The developer behind Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, Zuma, and Peggle is now a part of the profit-focused publisher EA.

While there was no reason for the deal not to go through, as of today, PopCap is officially a part of EA. All Things D confirmed that the deal closed for the expected $750 million dollars.

PopCap representative (and former EA employee) Jeff Green shared his thoughts on the merger via Twitter.

Now that the deal has closed today and I’m officially a part of EA again, let me just take stand right here and say: Man, I love EA!

While no immediate changes are expected for the lucrative developer of Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, and Peggle, we’ll be keeping our eye on the monolithic publisher.

A beautiful print from the i am 8-bit art show in LA showing the evolutionary history of Zelda’s most important creatures.

You probably won’t be able to make it out to this year’s iam8bit video game-themed art show, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on one of its most impressive pieces. Artist Jude Buffum put together this Legend of Zelda monster family tree, and here’s the full description from his website:

For my contribution to the show, I created Magna Arbor Vitae Deku (traslated “The Great Deku Tree of Life”) a sprawling exploration of the evolutionary biology of the 200 most important species from the Legend of Zelda video game series. Complete with binomial Latin names (Zora Bellator and Zora Fluvialis share a common ancestor with the more peaceful species Zora Sapien, for example), the brances of the Deku tree trace the evolution of each species over millions of years. Forks in the branches indicate an extinct common ancestor of the species that follow.

Lucky attendees were actually able to buy the piece, but only 15 prints were made. Whether they’ll be available at a later date is, sadly, unknown.

Click the image above to see it full-size.

(via Nerd Approved)

A beautiful print from the i am 8-bit art show in LA showing the evolutionary history of Zelda’s most important creatures.

You probably won’t be able to make it out to this year’s iam8bit video game-themed art show, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on one of its most impressive pieces. Artist Jude Buffum put together this Legend of Zelda monster family tree, and here’s the full description from his website:

For my contribution to the show, I created Magna Arbor Vitae Deku (traslated “The Great Deku Tree of Life”) a sprawling exploration of the evolutionary biology of the 200 most important species from the Legend of Zelda video game series. Complete with binomial Latin names (Zora Bellator and Zora Fluvialis share a common ancestor with the more peaceful species Zora Sapien, for example), the brances of the Deku tree trace the evolution of each species over millions of years. Forks in the branches indicate an extinct common ancestor of the species that follow.

Lucky attendees were actually able to buy the piece, but only 15 prints were made. Whether they’ll be available at a later date is, sadly, unknown.

Click the image above to see it full-size.

(via Nerd Approved)

Intruded’s dark hallways and sinister soundtrack make it one of the more chilling Flash Game Friday entries.

Intruded

If you’ve spent even a single ominous evening with an old survival horror title, then you’re no doubt familiar with something far scarier than any of those games’ blocky baddies: the dreaded fixed camera perspective. Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill all integrated fixed camera perspectives that’d swoop, swerve, and switch up on you at a moment’s notice, almost always disorienting those playing and inducing a state of panic that made those terrifying titles that much scarier. Intruded, a third-person Flash game from indie developer A Small Game, not only re-introduces the idea of the fixed camera perspective, but bases itself almost entirely around it.

Playing as a “mysterious character” who’s found herself in “a hostile environment” (the game is rather light on context), you’re tasked with maneuvering fuzzy 3D environments under the constant watch of security cameras, navigating narrow walkways and dodging insta-death obstacles. The character, a masked woman, controls with the elegance of a humvee, but its her clunky, casual gait that makes Intruded such an interesting game. What should be a simple matter of walking from Point A to Point B is made pretty challenging, and, in all honesty, slightly stressful, thanks not only to the ever-shifting camera angles, but also to the game’s ominous, atmospheric soundtrack.

There are 24 “cams,” or stages, in total, and the whole thing shouldn’t take you longer than 30 minutes to beat, tops. Still, Intruded is a creepy, dread-inducing distraction that’ll certainly get under your skin. And kill a half-hour, to boot.

Estimated playtime: 30 minutes.

Have a Flash game you’d like to see featured next week? Leave a comment below, and let us know!

Q Entertainment’ slick synesthesiac shooter is (finally) making its way to the PlayStation 3, and with a few new bells and whistles in tow.

Mark your calenders, kids — Child of Eden is set to hit the PlayStation 3 next month, with an official release slated for September 27. The PS3 version of this eye-popping on-rails experience will not only feature integration of Sony’s PlayStation Move controller, but will also come with stereoscopic 3D support, which should really bring the game’s trance-inducing environments to life.

Speaking of which, Child of Eden PS3 will also feature a new “Trance” mode, which will allow up to seven controllers to vibrate in turn to the music created by the on-screen action — a feature offered in both CoE’s 360 version, as well as with Rez’s now-infamous “Trance vibrator,” but, er, times seven.

We were big fans of Child of Eden when it first came out, and this upcoming PS3 release is certainly looking like the game’s definitive version. If you’re up for a multi-sensory shooter with a stunning aesthetic and extremely solid soundtrack, be sure to pre-order a copy or two. Or seven.

[Source]

The Japanese won’t be getting Peace Walker, but they will be getting the PSN version of the first Metal Gear Solid.

Depending on whether you live in Japan or western territories, your version of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is going to be a bit different.

Hideo Kojima sent out a number of tweets detailing the differences between the Japanese and overseas versions today. As it turns out, the Japanese won’t be getting Peace Walker HD, but they will be getting a download code for the PSN version of the original Metal Gear Solid. Westerners get Peace Walker but no code.

