EA today announced that EA SPORTS has created its most popular franchise for the hundreds of millions of football fans on social gaming sites just in time for the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Developed by Playfish, EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars is a free-to-play social game that has launched on Facebook. It will be available on additional social networks in the future.

“We are leveraging our football expertise with the experience of our partners at Playfish to create a casual football game for a broader audience,” said Matt Bilbey, vice president of football, EA SPORTS. The EA SPORTS FIFA franchise has sold over 90 million units lifetime and FIFA 10 is the highest rated sports videogame on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the world.

“Football fans have a voracious appetite for their sport so we are creating interactive football entertainment in new ways and on new platforms to meet the interest,” continued Bilbey. “We are excited to broaden our reach from the console that touches our core audience of 10-20 million fans to the hundreds of millions of football fans and casual gamers using social networks.”

EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars is the first social game developed through the EA/Playfish partnership and the first sports game developed by Playfish, who leads social gaming in innovation and creativity with award-winning category defining games designed for friends to play together. Playfish hits include Pet Society and Restaurant City.

“On the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, we’re introducing into social gaming an entirely new category and game play style built around the most popular sports franchise in the world,” said Kristian Segerstrale, vice president and general manager of Playfish. “EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars captures all the magic and passion of the beautiful game, allowing players to build and manage a team of the world’s greatest footballers and compete against their friends. We’re looking forward to working with our players and evolving the game in many exciting ways through the FIFA World Cup and beyond.”

FIFA Superstars will leverage EA SPORTS football licenses for 30 leagues, 500 teams and 15,000 players. Fans will be able to create a fantasy club side by collecting or trading players, challenging friends head-to-head and competing in leagues, or searching out broader leader boards to compete against the best. To capitalize on the worldwide football fever driven by the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, players can predict the outcomes of games in the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM to win valuable in-game coins. Screenshots of EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars can be downloaded at www.easports.co.uk/press. For more information visit http://apps.facebook.com/fifasuperstars/

Its these kind of moments that make you reach for the parental controls manual.

A boy child of 12 managed to spend over £900 on FarmVille items in under 2 weeks. Suffice to say, he didn’t have that kind of cash in his young savers account, so he did what comes natural to us all, he reached for his mums credit card.

Its this sort of spending which has escalated Zynga’s, the games developer, value in recent months. SecondShares.com recently pegged the San Francisco company at $5 billion.

And I’ve been worried about my little one spend my Microsoft points.

It looks like Facebook is starting to become a serious platform in its own right.Farmville by Zynga is one of the most played games on the planet with over 76 million users every month signing in to play.  Follow this up with announcements of Civilization Network and a 3d fps making their appearances soon and we are starting to see a mini revolution in gaming.

Now EA’s Peter Moore has gone on record to say that a version of Madden will also be entering the market on Facebook too.  Peter Moore said, “We have to make ‘Madden’ more accessible. You’ll see us on Facebook going forward.”

“EA aims to generate more sales from games played online and on mobile devices and Madden NFL on Facebook would be a “simpler experience” than the console version”, said Moore.

So, what do you all think as using Facebook as a serious platform rather than the usual gaming tripe that you see on there?

Well, according to Take Two and the Sid Meier crew you will.In an interview with Variety, Meier and the gang will start canvassing for testers for their Facebook iteration of the now classic game Civilization.  Take Two has told variety that a beta is a few months away so I suggest getting that fanpage bookmarked in an attempt to participate.

Announced in October, Civilization Network will use Facebook to get friends working together or competing with each other as they attempt to build the best settlement around.  It will start out as free to play as the game gathers momentum.

EA announced today the upcoming product lineup for the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR franchise, which includes the launch of Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online open beta and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 on multiple consoles this Summer.Golf enthusiasts globally can now get a free preview of Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online and invite others via Facebook to join the open beta. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online, developed by EA Tiburon, is the most accessible, authentic and feature-rich golf video game experience available through a web browser, with no game installation, no disc, and no additional peripherals required. In addition, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 will be available on the Wii, 360, PS3 and iPhone platforms.

“During beta testing we’ve already seen tremendous participation and enthusiasm from golf fans around the world for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online,” said Executive Producer Mike Taramykin. “We’re looking forward to offering all players the opportunity to preview the game for free* in the coming weeks. Also, during open beta gamers can invite others to play via Facebook and we continue to encourage the community to help to drive the game’s evolution and development.”

