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There's a new boss in charge of 'Mass Effect' and 'Dragon Age'
Electronic Arts is changing. Many of the massive publisher-developer's myriad studios will now be assembled under one figurative roof at EA Worldwide Studios. Describing the change, EA CEO and part-time Mirror's Edge villain Andrew Wilson says it "will bring together our top creative talent in all of our great studios to work on EA's powerful brand portfolio and new IP [intellectual property]."
Electronic Arts ready to embrace Android, but wishes it had an App Store
Thought EA had no love for Android or Windows Phone 7? Not quite -- it's just the existing market opportunities that the company doesn't seem to enjoy. CFO Eric Brown told the Deutsche Bank 2010 Technology Conference that the game publisher is actually quite bullish on Google's rapidly popularizing mobile OS and plans to 'position its mobile business' accordingly, but first he said this: "I think the next big positive way to push better growth in mobile will be the deployment of an App Store equivalent for the Android operating system." Since we're fairly certain Brown would be aware of a little thing called the Android Market, we figure he's talking about the same mysterious reason that caused Gameloft (which produces a number of Android titles already) to circumvent the Market in favor of their own online store. One thing's for certain on the EA Mobile front: the company really needs to update their smartphone games page to support a wee bit more than the "Google Android-Powered T-Mobile G1."
EA a notable holdout on Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7, doesn't have much to say on the subject
If you examined the fairly impressive roster of Windows Phone 7 Xbox Live launch titles that Microsoft waved proudly in our face the other day, you might've noticed that EA is particularly absent from that glorious list. Well, the folks at Mobile Entertainment bothered to ask EA Mobile about that absence, and EA had this terse reply: "We are constantly evaluating new platforms and opportunities, but have nothing to announce right now." Pretty eye opening, right? In absence of facts, there are all sorts of avenues for conjecture. EA could be holding out for a better carrot from Microsoft, checking to see how successful the platform will actually be, or just playing its titles close to its chest. Or maybe they're just resting after a long round of Madden testing and binge potato chip eating. We're not going to get all worked up about it right now: it's not like we're short on platforms right now suited to shepherding the hapless lives of our Sims.
EA Mobile: iPad is a "destination device"
EA Mobile's Travis Boatman had a chat with Mobile Entertainment recently, and he says that the iPad is going like gangbusters for the mobile games company. "We're really pleased with the results so far," he told ME. "It has a lot of the characteristics of the type of device that plays well with our gameplay." Boatman said the digital distribution model available in the App Store has helped, but what's really impressed EA about the iPad is how immersive it is compared to the iPhone. As compared to the iPhone's bite-sized experiences while out and about, this is a device where you can actually sit down and play for a while. "It's more deliberate, and people expect more of a deliberate, immersive experience," Boatman told the site. "That affects the kind of games we build." He also says that as a "blank canvas," the device allows for a lot of experimentation in the UI. At EA, the teams look at customer desire, distribution method, and actual platform before they invest in development, but "for iPad, the answer is yes, yes, and yes." Interesting. One of the things we've heard from developers about the App Store is that it gives even small studios "the chance to compete with EA," but it looks like EA is just as committed to providing unique titles to Apple's platform.
GDC 2010: How to develop an app with EA Mobile
For the first panel of day two here at the 2010 Game Developers Conference's iPhone gaming track, Oliver Miao of Centerscore Studios took the stage to talk about working on Surviving High School for the iPhone as a part of Electronic Arts' Mobile division. As Miao made clear early on, he's an "insider outsider" at EA: his company was started with a few friends, purchased by Vivendi in 2006, created a hit mobile game called Surviving High School in 2007, and was bought by EA in 2008. Last year, they were commissioned to recreate their game for the iPhone. In one of the most interesting iPhone panels at the conference yet, he talked about the ins and outs of working with EA on an iPhone title, and explained both, what it was like to work with the company, and his own philosophies on game design, especially concerning in-app purchases and microtransactions. Most users seem to believe that microtransactions and episodic content are, at the very least, a pain to deal with (and are, at worst, a scam), but Miao is convinced that they're actually necessary to having a successful game -- he said that every developer, going forward, "will need to have them." Read on to find out why.
EA reveals Android gaming plans: Tetris, Bejeweled, Monopoly, oh my!
Hot on the heels of Electronic Arts kinda-sorta slamming Nokia for its lackluster N-Gage gaming platform comes word that the video game giant will be dabbling in the world of Android here shortly. Unsurprisingly, we're informed that Tetris will be the first Android title out, while Bejeweled and Monopoly should follow suit in November. According to EA Mobile vice president Adam Sussman, "Android is another exciting new platform to offer customers great games with enhancements like touch and tilt capabilities," and while we weren't given specifics outside of the aforesaid titles, more games are definitely "in development."
EA Mobile's Spore becomes first 3rd party iPhone game -- available September
Just in case you didn't catch the blip earlier between Steve's announcement of the iPhone SDK and the App Store, here's some fantastic news for the thumb-happy sect: Spore is coming to the iPhone. In fact, the EA Mobile title will go down as "the first 3rd party game on the iPhone." Sadly, it won't actually be available until September, but at least you've got a month to circle on your calender, right? Additionally, EA affirmed that there were "other games in early stages of development," and that it was "actively using the new iPhone SDK to develop games for the iPhone OS." Jump on past the break for the full release.
Sprint Arcade brings subscription-based gaming to the mobile
We're not exactly sure how huge an audience there will be for subscription-based gaming on the cellphone, but nevertheless, Sprint is all set to find out. Announced at the Electronics for All Expo, the aptly-named Sprint Arcade will bring a number of titles from EA Mobile to "most data-enabled Sprint phones" for $9.99 per month. Among the titles listed are Sudoku, Mini Golf, Mahjong, Hearts, Air Hockey and Blue Blocks, but the carrier is already promising that more are on the horizon. Separately, the firm also proclaimed that it had partnered up with Namco Networks to bring Sprint users a mobile version of the Popeye arcade game, but it failed to cough up any pricing details to go along with it. So, anyone buying in? Or is that sound we hear the collective balking of Sprint customers everywhere?
Nokia to release new N-Gage this September
You don't have to tell Nokia that the original N-Gage was not the success they had imagined. They already know. That won't stop them from giving it the ol' college try as Nokia plans on rolling out a new N-Gage by this September. In a brief statement on the official N-Gage blog, Nokia makes mention of a September release amidst reassuring that more than two publishers are on board for the new platform.At the moment, only EA Mobile and Gameloft have known commitments for the new N-Gage with both publishers having already released titles for the original device. With Gameloft holding the lucrative Totally Spies license, we can only cross our fingers and hope for a next generation N-Gage follow-up.
EA to bypass carriers, sell mobile games direct
Feel like you're getting held down by the man every time you check out your carrier's content portal and can't find the game you're looking for, simply because they chose not to carry it? EA feels your pain, too -- though more from the revenue-sharing perspective -- and they're looking to do something about it. Their Mobile division has announced they're hard at work designing a solution for buying mobile games (like Will Wright's upcoming "Spore") on your PC direct from EA and downloading the purchased binary to your phone from there. Obviously, they're looking to make the process as painless as possible; no amount of foolproofing could make a two-step process involving two devices as easy as downloading a game directly through your WAP browser, but hey, if this is what we have to do to get our Spore on, you'd best believe we'll be digging our cables out of the drawer.[Via MocoNews]
