and more prevalent in the future. As gaming becomes more and more accepted by mainstream marketers, there will be more tie-in opportunities to reach gamers as a market. This will end up being good for the industry, and good for individual gamers as well, as it will give us more opportunities to get cool little add-ons for our games like these.

You can check out the full text of the press release after the break.

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“… dogs and cats, living together… mass hysteria!!”

As I quote the fictitious, yet venerable, Dr. Peter Venkman, it seems Sony Entertainment is currently attempting a coup of sorts towards bringing the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game within its exclusive ranks. With just over a month until the game’s imminent release, this bit of news will come as a shock to many anticipating its release via the “other” platforms - namely the PC, Xbox 360, and Wii.

According to gamesindustry.biz, Sony acquired the game from Atari and has simultaneously revealed (as of today) that the game will launch on the Playstation 2 & 3 platforms exclusively with a PSP version to follow later. Officially, there is no word as to the fate of the other platform versions that were originally to be launched the same day. Speculation has it that Atari will still retain the rights to publish the game for the remaining platform versions, albeit, launching at a much later time.

Personally, I’m not sure what to think of this bit of news. The game has certainly changed hands (both developer and publisher) more than I can recall. The project would surely have died if Atari had not stepped in and secured the publishing rights last year. However, I can’t help but view this recent acquisition as anything but “dealing under the table”. When first hearing this news, I was given a strong visual of Sony and Atari representatives touting trench coats; both exchanging a briefcase full of cash in some dark alley late at night. Am I overreacting? Perhaps. But I sincerely doubt I’m alone here. It just seems so last minute given all the teasing we’ve had from trailers, demos, etc. added to the knowledge that it would be coming to our favorite platform very soon. The candy dangling in front of us has certainly been yanked away.

Nonetheless, I am still hopeful and looking forward to playing this game on PC. For now, it seems, I will be watching this game from the sidelines. My new multi-core Intel processor was also looking forward to crunching away at some neato physics calculations powered by the Velocity physics engine.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game is still slated to hit shelves around June 19th. However, gamers will only see the box sitting in specific sections of «insert favorite game store here».

Update: It seems MCV has confirmed (from Atari) the game will be released for Xbox 360, DS and Wii “later this year”.

Update: Atari has just sent out a press release with clarification that Sony exclusivity is for PAL regions only. You can check it out after the break.

… and there was much rejoicing in the west.

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Game stop is offering cold hard Liberty City cash to gamers pre-ordering Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. All takers will get $10,000 in-game Liberty City cash as well as access to the entire arsenal from the start of the game.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be hitting shelves March 17th but pre-orders have already begun. The Chinatown Wars upgrade is a GameStop exclusive offer.

For awhile now, people have been wondering if the upcoming Street Fighter IV was going to pull a “Soul Calibur” and make certain characters exclusive to different consoles. Luckily, the game’s producer, Yoshinori Ono, has stepped up to confirm that both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game will contain the same roster. As he explains:

Well this is just my policy, but I don’t want to give an exclusive character for any particular console. And that applies to downloadable characters as well. Because it’s not very fair, when you think about this as a board game or a tool.

Phew, that’s a relief. I’ve always had the same opinion on the matter, since it seems like the only ones losing out on the deal are the gamers. Of course, his statements also raise one other important question: “Downloadable characters!? What?”

Via Videogamer

Gamers without an Xbox 360 are likely feeling pretty jealous over all this Braid talk that’s been taking place on the internet. The reviews have been positive to say the least, but when — if ever — will gamers get to see Braid on a platform othan than xbox Live Arcade?

The game’s sole developer, Jonathan Blow, chatted with Game Focus recently and told them that Braid is (appropriately enough) a timed exclusive to 360, but gave no indication of how long the deal runs for. Whenever that time comes, Blow said a version could come to the PlayStation Network in the future but that Wii owners shouldn’t hold out hope — the game is simply too large for the Wii’s internal storage. (Hear that, Mr. Fischer?)

Should he decide to release the game on PSN, at least Blow won’t have to deal with that terrible Microsoft certification process.

Valve’s Doug Lombardi has cleared up what sort of “bonus content” Portal: Still Alive has in store for fans. The answer? Nothing you can’t get with the PC version. Plus, there won’t be any extra dosage of everyone’s favorite homicidal AI, GladOS.

“It’s just a series of new challenges,” Lombardi told OXM. Valve sees Still Alive “as another way for people to experience Portal, without having to buy the full Orange Box.”

Those new challenges he referenced are the same levels that first appeared in the flash version of Portal, which were later realized in full 3D in the real Portal. According to GameSetWatch, there won’t be any new GladOS lines, either, which is quite unfortunate but understandable. Valve doesn’t want the story to be shaped differently on 360 than it is on PC and PS3.

With this news, the game has gone from a must-buy to something I just consider to be “nice to have on the Marketplace.” The only chance I’ll be buying Still Alive now is if the game has some interesting achievements and doesn’t cost much.

You may have heard of Concerto Gate, the new free MMO from Square Enix and OnNet USA that is the sequel to the Asia-only Cross Gate. But did you know that you can be a chef in the game? Or a pharmacist?

Didn’t think so.

