Late Night Consoling

Discussing the three game team-up of Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg with GameDaily BIZ, EA Los Angeles general manager Neil Young revealed two of the games are currently in development at EA LA and at least one of them is for the Wii. Furthermore, the Wii title is being produced by Westwood Studios co-founder Lou Castle, now vice president of creative development at EA LA.

Young was more tight-lipped about the other title. Apart from naming Doug Church as producer, whose resume includes System Shock (PC), Thief (PC) and Deus Ex (PC), Young only added that the game is "what you'd expect, sort of, from a Steven Spielberg production . . . big stories shown through the eyes of a small group."

Over at Level Up, N'Gai Croal has an exclusive look at Plato and Ubisoft's upcoming Nintendo DS guitar game, Jam Sessions. Much like Harmonix's Guitar Hero series, Jam Sessions allows users to perform contemporary tunes. Unlike Guitar Hero however, Jam Sessions permits the player to dictate the speed of a song and also provides a Free Play mode for potential musicians to fool around in.

Previously released as Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 in Japan, the North American version features several improvements over the original version, including reworked songs and the ability to save games. Jam Sessions will be available in June.

During his keynote address today, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto revealed the first details on a new Wii Channel that will allow users worldwide to compare Miis and rate them in what he called "popularity contests." No timeframe was offered as to when the Channel will be up for download from the Wii Ware section of the Wii Shop Channel.

Disney Interactive Studios announced a series of games for the PlayStation 2, Wii and Nintendo DS based off Disney Channel's popular High School Musical movie. The PS2 and Wii versions will be karaoke-based, the song list including all the original High School Musical tracks plus those of the upcoming sequel, along with other songs from Disney Channel artists. Details on the DS version remain a bit more scarce, the only available information indicating that players "dance and play along with the movie's songs and create their own dance videos."

More importantly, Disney's announcement of a karaoke-based title on the Wii inadvertently confirms recent rumors microphone peripheral for the platform. Expect to hear more details on both the game and the microphone as High School Musical's August release date draws near.

Ascaron Entertainment's upcoming action RPG Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is in development for Xbox 360 as well as the previously announced PC version, the company revealed to Shacknews today. The Xbox 360 version will support four player online co-op as well as two-player same-screen co-op and four-player system link co-op.

Nintendo issued a list of their upcoming releases for the second quarter of 2007. On the Wii, the company will release platformer-RPG hybrid Super Paper Mario on April 9, followed by Mario Party 8 on May 29. The Wii rendition of Big Brain Academy hits June 11, with Pokemon Battle Revolution wrapping up the company's second quarter on June 25.

For the DS, April 22 will see the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl. Meanwhile, the Nintendo DS Web Browser and Planet Puzzle League both ship June 4.

In an interview with IGN, Bioware CEO Dr. Ray Muzyka suggested the company's Xbox 360 RPG Mass Effect will arrive in stores before E3 begins on July 11, 2007. "That event [E3] is in July, right?" he postured. "Well, Mass Effect won't appear at this year's E3."

The Escapist chats up Electronic Arts co-founder Joe Ybarra, who talks about his view of EA as "a start-up type of experience" and calls certain business practices into question.