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EA Partners veteran David DeMartini now head of Oculus VR publishing arm
Former EA Senior Vice President David DeMartini has joined Oculus VR as head of worldwide publishing, the newly-formed branch of the Oculus Rift manufacturer that aims to help developers create games that are compatible with the company's headset. In a statement to Gamasutra, DeMartini described the position as "not particularly different from what I did for seven years" as part of the EA Partners program. "I'm figuring out how to partner effectively with big developers, small developers, all the way down to the individual who just wants to make something great for the Rift," he said. Whether the publishing division will provide financial backing to projects in order to make them Rift-compatible is unknown, though the company did just receive $75 million in funding from Netscape founder Marc Andreessen's venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
DeMartini: Origin to be a better version of Steam
David DeMartini, EA's senior vice president of global ecommerce, said the goal of EA's Origin service is to be a better version of its competition. DeMartini noted that "the only way you get to the innovation is to have other people try and do a better version of what someone has previously done," singling out Valve's Steam platform in an interview with MCV."I didn't expect to be able to out-feature Steam within the first 12 months. But I'm quite optimistic we will differentiate ourselves as a service. We've built the foundation and now we are starting to add value to the service off of that foundation," he added.DeMartini drew comparisons to social networking platforms when talking about innovation in the digital distribution space. "If MySpace had stayed the one answer in social networking and no one switched to Facebook, then we'd all be stuck on MySpace right now and we wouldn't have had the Facebook phenomenon," he said.Don't expect Origin to start running huge mark-down sales like Steam does though, as DeMartini recently criticized the massive sales practice.
EA: first year with Origin 'a huge success,' service to become 'stickier'
EA's Origin service is "a huge success" in its first year, according to EA senior VP of global e-commerce David DeMartini. Despite a rough start with end-user license agreement mishaps and banning some users from playing games they purchased offline, DeMartini said the service has seen 12 million downloads and counts 50 publishing partners among its catalog.Still, he called the first year "foundational," and he's excited to add "more sticky features" to Origin. Not, like, "We're gonna pour maple syrup on the servers," but in the sense that players will see Origin more as a service (like Steam or Xbox Live) rather than yet another digital retail outlet."We want to put features in place where we fully take advantage of your friends lists and gameplay activities amongst all of your friends so you can compare achievements," DeMartini said. "We want you to be able to challenge your friends, and to challenge your friends to play other EA games to try and achieve things that might even be across EA games."DeMartini insisted that EA games removed from Steam, such as Dragon Age 2, remain off the service due to Steam's rules. "We'd love to have those titles up on Steam, but unfortunately, those titles don't follow the rules that Steam has so therefore those titles are not up on Steam."As for the future beyond those "stickiness" additions, DeMartini noted additional publishers he'd like to see join Origin. "If Activision was open-minded, we're absolutely willing to take on their great titles. Diablo III is a great game. Call of Duty will be very popular. Take-Two ... I mean there are a couple of large publishers out there that are not on Origin."
Origin's DeMartini: Steam sales 'cheapen intellectual property'
EA's Senior Vice President of Global Ecommerce David DeMartini said that deep-discounting of games on Valve's Steam service "cheapens intellectual property" in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. As head of EA's Origin digital distribution service, DeMartini suggested an alternative to Steam's approach in dealing with "aging inventory.""We don't believe in the drop-it-down, spring-it-up, 75 percent off approach, but we've got something else that we do believe in that we'll be rolling out," he said, without revealing the company's plans outright.DeMartini also commented on the company's recent announcement to waive distribution fees for crowd-funded titles, saying it was "the first thing Origin did that no one could complain about." Fully-funded games that hit Origin's virtual shelves will not be subject to the service's fees for the first 90 days.He added, "We figured this is something we could do that is going to please the hardcore; it's going to please the independent development community."
Dragon Age 2 abducted from Steam, EA points finger at 'restrictive' terms of service as the culprit
The mysterious disappearance of Dragon Age 2 from Steam this week, just before the launch of the game's latest DLC, is yet another thorn in the side of EA's relationship with Valve's Steam digital distribution game service. As many had assumed, the game wasn't removed due to the recent (re)launch of EA's own digital distribution service, Origin, but in fact because DA2's latest DLC doesn't play nice with the Steam Terms of Service. As the DLC -- named "Legacy" -- is delivered via an in-game store, rather than via Steam's own client, the game was removed. "Unfortunately, Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to sell downloadable content," EA senior VP of global online David DeMartini noted in a statement. He also pointed out that the game is currently available on a variety of other "major download services," from GameStop to Direct2Drive, and that he hopes "to work out an agreement to keep our games on Steam." It's not clear why EA refused to deliver the DLC via Steam's client, but it appears the company won't be changing its stance just yet.%Gallery-127945%
EA's DeMartini claims Origin has 'never been about' competing with Steam
In a recent forum post, David DeMartini, EA's Senior VP of Global E-Commerce, expressed that gamers should be able to buy EA titles on any site they want, including Steam ... unless, that is, Steam doesn't want them to. Last month's disappearance of Crysis 2 from Valve's service, DeMartini explained, was actually the result of a business deal whereby certain DLC for the game couldn't appear on Steam, and thus Valve removed the title from its service completely. The veep went on to say that EA's Origin platform is a choice for game buyers, not an exclusive outlet for all of the publisher's content going forward. Along with its developers, EA is "working to integrate more and more between the game and Origin," but DeMartini is "absolutely not at this point saying, 'hey, it's Origin versus Steam.' It's never been about that." However, DeMartini's words and EA's actions don't exactly line up. According to the company's policy, EA wants to "continue offering our games for sale on all major download sites." Star Wars: The Old Republic doesn't count, it seems, as that title will only be available for download from its Origin service.
