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This May, Wii owners won't be alone in shooting their way through scenes reminiscent of classic action movies in glorious, anaglyph 3D. Majesco has announced that it will release Attack of the Movies 3D on Xbox 360 as well.

Attack of the Movies sends groups of up to four players (wearing up to four pairs of goofy 3D glasses) through movie-themed worlds, rich with hostile sea creatures, aliens, and robots. Don't have your own glasses? No worries -- the game comes with four sets. Not only will you get to shoot stuff with your friends, you'll all get to look like that one guy from Back to the Future when you do!

If you want to pretend to cut hair in a Wii and DS game -- and why not? Bonsai Barber was well-received after all -- Little Orbit is preparing Busy Scissors just for you. Not only will you get to simulate "35+ real hairstyles with 7 cutting techniques" with the Wiimote or stylus, you'll get to do so using virtual simulacra of real products from Toni&Guy. It's like the realism (and product placement revenue) of a sports game!

Little Orbit will publish Busy Scissors worldwide this September. If you can't wait to see it (and, conveniently, you're a salon professional or something) you can see the game at America's Beauty Show in March.

We had assumed that putting PopCap's devilishly addictive Plants vs. Zombies on a handheld device was a recipe for commercial success. However, we didn't anticipate it setting a new sales record for the App Store, moving over 300,000 downloads in just nine days. At $2.99 a pop, the game has already netted the casual developer over $1 million on the iPhone platform alone.

We're sincerely hoping this inspires PopCap to explore other match-ups between things in nature and humanoid aggressors. Trees vs. Ninjas? Migratory Geese vs. Robots? The Ocean vs. Witches? Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus vs. Everyone Else on Earth?

According to information collected by AppData, the FarmVille player base passed the 80 million mark yesterday. We'll give you a second to soak that in. It might help you digest it if we present the number numerically: 80,920,421. Or, perhaps you need another point of reference: That's almost the population of Germany. If you tried to orally count the number of people currently playing FarmVille, it would take you close to four years. And God only knows how large the player base would be then.

In related news, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus recently bought a yacht for his yacht. It's just a smaller yacht, that rests precariously on the bow of the larger yacht, in case the larger yacht breaks down. A lifeyacht, if you will.

[Via Destructoid]

Firemint's DSiWare version of its iPhone hit Flight Control is preparing to descend to the DSi Shop. It'll be out in Europe this Friday, February 19, arriving in North America the following Monday, Feb. 22, for 500 Points. And even if you've landed thousands of planes in the iPhone version of this air traffic control game, this version includes new maps!

The trailer after the break demonstrates the simple gameplay. Using the stylus, you direct the flight paths of swarms of tiny airplanes so that they all land safely. And then you declare "I am an air traffic controller!" Oh, no, that's a different game.

We get it. Who wants to play an X-Station or a PlayBox when tending virtual crops and vanquishing zombie hordes is so much more appealing? At least, that seems to be the case for some Europeans, as the BBC reports players have shown their support for the casual by plunking down hundreds of millions of Euros last year.

In Great Britain alone, 13.3 million gamers enjoyed casual titles through various game portals, with 2.4 million of those users actually dipping into their piggy banks to pay while they play. This averages out to a profit of £117 per person per year -- casual gamers alone in Great Britain spent a total of £280 million. It's also reported that gaming on mobile platforms generated £170 million in the UK (which includes all of Great Britain plus Northern Ireland) last year.

Other large markets in Europe have also seen significant revenue. France tallied up £220 million in cash from casual gaming throughout 2009, while Germany doubled that total, securing £440 million from its Hasselhoff-loving populace. We guess Germany can finally be known for loving two things!

Can you believe that Bejeweled has been around for a decade? It seems like only yesterday when we accidentally sunk our first afternoon into gem-matching ... and then another ... and another -- oh where has the time gone? According to PopCap, a 10-month celebration of the puzzle game's decade of dominance has commenced. Throughout 2010, a slew of community events will be held, like the first official Bejeweled competition, and new installments in the franchise will be released.

The Bejeweled creator has also served up some starting statistics, including word that the various installments in the franchise have collectively sold more than 50 million units. By PopCap's calculation, a copy of Bejeweled is purchased every 4.3 seconds. By our calculation, eight people bought Bejeweled in the time it took you to read this post. Maybe more, if your reading comprehension could use some work.

According to a recent Ubisoft press release, launched alongside its Q3 earnings report, either this year or the next will see the introduction of what may be the company's most profitable property to date -- Imagine Town, an online extension of the popular series of casual DS games. Little is known about the platform so far, though the presser stipulates that it will be "a virtual world" which will be seamlessly folded into "UbiWorld™, the portal dedicated to young girls." (In any other context, that would be an extremely creepy thing to say.)

We realize this news probably means very, very little to you, so allow us to frame it to you in a different way: Imagine Town is going to be the thing that lets Ubisoft afford to make Beyond Good & Evil 2. See, now you're interested.

No, you won't learn who the stars of karate are by playing THQ's All-Star Karate. Rather than a licensed game featuring the biggest names in martial arts, All-Star Karate is a fighting game in the same casual Wii series as All-Star Cheer Squad. And though the final product may not turn out to be to everyone's tastes, there's something about a casual-oriented fighting game that sounds fascinating. Or, it would sound fascinating if not for all the minigames.

All-Star Karate uses the Wiimote and optional MotionPlus for motion-based karate moves in training. That training can then be put to the test in the Challenge Mode. Also neat (and likely to be overshadowed by the minigame-ness of the whole thing): a kata editor that lets you put together your own choreographed demonstration.

All-Star Karate will be available this spring. Beware of the stinky socks!

The Wall Street Journal today examines "Why Playfish Sold Itself to EA." Um, wouldn't you sell yourself for $300 million? While such an investigation might seem trivial, the WSJ calls in Playfish president and GM Kristian Segerstrale, who reveals that several hundred million is merely chump change. Playfish certainly considered a road to riches paved in the arduous process of going public as an independent company, but "as we advanced our conversations with EA, what became clear was that this would be genuine opportunity to accelerate our pace of growth and build a billion-dollar business faster," Segerstrale explains.

To realize this dream -- to get rich really quick -- Playfish clearly saw it would take more than its prowess as a stand-out developer in the burgeoning social games arena. It would take brand power. According to the WSJ, as suggested by Segerstrale, "there will be a social game based on a well-known EA brand this year." Hardly a revelation, to be sure, but it's at least confirmation of a killer strategy. Take an established IP -- likely EA's The Sims -- and adapt it for a network of social gaming experiences that spans persistent platforms like Facebook and the iPhone. Oh, so that's why Playfish sold itself to EA.

[Via Develop]

The problem with those hollow boxes littering the cubicles at your workplace is there isn't enough juice, enough substance, within to actually run any kind of program outside of Excel, Outlook or--when you're really bored--MS Paint. So if you're at work and don't really feel like working, you're forced to either scour the web for stuff or watch a neat screensaver. Then, there was hope: Civilization Network for Facebook.

However, it looks like Civilization Network is still a ways off. Variety reports that the beta for the new Facebook game won't actually start up until around June. This will likely come as a big let-down to fans, as the initial announcement back in October mentioned a hunt for beta testers would be underway "soon." We guess "soon" means "maybe in a few months or something."

First reaction: lolwhut? Of course casual gamerz haven't hurt the hardcore. Hardcore have mad skillz.

Second, more thoughtful reaction: Oh -- Cowen and Company's Doug Creutz was speaking in terms of business. That makes a little more sense. Speaking to Edge, Creutz espoused his belief that "non-traditional" formats like the iPhone and social gaming have not hurt the core gaming market. Rather, said Creutz, "We believe that these newer gaming media represent a distinct and non-competitive market segment from console gaming, which is dominated by the core gamer." He elaborated that while casual titles didn't fare as well in 2009, the sales of core titles were still strong (a reasonable belief).

According to Creutz, the "difficulties" faced by the industry are the result of the "relatively slow uptake" of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, thanks in large part to their high price points. However, now that both the PS3 and 360 have reached mass market prices, the console cycle will "reaccelerate to the benefit of the publishers that are positioned to take advantage."

Creutz sentiments seem to be in line with many of the major game publishers, as both Capcom and EA have expressed dissatisfaction with the Wii market, with a Capcom spokesperson outright declaring, "If you're not Nintendo, it does seem harder to make money on the Wii today compared to the PS3 and the Xbox 360". Meanwhile, Ubisoft has announced that it plans to "refocus" its efforts on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2010.

Remember Super Ramen Bros., the iPhone App that a team of developers crafted in just 24 hours? Have you ever wondered what that game might look like with an additional 48 hours of polish? The folks over at casual developer Dogtown Studios recently provided sustenance for your curiosity by challenging themselves to create an iPhone title in just three days. The result was Project 72, a simple, arcadey space flight game which, according to iPhone news site AppAdvice.com, is actually pretty good. You can check out some off-screen footage of the game after the jump.

The game, which is currently available on the App Store for $.99, was designed, developed and submitted between the hours of 8 p.m. on January 5 and 8 p.m. on January 8. We're pretty sure we spent that time poopsocking our way through the entire series of Lost on Netflix Instant Queue. Man, we feel unproductive.

If you prefer your zombie-slaying iPhone Apps to be a bit more botanical in nature, you're going to have to hold out for a little longer than you may have anticipated. A recent PopCap Tweet explained that the initial "late January" launch window of Plants vs. Zombies for the iPhone is no longer accurate. "The game has been further delayed, but we are *confident* it will launch in mid Feb," PopCap explained.

This isn't great news for fans of the pseudo-tower defense game -- however, the use of asterisks in the message above makes us certain that PopCap is telling the truth this time. See, asterisks are like little truth symbols. Check this out: "Man, Beaches is my *favorite* movie of all time." Totally, totally true.

[Via ShackNews]

Dr. Phil recently broke off a piece of uncomfortable truth for one of his show's guests in a sassy manner. This isn't exactly newsworthy – the mustachioed television personality is no stranger to telling things how they are – however, the subject of the intervention is definitely worth further examination: A mother who began to neglect her family in favor of her virtual plantation in FarmVille. We'll give you guys a second to let that sweet sorrow sink in.

On a recent episode of Dr. Phil, a woman named Teresa was confronted by her daughter about her addiction to the casual crop-growing sim. Apparently, Teresa would regularly unplug the house's router to oust her fellow family members from the computer. This kind of thing doesn't fly in Phil's book, who remarked, "you unplugged it because you have a ridiculous addiction to a ridiculous computer game that's interfering with your ability to be a mother." Check out this off-screen preview of the episode containing the depressing exchange.

*For the record, we joined FarmVille just so we could make the image above. We're definitely still not playing it, and we definitely don't need neighbors to come help out because, hey, those crops aren't going to fertilize themselves.