EA On Movie Games And Original IP

In the first part of an interview with Develop, EA Games boss Frank Gibeau has talked about how things have changed at the label since he took over two year’s ago, as well as the company’s attitude with regard to games based on movie licences, and original IPs.

“Two years ago, when I took over the organisation, quality was in the low-70s, we had a lot of franchises and many of them weren’t healthy,” says Gibeau. “Need For Speed was sliding in quality, Medal Of Honor barely existed, and when I came in, it was apparent to me that the best studios in the world have their own cultures, and not a lot of ours had that…we have to foster that. We have to decentralise the studios – creating what we call city-states, where developers have their own creative autonomy and their own business. And we have to give developers more time to put the polish into games to make them great.” Two years on, and this year has seen a rebooted Medal of Honor, and fresh and exciting new Need for Speed both score 8/10’s here at TSA and positive reviews elsewhere on the web, so it looks like that policy paid off.

He also had the following to say on the subject of rushed licenced games versus original and polished titles: “We’re now releasing some pretty great games, and I think that this is down to our new philosophy. That’s exactly what’s happened with Crysis 2, which hasn’t been pushed for a Christmas release. If you want to make a hit, you have to give a game time to get to quality. The days of licensed-based, 75-rated games copies are dead like the dinosaur.” Asked if that meant EA would be steering clear of their heavily-movie game-based old portfolio, including Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and more, Gibeau confirmed that is indeed the case: “Considering the total amount of money we have to spend on those types of James Bond games, and the total amount of man-hours we had to put into them, we thought; hell, let’s work on our own IP. The guys who made James Bond games for us, well yeah, they went on and made Dead Space. And look where we are now; what would you rather publish, retail and play – the latest James Bond or Dead Space 2?”

However, Gibeau was quick to note that the new-IP strategy hadn’t been an immediate success, noting that both Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge had “some degree of success” but didn’t meet EA’s “expectations” for different reasons. “First-person parkour across buildings is fun, but to be blunt, Mirror’s Edge’s’ execution fell short,” he says. “There were issues with the learning curve, the difficulty, the narrative, and then there was no multiplayer either. The key learning from us was that if you’re going to be bold with that kind of concept, you need to take it as far as it can go in development.”

Dead Space on the other hand “made money” and the company felt like the IP “struck a chord”, but an online mode and “more engrossing” story was a must for the sequel. But for those (like me) still holding out for a Mirror’s Edge sequel, there’s a glint of hope: “One thing I will say is that we won’t give up on those IPs. A new idea obviously has a lot of risk attached to it, but if you get it all right it can be huge.”

Here’s hoping, then.

Source: Develop

23 Comments

  1. Why pay someone else a licence fee if you can create your own IP & keep more of the money for yourself?

    Good tactics.

    Mirrors Edge does need developing more but there was enough promise in the basic premise for them to have a crack, but they seem intent on multiplayer in everything (for project ten dollar to work) & getting that to work in Mirrors Edge 2 will be very difficult

    • What about race modes?
      Not all multiplayer involves shooting…
      Simple racing, or you could have modes where one player is a Runner, and there’s a bunch of slower cops trying to catch them, who can get the most points for tricks, etc.

    • I did not miss a MP component in Mirror’s Edge. In fact just reading this article made me remember this great game. I really enjoyed it and would love a sequel. New story, new tricks, new features and they’re good. I hate it when they say a game didn’t sell well because it was lacking in the MP compartment. If gamers really got that shallow then we’re all doomed!

  2. I was actually thinking about this earlier. To me ea used to just be a sequel pumping monster whereas now some real quality games are coming out of them

  3. All sounds pretty good to me =]

    Fingers crossed the Mirror’s Edge sequel turns out to be more than just a hint – especially if they do push forward on the quality, I really enjoyed the first so any improvement is like icing on a cake.

  4. Are they making a Mirror’s Edge sequel? It was my favourite game of 2008, but I’d like to see a sequel that might fix some of the blemishes.

  5. So EA have cut their losses, and we get great new games. Sounds like we’re all winners here!

  6. Mirror’s Edge 2, pleeeeease EA or Dice :]

  7. they’ll still spend millions to get licenses for their annual identikit sports games though right?

    how much are they paying tiger woods this year?

  8. mirrors edge was fantastic, marred slightly by the odd bit of Q.T.E.

    i never missed an online multiplayer mode, the ghost runs were good enough.

    i welcome a sequel with open palms.

    • so long as it has a third person mode next time so i can play it without feeling sick i’ll be interested in a sequel too.

      • no way! the 1st person view is what made the game. although if the introduction of an optional 3rd person view opens it up to a larger market, thus a larger sales projection, which in turn green-lights the project then il start the petition.

        i think it was intended to be a trilogy anyway, also i never got the nausea alot of people complained about.

  9. Absoloutely loved Mirrors Edge and would pick up a sequel without hesitation! Aside from Uncharted 1/2 no other title has left me so excited after about 5 minutes of play. It was a truly excellent idea that was slightly flawed in some aspects.

    Give me better combat (even take away guns if you want!), some CGI cutscenes and a bit more plot and I’m sorted.

  10. Like the sound of this, except for the loss of Lord of the Rings games! I’m still waiting for one to rival the old hack and slash ones on the ps2, so they can’t stop them yet!

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