EA’s Frank Gibeau has said that E3 this year was half a show – mostly because platform holders Sony and Microsoft are waiting until next year to show of their new hardware.
EA itself, he says weighing up their next gen offerings – with 3-5 new IP’s in the works.
“I can tell you right now there’s between three and five new IPs that we’re working on that we’re thinking about for the next-gen. Some of them might come to market, some of them might not,” the EA Labels boss told CVG.
“It’s really one of those things where I’m consciously looking at introducing new IPs into the portfolio over the next several years as the new hardware comes into the marketplace that we can refresh.”
Earlier this generation, EA took some risks launching two new properties that resonated with gamers – though they’ve only run with one of them; Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space (both of which I loved). I certainly hope EA takes similar risks again, because the modern combat shooters are getting a bit tired. EA’s Medal of Honour: Warfighter, which looks technically incredible, but decidedly bland, reflects this.
Launching new IP in the AAA big budget space certainly is a risk though, as Gibeau outlined – but said that new hardware is the perfect platform to do it.
“The introduction of new hardware from the big three is going to allow us to reembark on a bunch of new IPs, because it’s the better time to do it, because you can really explore new ideas and do different things,” he said.
“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.”
Last Updated: June 7, 2012
