In 2016 richtte Electronic Arts een nieuw label op onder de naam EA Originals. Het doel was om indie titels van partnerstudio's uit te geven, een insteek die ze nu laten varen.
In een verklaring geven ze aan dat ze weliswaar gestart zijn met kleine indiegames, maar dat ze deze niche nu zullen verruilen voor 'gewaagde en gedurfde' games. Ze verwijzen naar hun aankomende line-up met titels als Wild Hearts en immortals of Aveum, twee games die vele malen groter zijn dan eerder uitgebrachte namen als Unravel of Fe. Het is duidelijk dat hun originele visie wat dat betreft veranderd is, tegelijkertijd geven ze aan dat ze veelbelovende indie games niet volledige laten gaan.
Onderstaand de volledige verklaring:
We've discovered a desire for bigger, better, and more innovative titles that complement the EA portfolio. So where we started off with smaller, indie games. We are now graduating to independently-created games of all shapes and sizes and scope and budget. We are moving away from niche and towards bold and audacious. And we are attracting a lot of positive sentiment from press and consumers. We are riding high on the success of It Takes Two, but even the other titles we've released in our history have been critically very well received.
We trade on our reputation. I think EA Originals is unique in the industry in the way that we partner with studios. Everything that we do is in collaboration with the studios we work with. We open the doors to all the resources and talent that any of our internal studios have and channel that into our partner studios. All the while, we shield them from the bigger EA corporation and make sure to protect their creative freedom.
Indeed, looking at the upcoming lineup, EA Originals is set to publish Wild Hearts and Immortals of Aveum, both of which look far bigger than Unravel or Fe. That said, Gamon promised indie games will still be a part of EA Originals.
We are making games of a bigger scale, but we are also still partnering -- and we have one or two in the pipeline -- on smaller games as well. Those fundamental values still stand. The structure of any deal is completely bespoke.
The opportunity is there for any small or large partner studios to access the same resources as our internal studios. It's like a menu. It depends what they want and when they need it.
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