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Interview: EA2D's Mark Spenner on going 'browser and beyond'
EA2D is Electronic Arts's small-team, small-game studio, which just launched Dragon Age Legends on Facebook (today!) and has Fancy Pants Adventures for PSN and XBLA in the wings. We spoke to Mark Spenner, VP and GM of the studio, about these two very different projects. How, we wondered, do these two wildly different things, a console game based on a Flash game, and a Facebook spinoff of a giant RPG, both fall under the same EA2D banner? "EA2D is 'browser and beyond,'" Spenner told us at SXSW Interactive. "We're trying to push from the browser out." That includes projects like Mirror's Edge 2D, which began as a Flash game and moved to iPhone and iPad, and the new Dragon Age Legends, which was already "beyond" and moved into the browser -- and is also moving back out with a mobile app.
What's in a Name: EA2D
Mark Spenner is the vice president and general manager of Electronic Arts' EA2D studio, which makes smaller games with smaller teams. It's just launched Dragon Age Legends on Facebook and is working on an XBLA/PSN version of the Flash hit The Fancy Pants Adventures. Spenner elucidated the meaning of the studio's name in a conversation with Joystiq at South by Southwest Interactive: "A lot of people think 'EA2D' is about graphics, because obviously the '2D,' but the inspiration was: We wanted to get back to small teams, core gameplay. We had this manifesto at EA when it was founded, all about that -- and about making people cry through video games. So very player-focused; 'back to our roots' gameplay; and then not worry so much about the number of pixels we're pushing onto the screen. "So that was the genesis of the name, and then some fabulous people at EA did this logo for us, which captured the spirit perfectly." Dragon Age Legends is playable on Facebook. Fancy Pants Adventures is due on XBLA and PSN this spring. Like this feature? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name Archives.
