I tell you this, people. I never ever in my life expected any new game, like I expect more old games being published on Thursday. Period.

1. The return of incredible karmic awareness.
Troika - is three of a kind, a collection of three.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troika
EA Games
EA Sports
EA Play
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts#Company_structure
2. Where history overlaps with the present time.
Electronic - present time
Arts - history
When they overlap we have: Electronic Arts
3. They are two different characters, but they complement each other beautifully.
EA

"These socks were made for walkin', and walk is what they'll do...." :D

They'll tell you anything that'll make you happy. After all - you won't live to find out they were just lying to make you happy for these last few hours...
Either that or they'll tell you it's crap, so that you won't feel bad about dying beforehand.

I see what you did there... cute!

Bloody hell, that's a good point... maybe they won't think of it! (They don't read these forums, right? :-P)

Until a new clue is posted, we can all continue the ridiculous speculation thread.
So.. Farmville was done by Zynga, who's former board member was Bing Gordon, ex-CCO of EA...
[/not being serious there]

#3 is quite plausible, but #1 and #2 are stretching it a bit. I've seen a few better arguments for those two clues in this thread that also lead to EA. I'm still not fully convinced it is EA, but it is definitely high on the list of likely suspects for me.

They'll just tell him it was Planescape: Torment. It would be the humane thing to do, even if it isn't the truth.

There is also contemporary art, you know? Plus, harnessing electricity is hardly bleeding edge tech unto itself.

Clothes for the oldest good game of them all. :)

I was thinking that this line "The answer is (as usual) not the easiest and definitely not the most obvious, though" sort of shot down being EA, but since System Shock is actually the most obvious choice on the wishlist and we'll probably be getting Ultima instead, it kind of fits.

Out of interest has anyone asked one of the Twitmonkeys for EA if they know anything? I would suggest Activision but they don't do Twitter. A drug dealer doesn't talk to his clients.

But what if sadness is a fetish?

It's gotta be Final Fantasy 7. That game has never been surpassed, and is the only thing I can think of that would warrant this kind of incredible countdown. As for the hints:
The return of incredible karmic awareness
What better example of this than a dark corporation sucking a world dry versus a group of bandits that are trying to save it?
Where history overlaps with the present time
The steampunk/victorian/postapocalyptic/scifi feel of Final Fantasy 7 has never been surpassed.
They are two different characters, but they complement each other beautifully.
Sephiroth. Cloud.

Silently I'm counting for EA or Sierra's games. Ah, dreaming... :-)