Round Up: FIFA 07 Cover, Sunflowers/Aspyr, Omegathon III

Today's Gamasutra round-up includes news of players to be featured on the cover of FIFA 07, a new deal between Sunflowers and Aspyr Media, and the prize for the Omegathon III competition at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) gaming culture festival, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, Serious Games Source news, product news, and Gamasutra job postings. - Electronic Arts has announced the list of seven players who will serve as regional cover athletes on the upcoming release of FIFA 07, which ships on October 3. While each regional version will feature two distinct players, each will also feature Brazilian International and two-time FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho of Barcelona. Ronaldinho was also featured on the cover of FIFA 06. The North American version of the game will feature LA Galaxy's Landon Donovan and Mexico's Francisco Fonseca alongside Ronaldinho on the cover. Other versions will feature Manchester United's Wayne Rooney in the UK, Valencia's David Villa in Spain, Bayern Munich's Lukas Podolski in Germany, and Olympique Lyonnais' Juninho Pernambucano in France. EA also revealed that it has secured exclusive rights to the F.A. Premier League for an additional four years up to and including the 2010/11 season. The deal allows EA Sports sole rights to include every Premier League club and allows the FIFA franchise to include current kits, squads and player likenesses. - German computer game developer Sunflowers and Aspyr Media (Stubbs The Zombie, Dreamfall) announced a new deal to publish PC titles 1701 A.D. and ParaWorld in North America. The exploration and strategy game 1701 A.D. was earlier noted to be “one of the most expensive productions from Germany”, costing 8 Million euros to develop. ParaWorld is an action strategy title that married the prehistoric world of dinosaurs with modern warfare. Adi Boiko, president of Sunflowers commented: “We are excited to work together with Aspyr as our publishing partner for both titles in North America. We are convinced that their experience and professional approach will help us to establish and expand our gaming brands in the U.S. market.” - Organizers of the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) gaming culture festival today announced the grand prize for the Omegathon III, the annual three-day gaming tournament in which contestants must test their gaming skills in a range of games undisclosed before the event. This year, the winner will drive off in a brand new 2006 Scion xB in Black Sand Pearl, featuring a flipdown 15" widescreen monitor, Xbox 360 Premium System, 6-speaker sound system with CD/MP3 player, custom taillights and wheels with low-profile tires. PAX is set to take place in Bellevue, WA from August 25th-27th. "The first year, the Omegathon champion received every PlayStation 2 game ever made. The next year it was every NES game ever made," said Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade. "This year, in accordance with the massive growth of PAX, we decided it was time to up the ante." - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include a look back at Tail of the Sun for the PlayStation, Chris Kohler's classic Sega console game collection, and oddities to come from publisher D3. - Also updated today: Serious Games Source news, including an exclusive interview with Archimage's Victoria Thompson, DrPH on Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space, plus product news concerning the release of Torque Game Builder 1.1.1, as well as the latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from NaturalMotion, NCsoft Europe, SesameWorkshop, and The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago.