Ahhh, a yearly tradition we don’t officially support, but always love to read about. Every year, torrent network Torrent Freak releases their official list of pirated PC games, giving us normals and the video game producing suits a bit of insight into which games are topping the torrent charts.

This year’s “winner” is none other than the highly anticipated Spore from EA. With unbelievable hype and quite some backlash due to it’s SecurROM DRM (easily bypassed it seems), Spore was downloaded 1.7 million times by Torrent Freak users, followed by other hits such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, The Sims 2, Assassins Creed Creed and more.

The full list, with place, name, amount of downloads and date of release.

1. Spore
(1,700,000) (Sept. 2008)

2. The Sims 2
(1,150,000) (Sept. 2004)

3. Assassins Creed
(1,070,000) (Nov. 2007)

4. Crysis
(940,000) (Nov. 2007)

5. Command & Conquer 3
(860,000) (Mar. 2007)

6. Call of Duty 4
(830,000) (Nov. 2007)

7. GTA San Andreas
(740,000) (Jun. 2005)

8. Fallout 3
(645,000) (Oct. 2008)

9. Far Cry 2
(585,000) (Oct. 2008)

10. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
(470,000) (Oct. 2008)

EA really wants Take-Two to hope aboard the mother-ship. So much so, they’ve extended their takeover offer deadline for the third time, this time giving Take-Two and their board until June 16th become one and plug in to the hive. Though EA still refuses to raise their offer of $25.74 a share for the Rockstar Games parent, many analysts are dropping the word that EA needs to suck it up and pony up a little bit more per share, in order to entice some of the more uncertain Take-Two stockholders. Take-Two recently hit paydirt again with the release of GTA IV, their trusty cash cow which seems to roll around every few years and a hundred million or so dollars later. (Via Gamasutra)

Eagle-eyed gaming fans have scrounged up some SEC filings pertaining to the recent assignment of John Riccitiello as Chief Executive Officer of EA, after former CEO Larry Probst stepped down after 16 long years. The offer letter paints quite a nice deal, offering Riccitiello $62,000 a month and a healthy stock options and benefits package. Funny to see the CEO having to attend a “Get in the Game” orientation meeting but depressing to know this gent is clearing more a month than I’ll see in oh, 10 years or so.

Copy of the letter after the jump..

Read more of “$62,500 a month for Riccitiello. Not bad…not bad…“

Our brothers from a different mother over at GameSetWatch have dug up an incredibly juicy bit of information. That being that BRIAN ENO WILL BE CREATING THE SOUNDTRACK FOR WILL WRIGHT’S SPORE! If ever I wanted to stoop so low as to use the type of language you’d hear in World of Warcraft, it would be now. Eno, who has been digging deeply into generative music as of late, will be working together with the Spore team to create a soundtrack like only Eno could, one which uses procedural generation just as the game itself. As with Eno’s recent “77 Million Paintings” concept, Eno demonstrated his software tool called “The Shuffler” which creates random fragments of songs that would never be repeated the same way twice. Cunning move Mr. Wright, very cunning.

Read more: Brian Eno creating soundtract for Spore

Whoa ho ho. How can this be an EA title? Granted, this is a Japanese game (for now!!), but wow, EA is looking primed to actually have someone in the Japanese market show some interest in their games. By taking on the visual style of an Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon, EA is bringing the right amount of sickly sweet character-driven fun to a stale property that just might work in their favor. Wow, the Wii is going to be huge folks. You didn’t hear it here first.

Read more: The Sims Wii

With the Nintendo Wii around the corner you can bet we’re excited. Even more so after we saw the first video (that we know of) for Far Cry Wii. Of course we’re not expecting major graphics advancements from the little Wii that could, but damn if the nunchuck control-scheme doesn’t look fun.

Watch the trailed for Far Cry Wii after the jump..

Read more of “Far Cry for Nintendo Wii trailer“

A few days late but whatever, you don’t know me, you don’t know me. Last week, EA announced that they’ve signed an agreement with Microsoft subsidiary, Massive, to begin including dynamic in-game adveritising in future EA titles for the Xbox 360 and PC, starting with the upcoming “Need for Speed: Carbon”. The ads will be seamless and will not disrupt gameplay according to EA, unless you count the horrid eyesore that is the giant hamburger ad glowing and flickering in neon-pink, in such a way that it draws your attention off of the game and to the virtual sign next to the virtual lightpost that you’re about to hit. Additional titles utilizing Massive’s dynamic gaming adveritising network will be announced in the near future.

Read more: EA signs in-game adveritising deal with Massive

Legendary sim-strategy game Sim City will be making it’s way to everyone’s favorite handheld console Winter 2006/2007 according to EA, though exact details haven’t been officially released. This possibly means that the release could occur before Christmas 2006, meaning hundreds of thousands of DS owners will soon be playing god with the little inhabitants of Sim City. Rumours also have it that the DS game will be based on the PC title Sim City 3000 which will no doubt be a must-own DS title when it’s released.

Read more: Sim City coming to the Nintendo DS

It almost feels like EA day here at Playthrough HQ, but it’s not, we swear, we just love juicy gossip involving the industry in our own back yard. There are currently rumours swirling around the industry that an acquisition of German games developer Crytek may be in the works by mega-publisher EA, who already have publishing and licensing agreements in-place with Crytek. EA has been quite active recently in the German market, infusing the once-struggling local industry with an influx of resources and work. A recent article in German newspaper Die Welt quotes EA’s VP and GM of International Publishing Gerhard Florin as stating that Crytek is a “very, very interesting candidate” for an acquisition. However, an interview later with Crytek’s co-founder, Faruk Yerli, confirmed that a conversation has taken place between EA and Crytek, but refused to indicate if an acquisition is pending. Yerli also mentioned that Crytek is considering an initial public offering on the German stock market.

Read more: EA executives hint at Crytek purchase

Several days ago EA announced the purchase of Spellforce developer Phenomic, another in a long line of EA investment in German game developers. The studio will retain it’s existing management structure, which have done quite an amazing job of building up the studio and weathering the rough time of Phenomic’s prior publisher, JoWood. Phenomic will continue creating RTS and adventure games for the PC, console and online platforms as part of the EA family of studios.

As of now there has been no reaction from JoWood, only to their stock price, which in once again in a small downward spiral as management appears focused on their reorganization rather than developing and publishing quality games (perhaps Bingo Online may be a more fitting title, as the casual market seems better suited to JoWooD). Spellforce 2 from Phenomic was recently released by JoWood / Aspyr Media to quite positive reviews and sales figures.

Read more: EA purchases Phenomic Studios, makers of Spellforce