And they should. Sure, both of their new IPs didn’t sell as well as they hoped, but EA Europe’s VP Patrick Soderlund thinks that they’ve done a good job with the titles, and says that they will be seen as successful for their lifetime performance.
In an interview with Gamasutra, Soderlund admits that their release timing could have been better:
They’re both new IPs; it’s hard to break new ground with new IPs, especially in that Q3 window, when you have games like Gears of War 2, Call of Duty 5, and a bunch of other really strong products with a 2, or 3, or 4, or 5 on it. So, I think that we could have done a better job as far as ship timing on, probably, both of those.
I really think that Dead Space was totally an issue of bad timing. In my mind, it was a polished game, and definitely a strong new IP. Soderlund says that EA “executed well on our quarter targets; probably better than we could have hoped for.”
As for Mirror’s Edge, it may have needed a bit more polish. Soderlund: “Is it perfect? No. Are there things in there that we will address for future versions? Absolutely. Was it a good first attempt? Yes! That’s kind of how I summarize it.”
EA, keep on keeping on. New IPs is where its at. Oh, and more Dead Space, please.