1UP recently got to visit the offices of OnNet USA, an online game publisher that is assisting in bringing Concerto Gate to the U.S. They got a look at what the game is all about, and how exactly Square Enix is aiming to tear you away from World of Warcraft. (Hint: Part of it includes being free-to-play.)

After being rejected by the game’s king as a hero, you’re stuck with your newly created character (which can learn one of 15 professions, from the aforementioned chef and pharmacist to the more typical solider and fighter) in the world of the Fahren Kingdom.

And here’s where Concerto Gate gets interesting: Once you pick a profession, this is the only profession your character will perform, ever. The classes break down into four basic categories — combat, craftsmen, gatherers, and “special job” — and once you commit, this is mostly what you’ll do in the game. Lumberjacks, for instance, will be mostly chopping wood and selling it to craftsmen, who will then make weapons to sell to the combat classes. (Lumberjacks can and will probably have to fight at times, but don’t expect to be heavily enlisted for dungeon raids…). Fighters, conversely, can’t craft at all — thus the need for the support classes. Players can have three characters per server, so one likely scenario is that you’ll make your own support classes with your alts. (And additional character slots, OnNet hinted, might be available for a small fee.)

Random battles will play a part in the game, as will Square’s Active Time Battle system, but certain aspects — like how often those random encounters occur — are still being worked out.

An upcoming beta will help to adjust things to the community’s liking. The closed beta will be exclusive hosted at FileFront; we’ll have 5,000 keys for you to race for sometime in the next few weeks. Once we get a date, we’ll be sure to pass the word along. In the meantime, you can read 1UP’s full preview right here.

2004 was a great year for sports games. NFL 2K5 and NBA 2K5 were some of the best sports game ever created (that remains true to this day) and they were sold for only $20. That put some pretty significant pressure on EA Sports, which responded in the football market by dropping the price of that year’s Madden from $50 to $30. NFL 2K5 managed to sell over 2.9 million copies in the US, according to the NPD Group, and ever since — once EA locked up exclusivity with the NFL, NCAA and Arena Football League, some would argue that EA has had little incentive to innovate or drop the price on its football titles.

That trend isn’t about to end, either. Last year, 2K Sports put out All-Pro Football 2K8 which sold poorly without the help of a significant football license. (The game wasn’t great either — it was basically NFL 2K5 sans the NFL license.)

Two gamers — one from Washington, DC and one from California — have had enough of this and filed a class-action lawsuit against EA over “blatantly anticompetitive conduct.”

“This vigorous competition benefited consumers,” reads the lawsuit. “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 in the United States: the National Football League, the Arena Football League, and NCAA Football.”

Even if EA didn’t have the licenses, though, their potential takeover of Take-Two would essentially eliminate any and all competition in the football market. In doing so, the lawsuit says that even if EA were to lose its exclusivity deals, it “would remove one of the few companies with the ability and expertise to compete in the market for interactive football software.”

The lawsuit is seeking restitution and damages for individuals who have purchased EA football games since August 2005 (ring me up for three of those), as well as disgorgement (that’s a fancy word for “give up”) of all profits made as a result of their anticompetitive actions, and that any infringing agreements be declared null and void.

The likelihood of those events ever occurring is incredibly low, but I do enjoy thinking of a world where the NFL 2K games are still alive.

via Evil Avatar

There’s been some confusion over Crytek’s studio boss Cevat Yerli recently announced that the Crysis series will no longer be exclusive to the PC. It’s no wonder since Crytek has subsequently announced the PC exclusive title Crysis Warhead, leaving console players scratching their heads, and a little disappointed.

Crytek’s business manager, Harald Seeley spoke to Next Generation about the apparent paradox to set players straight.

When Cevat said we would not create new PC exclusives, he was referring to any new projects we will start in the future. Of course Warhead has been under development for quite some time, and we had no desire or intention to disappoint our loyal PC fans. So, after some careful consideration, we decided to continue our support for the PC Crysis franchise with this release. But yes, all new franchises we develop in the future will be created with a cross platform strategy in mind. Of course we’re also aware of the danger of making a game that is only designed for one particular audience and platform, and failing to meet the needs of the others. So any game we create will always offer something unique on each platform and will be carefully tuned to both the capabilities and strengths of that platform, as well as the intended audience.

Seeley also has a few words on copyright protection and piracy, but doesn’t give in to the hysteria plaguing PC developers these days. He also gives gamers a look at the new CryENGINE 2. Catch the full Q&A with Crytek’s Harald Seeley on Next Generation.

Hope there’s enough for you to do in Grand Theft Auto IV as it stands — Take-Two announced today as part of its Q2 financial reports that the Xbox 360 exclusive DLC has been delayed until Q1 2009. It was originally planned for release later this year.

According to CEO Ben Feder, the delay has nothing to do with development, but rather about “portfolio balancing.” So does that mean they’ve got a lot coming out later this year, or that they’ve got nothing early next year? I’m better on the latter, as two new Carnival Games titles were announced for later this year during the conference call.

During the second quarter of 2008, a total of 78% of all Take-Two publishing revenue came from Grand Theft Auto IV and GTA catalog sales — that’s a pretty astonishing amount, but there wasn’t much from Take-Two to have stolen any percentage of their revenue.

With this delay, I wonder if owners of the PS3 version feel vindicated in their purchase at all. Fewer load times, less pop-up, and the same content until at least 2009 — doesn’t sound too shabby.