Since May, EA SPORTS has invited players to participate in four closed beta tests and consumers have showed overwhelming interest and support for the offering. During this time, more than 500,000 rounds of golf have been played.

During the free preview open beta starting today, players will also be able to enjoy the following new features:
• Facebook Connect – Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online connects to Facebook, allowing players to invite their friends to become fans, thus earning additional in-game experience. Players are also able to publish their accomplishments to Facebook.
• Golfer Progression – Players will begin their career as a beginner and by earning experience points, will climb the ranks toward becoming a golf legend.
• The Cut Line – As an extra challenge, each day a target score will appear that becomes the goal for each golfer. If the user meets, or scores under the target, additional in-game experience is rewarded.
• Fans, Favorites & Sponsorships – Each player will be able to acquire fans within Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online. The more fans a player has, the more experience points are rewarded. Sponsor your friends and earn in-game money if they make the Cut Line.
• Realistic Wind – Experience dynamic wind that calculates the direction and speed throughout the round, making the game more realistic and challenging.
• Pro Shop – Purchase upgraded equipment with in-game earnings to help improve your customized golfer and impress friends.

Word has come in that the new 3.10 update is being readied for a release today.The update was not even known about a week ago and after speculation that Facebook was being integrated into a new update we can confirm that this will be later on today.  Obviously, the big draw will be Facebook where you’ll be able to show your latest trophies off as well as show store purchases etc.

Other things that should go on today will be improved friends lists and also better photo browsing capabilities.

Rumours are flying around the internet at the moment of speculation that Facebook may be coming to the PS3 XMB.Pictures that briefly appeared on the Official PS3 Website showed Facebook integration on the PS3 along with new gamercard colours and improved photo browsing.

This could be a nice little coup[ for Sony as the Microsoft integration doesn’t officially come in until the end of this month.  If only would add other features that users have longed for it may be a little more competitive to Microsfot’s online experience.

After yesterday’s debacle with Keith Vaz and the Daily Mail over Modern Warfare 2, one of the MP’s that stood up for the gaming industry starts a Facebook group that is gathering a head of steam.Gaming voice was created by Tom Watson, the MP that put Vaz in his place yesterday during a Q + A session in Parliament and has already got over 5,000 users joined, including industry professionals, developers and even gamers overseas supporting the cause.  Gaming voice is designed to try and create a pressure group that will be able to voice its concerns to the media and Parliament directly, allowing direct talks to those concerned in order to set the record straight and try to introduce idea that would help take the sting away from the gaming industry in this country.

Speaking after the Culture, Media and Sports Questions session, Watson, MP for West Bromwich East, told GamesIndustry.biz: “I’ve thought about [creating a group] for a while, but I was so incensed by yet another Daily Mail article that I just pinged it up there to gauge reaction. And frankly, 400 people in what, four hours, I’ve been slightly taken aback by it.” The group had over 750 members at the time of writing.

“There is a legitimate debate about how you handle difficult content. What we’ve really got to do is educate these young MPs to realise the scale of the industry and the cultural significance of the industry, because they’ve just had three years of Keith battering on about the industry, about the content.”

If you want to show your support then please join the group here and air your views.  MG can say that we are behind this 100%

Sid Meier has announced in a Civilization fan forum that he will be releasing a version of Civilization for Facebook.

The strategy building God announced that it will be released next year and that the developer handling it will be looking for beta testers soon.  Sid goes on to quote:-

“Ever since we finished Civilization Revolution last year, I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and co-operative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks,” Meier said. “We’re calling this project Civilization Network and the full game will be available next year on Facebook.

“Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends to create the world’s most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization,” Meier continued. “You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your friends to create the great Wonders of the World.

“The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment – you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play,” Meier concluded.

It was announced yesterday on xbox.com that facebook and twitter will be available from November 17th.

Since then, the date has disappeared and has been replaced with Autumn 2009 instead.  Although the facebook and twitter options are there it does seem that Last.fm has disappeared also so we are really not sure what to make of that.

A public beta will also start mid to late October with press invites going out for this too.  Be sure that we will endeavour to get on this and give you the heads up as soon as possible.