The first of the three, Borne Games, gave us the hugely popular browser based flash game, The Fancy Pants Adventures. The Fancy Pants Adventures puts players in the position of hand drawn stick figure on a quest to rescue his kidnapped sister. Now thanks to the new partnership between Borne Games and Electronic Arts, The Fancy Pants Adventures will be released on the Xbox Live Arcade to thousands of new players boosting the 100 million players it has already received.

“The passion that the fans have shown for The Fancy Pants Adventures has been overwhelming and bringing the game to console will give them the best possible platform gameplay experience,” said Brad Borne, Founder of Borne Games who went on to say, “Working with EA allows me to do more than I could have ever imagined. This is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

We can look forward to seeing the action packed side scrolling game hitting the Xbox live arcade in spring 2011. Meanwhile EA’s second partner, Vanguard games, will also be bringing a new title to the arcade around the same time.

Gatling Gears, a twin stick shooter, comes from the team behind the award winning game, Greed Corp. Gatling Gears features the same setting as Greed Corp allowing players to take on an evil resource hungry company with Greed Corps signature elements such as warring factions, walker units and collapsing ground.

Whilst players may be filling the sky with lead in Gatling Gears, EA’s third partner is set to offer a different, stealthier experience with their game also releasing in spring 2011. Trapdoor have entered into a partnership with EA in order to publish their game, Warp. Warp is a top down stealth action game featuring traps and puzzles all set within a unique sci-fi world.

EA seem pleased with all their new partnerships with Jamil Moledina, Outreach Director, Business Development at EA Partners saying, “One of our goals at EA Partners is to seek out the leading independent developers within the downloadable games market and publish their titles to a wide audience. We are thrilled to add Trapdoor to the EA Partners family and bring this best-in-class sci-fi stealth action title to gamers everywhere.”

Next spring looks to be an exciting time with many new games and partners from EA, certainly a time I and many others will look forward to.

Mad Catz Interactive, a leading third-party video-game accessory provider and game studio THQ have announced an agreement to produce WWE All Star branded controllers and accessories, including WWE All Star themed controllers and fight sticks.

“World Wrestling Entertainment has produced many of the videogame industry’s most enduring and prestigious franchises, and we are thrilled to initiate this relationship with THQ to create a range of Arcade FightSticks and FightPads. We believe the spirit and excitement of WWE is a perfect fit for our range of market-leading fighting game controllers” Said Darren Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz.

Bungie is developing a new engine for their next project.  This was to be expected as this is a new beginning for Bungie, as well as Activision. Speaking in a Developer interview, Bungie communications manager Brain Jarrard said the company is against the idea of using the same tech for its future projects:

“I think it goes hand-in-hand with our independent spirit,” he said. “Just like we don’t want to develop a game off someone else’s IP, we want to push our own technology in the same way. That’s going to be our position for the foreseeable future.”

Jarrard said development on the engine was already underway: “Yeah, [ the new engine is] actually in development, so I would say it’s in a stage where, technically we’re still at the end of a pre-production mode.” He went on to state that “full weight” of the studio was now on their unannounced title for Activision since Halo: Reach is complete.

No details have been released on the Activision game as of yet. The ten-year tie-in was announced in April of this year.

[ Via  1UP ]

When was the last time you actually read the manuals that come in games? The controls are displayed on the screen, we have tutorial levels that break down the game to you, and killing tress is just not hip anymore. Ubisoft is going to be the biggest trend setter of the year, by being done with the paper manuals that come with their games.

Ubisoft states that the in game instructions will be more robust and will be better for the environment and gamers alike.

According to Joystiq:

Internal Ubisoft numbers indicate that manufacturing one ton of paper used to create game manuals uses two tons of wood from 13 trees, enough energy to heat an average home for a year, 13,000 gallons of wastewater and 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Along with doing away with manuals, Ubisoft is teaming with Technimark, Inc. to create a 100 percent-recycled polypropylene "ecoTech" DVD case, which will debut with the PC release of Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Via Twitter Cliff Blezinski agrees whole heartedly.

So do I Cliff, so do I.

Six days after Todd Alderman and Francesco Gigliotti leave Infinity Ward, and on the same day Respawn Entertainment is formed by former IW founders Jason West and Vince Campella, six-year Infinity Ward programmer Jon Shiring, along with fellow designer Mackey McCandlish and Senior Animator Bruce Ferriz. While Bruce Ferriz has confirmed he has joined Big Red Button Entertainment, it is currently unknown as to where the other two will do in the future. They join the four others who have left Infinity Ward within the last month.

