A happy Canadian Thanksgiving and, as it turns out, happy Columbus Day to all of our Canadian and American readers. This is a special Canadian Thanksgiving/Columbus Day edition we're pulling out specially, just because we love our you, our readers that much. The fact that we weren't aware it was Columbus Day until a few minutes before we started writing today's New Pop! has nothing to do with the fact that we didn't take the day off. Really, we're serious. Of course, more surprising to us than the fact that the two days share the same weekend is the fact that there is actually news for us to report. Some people just don't know how to take a day off. As such, we're starting today's News Pop! right now.

Run for your lives! It's Armageddon!

The final chapter of the Mortal Kombat franchise for current gen systems started shipping today. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, releasing for Playstation 2 today, for Xbox next week and for Wii at the beginning of next year, is available at retail stores. The Playstation 2 version is available in either its regular form or in a special Premium Edition, which comes with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (scheduled to be released for Xbox Live later this year), 30 video character “kards” and the History of Fatalities video. Some stores will also include other extra stuff with the Premium Edition, though that will vary store by store. The game will have the most customization available in the franchise's history, feature an entirely new fighting system and have more characters than any Mortal Kombat game before. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is available for $39.99 USD or $49.99 CAD for the regular version and $49.99 USD for the Premium Edition and is rated M for Mature. There is no word, yet, on the Canadian pricing for the Premium Edition, so if you're interested, just ask in store.

EA has a new “President Online” for Asia

Erick Hachenburg is out and Hubert Larenaudie is in as President Online of Electronic Arts in Asia. Mr. Larenaudie will be responsible for EA's online product, technology and distribution operations in the region, bringing his nineteen years of experience in the entertainment industry along with him, but don't mistake him for acting president of EA Publishing in Asia. That title still belongs to Jon Niermann. EA has not given much detail into Mr. Hachenburg's decision to leave his position other than saying that he ”has decided to leave EA after successfully completing a two year assignment in China to build the foundation for EA’s studio and publishing infrastructure in the region.” Though it may seem to be an odd reason to leave a position, to us, we're have no particular qualms with it and we wish both Mr. Hachenburg and Mr. Larenaudie well.

That's all for our special Canadian Thanksgiving/Columbus Day. However you celebrate the day, enjoy yourself doing it. We'll probably just end up playing more video games, but that's the way we like it.

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