EA Reveals Pandemic On LOTR, New Sims Slate

Author: by Brandon Boyer, David Jenkins

At its recent Analyst Day, Electronic Arts has revealed a number of new properties coming from its various labels and owned studios, including new titles in its MySims franchise, and a new unannounced Lord of the Rings game from Mercenaries developer Pandemic. It was its Sims label that had the most to reveal during the course of the day, with the company saying that its recently launched Wii and DS MySims franchise had shipped 3 million units and taken in some $100 million in sales, making it the top selling 3rd party DS game in North America and Europe. Over the coming year, the label says it plans to grow MySims, with undetailed new titles including MySims Kingdom and MySims Party for Wii and DS, and the original MySims for PC, while elsewhere it plans the launch of SimCity Creator and SimAnimals. The company also said it plans to launch two new Sims related community sites, including SimsOnStage.com -- possibly tied to its acquisition of karaoke community site SingShot a year ago -- and TheSimsCarnival.com. Elsewhere, a more general discussion of EA's future from CEO John Riccitiello has given an overview of the company's overall IP stable (no. 16 – warning: PDF), which has revealed for the first time that the newly-acquired Pandemic is now in control of its Lord of the Rings license, although again with no indication of what type of game it might be, or on what formats. BioWare’s stable of properties included Mass Effect (with EA recently announcing it would be publishing a PC version of the game), Dragon Age, “KOTOR” and “a New MMO”. No mention was made in the course of the speech whether Knights Of The Old Republic's mention was simply a sign of its past successes, or a hint that the series would be revived by EA at some point in the future.