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EA announces layoffs in LA, Montreal
EA has announced an unknown number of layoffs affecting its employees in Los Angeles, Montreal and "smaller locations" in an update from EA Labels president Frank Gibeau."Thousands of our existing employees have been retrained and redeployed to work on the new platforms and initiatives. But when it is not possible to redeploy a team, we soften the tough decisions with assistance," Gibeau said. "This week we let some people go in Los Angeles, Montreal as well as in some smaller locations. These are good people and we have offered outplacement services and severance packages to ease their transition to a new job."Which EA developers have been affected, and to what extent, is currently unknown. We've reached out to EA for clarification on the situation and will update when more information is available.
Learn the story behind the bullets in latest Medal of Honor: Warfighter trailer
There's more to Medal of Honor: Warfighter's premise than "spot bad guys and shoot them first," apparently. The latest trailer, above, gives a taste of that narrative arc ... and mixes it with lots of shooting and explosions. A little something for everyone, then!
Medal of Honor: Warfighter features guns, explosions, motorboats, and ... more guns
When Medal of Honor: Warfighter arrives this October, it's gonna be heavy on the pew pew. No surprise there. But did you also realize it'll have motorboats with guns attached? We imagine it'll feature most things that are able to have gun attachments, actually. Skateboards, for instance. What?
Chase down this Need for Speed: The Run footage
Anxious to see some of that hot on-the-foot action in Need for Speed: The Run? Put on your Nikes and lace 'em up -- we've got the footage EA showed off during its E3 2011 press conference. Dash on past the break to check it out.
Medal of Honor campaign detailed on GameTrailers TV
If you missed the latest episode of GTTV, fret not: just past the break, we've embedded the episode, which pulls back the curtain on Medal of Honor's campaign mode. Initially, all we knew was that the game would take place in Afghanistan and you'd be among one of the beard-sporting elite known as Tier One Operators. However, thanks to executive producer Greg Goodrich, we now know a bit more -- specifically, that the campaign will be divided up into three parts and follows a team on the hunt for Al Quaeda. Goodrich also mentions the story will be told "from two different sides," implying that players will eventually be able to take up the mantle of the terrorists themselves. But, hey, why are we still gabbing on? Head on past the break and absorb this intel first-hand for yourself, including a look at two never-before-seen single-player levels. Consider it an order, soldier!
Medal of Honor LE tied up with Battlefield 3 beta invite
EA announced today that, in addition to some generally underwhelming digital goodies like early access to shotguns, the Medal of Honor Limited Edition will come with an invitation to the Battlefield 3 beta, being developed by MoH's multiplayer team at DICE. As for when to expect that beta to begin, an EA representative tells Joystiq that the company has "no further details" and that it'll start "within 12 month of Medal of Honor's release." Check out our multiple previews on Medal of Honor to find out what your Tier 1 self is in for when the game begins its retail assault on October 12.
Danger Close: The story behind EA LA's new name
"It was literally an exercise of about 20 minutes because it just came up, it happened, we went with it, and there you go," new Danger Close studio head Greg Goodrich told us in an interview last night, explaining how he and two of his colleagues came up with the new name of their studio (formerly EA LA). Late last evening, EA revealed that its Los Angeles-based development house would be rebranded. The studio is now known as Danger Close, which Goodrich told Joystiq is indicative of the reborn studio's direction. "I think the core of what we're doing right now and the sort of DNA of this team and this studio is the first-person shooter genre. I can't foresee us doing anything other than that in the near future, and specifically Medal of Honor." Goodrich did add, however, that his hands aren't tied creatively in terms of what the studio is allowed to do -- be it first-person shooter or whatever else it might have in store. That said, Goodrich wasn't speaking about anything other than Medal of Honor, and he remained coy about his studio's involvement with the game post-release. He's proud of the mutliplayer component built by DICE, but he's not ruling out Danger Close getting involved in multiplayer support, say through DLC. "Personally, I think that would be something that the guys here would be very excited about doing in the future," he offered. "But, you know, we're gonna see how this one works out and see how the fans accept it, and make those decisions at a later time." Goodrich is content to leave his studio's future plans a mystery. "That's also a part of creating your own identity and starting your own future, and throwing up a website that says 'Now hiring,'" he teased. "There's intent there."