EA expanding 'Partners' model to mobile, social businesses
EA Partners has been responsible for helping to bring some noteworthy titles to market in the past few years. The co-publishing arm has helped to distribute the likes of the Rock Band and Left 4 Dead series, as well as the recent Bulletstorm, and will aid in the upcoming releases of Crysis 2 and Portal 2. It's perhaps surprising, then, that David DeMartini, the man who managed these successful co-publshing deals, has stepped down as the division's group general manager to pursue a "new commercial role." EA Partners looks to not miss a beat, however, as former SVP and COO of the EA Games label, Brian Neider, has stepped right in. Neider has quickly settled into his new role, calling the Partners program an "all around win-win," which allows "EA to partner with some of the world's best console, PC and digital developers while providing those independent developers with a global distribution/publishing partner." In fact, the shakeup marks a time of expansion for the "Partners" busines model. Through its Chillingo (mobile) and Playfish (social) divisions, EA will expand its co-publishing philosophy to capitalize on the demand for social and mobile games. "Like EA Partners, Chillingo and Playfish work with the best development talent in the mobile and social gaming space," Neider told Develop.
Respawn Entertainment 'starting at absolute zero' with EA Partners
A recent interview by Eurogamer with EA Partners boss David DeMartini offers some good perspective on the actual state of Respawn Entertainment. For those just joining us, Respawn is the studio created by Jason West and Vince Zampella, former heads of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare studio Infinity Ward, after an uncomfortably public break-up with Activision earlier this year. DeMartini says, "I know everybody is going to say, 'Well what are they working on?' The thing everybody needs to remember is they were starting at absolute zero." DeMartini explains that when EA took the pair on they didn't have a workspace, furniture, HR or any of the basic administration that goes into a development house. The executive claims to have no idea what the duo is working on -- and if the dude fronting the cash doesn't know, it'll be quite a wait before the public finds out. In comparison, Insomniac's multi-platform project with EA seems to be coming along more rapidly, with DeMartini expecting its unveiling much sooner.
EA's Suda51, Mikami horror collaboration will be at TGS; no mention of Wii, PC anymore
Last Friday, EA announced a "Tokyo Showcase" event to be held the night before the annual Tokyo Game Show kicks off. We speculated that it was a prime opportunity to share EA Partners' highest-profile project: the Shinji Mikami-produced, Suda51-directed, Akira Yamaoka-scored, Q Entertainment co-developed horror title first announced in 2008. David DeMartini told Eurogamer that the title would be revealed at TGS (we're guessing at EA's aforementioned showcase) and explained the unusual pairing. "The key thing is not for us to tone down Suda or try and Westernise Suda, but to try and make sure the game gets broad enough exposure that more people appreciate it," DeMartini said. "Obviously with EA's publishing and sales team [...] people are going to get an opportunity to finally listen to what you guys have been writing about Suda for a long time." DeMartini also confirmed that the game would, unsurprisingly, be released on Xbox 360 and PS3. What is surprising, however, is the omission of the Wii. The announcement press release stated that the title was in development for all three console platforms as well as PC: "The title is being developed for the PC, Xbox 360 video game system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Wii." We've asked EA to comment on the title's intended platforms, but more than likely we'll be waiting until the September 15th event.
EA had 'extensive conversations' with Bungie before Activision partnership
What, did you think the company that created Halo only had one gentleman suitor after parting ways with Microsoft? Don't be silly -- the studio, which recently formed a ten-year partnership with publishing supergiant Activision, was also approached by EA last year. David DeMartini, general manager for EA Partners, explained to CVG, "we had extensive conversations with them, but could never really figure out a deal that made sense for both of us. It just didn't come to fruition." Though Bungie was ultimately snatched up by one of EA's biggest competitors, DeMartini claimed that he's not bitter. "I don't want to see them fail - I want them to be successful," he explained. "And when they start up a second team, we'll have other discussions with them about that game as well - because they're a great studio." My, what a twisted, complex love triangle that would be.
Interview: Vince Zampella and Jason West talk Respawn Entertainment
Today we spoke with recently laid off Infinity Ward cofounders Vince Zampella and Jason West about their new project, Respawn Entertainment, and their new partner, Electronic Arts. While there's no game to promote just yet, and no physical location determined for the new studio, and just two employees battling it out for Employee of the Month, there's still plenty to talk about -- including the best magician-themed analogy we've heard in awhile. Read on!
EA is 'very, very pro independent development,' says DeMartini
In what seems to be a multiple year-spanning sea change on the side of EA, the company is not only reaching out to independent developers like Grasshopper Manufacture and Valve, but also working with them to keep their properties autonomous. Chris Remo of Gamasutra sat down with David DeMartini, General Manager of EA Partners, to discuss the idea behind EAP and, in doing so, revealed some interesting truths about the EA initiative."I think that there is very much a renaissance within the EAP based on the leadership of Electronic Arts ... John Riccitiello and Frank Gibeau are very, very pro-independent development," says DeMartini, referring to titles like American McGee's Alice sequel and Suda 51's upcoming game (still untitled), as well as Valve-developed Left 4 Dead. The "renaissance," he believes, isn't spurred by the way in which the EA Partners program has been set up, so much as it's been a focus on "great quality." While last year's Mirror's Edge and Left 4 Dead might not have sold huge numbers out of the gate, there is no doubt that their critical reception has been overwhelmingly positive. To add credence to his argument, sales of both titles have held steady as time goes on."What we've proven is that there is no one model. What we have also proven is quality and innovation always win." Not a terrible truth to arrive at, if we must say so ourselves.
