Signs of Life 2008: Best Music
Leona Naess - "All is Fair"
the everybodyfields - "Worth Keeping"
Paste celebrates 10 years
Album Stream: Listen to Mindy Smith's Christmas album My Holiday
When Electronic Arts started out, it was one of the good guys of third-party game developers. Not only was the company into original IPs, heck, the word "arts" was even in its title to tell you exactly what the corporation was trying to do. During the past decade, though, what's now the world's second-largest developer has developed a bit of a reputation for squashing creativity in favor of tossing out another version of Madden every year and seeings its profits rise.
But EA has been talking a different story lately, giving autonomy to
developers it's bought up, such as Bioware and Panemic. Just
about a month ago, game director John Carmack spoke out about EA's new
"EA Partners" program saying, ""I'll admit that, if you asked me years ago, I still had thoughts that
EA was the Evil Empire, the company that crushes the small
studios...I'd have been surprised, if you told me a year ago that we'd
end up with EA as a publisher." No one knew what to expect from its summit on Friday and the studio did not dissapoint.
As the latest of its friendly ventures towards other developers, EA is producing a project with Goichi Suda, aka Suda 51, and Shinji Mikami, conjunction with Q Entertainment. This is monumental news for the world of video games, not just because their product has the potential to be amazing, but also because it signals a different way of building up games more akin to films. Currently, video game production is somewhat like the Classical Hollywood system of filmmaking that existed from the '20s-'50s in America. Each studio has its staff that reconvenes and makes every project together, which gives the studio a look but ends up churning out results that are more products with artistic visions.
Here, though, EA is doing what film studios have done from the '70s to the present day. They aligned a set of superstars in the field, who together have helped create No More Heroes, Killer7, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry and Rez. But rather than being a part of EA, they are doing a contract for hire, and then returning to their normal work, with Kamiya returning to the similarly-superstar Platinum Games, Suda doing more Grasshopper work, and Q going back to creating incredible techno music. It's a radically forward-thinking move in an industry that, especially in Japan, seems set in a tradition that can no longer function when game budgets are skyrocketing.
So, after all that rigmarole, what's the actual game about? Good question. In fact, aside from the project's existence, the only information that's been released on it is that it's an action horror game. Nothing else, as EA was banking on the information of its creators being big enough, which it clearly is. According to Suda, the game came about after he approached Mikami with the project and the two just pitched it to EA. The reason for working with the publisher is simple: "money." The game isn't expected until late 2009 at the earliest, since Suda, Mikami and Q all have their hands tied with other projects. But if it does end up a success, it may help other independent developers to reach similar deals and help the industry break out of its 25 year old structure.
As the latest of its friendly ventures towards other developers, EA is producing a project with Goichi Suda, aka Suda 51, and Shinji Mikami, conjunction with Q Entertainment. This is monumental news for the world of video games, not just because their product has the potential to be amazing, but also because it signals a different way of building up games more akin to films. Currently, video game production is somewhat like the Classical Hollywood system of filmmaking that existed from the '20s-'50s in America. Each studio has its staff that reconvenes and makes every project together, which gives the studio a look but ends up churning out results that are more products with artistic visions.
Here, though, EA is doing what film studios have done from the '70s to the present day. They aligned a set of superstars in the field, who together have helped create No More Heroes, Killer7, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry and Rez. But rather than being a part of EA, they are doing a contract for hire, and then returning to their normal work, with Kamiya returning to the similarly-superstar Platinum Games, Suda doing more Grasshopper work, and Q going back to creating incredible techno music. It's a radically forward-thinking move in an industry that, especially in Japan, seems set in a tradition that can no longer function when game budgets are skyrocketing.
So, after all that rigmarole, what's the actual game about? Good question. In fact, aside from the project's existence, the only information that's been released on it is that it's an action horror game. Nothing else, as EA was banking on the information of its creators being big enough, which it clearly is. According to Suda, the game came about after he approached Mikami with the project and the two just pitched it to EA. The reason for working with the publisher is simple: "money." The game isn't expected until late 2009 at the earliest, since Suda, Mikami and Q all have their hands tied with other projects. But if it does end up a success, it may help other independent developers to reach similar deals and help the industry break out of its 25 year old structure.
Related links:
News: Resident Evil director switching to vampires
News: Capcom to develop video games into movies
1up: Mikami and Suda talk EA partnership
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