Sims 3, next-gen Black, new SimCity & LOTR coming

As part of its earnings announcement today, megapublisher Electronic Arts revealed the release window of two of its highest-profile games. Crysis, Crytek's hotly anticipated PC shooter, and Army of Two, the co-op actioner for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, will now both arrive after the end of EA's current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2007.

"We have made some adjustments to our SKU plan that will move a couple of titles into fiscal 2008, specifically Army of Two and Crysis," EA chief financial officer Warren Jenson told analysts during a postearnings conference call.

During the same call, Jenson also confirmed that several sequels to EA's most important franchises are in the works. "Yes, there's a Sims 3 in development and it's likely to be a fiscal '09 title," said Jenson, meaning the game would hit stores before April 2009. The executive also confirmed that the Sims franchise will also be coming to two next-generation platforms--the Wii and the PlayStation 3.

Several other new titles were unveiled during the call. "There will be another Lord of the Rings [game]... There's a new SimCity game in the pipeline and the next-generation version of Black. Those things alone are all new, relative to fiscal '07," said Jenson. It was unclear whether Jenson meant the games would arrive before the end of EA's 2007 fiscal year, or were just new to the company's financial plan for the 12-month period.

SimCIty 5!!!! yey!