What started as a strong, co-publishing relationship between EA and a handful of talented developers may be ending this year, as the EA Partners program is reportedly shutting down. This publishing arm, which has been dedicated to publishing and distributing games developed by independent third-party developers, was first discussed back in 2009.
Multiple anonymous sources close to the situation have given GameInformer this information, telling the tale of the demise of this contract-based publishing service. It’s not exactly a shocking turn of events, as the company has been facing many major changes over the past few months in order to prepare for the next generation of consoles. EA’s CEO John Riccitiello stepped down just last month after a few key missteps, while layoffs have also been seen across both mobile and big-budget developers.
"EA is sharpening its focus to provide games for new platforms and mobile. In some cases, this involves reducing team sizes as we evolved into a more efficient organisation," the publisher told MCV India.
Even if the games haven’t always turned out to be the biggest successes, the concept behind EA Partners has always been sound. Products like Brutal Legend, Shadows of the Damned, and Bulletstorm have made it to market with the help of EA. Other titles currently in production, like Insomniac’s Fuse and whatever Respawn Entertainment has in the works, are said to be unaffected by this recent news.
Good ideas don’t always turn a profit, though. Times are changing, and it looks as if EA is making what moves it sees as necessary to head into the holiday season with an edge over the competition.
