Electronic Arts provided a glimpse at “Spore,” a much-hyped game where players begin with their own basic microbe and customize their creature to weather environmental conditions and population changes on Earth. Reuters video game reporter Jennifer Martinez gives us the story from the news conference. 

During the  company’s E3 press conference, EA showed a brief trailer of the game and set a release date, Sept. 7, for the latest title from legendary game creator Will Wright, known for creating “SimCity” and “The Sims.”

EA has invested $80 million, according to one analyst, into making ”Spore,” which was inspired by Wright’s love of science and his favorite toy as a child, a chemistry set.

“Science and creativity are an amazingly fertile intersection,” said Wright at the news conference.  “Science was something you could make stuff out of.”

The storyline of Spore takes its cue from Charles Darwin, as the game is essentially a virtual action game based on the scientist’s evolution theory.  For example, if players want their creature to have 360-degree vision, they are able to add extra eyes to the character’s body.

The “survival of the fittest” game has already gained large following of fans through EA’s web launch of its “Creature Creator,” where users can log onto the site and create their own Spore character. 

Within the first 22 hours of the Creature Creator’s launch, over 100,000 Spore creatures were created by users.  Over a million creatures were created by the end of the week, according to EA.

Microsoft’s showcase of highly anticipated games for the Xbox 360 was mostly sequels of popular franchises, but all featured a new common element: cooperation.  Reuters games reporter Kemp Powers explains.

Cooperative play, in which several players work together to finish a single-player mission instead of blasting each other, seems to be the mode du jour these days.

It has already been announced that the next installment in the “Call of Duty” franchise, “Call of Duty: World at War,” will include a cooperative mode (the last game did not). “Halo 3,” the last installment of Microsoft’s flagship franchise, for the first time included the ability for up to four players to play the entire game cooperatively over Xbox Live.  

When online multiplayer play became popular on the Xbox Live service, it was driven by the strength of the multiplayer offerings in games like “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.” That usually meant some variation of deathmatch, in which individual players (or teams of players) competed against other individuals/teams over Xbox Live.

The new cooperative components of these Xbox 360 heavy hitters are sure to be highly anticipated additions:

“Resident Evil 5″ (March 13, 2009) is the newest installment in the popular Capcom horror/action franchise. “Resident Evil 4″ was a huge critical and commercial success on the Nintendo GameCube and Sony Playstation 2, and now this newest title makes an appearance on the Xbox 360. The cooperative mode means two players can shoot, punch and kick through the hordes of frightening enemies together. Online teammates will also have to help one another navigate environments by opening doors, offering boosts and other cooperative maneuvers.

“Gears of War” is one of the biggest hit franchises exclusive to the Xbox 360, and “Gears of War 2″ (November 7) seems to be picking up where its hit predecessor left off, with even more action and gore than the original. The first title in the series already allowed the entire game to be played cooperatively over Xbox Live, so the sequel ups the ante with “horde,” a new mode that allows up to five players to play cooperatively. Rather than play through the single campaign with five people, “horde” will task the teammates with surviving an onslaught of computer-controlled attackers.

“Fable 2″ (October) While cooperatively play is becoming a common feature in action games and first person shooters, it was more of a surprise to see a co-op feature added to “Fable 2,” the follow up to the unique role-playing game that debuted on the original Xbox. In the game, players start off as a young child and gradually build their character into a full-grown hero (or villain). This time out, players can also call one of their Xbox Live friends into the game so that they can fight, play and quest together.

(Photo: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni)

What does a bona fide guitar hero do in his spare time? Play the Guitar Hero video game, naturally.

Slash, the top-hat-sporting former axeman for rock legends Guns N’ Roses, says his passion for the popular music game led to a deal with publisher Activision that features him in the franchise’s upcoming third installment, called, appropriately enough, “Guitar Hero III”.

“Funnily enough, I got hooked on ‘Guitar Hero’ in a tour bus and I just fell in love with it,” Slash said at Activision’s media briefing at E3, the video game industry’s annual trade show.

“I guess at some point our merchandisers and our manager had discussions about stuff I might want to get involved in and ’Guitar Hero’ was one of them,” said Slash, whose day job is lead guitarist for rock band Velvet Revolver.

A deal was quickly worked out to feature Slash in the game as a ”boss” who challenges players to a guitar-shredding face-off. Slash also wrote and performed the theme song for the game, which is scheduled to hit shelves ahead of the holidays.  The songlist includes G’N'R’s “Welcome to the Jungle”, Velvet Revolver’s “She Builds Quick Machines”, “Paint it Black” by The Rolling Stones and “Even Flow” by Pearl Jam.

“It’s pretty heavy, pretty loud, all the things ‘Guitar Hero’ is. It’s got a very addicting quality to it and anybody who knows me knows that applies to me. Out of all the things I’ve been involved with, other than being in a band, this is definitely the coolest.”

