There has been a considerable line of brand new IPs coming from Electronic Arts lately. We’ve had Boom Blox, Spore and Army of Two, with Mirror’s Edge coming out soon. Then there’s the recently released Dead Space, which Electronic Arts is looking at as a model for the company’s future.
“We found a few years ago that we had a set of problems where EA’s reputation became one of just doing sports games, sequels, and licenses and the market was reacting to newer properties like Grand Theft Auto and Halo,” explained EA Games president Frank Gibeau. “At the same time, movie and sports licensors started jacking up their rates and it was becoming less profitable to chase licenses.”
So, the decision to start being original instead of churning out licensed rubbish was because it was cheaper? Only Electronic Arts could acquire artistic integrity because was more profitable to do so.
That said, if it keeps stuff like Dead Space coming, I’m not going to quibble over a little irony.
