Some changes are also in store for RPG heavyweight BioWare and MMO studio Mythic Entertainment. Electronic Arts has announced that the two studios will be restructured into a single group that will handle RPG and MMO games development.

Although not officially confirmed yet, the grapevine has named the casualties of Electronic Arts' "cost-cutting measures." Studios that experienced significant layoffs are Mythic Entertainment, the guys behind Warhammer Online, and EA Tiburon, the studio responsible for Madden and other titles under the EA Sports banner.

Mystic Game Development announced today that their EMotion FX character animation SDK has been licensed by Tilted Mill for use on their current projects. Titled Mill is known for their work on real-time strategy titles such as the recent Caesar IV.

"Using EMotionFX as the framework for our model and animation system on our current project has allowed our programming team to focus on the engine details needed to make our game unique." said Chris Beatrice, President of Tilted Mill Entertainment.

Used by leading game developers such as Mythic Entertainment and Sigil Games Online, EMotion FX 3 was build from the ground up to harness the power of multi-core and multi-cpu consoles and PCs.

"EMotion FX 3 has eliminated the need to create custom animation and model systems for our game," said Beatrice. "Their support team has been one of the most responsive 3rd parties we've worked with - their rapid assistance and ready-made tools for our art pipeline have made all aspects of our development go very smoothly."