'Danger Close' studio formed at EA by Medal of Honor team
In a somewhat unexpected announcement this afternoon, EA Los Angeles revealed the creation of a new studio, named "Danger Close," responsible for handling the upcoming reboot of Medal of Honor. If you've been paying close attention to the words of your generic soldier comrades in various war games over the past, say, 10 years, you've probably heard the term -- that's because "Danger Close" refers to "information in a call for fire to indicate that friendly forces are within 600 meters of the target" (according to About.com). Given that EA LA was the former studio working on Medal of Honor (alongside multiplayer developer DICE), this appears to be little more than a rebranding of EA's LA offices under the "Danger Close" nomenclature. That said, we've fired off a round of questions to EA and will let you know more about the studio as soon as we do.
Preview: Medal of Honor beta
It may surprise you, but you've actually already played Medal of Honor before. No, we're not talking about the Nazi shooting gallery that was the 1999 original. If imitation is a form of flattery, then Modern Warfare 2 must be blushing up a storm right now. There's no way the comparisons can be avoided. From the setting, to the twitchy lone-wolf gameplay, right down to the class progression, Medal of Honor is incredibly reminiscent of Modern Warfare 2. We knew EA wanted to dethrone Infinity Ward's shooter, but we had no idea EA would go as far as to try and create Modern Warfare 2.5. That's not entirely a bad thing for gamers, though. If you enjoy Modern Warfare 2, you're going to find a lot of value in Medal of Honor. Though Medal of Honor isn't entirely the same game as Modern Warfare 2 -- where Infinity Ward went right, on occasion DICE and EA LA have seen fit to go in the opposite direction, sometimes to the detriment of the experience. %Gallery-79326%
Medal of Honor beta to be extended for Xbox 360 players
Patience is a virtue, and nobody knows that better than the Xbox 360 owners waiting to experience the Medal of Honor beta. "Unfortunately, we have experienced a delay with the beta on the Xbox 360," said executive producer Greg Goodrich in a recent press release. "To the Xbox 360 community, we say thank you for your patience. We are working to fix the issues that have caused this delay." EA said that it will extend the beta period to compensate for the Xbox 360's late addition to the program, though it's still unclear just when all the technical difficulties are expected to be resolved. Those who pre-order the game -- the only way to gain access to the beta on Xbox 360 -- will apparently have "ample time to play and provide feedback." Medal of Honor deploys to the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 12.
Medal of Honor gets PS3 exclusive HD remake of Frontline
Soldiers who plan to sign up for the new Medal of Honor on PS3 this October will get an added incentive for going with Sony's console: Medal of Honor Frontline. Originally released in 2002, the game's been remastered in HD for the console and will come packed in a PS3 Medal of Honor special edition package.
Supergiant Games: New studio of former Command & Conquer vets
A new company debuting at GDC 2010, Supergiant Games is largely comprised of ex-EA LA members -- you know, the guys and gals who made those Command & Conquer games you like so much. The new studio's project is something for "digital platforms," destined for a 2011 release. Sadly, there's no more info to go on right now. The studio is on-hand at GDC with said title, so we've contacted them to try and schedule a visit. [Via Big Download]
Mock the Medal of Honor box art and this man may kill you
It seems the cover star for EA reboot Medal of Honor bears quite a resemblance to a real-life military man -- and not the fictional lumberjack uncle we like to think resides in every Canadian family. Life did a feature on the armed forces in Afghanistan back in 2002, and one of the individuals (codenamed "Cowboy") highlighted in several photos (via UGO) seems to match the one highlighted on the FPS cover. EA did mention working closely with "Tier 1 Operators from the US Special Operations Community," so it seems possible that the main character could be inspired by (if not actually based on) Mr. Cowboy. We've contacted EA to get some intel on this. We'll let you know, if we haven't been taken out for yesterday's ZZ Top joke.
Variety spills Boom Blox 2 development
A sequel? From Electronic Arts? No way.In an otherwise pretty sad story about the closure of EA's shadowy, innovative Blueprint division, Variety mentioned that one of the titles being developed in the style of Blueprint (development distributed around the world, coordinated online) is a sequel to their wonderful puzzle-action game, Boom Blox. It's been mentioned before, but this is the first direct acknowledgement of work being done on a followup.Even though the Blueprint project is no more, the idea of collaboration between remote studios continues to be embodied in the ongoing work being done on the sequel. ""Everybody is integrated, regardless of whether they're in the same physical location," a former Blueprint staffer told Variety. "It's truly the spirit of what Blueprint was going to be."The EA corporate philosophy stuff is neat, but to focus on what's important: yes, more Blox will be Boomed in the indeterminate future. %Gallery-15446%[Via Nintendo Everything]