Will McCandlish and Shiring join Respawn Entertainment, recently formed by Vince Zampella and Jason West? We’ll just have to wait.

…or is it called camping nowadays?

Respawn Entertainment. Clever, eh?

Zampella said in a statement released with the announcement, "Respawn Entertainment marks a fresh start for Jason and me. For the past decade we led a great development team and poured our hearts into creating an epic game franchise. We’re very proud of what we built – and proud that so many millions of fans enjoyed those games. Today we hope to do it all over again — open a new studio, hire a great team, and create brand new games with a new partner, EA."

Jason West also added, "We’re excited. Now that the team is in control of the games and brands, we can ensure that the fans are treated as well as they deserve."

Game brands treated as well as they deserve? Surely, Activision might know a thing about that or two.

Or not…

It should be very exciting seeing what the new studio comes out with in the future, and hey, maybe the two will win their lawsuit, then the Call of Duty series will be treated correctly, and not spit out a new game in the series every year.

[Kotaku]

You may remember about a month ago, Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella left Infinity Ward and sued Activision over unpaid royalties.

Just recently, two more Infinity Ward members have left the studio this month. Todd Alderman, Lead Designer who mainly worked on Multiplayer, along with Lead Software Engineer Francesco Gigliotti. Alderman worked at Infinity Ward for over eight years, while Gigliotti worked for seven.

It is currently unknown whether or not their departure of the studio had anything to do with Infinity Ward’s unpaid royalties, although word is spreading that the two resigned on their own.

[Via Kotaku]

After the last week of conflict between Activision and Infinity Ward, IW founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, have announced they are filing suit against Activision over “substantial royalty payments” they are owed, along with the rest of the Infinity Ward team. Jason West says, “We were shocked by Activision’s decision to terminate our contract. We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we’ve been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we’ve done speaks for itself,” with Vince Zampella adding “After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn’t have to sue to get paid.”

Along with unpaid royalties, West and Zampella are also fighting for “the contractual rights Activision granted to West and Zampella to control Modern Warfare-branded games,” meaning, if they indeed win, Activision will lose control of all future Modern Warfare titles, letting the two take the Modern Warfare franchise to any publisher they feel fit.

Keep on watching, folks… this will get messy.

[Via Kotaku]

[Via Joystiq]

Allen touched on the developments earlier this morning, and now Activision has sent out an official press release detailing their “New Plans for the Call of Duty Franchise.” I’ll let you interpret this one how you want, so read the full press release below.

Activision Publishing Reveals New Plans for Call of Duty(R) Franchise

–Company to Establish Dedicated Business Unit to Focus on Product Excellence and Brand Expansion –Company Confirms New Call of Duty Game To Be Released in 2011 –Activision Publishing Plans to Launch Call of Duty in New Genres and Asia

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 2, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ — Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced new strategic plans for the Call of Duty(R) franchise, one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time.

The plans include the formation of a dedicated business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives with focused, dedicated resources around the world. The company intends to expand the Call of Duty brand with the same focus seen in its Blizzard(R) Entertainment business unit. This will include a focus on high-margin digital online content and further the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.

"2010 will be another important year for the Call of Duty franchise," stated Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing. "In addition to continued catalog sales, new downloadable content from Infinity Ward and a new Call of Duty release, we are excited about the opportunity to bring the franchise to new geographies, genres and players."

The company expects to release a new Call of Duty game from Treyarch this fall. In addition, Infinity Ward is in development on the first two downloadable map packs for Modern Warfare(R) 2 for release in 2010.

The company is also for the first time announcing that a new game in the Call of Duty series is expected to be released in 2011 and that Sledgehammer Games, a newly formed, wholly owned studio, is in development on a Call of Duty game that will extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre. Sledgehammer is helmed by industry veterans Glen A. Schofield and Michael Condrey. Prior to joining Activision Publishing, Schofield was the Executive Producer of the award-winning game, Dead Space and Michael Condrey was the Sr. Development Director on the game. The Dead Space franchise has won more than 80 industry awards worldwide including the prestigious A.I.A.S. Action Game of the Year and two B.A.F.T.A.S.

The Call of Duty business unit will be led by Philip Earl, who currently runs Activision Publishing’s Asia Pacific region and previously served in senior executive positions with Procter & Gamble and Nestle. Activision Publishing veterans Steve Pearce, chief technology officer and Steve Ackrich, head of production, will lead Infinity Ward on an interim basis. Jason West and Vince Zampella are no longer with Infinity Ward.

Lastly, Activision Publishing announced that the company is in discussions with a select number of partners to bring the franchise to Asia, one of the fastest growing regions for online multiplayer games in the world.