(Photo: Slash’s Official Fan site)

With the video game industry’s annual trade show officially kicking off on Wednesday, Reuters sat down with Mike Gallagher, the new head of the Entertainment Software Association. As the chief lobbyist for an industry blamed for making the world’s youth slothful and even murderous, Gallagher will need to call on every bit of the diplomatic and negotiating skills he developed as an assistant secretary of commerce and as a telecommunications lawyer.

Read on to hear why Gallagher thinks games are a vital piece of America’s entertainment scene, how misunderstanding of games spans the political spectrum, and why gamers should learn from ham radio operators.

Q. What drew you to this job? Why video games?

Gallagher: What attracts me to this industry, first of all, is that I use the products. I have a fascination and curiosity and enjoyment with the titles that goes back a long way. I have two kids, 13 and 11, so it’s second nature for me to have excitement for what this industry is about and that’s great games.

When I worked on the 1996 telecoms act, there were a number of dream scenarios and of course it turned out to be different than what they predicted. That term “convergence” is happening right now in video games. Now you have movies and music and video coming together in one place and the one place where it is richest is video games.

Q. What are your biggest challenges, the one or two biggest problems you want to tackle?

Gallagher: I’m being real careful because the first thing I need to do is listen, and I need to listen a lot and listen carefully to industry members and stakeholders. I have been in a 6-week cram session since I came aboard to learn all about the industry, whether it’s the business side, the member companies which all approach the market very differently.

They all have different histories, different expectations, different theories about what’s going to drive growth in the market. For example, you look at the Nintendo Wii, they are all about expanding the market, bringing in new video-game players. Whereas Microsoft, they’re for that too, a bigger market, but they are about driving the richness of the experience. You look at the investment in the technology and platforms and it’s reflected there. One’s a very hi-def, surround-sound experience … and the other one is definitely targeted to price, ease of use, right out of the box it’s intuitive what to do.

One thing, and it’s an asset for this industry, is what a tremendously passionate consumer base there is. Video game players love video games and they love to blog about them and write about them and talk about them. They are tough critics but they are very active and one of my goals will be to rely upon and turn that energy into the policy environment so that members of Congress and other leaders in government positions know the true metrics of the industry. And that is that the average video game player is 33 years old, that they’ve played for an average of 12 years, that the average video game purchaser is 40. So we’re not talking about 13-year-olds in dark rooms. It’s much broader than that and it is a rich part of our country’s entertainment experience. I want to do everything I can to create an environment for growth for this industry, where policymakers embrace video games, and what they bring instead of the more recent pattern, which has been to pick on them for false stereotypes.

Q. You mentioned this passionate fan base. One thing that separates the ESA from other lobbying organizations is that video gamers really see you as their champion, not just for the companies but for gamers. Whereas, say for movies, movie-goers don’t necessarily view the MPAA as their advocate.

Gallagher: When I was on the Hill, in the administration, in the spectrum space, the radio frequency spectrum, there’s a group of users called the ham radio operators, or the amateurs. There are 800,000 of them in the United States, that’s all. And it’s a technology that is very much rooted in pre-World War II. They are passionate, they are heard and they are accommodated. If there is one group to look at and say it can be done, simply look at the amateur radio community. They are very, very effective in Washington D.C. at making sure that their use of the radio frequency spectrum is protected. Every member of Congress has them in their district, all of them vote, all of them write letters and they are a very loud group.

Well, two-thirds of American homes have video-game players in them. Two-thirds of American families are playing video games, and a fair number of those are very energized about it. That’s a much greater number than what other groups have, and we look forward to activating that and informing that group about what is happening so they can in turn focus that energy where it needs to be applied, which is back at their elected representatives and appointed representatives.

Q. How do you face the political challenge? Games, fairly or unfairly, come under fire from both sides of the political spectrum. Republicans are seen as more socially conservative, yet some of the harshest critics of games are Democrats. How do you tailor the message for both political parties?

Gallagher: By being ruthlessly bipartisan. Our industry has succeeded when we’ve been bi-partisan in the past. My background is completely bi-partisan. I’m an identified Republican, proud to be a Republican, I’ve worked in a Republican administration. But the member of Congress I worked for came from a toss-up district, and that tempered my view of politics and how to approach it.

It’s by being ruthlessly bi-partisan, by appealing to both, making sure I’m informing both parties about the merits and strengths of video games, and also it’s really telling them, capturing the imagination of the policymakers about where we’re going, because it’s so different than the stereotypes that they are operating off of with some of these bad ideas. Those ideas appeal to both the right and the left and we’re going to make the case to both sides.

