EA Doesn’t Prioritize New IP says Ex-BioWare SF Producer

GI International found Ethan Levy speaking on EA on his Quarter Spiral blog. And while not necessarily slanderous, it certainly discusses what most gamers see as the biggest flaw with EA: their apparent desire to do whatever it takes to make as big as profit as possible.

“EA’s stated strategy is fewer, bigger brands. Of the many new IPs developed for this generation, only Army of Two, Dead Space and Dragon Age continue to see new versions. As far as I can tell from publicly facing information, creating innovative, new IPs just isn’t a priority for the organization,” Levy wrote.

Levy implied that EA churns out sequels left and right to make profit, rather than take risk on creating new IPs.

“Big brands + big marketing budget + high production values = $$$. This is the EA formula. They may have been late to the mobile & tablet freemium party, but now that they are here they will out-compete the Dragon Vales and Tiny Monsters of the world. This formula may have finally run its course in the core space, where 80+ rated Lord of the Rings, James Bond and Godfather games have all fallen out of favor with gamers’ wallets.”

Sadly, it seems Levy is right. The proof is in the pudding as we try to look at completely new IPs and how they did. Levy mentioned that would rather deal with fewer, larger titles rather than having to deal “with big, risky new IPs like Mirror’s Edge or Brutal Legend.”

As EA’s biggest developers like BioWare begin to churn out third and fourth sequels, one has to wonder how long EA will be able to keep the attentions of the hardcore gamer audience. Wouldn’t it just be easy to churn out sequels to a casual audience that only buys a few games anyway? Only time will tell.