Franck Gibeau, President of EA labels, has spoken about the company’s next-gen plans. So while Microsoft and Sony are merrily pretending there’s no new hardware, EA is ready to stoke the fires of some next-gen excitement. Good for them.
Gibeau told CVG “The introduction of new hardware from the big three is going to allow us to reembark on a bunch of new IPs,” pointing out that new hardware presents an opportunity for the exploration of new ideas.
In a market this massive, launching new IPs is very risky and it’s a big investment to make these games. So it’s a natural thing to see in this point in the cycle a little bit more emphasis on the knowns, but in the new cycle you’re going to see a lot of new IP from Electronic Arts.
Apparently, the publisher currently has three to five ideas for new Intellectual Property in the works. It’s early days so some of those ideas might evolve into full projects, some could be shelved and further ideas might yet be undiscussed. For Gibeau, it makes sense for EA to hold off unknown entities until there are new machines to put those ideas on to because new IP is such a hard thing to sell to today’s market.
With development budgets being as they are, success needs to be virtually guaranteed before a project can be given the go-ahead. The risks are so high and the consequences so final that it’s better to stick with what consumers know. That’s why we’re seeing so many sequels.
Source: CVG
colmshan1990
I think one is Overstrike, any idea on the others?
colossalblue
Overstrike is supposed to be for this gen, I thought?
Respawn’s game, surely?
Hard to speculate on others, they’re apparently just a the idea stage so we won’t have heard of them yet.
colmshan1990
We haven’t seen gameplay, have we? It’s been a year since the E3 announcement…
I think it could well be next-gen.
The announcement trailer did say PS3 and 360 mind, but if there’s still nothing to show…
Watchful
Doesn’t common sense suggest that you would experiment with new IPs now, when the installed base is much broader and deeper rather than wait until the hardware is in the hands of a relative few early adopters and the cost of developing games has ratcheted up another notch because you need yet more, higher quality artwork to colour the additional pixels being pushed around.
Surely you’d gamble on new IP now otherwise you risk having nothing but an expensive, cult hit that sells a handful of copies.
Or is he saying that you can sell whatever shit you want to early adopters because they’ll be desperate enough for new games to play on their new hardware that they’ll buy anything if it’s one of only a handful of games on the shelf?
colossalblue
I think he’s saying the second thing.
Basically, they can invest in new IP now, release it to a market of 120 million console owners who will ignore it and buy Call of Duty 9. Or they can release it in the first year of new hardware, to a market of 3 or 4 million who will buy it because they need something to play and Call of Duty 10 isn’t out yet.
rossthebassist
This is sad, but so true!
Watchful
Yeah, sadly I was asking a rhetorical question.
I think the biggest problem is that games have no shelf-life these days. It used to be that they’d hang around for six months to a year before seeing a price cut and then be around for another six to twelve months.
Now if they don’t sell well within their first four weeks (or less) they’re toast. Games have got to be a hit right out of the blocks, there are no slow burners any more. (Cue someone with a recent example of a slow burner I can’t think of because I’m too tired.)
cc_star
A little while ago now but Dead Space is reasonably good example, sold ‘only’ 1.5m copies according to what EA said initially, but over 4.5m played it thanks to word of mouth & the long tail of pre-owned, this was obviously a strong enough message to EA that they could turn it into a franchise.
With EA leading the efforts to minimise/kill off pre-owned it’s going to be difficult for other games to do this.
But the only games that have hung around for the past year is FIFA/Bf3 & even SSX thanks to a sustained price-drop to £23-25.
cc_star
Just hope they’re something other than FP-fucking-S military shooters.
The Lone Steven
I really hope it’s not FPS that is set in modern day as there are enough as it is. I hope they will try to do a wide variety of new ips and not all in the same genre. Oh and please don’t do a Gears Clone.
fs
These New Ip’s are just as important to a new console as they are to developers. I don’t think you can sell a console that only has sequels and prequels etc. I think gamers want new games and new ideas, when you spend that sort of money on a new console I think the majority are happy to try out the new additions, make no mistake I 100% agree that giant game series like MGS, Halo, and FF will help sell, but it’s also just as important that the a newly released console has some brand new games too.
Look at some of the franchises that have been built just in this generation of gaming, Gears of War, Call of Duty (It really hit the big time in tis generation anyway) Uncharted, Assassins Creed, Elder Scrolls and Fallout (Similar to CoD, the NextGen elevated these games) Mass Effect and Battlefield. I look at the PS4 with a lot of enthusiasm, not only will we have the better graphics and the continuation of some gamings bestsellers like the mentioned above, but we’ll also be able to experience newcomers, future bestsellers. This, really, excites me.
Taylor Made
Cal of duty exist on the last gen, it only involved thanks to online..
baconsarnie
Would be happy if they done a Mirror’s Edge 2 sequel instead of one of the new IP’s.
hazelam
let me guess.
a modern day fps, a near future fps and and chess… as an fps. ^_^
either that or it’ll be single player only, multiplayer comes with the next version, chess: champion edition later in the year.
The Lone Steven
Balls! You just discovered my lineup for the next year for the Bananatron mark 9. Twas going to include a shutdown if Apples are detected feature. :P