It’s not necessarily the EAS doing it, it’s the magic of the products of this industry, the titles that are produced, the storytelling capabilities, the technology. There’s no one putting more technology, higher technology, in the American home than this industry. There’s no one doing more to drive broadband growth than video games. PriceWaterhouseCoopers says 25 percent of broadband users at the end of the decade will be using video games. We’re a driver for that. Broadband is a national policy goal, it’s a competitiveness issue and video games are squarely in the mix of driving that. Also, for California and other places that welcome video games, it’s a job engine.

Q. In terms of policy then, where are your efforts going to focus? Is it more in trying to thwart bad law that would ban or restrict games, or how do you create this environment of growth? We don’t have a video game czar or Ministry of Entertainment.

Gallagher: Thank God we don’t! We really don’t need that as a country. I’ve done scores of international meetings with other countries that have these ministers of culture. Boy, what a mistake that is. But that’s the way they’re designed and we have to work with them. Here are two things we have to focus on policy-wise, I’ll give you three things.

One is, we are making huge investments in intellectual property and the government should make sure we have laws and enforcement capabilities that respect that. When it costs an average of $20 million to make a rich video-game experience, we need to see that investment protected.

Two is, we need to make sure we’re opening up new markets for our products, and that the U.S. government is doing everything it can to enable creation of those opportunities. We’re moving towards, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, three out of four sales dollars coming abroad, as a macro-issue for the industry. We need to make sure those markets are open and available and profitable for our companies here.

The third one is we need to make sure that the content of video games is on an even footing with books, magazines, movies and other types of media and not singled out unfairly based on false stereotypes for criticism or legislative abuse. It’s about creating that environment for rich growth for the industry, that’s the macro goal.

This industry is relatively unique. It’s much more high-tech in the sense that high technology does not often go to Washington D.C. with its hand out asking for something from government. Really, we’re asking for the freedom to create, the freedom to write great software and then the freedom to sell those products and that game experience and tell those stories to multiple markets. That’s what this industry is about.

Video game moguls cheered. But just about every other part of the industry cried foul last week when organizers of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) decided to shrink next years confab.

An executive for Electronic Arts, the world’s biggest video game publisher, said his company was completely behind the decision, which he estimated would result in dollar savings in the “multiple millions next year.” Gaming platform makers Microsoft and Sony also support E3’s makeover into a more “intimate” and productive affair.

The new plan from the show’s organizer, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), aims to pare E3 down to 5,000 attendees from the 60,000 or so that mobbed prior shows. That threatens to cut out smaller game publishers — not to mention the show’s “booth babes.”

Hardcore gaming “fanboys” are in a tizzy. Below is a snippet heard around the net:

– “So here we go, the large companies that care nothing about games get to consolidate their power over the industry, meanwhile the small companies get **** over again,” writes “lordpickle” on GameSpot.com.

– “This has sort of caught us by surprise,” said Christopher Heywood, a spokesman for LA Inc., the city’s convention and visitor bureau. E3 has called Los Angeles home for ten of its 12 years of life. It was the city’s biggest annual convention, packing an annual economic impact of about $19 million.

– One poster on Joystiq, “BlackYoshi,” said the move would likely banish the blogs and fanzines from the show in favor of the biggger site like IGN.com, GameSpot and 1Up.com.

– And what of the fate of scantily clad Booth Babes, the underemployed Hollywood actresses and models who had counted on E3 for a solid week of work? “Who will be sending them to college now?” Petrol123 worried on GameSpot.

Despite lacking the high-definition graphics and multimedia features of its rivals, the Nintendo Wii system is stealing the show at E3. As an indication of Wii’s popularity, the wait to try out the system pushed past four hours while the wait for hands-on time with Sony’s PlayStation 3 was barely 30 minutes.

Fans attributed the Wii’s allure to its innovative controller. Read the full story here.

Nintendo’s Vice President Perrin Kaplan discusses the company’s strategy with Reuters Bobbi Rebell. Its next-generation video game console, called Wii, will be available in the fourth quarter of 2006.

“We’re risk taskers… What can we do to make sure that those who left gaming want to come back,” Kaplan said.

Watch the video

Top console makers took the wraps off their big new toys, hoping to make lasting impressions at this year’s E3. Bobbi Rebell reports from Los Angeles. Watch the video here

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates sought to sell a vision of “anywhere” gaming that would link video game consoles, cell phones and computers, Daisuke Wakabayashi and Kemp Powers report.

Sony’s U.S. game unit chief Kaz Hirai threw down the gauntlet to Microsoft on Monday, saying next-generation gaming would not start until Sony said so. But Gates countered that customers would snatch up 10 million Xbox 360s before Sony got started.

Microsoft Corp. will release an HD DVD player for its Xbox 360 video game machine in time for the 2006 holiday season and will have 10 million of its next-generation consoles to market before its rivals debut their new systems, company executives said on Tuesday.

Nintendo said its next-generation video game console, called Wii, will be available in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Read the full story here.