To be honest, it sounds like the west is coming out ahead on this one. After all, Metal Gear Solid has been available in both regions on PSN for some time now.

Kojima also revealed that MGS 2 and MG3 will be based on the Substance and Subsistence releases respectively; and that the latter will include MGS 1 and 2 for the MSX. He was not clear whether the “overseas” version would also include the MSX releases (here’s hoping).

The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will be out on Xbox 360 and PS3 in November.

Because what better way is there to bond with that special someone than smashing trees with a polygonal pickaxe in sandbox building sim Minecraft?

In celebration of his wedding this weekend, Notch, the man behind Minecraft, has announced the aptly named Wedding Weekend to take place over the next few days. Here’s how it works: If you purchase a new copy of Minecraft this weekend, a gift code for a second copy will be added to your account, which you can redeem by logging in and going here. Ah, young love…such a blockheaded affair.

[Source]

Not to be outdone by Google, Facebook has revamped their games content by adding real-time feeds, special bookmarking tools, and more options to trim down notifications.

Facebook’s new real-time feed for gaming content. (Image via DigitalTrends)

Facebook isn’t going to let Google Plus dominate the news wire today, as the company has launched a total upheaval of their games content. With competition rearing its head, Facebook has now implemented features that will either increase your gaming addiction or limit the constant stream of Farmville, Zynga Poker, or “Zombie Something” notifications. Talk about timing.

Facebook’s new and sudden round of interface updates are specifically aimed at making the network’s games easier to track and play, or ignore altogether, with the following key features:

• Dedicated real-time feed for game updates
• Full-screen modes for certain games
• More control in limiting when, where, and how often game updates appear
• “Most Used Apps” bookmarks in the upper-right corner of your window

While this reaction likely wouldn’t have happened without Google stepping into Facebook’s biggest money market, Business Insider points out that large numbers still separate both networks:

All of these are nice moves, but nothing groundbreaking.

But Facebook doesn’t have to be groundbreaking right now — with more than 700 million users, compared with maybe 20 million for Google+, social game developers have little choice but to keep thinking of Facebook first.

While game updates have long been a thorn in many Facebook users’ sides, the real issue here is ease of use. From personal experience, Facebook often requires you to dive into layers and layers of menus to limit notifications for just about anything, something that Google aims to fix with their unique minimum-click, “set it and forget” it interface. But with Google Plus gaining so much steam since launch, the real question is, how long will it be until some of Facebook’s major players either jump ship or double dip?

[Source: Business Insider, Rolling Stone, Venture Beat]

Facebook has long been the undisputed king of the online, browser-only casual social gaming world, but Google is officially declaring war with their own Google+ games content.

As always, The Warriors is a perfect allegory for any kind of turf war.

Google Plus (or, Google+, if you can stand the auto-spell corrections) is calling out Facebook on the social media giant’s on turf.

After a much hyped launch and positive reception from the public, Google is now entering “Phase 2″ of their network’s launch with the addition of games. So far, the list includes heavy hitters like Angry Birds, Bejeweled Blitz, Crime City, Dragon Age Legends, Sudoku, and of course, Zynga Poker. No word on Farmville heading to Google Plus yet, which would be the equivalent of leaving a horse head in Facebook’s bed.

As PC World reports, that’s not all, as Google is looking to sweeten the pot for developers by taking only a 5% commission charge, as opposed to Facebook’s 30% charge:

However, Google is taking it one step further–it’s announced that it will be charging social game (such as Farmville) developers only a 5 percent commission on in-game transactions. Facebook, on the other hand, charges a whopping 30 percent commission–a huge cut of profits that has been a bone of contention for developers for quite some time.

Zynga, the developer of Farmville and Mafia Wars, has even been rumored to have dabbled in creating its own social gaming site, in order to escape Facebook’s 30 percent cut. Ultimately rumors were just rumors, and Zynga has stuck by Facebook — but with Google’s new social network making waves, who knows what’ll happen.

Well, the current commission of 5 percent is just promotional–at least, that’s what Google+ games product manager Punit Soni told VentureBeat. Still, that’s some pretty aggressive pricing, even for a promotion. Google doesn’t yet know when the promotion will end or what it will charge developers on a regular basis.

And in case you missed it, here’s the breakdown of what’s available on Google Plus right now:

• Angry Birds
• Bejeweled Blitz
• Bubble Island
• City of Wonder
• Collapse! Blast!
• Crime City
• Diamond Dash
• Dragon Age Legends
• Dragons of Atlantis
• Edge World
• Flood-It!
• Monster World
• Sudoku
• Wild Ones
• Zombie Lane
• Zynga Poker

If you’re worried about your stream logging with game notifications, over at the official Google Blog, Google Senior VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra sums things up:

“If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them,” says Gundotra. “Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about.”

[Source: Official Google Blog, PC World]

Presidential candidate Herman Cain plugs an inspirational quote in his closing speech…. from Pokemon: The Movie 2000.

From New York Magazine comes this curious question: did Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain quote Pokemon at the end of last night’s debate?

Cain’s remarks came during his closing statement, when he said, “”A poet once said, ‘life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, but it’s never easy when there’s so much on the line.”

The ‘poet’ in question is actually Donna Summer, who wrote the song “The Power of One.” That song, as it happens, was written for Pokemon: The Movie 2000

Cain has quoted the lyrics before, attributing them to the “closing song to the 2000 Olympics” (it wasn’t). For what it’s worth, remixed versions of “The Power of One” were also popular at clubs, but it’s hard to imagine that 65 year old Cain on the clubbing circuit.

Maybe he just wants to be the very best, like no one ever was?